Trap's men give us rare reason to smile
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And so after 13 months of competition the Republic of Ireland’s Euro 2012 qualification hopes will ultimately be defined by 180 minutes of football; once again the gauntlet of the dreaded play-off awaits. The football may be hard to watch, the selections sometimes debateable but credit where credit is due, on paper Giovanni Trapattoni has steered the country through a successful campaign. One where the Republic has emerged second in a group having been seeded third, however if qualification isn’t secured having got this close then the road to Euro 2012 will be consigned to the files of those which got away.
By 9:10pm on Tuesday an email from one of our bookmaker’s press offices struck the fear of God in me. Before the list of best second placed teams was confirmed, before the seeding system was finalised, the home and away scheduling of the games ascertained, there was a rush to bestow upon the national team a mantle that has never sat comfortably: that of favouritism. A pairing with Estonia will only serve to fuel a widespread belief that advancement to the finals is a relative formality even if many have rushed to collectively overlook the minor matter that of all the seeded teams the Republic is the one that each of the lower ranked teams will have looked upon as providing the best chance of pulling off a shock.
Estonia’s qualification campaign has been a mixed bag. An opening round win against Faroe Islands achieved with the need for two injury time goals was not the start to a campaign that you would have expected from a side destined to be one step away from competing in UEFA’s showpiece international event. They have improved drastically since then even if Brian Kerr’s minnows did eventually manage to exact revenge with their only win of the campaign.
Estonia play a remarkably open game which the Republic will have to try and expose. They are aggressive without the ball and swift when in possession. In Konstatin Vassiljev they have a player who has developed into one well capable of exposing weakness in his opponent’s defences. They also make somewhat of a misnomer of the notion that home advantage is decisive in international football having secured 9 of their 16 pool points away from home with wins over Serbia, Slovenia and Northern Ireland. They also deservedly lead Italy for large spells of their game in Tallinn.
The awarding to Italy of last October’s abandoned game against Serbia in Belgrade distorted the group’s outcome in Estonia’s favour but Tarmo Ruutli’s side have been impressive and massively improving over the course of the campaign. A nation slow to develop a love for football but swift to adapt to its rigours. They are, however, readily exploitable at the back should Giovanni Trapattoni let his players off the akin to that much relived night in Paris.
There are parallels to be drawn between the international soccer squad and their rugby counterparts. They have put themselves into a position where they are in control, as much as they can be, of their own destiny. They are also entering into a fixture where they will be strong favourites to come out on top.
More so they are in the employ of two organisations for whom change of management could soon become a prominent task. We are realistically 180 minutes away from knowing if we have bid a fond farewell to Irish soccer’s golden generation. It is highly unlikely that Messrs Given, O’Shea, Dunne, Kilbane, Duff or Keane will be a prominent part of the Republic’s World Cup qualifying campaign. This for them is the shootout out at The O.K. Corral, a last chance to have their careers judged within the context of qualification for significant tournaments.
Objectively speaking Giovanni Trapattoni has probably done enough to secure a contract extension from the FAI, the question is whether or not he is the man best suited to the rebuilding job that is fast coming down the tracks.
Back in May, amid a blaze of publicity, the OECD rolled out one of their latest initiatives, an index that would measure the happiness of a nation. The concept is simple. You log on to a website, answer a host of questions relating to various aspects of life and with a couple of clicks you’d find out where we as a nation rank in terms of our friends around the world in terms of joy.
Thankfully the impact of sport on the public’s desire to do cartwheels of unadulterated emotion wasn’t included otherwise God knows what the rollercoaster of results that the past seven days would have had our friends in Europe thinking.
We live in a nation where sport and day to day life are massive intertwined. Good results for our sporting heroes generate a feel good sensation in a way that isn’t seen in other nations. Our rugby heroes started us out on journey that started with widespread pessimism, then subsequent heights that were eventually brought crashing down to earth.
I have a good feeling that their soccer counterparts will turn the mood around.
By the time the first leg of the qualifiers roll around on November 11th we’ll already know the destination of this year’s domestic silverware. The run in for the League title continues to offer up plenty of talking points even if some of the football itself is showing all the hallmarks of players feeling the effects of a long season. Cup Semi Final weekend could be a belter with both ties offering plenty to build up anticipation.
Shelbourne have impressed under Alan Matthews this year and no more than Derry City show the hallmarks of a side well able to make the step up from the First Division and, perhaps not scale the same heights immediately, but certainly comfortably hold their own.
St Pat’s again have to endure the constant reminding that comes with the Cup each year of how long a wait they have had to endure to lift the game’s showpiece trophy. Pete Mahon’s side have provided plenty of reasons to suggest that this year could be their year. There aren’t many who would deny it to the club. Man on man Sligo Rovers would have to be favourites against Bohemians on Sunday. We’ll discover if Rovers’ defeat at Pats has left a hangover that Pat Fenlon’s side can exploit.
