SOCCER:THE HUGE billboards advertising private banks and cigarettes as you cross the border into Andorra are an early indication that things are just a little bit different in the tiny principality.
Even here, though, Giovanni Trapattoni’s preference is for more of the same and prior to last night’s training session at the Estadi Comunal he kicked off his pre-match press conference by casually observing that he would be starting with his “usual” team.
That, he went on to underline fairly pointedly, means there is no room at the outset for Birmingham City midfielder Keith Fahey, who it had been thought earlier in the week, when he played a training game with the “probables”, was being lined up to add a little creativity in central midfield and additional accuracy at set-pieces.
Instead Glenn Whelan, who Trapattoni suggested had been upset by reports he would not play, will make his 33rd appearance for his country from the outset as the veteran manager sticks as closely as possible to what he clearly regards as his strongest line up.
The question mark over Whelan’s inclusion had been prompted in part by the fact that he, like Stephen Ward and Kevin Doyle, is on a yellow card and so a booking in this game would keep them out of Tuesday’s potentially more challenging encounter with Armenia.
Trapattoni insisted last night, however, that “it is more important to take the three points from this game than worry whether a particular player gets a yellow card or not. If we have players suspended the next game we can worry about it then.”
Fahey, along with Stephen Hunt, Shane Long and Simon Cox, is amongst the most obvious candidates to be called upon if things do not go to plan over the first hour or so but James McCarthy’s chances of making the bench receded slightly last night when he was forced to skip training because of a slight head cold although it was subsequently said that he will be available for selection.
The manager, meanwhile, revealed he had the media put out of Wednesday’s training session in Barcelona because of the reports regarding Fahey’s likely inclusion.
“We simply tried to look at others, Fahey with Andrews, James McCarthy with another so we could see their attitude. So I said to Peter (Sherrard, the association’s director of communications) ‘lead the reporters out the door because what you write, it is disappointing the players who thinks: “I don’t play”,’ and it’s not right.”
Oddly, none of the reporters realised they were being punished at the time with most simply assuming the arrangements were a little chaotic.
For many of the Irish fans in Andorra today things may get a bit hectic with around half of an estimated 400 or so supporters believed to have made the journey high up into the Pyrenees still trying to hunt down tickets.
Around five times as many are believed to have settled for watching the game in Barcelona having made arrangements to get that far before the venue was confirmed.
The ground holds just 850 and the FAI has said the game is sold out but rumours persist that some tickets may be on sale today as some locals may have simply bought to sell given there is said to have been barely 100 people present for the Armenian game.
As it is, the 200 or so who received tickets from the official allocation face a challenging evening for the Irish seats are behind a goal, the far side of an athletics track, the wrong side of an advertising hoarding and at the level of a pitch that, on the brighter side, looked much better yesterday than had been anticipated over recent weeks.
The supporters could be in for a nervous enough evening too for the Andorrans, despite their long run without taking so much as a point from a competitive game, have defended a good deal more effectively under current manager Koldo Alvarez during this campaign and they have been on the wrong end of some very narrow defeats.
Alvarez might have overstated things when he said last night that he estimates the chances of a home win to be 33 per cent, precisely the same as for either of the other two possible results, but it is clear some of the locals feel that they are slightly overdue an upset.
There can, Robbie Keane insisted, be no excuses and the Ireland captain was adamant the players were absolutely determined they will not blow their chances of qualifying tonight after worked so hard to keep them alive this far. “We’ll all be putting in a little bit extra I think,” he said, “because we know there can be no excuses afterwards for not winning this.”
Against a side comprised mainly of players who line out for sides in what is effectively the seventh tier of Spanish football, he is right. Ireland start as hot favourites but if the clash with Armenia on Tuesday is to mean anything then they simply must go out there tonight and justify that tag.
