At any time in the last quarter of a century, did any Irish team ever expect to lose to Cyprus? No, nor should they have. Second, the insipid display in Basel may well resurface later as evidence of serious problems emerging in the side. If it does, it will matter. For now, though, it was a point gained. Nothing more, nothing less.
The classic example of the hype lens through which everything is now viewed was the brouhaha surrounding Robbie Keane equaling Niall Quinn’s scoring record against Cyprus at Lansdowne Road. Nobody saw fit to point out it was kind of fitting he did so from the penalty spot against a bad team. A closer scrutiny of Keane’s international career bears out the view that most of his scoring is done against weaker sides, and far too much of it is done at home games in Dublin.
He certainly deserves credit for reaching 21 goals in just over half the time it took Quinn, but of the total he’s bagged to this point, just 13 have come in competitive games. If those friendlies are so bloody meaningless — and they are — why do we even count goals scored in them? More pertinent by far is the statistic that of his 13 competitive strikes, eight have come against Malta (three), Cyprus, Albania, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Even allowing for the leveling off of standards across the globe, none of those could be considered giants of the game.
Notwithstanding the fact Keane is inevitably rusty after his pre-season injury setback, and wholly acknowledging that he remains Ireland’s best striker, the crux of the problem is this: At the start of his fourth qualifying campaign, somebody needs to examine why, in his career to date, Keane has scored just twice away from home in qualifiers. That one of those came in the, ahem, stronghold of Valetta also begs the question as to whether it’s a case of him not getting the proper service or simply not being able to take his chances.
Since the 2002 World Cup, where he finished brilliantly past Oliver Kahn when it mattered, and then held his nerve from the spot against Spain, Keane has padded his tally with seven in friendly matches that meant absolutely nothing. This is hardly grounds for celebration and that it was given column inches at all smacks of that woeful time in Ireland’s sporting history when, through no fault of his own, David Connolly had Irish newspapers seriously comparing him with Ronaldo. After he’d just scored a hat trick against mighty Liechtenstein.
Keane’s form may improve once he plays more for Tottenham, but the figures bear out the argument that any team basing its qualification hopes on his strike rate abroad will likely founder. Especially given that with four teams stuck on four points just now, the appropriately named Group 4 looks like it will be significantly tougher than previously thought for Brian Kerr to navigate.
Prior assumptions that France would dominate, and that Switzerland represented Ireland’s main rival for second place, have had to be discarded. For all the politically correct niceties, Patrick Vieira’s sending off, coupled with the retirement virus sweeping through the French squad, had brightened the outlook considerably. Yet the simultaneous emergence of Israel as a genuine threat more or less negates the benefits of meeting a seriously weakened France in a few weeks.
We are not privy to the post-match exploits (if any) of the Irish international footballers in Basel or Dublin this past fortnight, but the Israeli squad were certainly given a free reign following their superb 0-0 draw with France. With management’s blessing, most of them didn’t return from their celebratory night on the town in Paris until 6 the following morning. At their hotel, they then found their coach, Avraham Grant, still sitting up with his assistants, analyzing that performance and planning what would be a subsequent home win over Cyprus.
“In the past as well, even when we were winning all our home games, Israel made life difficult for us,” the former French manager Aime Jacquet said after seeing his country held scoreless at the Stade de France. “The difference this time was that Israel came well prepared. Israel did its homework. It learned about the French team that played at Euro 2004 and it got the result it wanted.”
The historical evidence is France are always vulnerable during periods of transition and the departure of a once-in-a-lifetime talisman like Zidane makes this era potentially even more troublesome than the post-Platini doldrums. Israel took advantage because they were well-organized and prepared. With twice-weekly training sessions for the Israeli-based players, Grant has had more access to his squad than any other international coach in the world since last January. The more time available to work with footballers, the easier it becomes to implement a game plan. Unfortunately, a game plan is what Ireland looked bereft of for long spells in Switzerland.
Despite the delirium surrounding Israel’s emergence from Paris with that point (for all the French personnel changes, a similar haul for Ireland would still represent a precious boon), their manager worked hard to get them back to earth before they faced Cyprus. Grant even wheeled in Arik Ze’evi, Israel’s judo bronze medallist from the Athens Olympics and current national hero, to give them a motivational chat.
Just back from the games where one of his team-mates was given an early bye because an Iranian refused to fight an Israeli, Ze’evi reminded the footballers of the importance of representing this country on the international stage and how significant their exploits are to the people. Most worrying of all is that that were times in Basel last week when some Irish players looked like they needed reminding of exactly that.