SOCCER: Ireland's proposed post-season tour of the US finally looked to be off last night after the Dutch FA confirmed the Republic will visit Amsterdam for a friendly game against the Netherlands on Saturday, June 5th.
The announcement appears to end months of speculation regarding plans for a mini-tournament in America, although it leaves open the possibility of a round robin competition on this side of the Atlantic, with some reports suggesting London as a venue.
Manager Brian Kerr suggested last week there remained some difficulties establishing just who the organisers of the American tournament anticipated Ireland would play on their visit, which was to last for a couple of weeks from the end of May.
That uncertainty seems to have undermined the tour, and when the Dutch came with an offer for the June 5th date, following the withdrawal of the South Africans due to World Cup commitments, Kerr and his employers at the FAI jumped at the chance of such a high-profile game. The pairing means Kerr's side will have played at least four of the world's top six ranked teams during the current year.
Kerr yesterday seemed pleased with the fixture. "Holland are one of the top teams in the world and it's great to have this game as we prepare for the World Cup qualifying matches in the autumn," he said. "We need to test ourselves away from home and they don't come much tougher than Holland in Amsterdam," he said.
FAI chief executive Fran Rooney confirmed that part of the agreement with the Dutch was a reciprocal home tie in 2006.
The timing of the game also means there is still time to play with immediately after the end of the season in England. Kerr has already informed his players of the time he expects them to be together in late May and early June, while Rooney said two weeks ago that there were options open to the association in Europe for those two weeks.
The Dutch game will be staged at the Arena, the venue where the Irish kicked off their World Cup qualification campaign in September of 2000 with a 2-2 draw.
For the Dutch, who finished second in their most recent qualifying campaign to the Czechs, only to progress after crushing Scotland in the second leg of the play-offs, the game looks certain to be the finale of the team's build-up for the Euro 2004 championships, which start the following weekend in Portugal. In the circumstances, the team's stars, including the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam and Andy van der Meyde, would be expected to feature. Four days earlier, the Dutch face the Faroe Islands, who Ireland will meet in their World Cup qualifying campaign, in a friendly in Lausanne.
Steven Reid, meanwhile, has admitted he is unlikely to be involved in Ireland's squad for this month's friendly against the Czech Republic. The Blackburn midfielder was speaking after playing for the club's reserve team on Tuesday evening when, in an action-packed 35 minutes, he hit the bar, scored and then limped off injured after aggravating the hamstring that has been troubling him of late.
"To have any chance of being in the squad I think I'd have to play against Aston Villa this weekend and, realistically, that's not going to happen,"
Reid said yesterday. "If the squad is being named on Monday, then it means that I won't have had the chance of playing a first team game beforehand. I like to think that I'll be ready to play the following week against Portsmouth, but that's very close to the Czech game so I can't see myself being in."
