SOCCER/Republic of Ireland 1 Ecuador 1:Though the players watched the 1994 World Cup game against Italy before leaving their hotel on Wednesday evening, the occasion this time around was, like the Irish team, a shadow of the one that will spring to mind for decades to come whenever somebody mentions the Republic and the Giants Stadium in the same breath.
Somewhat against the odds, though, Wednesday night's encounter with Ecuador in New Jersey produced a lively and highly entertaining contest from which the Ireland manager, Steve Staunton, will draw a number of positives. Not least among them will be the latest evidence that Kevin Doyle can genuinely excel in games at this level and the suggestion provided by Darren Potter's performance on his debut that the versatile Wolves midfielder has the capacity to develop into a precious international asset.
Doyle's overall performance was commanding, while his goal, a third in eight games at this level, was as good as any scored by an Irish player in an international during the last few years.
The goal arrived with Ireland struggling to get the ball out of their own half. Kevin Kilbane and Daryl Murphy then produced outstanding long passes, the second of which was turned past goalkeeper Marcelo Elizaga with a brilliant diving header by the Reading striker.
"It was a great move and a great ball in from Daryl," said the Wexfordman afterwards, "and I was lucky enough to get in front of the defender and get my head on it. You make those runs a lot of the time and the ball doesn't come. It makes it a lot easier when you get a ball like that.
"I'm delighted. It took me a couple of games to get off the mark (at international level) but to have gotten three from the last four is great."
Not everything about the Irish performance, of course, was quite so impressive. Through the opening half for instance, the two debutant centre halves, Alex Bruce and Alan Bennett, struggled to combine effectively in trying to contain a couple of quick and technically strong Ecuadorian strikers.
The goal Ireland conceded after just 12 minutes, when Christian Benitez was allowed to break clear down the left and fire home unchallenged from a tight angle, was a comedy of errors, with Bruce the most culpable of several parties.
But the pair made amends with a stronger second-half performance and almost all of the Irish emerged with credit at the end of a game that rewarded the effort and expense of the 20,823, mostly Ecuadorians, who attended.
It was not the most technically impressive of games, but there was plenty of enthusiasm and endeavour from the teams, and indeed each seemed fiercely determined to win.
Doyle consistently proved a handful for his markers while Hunt, Murphy and, at times, Andy Keogh all combined well to create a steady stream of scoring opportunities.
Captaining the team for the first time since Ireland's meeting with Croatia, Kilbane had a fine night, calming those around him, leading by example with the industry he displayed when closing down opponents and producing a handful of long passes of the highest quality.
The Irish started well, faded and then dominated the second half, the team's fortunes mirroring closely the contribution of Potter, a 22-year-old central midfielder who displayed a level of composure on his debut far beyond what might have reasonably been expected from a player whose career to date has largely been whiled away in the Liverpool reserves.
And then there was Colin Doyle. He may have been disappointed with the goal he conceded early on given the ball went through his legs, but he bounced back to turn in a confident display and came out on top of three subsequent "one on ones", including one in which Ivan Kaviedes rather foolishly tried to chip the gigantic Corkman.
"It was very, very pleasing," said Staunton afterwards. "There were some excellent individual performances and I thought overall a very good team performance. We started a bit shaky at the back but that's understandable - the lads had only got together for a few days.
"But in the second half I thought they coped much better and I think overall we had enough chances to win the game."
In all, the manager capped 11 new players but that, he insisted, was always going to be a part of this trip.
"I've got faith in them," he said. "I wanted to take three or four senior players, yeah, but the majority of the squad I wanted to draw from were those on the fringes. There's no point otherwise. How else are they going to learn, how are they going to develop? They can develop at their clubs alright but they have to come on to this stage and it's a different level."
Germany or the Czech Republic in the autumn might justifiably be regarded as altogether different again but if Staunton does stay on to see through the four-year plan he has mentioned so often it seems fair to presume that, on the strength of the evidence provided here, we have not seen the last of a few of this week's debutants.
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: Doyle (Birmingham City); Kelly (Birmingham City), Bruce (Ipswich Town), Bennett (Reading), O'Halloran (Aston Villa); Keogh (Wolves), Potter (Aston Villa), Kilbane (Wigan Athletic), Hunt (Reading); Doyle (Reading), Murphy (Sunderland). Substitutes: Long (Reading) for Doyle (60 mins), Gamble (Cork City) for Hunt and Stokes (Sunderland) for Keogh (70 mins), O'Cearuill (Arsenal) for O'Halloran (73 mins), Gleeson (Wolves) for Kilbane (78 mins), Lapira (Notre Dame) for Murphy (86 mins).
ECUADOR: Elizaga; Montano, Castr, Campos, Bagui; Quiroz, Caicedo, Urrutia, Ayovi; Kaviedes, Benitez. Substitutes: Salas for Quieroz (66 mins), Palacios for Kaviedes (77 mins).
Referee: J Marrufo (US).
