February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Ireland went to Nicosia in Cyprus last Saturday, did the needful, and no more. If Stephen Elliott’s goal in the sixth minute ensured that the World Cup dream lives on, it is now attached to a life-support machine. The victory, against opposition whose talents would be more associated with the Phoenix Park, was achieved in a shambolic manner. Ireland were lucky, desperately lucky.
In the end, fortune favored the inept, but if the Irish beat Switzerland at Lansdowne Road today, they will finish second in the qualifying group at worst and will therefore be guaranteed a play-off place. Whisper it, but if France should contrive to lose to the Cyrpriots in their final match in Paris, Ireland will top the group and qualify automatically. A defeat or a draw against the Swiss, and the show will be over.
While the psychological fall-out of an abysmal display in Nicosia hangs over manager Brian Kerr and his squad, there is the added problem that Damien Duff’s injured knee means he is ruled out of the game, while Roy Keane is already missing due to a broken bone in his foot.
In the credit margin, Andy Reid and Clinton Morrison, both suspended for the trip to Cyprus, return for a must-win match that will decide the future of the team and its coach. But while Lansdowne Road will provide its traditional comfort blanket, no one will be betting his or her mortgage on another Irish success.
The 16,000 supporters who traveled to Cyprus were let down by the players. The opening exchanges that spawned a decisive finish by Elliott promised much, yet from that moment on, it seemed as if the team was paralyzed by fear. Kerr said later that Cyprus took the initiative, but what he forgot to add was that they were handed it by Ireland.
With Kevin Kilbane, Graham Kavanagh and Steve Finnan struggling to make any impression in midfield, the Cypriots poured through gaps to expose Ireland’s defense, which suffered such a serious attack of nerves that Kenny Cunningham, Richard Dunne, John O’Shea and Stephen Carr suddenly morphed from an experienced unit into four bungling amateurs.
If it hadn’t been for the heroics of Shay Given in goal, the Irish would have been dead and buried by halftime. When Dunne clumsily fouled Okkas to concede a penalty, Given made a brilliant diving save low to his right, and then the Donegal ‘keeper pulled off four more stops to keep his team in the game.
How Ireland survived is hard to understand, but what is certain, is that if Cyrpus had been just slightly more accomplished, and if several of their players were not part-timers, the scoreline at the break would have been 3-1 at least. It was that bad.
There was an improvement of sorts in the second half with Matt Holland replacing Finnan, but it wasn’t until the 77th minute when Robbie Keane had his chip cleared off the line that Ireland were able to create another scoring chance. Luckily for Kerr, Cyprus tired and the Irish goal that had led such a charmed life was no longer under the same siege.
“Overall, we were the better side,” said Kerr afterwards to much collective dropping of jaws. “To have a good team you have to have a very good goalkeeper,” he rambled, perhaps forgetting that only a blind man might have thought his team good.
In the build-up to the game, Kerr had engaged in an unsubtle war with a section of the media that had been speculating over his future. The view that his fate would be sealed by Ireland’s failure to qualify was hardly rocket science, but there was an undercurrent also that the coach wasn’t up to the job, and that the leap from underage soccer to elite international level had been too great.
Whatever about his future, in the recent past Kerr has been manifestly unable to wring performances of passion and purpose out of his players. The attitude is wrong, there is no self-belief, and the likes of Robbie Keane and Duff who were once took to the pitch with a swagger, are now shadows of their former selves.
Yet, amid all the gloom and doom, Ireland can still qualify for next year’s World Cup finals. Switzerland are beatable, and somehow the rainbow is visible, but a serious doubt remains over whether these players can find the pot of gold.