A rap with the cap
Kevin Moran and Packie Bonner differed slightly in their assessment of the French threat — Kevin thought it the worst possible draw, Packie was somewhat more philosophical — but both agreed that, under Giovanni Trapattoni, a well-organised Irish side had a fighting chance of upsetting the odds. But only, they emphasised in unison, if the players can totally eliminate the kind of catastrophic lapse in concentration which saw the team squander a winning position against Italy at the death in Dublin.
“To lose a 2-1 lead with three minutes to go was unforgivable,” said Moran. “It wouldn’t have happened with Kevin and Mick,” Bonner smiled, pointing out that Moran and McCarthy wouldn’t have been behind the Italian goal celebrating in the first place. Instead, he said, the ministers of defence would have been immediately roaring, shouting and “belting people” to get back into position for the restart.
Which is true. The Irish defence took no prisoners back in the day and so perhaps it should come as no surprise to learn that, all these years later, Mick McCarthy is still a redoubtable opponent. Especially when it comes to the Irish media.
After Wolves’ game against Wexford Youths last Monday, McCarthy joined us in a huddle at Ferrycarrig Park and, while the handshake was warm, verging on crunching, you couldn’t escape the sense that having to shoot the breeze with a gaggle of Irish hacks, some of them familiar faces from past skirmishes, was not exactly the highlight of his visit.
Even an innocuous question about Stephen Ward’s progress at Wolves saw a rap with the cap turn into a rap from the cap. Singing the praises of the former Bohs man, McCarthy said that he reminds him of Kevin Kilbane and then couldn’t help himself adding:
“And, of course, the much maligned at times and underrated Kevin Kilbane has just got 100 caps. And everybody who has played him from me onwards — and now Trapattoni — thinks he is a good player.”
Again, when talking about Trapattoni’s reign, there was this: “People tell me that he gets a bit of stick. I don’t know who’s giving him stick with his record but it makes me feel a lot better.”
To be fair to McCarthy — which not too many were when he was in charge of the Irish team — you can understand why he might still feel a touch sensitive about his treatment at the hands of his critics, whether Eamon Dunphy when he was a player, to the many — inside and outside the press box — who never forgave him for getting on the wrong side of Roy Keane in the great Irish football civil war.
Certainly, I don’t believe McCarthy ever got anything like the full credit he deserved for lifting his dumbstruck squad, in a matter of days, from the nadir of Saipan to the heights of a World Cup finals campaign which included a superb display against Germany and another terrific performance against Spain in a game which FIFA officially declared the best of the 2002 tournament.
Indeed, given the chaos which preceded the football, there is a legitimate argument that this was Ireland’s best-ever showing at a finals.
THE BIG question now, of course, is whether Ireland can give themselves a chance of emulating those historic achievements by overcoming France in the play-off for the finals in South Africa. And the erstwhile Captain Fantastic believes they can.
“I think we can win it and I don’t think it’s the game from hell that it’s supposed to be,” says the Wolves boss. “France finished second in their group. They did not bash Serbia and Austria. And if I was going for a second leg then I would prefer to go to Paris than go to Sarajevo or Russia or Greece or Portugal.”
As in 2001, when his Irish side beat Iran 2-0 at Lansdowne Road in the first leg of a play-off which ultimately saw them go through 2-1 on aggregate to the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea, McCarthy thinks keeping a clean sheet in Dublin will be vital.
“It helped the last time, that’s for sure,” he says. “We were unbeaten throughout apart from the last minute of the game in Iran. The clean sheet is important. I think if you went 0-0 to France I would not be too worried. I have to say that Mr Trapattoni’s pretty good at making it hard to play against. He’s got a record as long as my arm.”
When he’s reminded that, not since his boys in green saw off Holland in 2001, have Ireland managed to overcome a top European team, McCarthy smiles knowingly and points out: “They don’t have to beat them, do they? Scoreless in Dublin and 1-1 over there will do us fine, won’t it?”
Does he reckon it could be as close as that?
“I have two camps at the club,” he says. “I have an Austrian (Stefan Maierhofer) and a Serbian (Nenad Milijas). The Austrian thought the French were excellent and the Serb did not. If you catch them on the right day or the wrong day as it might be, then they can be very, very good. I have got someone from the French camp as well (Ronald Zubar) and I was asking him about the team. And it’s a pretty good team when he starts talking about it. Sagna, Evra... and he went through them. And I thought ‘oh yeah’.
“But I don’t think they are that expansive and are going to run all over the top of us. And I don’t think they will come and try that here. It will be a cat and mouse game, I think. Ireland had an excellent qualifying group and did as well as could be expected to finish second behind Italy. Now, we must see if we can qualify.”
Mick McCarthy says he will be in Croker to watch the first leg. We can only hope that his storied ‘they shall not pass’ mentality transmits itself to the pitch.
