JOHN RIORDAN: From Blood and Bandage to the Stars and Stripes
The Colorado Rapids defender had already committed to represent the country he has done most of his growing up in: the United States.
On Monday in Mexico, O’Neill lined out at centre back in the first of their two group games at the Concacaf U20 Championships in Mexico, a tournament which doubles as a qualifier for this summer’s U20 World Cup in Turkey.
He left Midleton in East Cork with his five siblings as a two-year-old in the mid-1990s. Not only was he entitled to an Irish passport but he had also inherited good football genes from his father, Colm.
O’Neill Senior won All-Ireland senior football titles with Cork (1989 and 1990) took his family to the US and forged a successful career as a publican in Michigan and subsequently Colorado.
He should have disappeared into the dignified and dusty annals of Cork GAA legend, maybe popping up in a ‘Where Are They Now?’ feature. Thankfully, his sons have blossomed in their respective sports since the family moved from Michigan to Boulder, Colorado more than 10 years ago. Shane’s older brother, Darragh, is a College Football punter at the University of Colorado where he has two more years of athletic scholarship to attain his dream of a career in the NFL, a long shot which shortens with every contribution he makes to the Buffaloes.
“We were very competitive growing up,” the younger O’Neill explained to me last week, a day after the US U20s moved from their training camp in Toluca to their base in Puebla in advance of their 2-1 win over Haiti.
“We played almost every sport. Darragh’s going from strength to strength at Colorado. There’s no one really more competitive than him. I think that rubbed off on me a bit. Everything he accomplished, I wanted to do as well.”
Their bond is even tighter in the five years since Darragh almost died after succumbing to a rare disease called Lamierre’s Syndrome, spending two and a half weeks in intensive care, four of those on life support.
“It was a very scary time,” recalls Shane. “I remember going down to hospital and not understanding what was going on. Some nights, you really didn’t know what was going to happen. Thankfully it all turned out well for him but those are not good memories.”
He made his Rapids debut last September, a couple of days after his 19th birthday. His ambition now is to break into the team on a regular basis and he agrees that a tournament of this nature will be as good a pre-season as any professional could hope for.
“We have a lot of young players coming in. It’s a good set-up, very professional. I’m enjoying it a lot. I wanted to go to college to play soccer. I started taking it really seriously in my second last year at high school and cut back on my basketball. Then the chance to turn pro turned up and it was a dream come true.”
Monday night’s Group A opener at the Estadio Universitario in Puebla was a stern test of his defensive qualities as the team survived the courageous rallying of Haiti to record a 2-1 victory that sets them up nicely for Friday’s game against Costa Rica. The coach assigned to these young players, who ply their trade in a variety of leagues, is Tab Ramos, a nifty player in his day whose quirky claim to fame is that he was the first player to sign to the then newly-formed Major League Soccer. He played at three World Cups while amassing 81 caps and O’Neill, despite his youth, knows he’s in the presence of someone important to the game.
“He’s a great coach, I enjoy his style, high intensity, pressure on the ball,” says O’Neill. “Everyone wants to play for him. It’s exciting to play for him because he’s played at such a high level. He gets respect for what he has to say because we know he’s gone through what we’re going through.”
As for any appearances in the green of his native land, that dream remains alive too.
“I want to focus on the US right now. In the future you never know what could happen but right now I just want us to qualify for the World Cup and we’ll what happens after that.
“The (Ireland U21 management) just wanted to evaluate me but the timing didn’t work out. It’s great to have both options open to me. We’ll have to see.”
njohn.w.riordan@gmail.com Twitter: JohnWRiordan
