When the World Cup dream turns sour
Good things come to those who wait. Tomorrow is another day. There is always someone worse off than yourself.
That last one especially; yet as a disappointing World Cup campaign comes to an end, it is worth reflecting that others definitely are worse off than Ireland.
I’m not talking about the real minnows here, although perhaps we should spare a thought for San Marino. Their players obviously cherish the opportunity of appearing on the big stage, but they’ve only ever won one match and are about to beat their own worst-ever qualifying performance four years ago (goal difference minus 46) and may even beat Liechtenstein’s historic record — 52 goals conceded — set in 1998.
The case for a separate pre-qualifying process for the smallest countries is getting stronger. It isn’t good for a sport to have matches turned into target practice and teams into punchbags. The question is how to define minnows. Once Luxembourg and Cyprus would have been in that category, but not judged by recent results.
However the punchbags this time have included some distinguished names. Hungary can still — just — qualify for the play-offs, but it was painful to see a proud football nation destroyed 8-1 in Amsterdam on Friday. It was fortunate for the Hungarians that Louis van Gaal substituted Robin van Persie shortly after he’d completed his hat-trick. With half an hour left, a double-figure scoreline looked a virtual certainty.
The Czechs have also been a big disappointment in this tournament, after reaching the European quarter-finals last year. Like Denmark, they were ambushed at home by one of the tournament’s underdogs, Armenia, whose 12-point haul is a real surprise. The Armenians play Italy in Naples tonight, so their chances of going into the play-offs look slim.
This hasn’t been a great qualifying tournament for the Balkan countries either. The Champions League shows that the big pool of talent that made Yugoslavia such a footballing force still exists. Yet with one match left, only Croatia are assured of continuing in the tournament and even they still have to face the play-offs.
Serbia have been the big disappointments in this group, losing to both Croatia and Macedonia. Belgium, with their big Premier League contingent, have had a comfortable passage to the finals.
Belgium’s 25 points put them among the top three European qualifiers, alongside Germany and the Dutch, and well ahead of Spain. The world champions haven’t quite had their expected cruise. It has taken quite an effort to finish ahead of France who have reemerged as a force and have to be favourites in the play-offs.
The huge disappointment for Ireland is of course that a play-off place briefly looked achievable. That was not an illusion. Those two late strikes by David Alaba had a huge impact — both in terms of points and the morale of the players.
The fact that outsiders such as Iceland and Armenia are still in with an outside chance of going to Brazil makes it more painful, even if Iceland had one of the easiest groups.
The lesson perhaps is that both Iceland and Armenia have been more successful in using the resources available to them. Armenia can call on players from five foreign leagues, including Russia and Germany, as well as their own.
There are Icelandic players in Italy, Portugal and Holland as well as Scandinavia and England. That foreign experience can be crucial and may be something Ireland’s new management can work on in the next campaign.
