By Mark Jones
DUBLIN — The Republic of Ireland are facing into another key phase of their efforts to qualify for next year’s soccer World Cup finals. First, Portgual are at Lansdowne Road on Saturday, and then the following Wednesday, the Irish take on Estonia in Talinn. Currently three points clear at the top of the table, a draw against the Portguese and a win in Estonia will put Mick McCarthy’s team in excellent shape for the last series of games in the autumn.
The hope for McCarthy — no, the necessity for McCarthy — is that he’s able to field his best 11 players on Saturday. For that to happen, Niall Quinn must shake off a back problem in order to take his place in attack alongside Robbie Keane, while Roy Keane will need to prove his fitness after a five week layoff.
For mortals, over a month out of the game might cause difficulties, but for Keane the rest might do him good at the end of long, successful and occasionally tense season in which he has criticized both his club Manchester United and Ireland’s soccer administrators.
For Robbie Keane to thrive, he must have Quinn as a foil, and if the big center forward is unavailable yet again, then it’s likely that McCarthy will settle for a draw. In the event of his strongest team taking the pitch in Dublin, a win is a possiblity, but against quality opposition, which includes one of the world’s finest players in Luis Figo, the game will hang on knife edge.
Ireland’s 1-1 draw in Lisbon last year was an outstanding achievement. The smart money is that McCarthy would gladly accept a similar outcome this time.