Soccer:Giovanni Trapattoni wasn't quite sure how to feel this morning in the aftermath of the 3-2 defeat to Uruguay at the Aviva Stadium. The Italian's makeshift side adopted an experimental formation against the World Cup semi-finalists and nailed their own coffin with some sloppy first half errors before an unlikely resurrection after the break fell just short.
For the Italian, the result is usually everything – the performance almost superfluous, but it would have taken a cold heart not to warm to the efforts of an inexperienced and hastily assembled side against truly world class opposition.
“I am 50 per cent happy, 50 per cent not happy,” said the manager at Dublin Airport this morning, leaving the glass neither half full nor half empty. “I am used in my life to winning, so when I lose I'm not happy.”
Half empty, then.
James McCarthy, who made his first start for the senior side playing in the hole behind striker Shane Long, struggled to make the impact both he and his manager would have hoped, but the latter was keen to stress it’s early days yet.
“I wouldn't want to see him blamed because he has no faults. He's just trying to find his feet in the team,” he said of the Wigan midfielder more accustomed to a deeper lying role at club level.
Aston villa defender Ciaran Clark was another who was eager to impress and, while he showed plenty of composure on the ball, he was caught out of position on occasion at left-back, most notably when Hernandez clipped home Uruguay’s third in the 40th minute.
Trapattoni suggested the defence as whole was too green yesterday to be judged, but conceded Clark was not as solid as in the 3-0 Carling Nations Cup win over Wales.
Long, in contrast, was electric throughout. He equalised Diego Lugano’s opener with a 15th minute header and tore the Uruguayan defence asunder in the build-up to the penalty won by McCarthy and converted by Keith Fahey in the 47th minute.
That closed the gap after Edinson Cavani and Hernandez gave the visitors a two-goal cushion at the break and the Reading striker repeatedly looked the most likely to inspire a draw.
“Long showed us at club level he is good enough, but he has grown, with personality, now we consider him as a valuable option,” said Trapattoni, who included Fahey, Andy Keogh and goalkeeper Keiren Westwood as players worthy of his trust in June when Ireland travel to Macedonia for their Euro 2012 qualifier in Skopje.
