SOCCER:DESPITE ALL the talk these past few months about developing serious options for himself within this Ireland squad, it still came as something of a surprise yesterday when Giovanni Trapattoni opted to avail of one of them for tonight's European Championship qualifier by selecting Shane Long ahead of Kevin Doyle.
While in Zilina last year for the meeting between these two sides, the veteran Italian observed – entirely reasonably – that managers have to make key decisions about games before they start, whereas reporters have the luxury of deciding afterwards. Sure enough, most of the media assembled for the pre-match press conference in Malahide were happy enough to be able to reserve judgement on the selection until after this evening’s encounter.
Long has essentially looked a credible alternative to Doyle since coming on and substantially impacting the game against Russia last October. His credentials have been enhanced since, not least by the recent goals against Manchester United and Chelsea for new club West Brom.
The trouble is that when Long started in Zilina a few days after scoring against the Russians he really didn’t do as well as Doyle might have been expected to. Now, the Wolves striker is likely to feel a little hard done by, not least because there is a suspicion Trapattoni feels he lacks confidence in relation to the knee problems that sidelined him this year.
In such a critically important game, Trapattoni’s decision seems like a rather uncharacteristic gamble, though not exactly a huge one. He was at pains to soften the impact too by emphasising Doyle is likely to see action in the second half and may well start in Moscow where the Irish, if they fail to do so tonight, are likely to have to win to retain any real prospect of finishing top of the group.
That, of course, would look a more achievable goal had they beaten the Slovaks last time around, but they passed up a couple of very good chances to add to Seán St Ledger’s early goal in what was a frantic and exciting but often rather untidy game.
That the Irish had scoring opportunities that night was no great surprise; Vladimir Weiss’s side are somewhat erratic and had just returned home from a loss to Armenia. However, with Robert Vittek and Martin Skrtel available this time, he might feel he is better equipped for the Irish challenge. Although that would be a difficult argument to win if Napoli’s gifted midfielder Marek Hamsik, rated 50-50 for the game last night because of a hamstring problem, ends up missing out.
Hamsik’s absence would be a significant boost for the hosts as the 24-year-old has the ability to put defences on the back foot and exert the type of delicate pressure the Irish defence often struggles to get to grips with.
How Stephen Ward copes on his competitive debut will be particularly interesting for there will pressure on both himself and John O’Shea to overlap as the Irish look to break down their opponents and the 26-year-old will need to get the balance right.
The same can be said of the team generally, though. They go into the game, as both Trapattoni and Robbie Keane sought to emphasise yesterday, with plenty of wind in their sails after a succession of clean sheets and some impressive results. The latter, as the manager never tires of saying, is what counts in the end and yet some of the displays have suggested an underlying fragility that a decent team might feel it can exploit.
Unusually, however, the manager has virtually all of his first choice players available. If the central midfield of partnership of Keith Andrews and Glenn Whelan can provide a solid platform for Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady to unsettle the opposition outside then there should be the potential to maintain the current run.
Winning tonight is certainly of critical importance to Ireland’s prospects of making even the play-offs as, in addition to the actual three points, it would provide what would be a decisive advantage over the Slovaks in the event that just those two sides finish the group level on points.
Whether the required victory can be achieved is hard to call. Home advantage certainly makes the Irish favourites but the Slovaks are unpredictable as they have shown under Weiss against the likes of New Zealand, Italy, Russia and Armenia while Trapattoni’s men rarely overwhelm opponents.
Ahead of this one, though, the manager insists that all of Ireland’s “weapons are ready”. By the time the final whistle sounds, it won’t just be the media that is in a position to make a call on whether the guns were big enough.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Given (Aston Villa); O’Shea (Sunderland), Dunne (Aston Villa), St Ledger (Leicester City), Ward (Wolves); Duff (Fulham), Andrews (Ipswich Town), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Spartak Moscow); Keane (LA Galaxy), Long (West Brom).
SLOVAKIA (probable): Mucha (Everton); Pekarik (Kayerispor), Durica (Lokomotiv Moscow), Skrtel (Liverpool), Cech (Trabzonspor); Guede (Slovan Bratislava), Kucka (Inter); Weiss (Espanyol), Hamsik (Napoli), Jendrisek (Freiburg); Vittek (Ankaragucu).
Referee: Pedro Proenca (Portugal).
