Who is on the plane? The final jigsaw pieces of Martin O’Neill’s squad for France provided most of the tension on a balmy evening in the Aviva Stadium which finished 1-1 between the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands and left several Irish players wondering if they had done enough.
Martin O’Neill has been dropping broad hints that he wants to give Harry Arter every chance and from the beginning the Bournemouth midfielder was active and keen – too much so in the 41st minute when he slid feet first into Memphis Depay, earning a yellow card. He linked well and passed intelligently and . . . who knows?
Elsewhere, David McGoldrick ran the line between midfield and centre forward and was athletic and busy and delivered a gorgeous pass out to Seamus Coleman, leading to the corner and Ireland’s opening goal.
That 30th-minute goal came from familiar sources: Robbie Brady’s whipped corner was met squarely by John O’Shea’s header. The big Waterford man seems to reserve his goals for the prestige football nations but was denied here as goalkeeper Jesper Cillessen and Jetro Willems scrambled the ball off the line. Never mind. Shane Long was loitering to crash the ball home from close range, his 16th goal for country and fifth in eight games.
It wasn’t a bad night to add to his tally, with Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino sitting in the stands in conversations with Pat Dolan, an adviser to the Southampton man.
Long only has one gear: mad up for it. He attracted some heavy treatment from the Dutch for a friendly, hacked to the ground by Jeffrey Bruma and later hobbling away from a challenge by Virgil van Dijk.
It was a surprise Martin O’Neill left him on after the break. But Long was clearly relishing it and in the 53rd minute he advertised what has always been the most surprising weapon in his repertoire: that huge vertical leap. He connected with a great header but climbed all over Joel Veltman in the process. Long could afford to smile.
Dutch manager Danny Blind offered a guardedly optimistic assessment of the Republic’s likely impact in France. “It is difficult to say. They are very dangerous with corners and free kicks. That is a good point for them.”
The Dutchmen treated the game as if there was nothing much riding on it – which, of course, there wasn’t for them. The brilliant orange strip will always evoke a sense of anticipation but their absence from a first major tournament since 2002, just two summers after finishing third at the World Cup in Brazil, marks the end of a dismal period.
Losing Johann Cruyff in March has been the end note of a bleak time and this visit to Dublin was billed as a step in their rehabilitation. For the first 20 minutes, the visitors must have been thinking: it could have been us.
On nights when the stadium is half-full and the crowd in carnival mode, there is nothing remotely intimidating about the place and the visitors moved the ball about at will, possibly wondering how the Irish had managed to beat the world champions. And then they found themselves 1-0 down.
Depay departed with half an hour left and didn’t look unhappy about that. Darron Gibson was given 24 minutes to advance his cause for inclusion after his struggles with Everton.
It was hard to hear his argument as the crowd went bananas for the Mexican wave. In the midst of it, the Netherlands equalised, with substitute Luuk de Jong rising to head home a lovely hanging cross from the excellent Willems after 85 minutes. The goal was the only blemish in another smooth performance from Shane Duffy.
It was odd to see one of the greats of the European game celebrate a friendly goal with such . . . relief. Strange times. The Irish team moves to Cork for Tuesday evening’s match against Belarus – and O’Neill’s final roll call for the boys of summer.
