Kevin Kilbane: Twenty years ago, Ireland could have won the World Cup

Twenty years ago today I was home from the World Cup, back in the Premier League, carrying on as if nothing had ever happened. After Sunderland beat Spurs 2-0 at the Stadium of Light, Robbie Keane gave me the usual wink and smile; two Irish lads bonded by a wild month in Japan as much as we were haunted by that grassless island in the western pacific.

Saipan remains a sliding doors moment for Irish football; what if the best midfielder of his generation had the same experience as me and Robbie? He didn’t, and it’s gone forever but even now, living in the wilds of Ontario, not a week passes without someone asking about Roy Keane versus Mick McCarthy and, eventually, the penalty shootout against Spain.

This column is essentially about what happens when inept administrators oversee a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for professional footballers. No more, no less.

Without Roy, the Republic of Ireland went home early from the 2002 World Cup. With Roy we would have made the semi-final, easily, and probably the final. Luis Enrique, the current Spain manager, would have felt differently facing an Ireland midfield with Keane.

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Roy Keane, Mick McCarthy and the pain of Saipan, 20 years on - part one

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20 years ago this week, Irish football fans were in a state of giddy excitement about the World Cup, which was about to begin in South Korea and Japan. But then something went terribly wrong. In the first of three episodes looking back at the controversial events of 2002, Conor Pope talks to Mary Hannigan, Ken Early, and Eamon Dunphy about the events that preceded Ireland's departure for its infamous training camp on the island of Saipan.

I always played better when Roy was on the pitch. We all did. Portugal at home, we were outplayed yet scraped a draw, because of him. Cyprus away, we won 4-0 because Roy was unstoppable.

He was the most influential player in Europe at that time. Okay, after Zidane. People talked a lot about Scholes and Gerrard but Roy was better. Make no mistake about that.

He would have dominated the Germans, overwhelmed the South Koreans and rattled Brazilian bones.

In every big match around that time, I believed Ireland would win. We had young lads in Robbie and Damien Duff, who became two of the best we’ve ever produced. Brazil would probably still lift the trophy, but we would have given Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho a proper game.

The summer of 2002 should have given Roddy Doyle enough material to write another Barrytown trilogy.

If only.

I know this sounds mad to someone who wasn’t there, who doesn’t know what it felt like to play alongside Roy Keane, but I’ll stand by this view ‘til the day I die. Twenty years ago, Ireland could have won the World Cup.

I remember the row in Saipan like it was yesterday. The Irish Times interview with Roy was causing a storm back home, but we were in camp, together.

Teatime meeting and the room was buzzing until the Irish management – Mick, Packie Bonner and Taff Evans – arrived. Suddenly, the mood took a drastic turn. Mick was standing on my right-hand side, so I had to slide around in my chair to see him, and with Roy over my left shoulder, it felt like he was staring at me, but Mick was looking straight at Roy. He pulls out a few A4 sheets and says: “I think you owe the players an apology for this piece.”

It went downhill from there. “C**t” is the hardest word to row back from.

Maybe I should have spoken up. I’m sure everyone else has felt the same but what was said shocked everyone into silence. Including the senior players. Later in my career I have stepped in, on several occasions, when a player and a manager are going for it.

Twenty years ago today, the World Cup was behind us, the only World Cup most of us will ever know. We came, we saw, we lost to Spain on penos. I should write about my spot kick or slicing Ian Harte’s rebounded penalty wide during the game, but that only needs one word.

Numb.

Maybe I should have spoken up. I’m sure everyone else has felt the same but what was said shocked everyone into silence. Including the senior players. Later in my career I have stepped in, on several occasions, when a player and a manager are going for it

I think about it less than I used to, and anyway we always played better when Roy was on the pitch.

I fly to Doha this week. From Off The Ball to becoming a pundit on Canadian television, it’s been an interesting few years. Married to Brianne, a Dad back on the school runs, many moons from the miserable, magic summer of 2002.

But for Canada Soccer in 2022, see the FAI throughout the 1990s.

Actually, I shouldn’t assume that Irish football people remember my career detour into ice skating in 2019 but nowadays, as a direct result, I live an hour east of Toronto.

After retiring from football in 2012 I dived into media. Being honest, I took on too much, doing Off the Ball and games from the Virgin studio while flying over and back to Manchester twice a week for the BBC.

Then ITV asked me to do Dancing On Ice in front of six million primetime viewers. Without being dramatic, the experience changed my life forever. It’s how I met my wife, the professional skater Brianne Delcourt.

Covid forced us to hit the reset button. Brianne and I have only known hectic lives since we were teenagers. We got married and had two daughters, Olivia and Keavy Anne. Moving to her home town in Canada made sense for us all.

I got a job working for The Sport Network (TSN) and they are sending me to Qatar to work on their panel. This is my third working World Cup, having done co-comms for BBC in 2014 and 2018, but the move into the North American media market was by no means smooth.

Didi Hamann knows what I mean. “Why’s this German speaking about Stephen Kenny on RTÉ?” is the type of stuff I heard – on Twitter anyway – about an outsider with a few caps for Ireland telling Canadians what’s what about their teams. But I analyse the manager’s decisions and the player’s performances without an agenda, conscious or unconscious. Call it as I see it, having played a bit of Premier League football way back when.

Canada Soccer really does mirror the antics of the Old FAI. The association and the players are struggling to reach an agreement over World Cup bonuses, image rights and other off-pitch stuff that needs sorting to enable a successful tournament and lasting legacy for the coming generation.

Again, the inevitable fallout is something we know all about in Irish football.

Canada Soccer was forced to cancel a friendly against Iran last summer. This had plenty to do with 85 Canadians being killed in January 2020 when Ukraine Airlines flight PS752 was shot down by Iranian missiles not long after take-off from Tehran airport. After intense political pressure, even prime minister Justin Trudeau got involved, the federation cancelled the fixture despite selling 30,000 tickets.

By then, plenty of damage had been done to a minority (male) sport in a gigantic sports market. When the team refused to play Panama, in a hastily arranged match, the squad asked the federation: “Where is the progression? Where is the money?”

Canada Soccer really does mirror the antics of the Old FAI. The association and the players are struggling to reach an agreement over World Cup bonuses, image rights and other off-pitch stuff that needs sorting to enable a successful tournament and lasting legacy for the coming generation

Stories about blazers flying first class as generational players, such as Bayern Munich full-back Alphonso Davies, prolific Lille striker Jonathan David and Porto’s Stephen Eustáquio, are stuck in coach sounded all too familiar.

Ice hockey is king in Canada with basketball high up the food chain ever since the Toronto Raptors won the NBA title in 2019. The women’s soccer team are current Olympic champions but, to my mind, Canada Soccer needs a root-and-branch clear-out.

The lack of proper warm-up games could see them struggle to handle the pace of Belgium and Croatia in a whirlwind opening four days, which would be a shame because they have a workmanlike outfit and three star turns, not unlike our 2002 squad had Roy, Robbie and Duffer.

I hope Canada discover the same surge of confidence as our Ireland side when they take the field in Qatar. Because no club side and no amount of investment generates a feeling that takes decades to create but can be destroyed by the flick of an inept administrator’s pen.