Caught in a Trap!
How the luck changes! The Republic of Ireland soccer team are looking a gift horse in the mouth after drawing Estonia, the lowest ranked side in the European Championship qualification play-offs. The Baltic nation have never been at this stage of the competition before so opportunity knocks for Giovanni Trappatonis sluggers.
If Ireland do expect the two ties to be a cakewalk, players and supporters alike will be in for a shock. We only have to look at how inept at times Ireland appeared in the final qualifier match against Armenia last Tuesday. The criticism appears like a broken record at this juncture but Ireland cannot or are unable to play passing football and hold onto possession for a lengthy period of time. This results in sproradic attacks low on creativity and penetration (Slovakia at home) or puts the defence under consistent pressure like against Russia in Moscow last month. There are a few reasons for this problem mainly the manager and the calibre of player available.
We all appreciate this Ireland squad aren’t the most tehcnically adept but when did Ireland possess gifted footballers all at the one time? Once in a blue moon with individuals like John Giles, Liam Brady and Roy Keane but Ireland, just like their British counterparts, very rarely produce skillful footballers capable of keeping the ball for long spells. However, Ireland never produced this style of aimless long ball which is posion for the eyes under recent managers such as Mick McCarthy or Brian Kerr. Trappatoni has deemed the only way Ireland can compete for major tournaments is to eliminate the ploy of ‘trying’ to play with the ball on the ground and use the ball in airspace instead! By selecting very limited players like Glenn Whelan and Keith Andrews (and previously the odious Paul Green) in central midfield, we leave ourselves open to ceding possession to any decent opposition and being outnumbered due to the antique 4-4-2 formation. If Ireland cannot hold onto the ball to hurt their opponents, at least play 3 in the middle to stymie the risk of being overrun as every good side that studies Ireland exploits this tactical misnomer and wins the midfield battleground.
Jack Charlton, the most successful Ireland manager of course, played roughly the same way with the long ball to big strikers and putting the opposition under pressure when they had possession by playing high up the pitch. Back then, we had some fine players and tall forwards like Niall Quinn and Tony Cascarino to aplly this method. Sadly only 2 or 3 of the current crop would make those 88-94 teams if we had that discussion. However the punts upfield aren’t really successful in this era as we have smaller, quicker strikers now who are unable to win many balls in the air against big centre-backs and any advantage they have isn’t utilised i.e Robbie Keane, Shane Long. To that end, Ireland have done remarkably well to get to two successive play-offs under Trappatoni with the personnel he selects and the people he leaves on the bench e.g. James McCarthy, Darren Gibson, Stephen Hunt, Keith Fahey. No world-beaters granted but they have not been given the chance to prove their worth at this level.
As has being remarked before, and is forgotten in the furore of Thierry Henrys handball incident, Irelands best performance under the Italian was in the 2nd leg of the World Cup play-off in 2009 against France in Paris. 1-0 down from a timid home leg effort, Ireland went for broke and played intelligent football to try and stretch the French which almost worked if chances didn’t go a begging before the ‘Hand of Frog’struck! Indeed many of Irelands worthy performances have come away from Dublin under Trappatoni so perhaps the key is approaching the first leg in Tallinn with a mind to not just lose or get a score draw but win. The win in Dublin is not a given as Estonia have hit form beating Serbia and trouncing Northern Ireland recently so Ireland must be brave like in Paris and stamp their authority on what will be a nervous Eastern European country in unchartered territory. That was the position Armenia were in and we needed luck and bad refeering to earn a 2-1 victory. Could our luck hold out if we play so poorly in November? Over to you Trap!
