How do you recognise a Lithuanian footballer? The Dublin city centre hotel was meant to be full of them yesterday afternoon but it was hard to be certain you had correctly identified one before making an approach.
Ah ha. The young man sitting alone in the bar (sporting a tracksuit) looked promising. "Excuse me - do you play for Lith-ua-ni-a?" A big grin. Success? "No love, but I had a trial with Bohs once." Blush. Limp away.
When I'd spoken to the man in charge of looking after the Lithuanians earlier in the day he'd promised I'd have my pick. "There are 72 of them on the plane from Vilnius - players, officials and supporters, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding one to talk to." At last, an official appeared. "The players are sleeping - but they will be here soon. The coach - Benjaminas Zelkevicius - will be down in about 20 minutes," he said.
Twenty minutes later a man, who looked like he could have been Benjaminas Zelkevicius, appeared. Broken English too. Except he turned out to be Johannes Jansen, a Dutch man who has been living in Ireland for 25 years.
Finally, Benjaminas Zelkevicius made his entrance . . . but headed straight for the team coach parked outside. Benedikta Jarulyte to the rescue. Benedikta is from Lithuania, has been living in Dublin for the past year and a half and wrote to the FAI a few months ago asking them if they needed her as an interpreter this week. "Certainly do," was the reply.
And so, an audience with Benjaminas. His team have the power to make Ireland an Ole, Ole free zone next summer. Four qualifying matches left, two of them against Lithuania . . . but he doesn't sound like a manager who expects his charges to do our French holiday plans any damage.
"Well, Irish football has a bigger tradition and they are usually better at football. They are very, very strong - I watched their game against Romania and it was a great game," he said (through Benedikta). "For us a positive result against Ireland would be a draw."
But what would qualification for the World Cup mean to the people of Lithuania? He didn't need an interpreter for that question.
"Ooooh," he said, before closing his eyes and throwing his hands up in the air. "I don't know. A revolution. A revolution in football. Maybe not this time but we must keep fighting - the team is young, it has a good future."
