Forgive me if this is all a bit confused…

November 18th, 2009 | by: Eugene | Comments(26)

…I’m still quite emotional at it all. There’s so much pride, and there’s so much disappointment.

The basics. France have progressed to the World Cup finals after winning 2-1 on aggregate after 120 minutes in the Stade De France. Ireland won the game in 90 minutes, it was their first competitive victory away to a leading nation in 41 years. Robbie Keane scored the only goal in regular time after 33 minutes. William Gallash equalised on 102 minutes. France make their fourth consecutive World Cup. Ireland are still awaiting an appearance at a major finals since Japan and Korea in 2002. Those few words barely cover it.

Where to start? I want to start with our performance. Last night, I was the doom-monger in chief, resigned to a fairly comfortable defeat and a timid exit from the World Cup, as a follow-on from our poor performance on Saturday. It shows what I know. The first game that I can remember is the 1-1 draw away to Romania in our qualifying group for France ‘98. More than 12 years ago. In 12 years, I’ve never been prouder to be an Irish football fan. We were magnificent, save for a shaky 10 minute spell towards the end of the first half and the final 20 minutes, when we ran out of gas. I heard a statistic earlier that France had 17 shots to our 6. Excellent news, now you tell me who was the better team? There was a lot of pride in the performance against Italy last month, there was jubilation when we knocked off Holland on our patch in 2001, but tonight we went to France, we won, and we won well.

Almost everyone performed this evening, they all gave it their best in any case, and for that, as Irish fans, we owe them an endless debt of gratitude. They didn’t go and roll over. For the first half an hour, they made France look stupid. I’ve never seen that from one of our sides before. There’s so much pride in that, it’s hard to quantify with words. Thank you, one and all.

However, and naturally there’s a however in circumstances such as these…those chances are gonna haunt me, gonna haunt you and gonna haunt the players in time to come. Go onto the RTE website and find the picture of Damien Duff after the game. It’s one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve seen for a while, but I’d venture a large part of that is Duffer knowing the chance he had midway through the second half to put us well in the driving seat, but he didn’t get enough on his right-footed effort, and Lloris made another vital save. I can’t fault Duffer tonight, it’s the best game I’ve seen him play in the national shirt since the 3-0 win over Sweden at the start of Stan’s reign, otherwise he was faultless tonight, but he knows the chance he had.

Robbie Keane? I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a fair few more times I feel. I love Robbie Keane. There was an article in the Irish Independent last week, stating how the Irish people held Keane at arms’ length somewhat, certainly he was never held in the same affection that the likes of Paul McGrath or Roy Keane were, or Shay Given currently is. Well Robbie, thank you. He scored when it mattered against Germany in 2002, he scored when it mattered against Spain a few weeks later. He scored when it mattered away to Italy earlier in this qualifying campaign, he went and scored when it mattered tonight. It was his 41st international goal, and although we all know he should have shot earlier when put through by Liam Lawrence and got his 42nd…how do you criticise him? Where in God’s name would we be without him? Double standards, yes, but so be it. When it mattered once again, he delivered. He deserves another major tournament, him, Duffer and Shay above all…

John O’Shea’s is the one that grates the most. The contents of my dinner wound up on the floor when O’Shea skied his volley. Left-foot, refusing to come down to a perfect height, pressurised at the end, that’s all fairly immaterial. That had to be on target, and in truth we didn’t get another chance like it in the second half. It’s hard to fault O’Shea’s overall performance, he was fantastic in dealing with Evra and whoever else came down the flank, but that was a chance that will live with him and the rest of us for time to come. So, so, disappointing.

That’s almost what grates most about the evening, we should have won 4-0. I mean that. We should have buried France long before it got to 102 minutes. We were excellent, and we created the opportunities. It’s the same story as Saturday night though, a failure to finish what we created has ultimately cost us, and we’ve paid the highest price tonight. Again, I can’t pick holes in the performance of almost all of the players, (I’m not including Kevin Doyle, who is clearly incapable of playing international football) but those missed chances will sting for the next 10 months or so. The 10 month gap for another competitive game is killing me at the moment as well…

We were tenacious in midfield, we harried, we chased, we pressed, we found the right ball, we did everything right tonight, it all came together, and it should have seen us through. We did more than enough to qualify, but we’ve paid for our profligacy. To an extent, a self-inflicted wound. Heart-breaking…

