A Team in Transition Part 3

Last updated : 27 July 2004 By Barry Landy

Just one defeat in the international season meant Brian Kerr’s side of experience and exuberance were feeling fresh as the Irish prepared for the home game against Romania. Roy Keane who had surprisingly caught the football world and the football media off guard with his announcement of his return to the international fold after an absence of two years, was set to make his triumphant return to Dublin after missing out on the Poland friendly a month earlier. For the match Kerr fielded his strongest possible line-up omitting Carr, O’Brien and Duff for injury reasons. In a tough but entertaining match the Irish finished 1-0 victors thanks to a late Matt Holland strike. No doubt, he will have wanted to make it clear to the like of Miller and Reid that the elder statesmen of the team still had much to offer. As for Roy, the crowd said it all. The atmosphere was one of the better ones of recent times as all Irish supporters wanted to welcome the Cork rebel back to the Green Army.

For a relatively small football nation like Ireland, who have slumped to ??th in the FIFA World Ranking as recently as 199?, to maintain a record of a 3-0 loss being the biggest for nine years in quite an achievement. A tired Irish side lost 3-0 to an unlikely Nigerian side in the Unity Cup, held in The Valley, home of Charlton Athletic. The Nigerians were quick and powerful going forward and strong and commanding at the back. In for Ireland were fringe squad members Colgan, McPhail, Clarke, Rowlands, Lee, Barrett and then West Brom man Mark Kinsella. No-one really excelled themselves and ironically it was goalkeeper Colgan who earned man-of-the-match plaudits, despite conceding three goals.

That match was played just 48 hours after the Romania game and this time Ireland were given twice as much time to recover as they met Jamaica, the third piece of the Unity Cup triangle on June 2. This time around the team was even more inexperienced as featuring were Kenny, Maybury, Clarke, Rowlands, McGeady, Barrett and Alan Lee. But the Jamaica side didn’t quite have the killer instinct of Nigeria and thanks to a well taken Graham Barrett goal Ireland left London with dignity in hand.

It seemed all well to play the likes of Barrett, Quinn and Maybury in ‘Mickey Mouse’ tournaments but imagine Irish supporters surprise when Brian Kerr announced his team to face Holland in their final warm up game before Euro 2004. As Dick Advocaat showcased the like of Van Nistelrooy, Davids, Seedorf, Van der Vaart and Kliuvert, Ireland had no Keane, Duff, Carr to boast. Nevertheless the Irish did have a not-so-secret weapon in Tallaght ace Robbie Keane. No doubt buzzing after a consistent season at Spurs, Keane ran Bouma and Stam ragged and bagged one of the best goals of his career past one of the best goalkeepers in the world, Edwin Van der Sar. Morrison ran and ran, Given repelled everything, Cunningham stood strong, Reid sprayed passes and clubless Alan Quinn snapped at the heels of the Dutch midfield all 90 minutes long. To rub salt into the wounds of the Oranje Kerr introduced an extra striker, but not just any striker. 18 year old Mick Doyle of First Division Coventry City cam on to make his full debut in the Amsterdam ArenA alongside some of the biggest names in World Football. And that’s just Robbie Keane, O’Shea and Given!

Kerr had won over the critics and for now Ireland were back among the big boys.

Results:

Ireland 1 – 0 Romania

Ireland 0 – 3 Nigeria

Ireland 1 – 0 Jamaica

Holland 0 – 1 Ireland

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