Postcard from Paris - Lightning strikes for the League of Ireland

Both the Republic of Ireland and France face the United States in the coming fortnight. For France it is their final friendly before the World Cup, where as for the Boys in Green Saturday evening’s ‘American football’ will bring the curtain down on Ireland’s season with the Irish players watching the World Cup on TV while France travel to Russia as one of the favorites.

France face Italy in Nice on Friday before playing the USA in Lyon on 9 June, so Monday’s match with Ireland was a chance for the Parisian crowd to wish their star studded Les Blues a Bon Voyage.

On the eve-of-the game both managers and captains spoke to the media at the Stade Denis venue. It was the chance for your extratime reporter to ask Seamus Coleman about the call up for League of Ireland duo Shane Supple and Graham Burke.

“If you are performing to the best of your ability in the league and the manager and Roy are going to watch, if you catch their eye you know there is a chance that you could be called up and prove yourself,” said Coleman. 

The Ireland team trained out on the pitch afterwards with Bohemians’ Shane Supple put through his paces alongside fellow ‘keepers Colin Doyle and former St. Patrick's Athletic player Conor O’Malley.

On match day with the kick off not till 9pm local time, there was time to get out and see some of the sights of Paris. I chose to spend my time in a graveyard. There I saw some of the Deschamps dead – spotting two Deschamps plots in the famous Pere Lachaise cemetery.

The stadium was open for the press three hours ahead of 9pm local kick off and with thundery showers due at 7pm, most media were in the stadium soon after it opened. As a League of Ireland fan I did get a kick in seeing a Bohemians and Shamrock Rovers player listed in the Ireland squad. Even more so when the default was only to list the country of player’s club when it wasn’t Ireland.

The threatened thunderstorm arrived while I was in the press room enjoying some hors d’eourves laid on for the media – there was some smoke salmon in case you were wondering. Up in the press box sheltered from the rain, it was apparent that the temperature had quickly dropped from the earlier high of 28 degrees down to a more reasonable 20.

Lightening lit up the sky above the Stade de France as both teams warmed up. While across Paris, the Eiffel Tower was hit by lightening, thankfully the Stade de France avoids the worst of it – lightening not touching any of the 18 columns that jut up into the Paris sky to support the 13,000 tonne roof.

When the teams come out onto the pitch for the anthems, there was an ‘Allez Les Blues’ fan display in the stand opposite us. There was a small pocket of travelling away fans of less than 500 who have made the trip for this friendly, a far cry from the 30,000 or so who travelled to Paris for a qualifier during Brian Kerr’s time in charge of Ireland.

There weren’t too many standout moments in the game. There was the pitch invader who did remarkably well to stay on his feet on the slippery surface before the security eventually sent him on his way.

Olivier Giroud’s opening goal for France was his 31st international strike bringing him level with Zinedine Zidane as the fourth highest French goalscorer of all time. That would seem to make him more than just ‘efficient’ which was the adjective used by Deschamps speaking after the game.



For Irish goalkeeper Colin Doyle, amongst a couple of good saves, he will want to forget his error that allowed France take a 2-0 half time lead. 

Just before the second half kicked off the stadium staff down below me wiped the rain drops off the corporate seats that got wet when the patrons were in having their half time beaujolais.

Trailing by two at the break, there was a worry that the floodgates might open but Ireland defended resolutely in the second half. The only flooding comes right at the end of the game when the ball began to stick on an increasingly waterlogged pitch as play began to be “complicated with such a heavy rain” according to Dechamps.

I had been in Vienna for Ireland’s game in November 2016 when the then Dundalk duo of Daryl Horgan and Andy Boyle were in the Ireland squad. Horgan was best placed to get on the pitch in that game but with Ireland defending a 1-0 lead Martin O’Neill was focused on shutting out the qualifier rather than bringing on a skillful winger.

With six substitutes available to O’Neill in Paris for this friendly, Graham Burke had a decent chane of getting a run out. As the clock ticked on in the second half, my eyes kept getting drawn to the Shamrock Rovers player who was warming up down below to my right and eventually he would get the call.

The last League of Ireland player to get an international game was Joe Gamble, when at Cork City he earned two caps as part of Steve Staunton’s USA tour in 2007 in the matches against Ecuador and Bolivia.

This time around though it was a League of Ireland player getting a run out against the European Championship runners up – a team with a myriad of multi-million euro stars. 

Six minutes before Burke’s 70th minute substitution, Deschamps brought on Euro 2016 top scorer and player of the tournament Antoine Griezmann while six minutes after Burke came on the duo of Paul Pogba and Ousmane Dembele were introduced. Both are listed as having cost their clubs the joint fourth most expensive transfer value (a mere €105m each!). 

In April 2004, I was part of a small group of Ireland fans who were in Bydgoszcz to see a fairly boring 0-0 stalemate between Poland and Ireland. Jason Byrne, then of Shelbourne, was a substitute to become one of those rare League of Ireland players from recent years with an Irish cap. 

He was introduced so late into the game by Brian Kerr that his only involvement was chasing a ball that would go over the sideline just before he could get a touch.

That international contribution led to a chant directed at him for many years after by opposition fans that he “went all the way to Poland and never touched the ball”. He did of course get a second cap in 2006 during Steve Staunton’s time in charge of Ireland.

Here in front of in excess of 70,000 supporters, Graham Burke got a good few touches on the ball, his first being a neat pass into space to get Ireland moving upfield. 

Martin O’Neill also brought on Shaun Williams for his international debut with the former Finn Harps and Sporting Fingal man getting a 12 minute run out at the end of the game. 

Didier Deschamps seemed quite pleased with the evening’s outcome afterwards and why not as his team won with ease and came through without any injuries. Each question from the French media started with a "Bonsoir Didier" which got a "Bonsoir" response before the head coach answered the question.

Martin O’Neill speaking in the post-match press conference highlighted the value gained in the game by getting his team – especially the younger players –time on the pitch against such high quality opposition. 

“We are talking about opposition players playing in Champions League games, Europa League matches and at the very best clubs in Europe.”

Thankfully the rain had eased somewhat by the time I leave the stadium as the clock ticks by midnight.

As I briskly walked to the catch the last train back to the city centre, I reflected on a match where I may well have seen the future World Champions play and felt lucky to have come all the way to Paris to see Graham Burke touch the ball (and much more).

 

 

    About Macdara Ferris

    Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile