February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
It just so happened that on the back of Ireland’s creditable 0-0 draw with the Brazilians at Lansdowne Road, Keane was doing some work for one of his charitable causes when he was asked if he’d be interested in resuming his international career that ended in such controversy nearly two years ago.
While he didn’t say he would be prepared to make himself unavailable to manager Brian Kerr, he tantalizingly spoke of “unfinished business” with Ireland. Although his manager at Manchester United, Alex Ferguson, is strongly opposed to Keane returning to the Ireland ranks, it seems possible that the former captain is still open to persuasion.
Back on the pitch, the game against Brazil was higher on atmosphere than competitive tension, although a crunching early tackle by Graham Kavanagh on Gilberto Silva — a challenge reminiscent of Keane at his best — reminded the visitors that not everyone had bought into the notion of a friendly fixture.
Without the injured Damien Duff, Colin Healy and Liam Miller, the Irish lacked creativity, although Kevin Kilbane impressed in the center of midfield, while Andy O’Brien staked a claim for permanent recognition as Kenny Cunningham’s partner in the back four.
In truth, Brazil were happy enough to go through the motions and for the match to ignite, an Irish goal was badly needed. Stephen Carr almost provided it coming up to halftime, and then Robbie Keane was guilty of a bad miss when he ballooned a header over the bar from Clinton Morrison’s excellent cross.
“I think it was a good disciplined performance,” Kerr said. “We passed the ball well, but not as well as we’d like to.
“They [Brazil] work hard, they put you under pressure. They aren’t just flash. We had five or six distinct chances. So had they.”
Kerr was particularly pleased with Morrison’s performance.
“I think he held the ball up well for us,” the manager said of Morrison. “He supplied Robbie well. Robbie had a great chance off one cross. He doesn’t get that many headed goals. The cross was, as we used to say, put onto his miraculous medal.”
With the qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup finals looming in the autumn, Kerr needs to use the remaining friendly games between now and September to find a settled team. And when he has a moment, he might just give Keane a call.