France? When the draw was announced, I gave Domenech a fairly decent write-up on this blog, I argued that a man with his record must have something going for him. Can I just take the chance to renounce this statement? Over the two legs, especially tonight, he was clueless. We looked, and were class in the first half hour tonight, but can someone explain to me what possessed Domenech to send a team out of such immeasurable talents to park the proverbial bus and hope to hold out for 90 minutes? Why was Gignac kept on for so long? Why didn’t France move to either 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 and chase the game in the second half? Why didn’t Karim Benzema come on? There’s so many questions to be answered about him tactically, and I finally understand why everyone has nothing but bad words for him. When this gig winds up at the end of France’s run in South Africa, he’ll find a job with a Ligue 1 side, as I said to my friend the other day, and that will be the measure of him. I fear the worst, on the basis of what I’ve seen tonight in any case. Good grief…

France don’t deserve to be at the finals. As in control as they were for vast swathes of the game Saturday night, they were truly awful tonight, tactical ineptness from the sidelines, and not an awful lot better on the pitch. Forgive the language, but I can’t wait for them to play a proper side and get a fucking hiding in South Africa. They’re a bad team masquerading as a world force, and they will get badly found out in the finals next year. Good riddance to them when they get knocked out. The only person in that side who improved their reputation over the two legs was Hugo Lloris, he’s going to be a fantastic goalkeeper in time to come. Were it not for him, it would have arguably been 2-0 to us on the night, and 3-1 on aggregate.

Now, the incident? I’ve got different spurts of thought about this. My dislike of Thierry Henry is almost certainly on record in this blog down the years. I’ve never liked Thierry Henry as a player. I don’t know Thierry Henry the person, but I’d venture anyone who leaves his wife and young daughter isn’t a significantly good egg, and he’s conned referees out of it before (Carles Puyol, World Cup Second Round, 2006), so it doesn’t particularly surprise me. I never thought much of Henry in the first place, I think even less of him now. I can’t be bothered to scream and shout about the whole affair, it’s not as if he’s going to suddenly declare that he was in the wrong and the result should be annulled, now is he? That and loathe though I am to admit it, if Robbie Keane had done that, I wouldn’t have said boo to a goose, so it’s another example of double standards on my part, but so be it.

What does grate however, is the fact that UEFA have implemented a system for this season’s Europa League whereby two extra officials are employed, one at either goalmouth, to stand at the side and make decisions such as those, which would have rendered the situation null and void. Now I’ve heard no negative words about the system yet, and it makes sense if UEFA are going to persist on avoiding the use of video technology to make key decisions. Would someone care to explain to me why FIFA aren’t employing this system? They can’t change the rules halfway through the competition, you say? I snigger. I have a modicum of sympathy for the level of scrutiny that officials are under on all occasions, and I’m usually opposed to the warts and all study of how they perform over a game, but situations like that really make you lose faith in the system that is in place. If you wish, you can point to the Anelka penalty incident (it was a penalty, by the way) as evidence of us getting some good luck, but there’s a world of difference between a penalty against one of the world’s best goalkeepers and an illegal goal….it is stuff like that which really makes you keep coming back for more.

Part of me wants to boycott the finals as a one-man show of defiance against FIFA’s Luddism, but what the hell is that going to achieve? I shall be watching like every other football fan worth their salt, and passing comment, and I look forward to it. But I will also be doing it in the knowledge that we should be there instead of France, and it’s off the back of an illegal goal and our profligacy.

It’s all a bit confused in my head right now as to why I’m so mad and so disappointed, the only thing I know for sure is that I have renewed faith in my national side, and I’m really looking forward to February and the draw for the Euro 2012 qualifiers. Bring on anyone, I feel like we can take on the world again. We have a win against a major side in their backyard over 90 minutes, we have two draws with the World Champions, we have a unit going in the right direction, we have a purpose again. September 2010 cannot come soon enough, and there isn’t a single top seed in that draw who will fancy playing us. Good times might be here again, even though it’s tough to feel that way in the aftermath of tonight.

I’m gonna provide a full look-back on the last year or so in the next few days. For the next few weeks, my life will be about essays on the causes of the Armenian Genocide, the social consequences of AIDS in Southern Africa and something to do with Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan (Pray for me), but tonight is about the national side. Tonight is about taking pride away from the most heart-breaking situation sinc Mendieta’s penalty in 2002. It’s tough to feel positive at the moment, but I take pride in battering a ‘world-class’ side in their patch. Moral victories usually suck, and it doesn’t make up for missing out on the finals, but everyone knows we should be there, and I’d venture there’s a good chance we’ll be in Poland and the Ukraine in three years time. Here’s to the future.

Before I leave, I need to ask a favour…I need a team for the World Cup! I’m open to any and all suggestions with the exceptions of England, France and North Korea (The novelty would wear off very quickly). Fire in your suggestions in the comments section below this. The person who will probably cast the solitary vote should expect to see a focus on the team as a surrogate of sorts next summer during the finals, it’ll help me get through the summer…

It’s been an amazing 14 months. I’ll talk to you all before too long.
All the best.