Ireland v Cyprus, September 4th 2004 (3-0)

And finally the real football got underway again. After what was beginning to seem like a never-ending series of friendlies, the Boys in Green were back on the big stage and Lansdowne Road awoke from its slumber. Our visitors for the opening match in Group 4 somehow managed to bring the Mediterranean weather with them in an attempt to unsettle our boys. But as Dublin basked in one of our best days of the summer the lads produced a performance that, while not exactly scintillating, was hot enough to blow the Cypriots away and give us long-suffering fans real belief that we can qualify out of this group. Watching the French struggle at home to Israel later in the evening only reinforced this newfound optimism.

We’d been on the lash the night before and as Chuckie was still struggling with a hangover, he decided to drive into Dublin 4 and give the gargle a miss for one game. Big mistake. We thought that traffic would be okay at lunchtime on a Saturday but today has proven to me once and for all that Dublin is just one big traffic jam. We eventually got to the Beggars Bush to meet the lads but only had time for one beautifully cold large bottle of cider before Karl, Richie, Colm & I headed for the South terrace (big thanks to Emmet for supplying the tickets) to hang up the PeoplesFlag. Eamon, Donogh & Niall headed for the North Tce while Kit, Felix (the only Cyprus supporter in the whole ground !!!!) & James had to make do with the East upper although they did have a great view of the flag which unfortunately was hidden from the television public by advertising hoardings.

There was a great buzz in Lansdowne right from the off. Amhrán na bhFiann was sung with real passion and the crowd of almost 36,000 got right behind our gladiators from the first whistle. It was obvious that the players too were up for it and they ran the poor little Cypriots ragged for most of the afternoon. Early on the Duffer put in a brilliant cross for Clinton who was hauled down. Definite penalty (at least from where I was). However, the Georgian ref reckoned it was outside the box and only gave a free kick. As he was about 100 yards closer to the incident, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until I watch a recording of the match, but if it was a poor decision, it was only his first of many. After thinking about what he was going to do for about ten minutes, Robbie just lazily chipped the free kick into the wall and it was easily cleared. And this was one of Robbie’s better moments !!!!

I think his performance today proved how important match practice is when you are at this level of football. Most of his fancy flicks & dummies just went to the opposition and poor Clinton had to do the work of two men up front as regards chasing & harrying defenders and making runs into channels. I hope it is a lack of match practice that is to blame for his laziness & ineptness today and he’s not starting to become a bit of a primma donna like his namesake who, as predicted in my last match report, failed to show up for this one. Before you start thinking that I’m off on another rant about Judas, I will concede that there is a chance he might have been injured (yeah, right !!!). However, at this stage it’s like the boy who cried wolf. I will never believe a word that comes out of Old Trafford about a supposed Judas Keane injury. The man (I use the term loosely) would be a cripple if he had actually sustained all the injuries himself and Fergusmoan have tried to tell us he has picked up over the last ten years or so (usually in the week leading up to an Ireland game). Just a co-incidence, I suppose, that ManUre have a Champions League game next week. Something tells me the old ribs will be in perfect working order for that one !!!!

And as much as I detest the traitor, he might have actually improved the team today. Graham Kavanagh is a footballer I have a lot of time for. He’s a hard worker, a battler and above all he wants to wear the Green shirt. Pride in the jersey and all that. Unfortunately though, today he looked miles off the pace of competitive International football. Every time he got the ball he seemed to slow the whole game down, often just when we were starting to look threatening. He’s definitely running Robbie Keane close today for the Ian Harte award for worst Irish player on show.

Andy Reid on the other hand, was a revelation. We all knew he was good after impressive showings in a number of the recent friendlies but he really looked the part today. He picked up some great positions, his passing was quick and accurate, he looked almost Brazilian when running with the ball and his goal was out of this world. Not bad for his competitive debut and he rightly won the Man of the Match award. After ten minutes or so he whipped in a good free kick from the left, which Clinton headed badly over. With the Duffer equally influential, Ireland were terrorizing the visitors and were completely dominant. However, the clock ticked on past the half hour mark and it was still scoreless. But just as I could feel myself getting restless and beginning to fear the worst, Clinton latched onto a Duff cross with a brilliant glancing header that gave their keeper no chance.

We were running them ragged now, and a couple of minutes after he had a shot tipped over, Andy Reid let fly with his left foot from 25 yards that curled beautifully into the far corner. Andy O’Brien had done well on our right to retrieve the ball and when it came back to Reid he looked up and hit an unstoppable drive past the helpless Cypriot keeper. I know it’s a bit of a cliché but this was well worth the admission money. Absolutely fantastic. Two-nil and cruising. Lansdowne was awash with colour and noise and we all waited for the avalanche of goals we deserved. Chuck had even resigned himself to not having a chance of collecting from his 2-0 correct score bet. There was no way we’d be leaving here with less than half a dozen. However, before we could get a third the half-time whistle interrupted the flow.

The second half wasn’t a whole lot different in terms of Irish domination and ten minutes into it a sublime piece of skill from our red-headed footballing genius and a bamboozling run resulted in him being tripped by a shell shocked defender. Another definite penalty and this time the man with the whistle agreed with me. Up stepped Robbie to bury it and equal the goal scoring record in the process. As he went off doing his cartwheel I began to wonder how many we would actually get. To be fair to Cyprus they had made us work hard for our three goals and had defended reasonably well. Surely now though, they would cave in and we could go and start breaking a few goalscoring records as a team.

Somehow the ball ended up down the other end of the park for a minute and incredibly they managed a shot on goal. Shay had to be at his best to turn it around the post. This wasn’t in the script I had been drawing up a few minutes previously! Kilbane, Keane and Morrison all had shots before the Duffer let fly with one from just inside the box. He had to swivel in mid air to get over the ball and it would have been up there with his best goals had the keeper not made a brilliant save under pressure from Clinton. Wonderful technique. Clinton had another shot wildly over which was brilliantly saved by yours truly. I looked straight over to the bench after my cat-like leap to pluck the ball out of mid-air and I’m sure I could see the boss nodding his approval and telling Chris Hughton to make a note. Don’t be surprised to see a new name in one of our future squads if Paddy Kenny or Nicky Colgan pick up an injury !!!!

Finnan, Maybury and Lee all came on in the closing minutes and all 3 did some nice things in the few minutes they had. Kilbane played well again, Carr & O’Shea got down the flanks well and our centre-halves did what they had to do but they were never really threatened. Overall, it was a satisfactory performance and a good warm-up for Basel on Wednesday night. I doubt there’s been a week in the last year when my mind hasn’t wandered back to that night in the St. Jakob stadium last October when I witnessed probably the most gutless performance from an Irish team that I can remember. It was embarrassing leaving the stadium in a green shirt that night as the locals celebrated to the tune of the stadium loudspeakers playing AgaDoo. I still cringe when I think of it !!! You boys owe your country a good showing on Wednesday night and help banish those memories !!!!

Donogh & Eamon are making the trip with the flag and I’m sure they’ll have a great time (even though they still have no hotel booked). Here’s hoping they and the other four or five thousand members of the traveling Green Army have cause to celebrate. As for the rest of ThePeoplesFlag our next game will be in Paris in 5 short weeks time. More on that in Thursday’s report on the Swiss game. Come on you Boys in Green !!!!

Ciaran