Harte cheers up with thoughts of Seoul

By Mark Gallagher, Tokyo

THEY’RE the defining images of the Irish adventure in Japan.

Drained players momentarily forgetting how much sweat they shed, saluting their fans, applauding the supporters this mystical country has held to its heart, Niall Quinn deliriously punching the air, Stephen Reid looking bewildered by it all, Mick Byrne dancing amid the mayhem.

Even within these scenes of unbridled joy, our hearts go out to some, none more so than Ian Harte. For the third game in a row, Ireland’s left back was substituted. Called from the action, with the official explanation of a sore toe, to make way for the physical presence of Quinn.

“Ian’s okay,” Gary Kelly said of his nephew afterwards. “He’s a little bit down obviously. And he’s carrying a knock, but he’s all right.”

While things have been tough for Harte, Kelly has been enjoying the other side of the World Cup experience. Following a season struggling to displace Danny Mills at Elland Road, the past month has been a revelation for him. A new lease of life offered him by Sunderland has been enhanced by three World Cup starts.

Kelly has risen to the challenge. Jason McAteer’s injury denied us our hero of the qualifying stages, but his partner in crime from America has slotted in at ease. And second time around, it is even sweeter for Kelly.

Yesterday was about breaking records and they all fell. Robbie Keane has now become Ireland’s top World Cup scorer, Ireland have managed to score more goals at this World Cup than they did in the previous two combined and of course, they shattered the one goal hoodoo.

When people assess McCarthy’s contribution to Ireland’s progression, they won’t neglect the tactical switches. In the past, the manager was criticised for a reluctance to tinker with his team during a game. That has utterly changed in Japan. Kelly isn’t blind to that, even if Harte has been the biggest loser.

“Once again, the changes made the difference,” Kelly remarks. “We didn’t play well in the first half, and Niall always gives us a tremendous option off the bench.”

It wasn’t the easy night Shay Given might have expected after six minutes. A few times towards the end of the first half, Given had to make a couple of smart stops. Just for a moment, people were wondering was it going to go awry.

“I was surprised I had so much to do in the first half,” Given said. “Because we scored so early on, I think we sat back and they came at us. Credit to the lads, they stood strong and we ended up getting our first clean sheet, which was important because there were two flights booked for this week, one to Korea and one to Dublin. We are just glad to be on the Korean flight.”

On a difficult night for goalkeepers, Given denied Al Yami and Al Jahni as the first half drew to its fraught close. And he did so with gloves that had lost all grip. The rain and humidity meshed into a slippery mess.

“I had no grip on the ball during the first half, it was like there was a slippery coating on the ball. So, I can sympathise with their keeper for the third goal. I had to change my own gloves at half time.

“It was the first time we played with a wet ball out here, but I was chatting to Packie Bonner after the game and he was thinking maybe we should do more training with wet balls, because it is rainy season out here. The humidity made gripping difficult and I lost eight pounds out there.”

As if the new football didn’t make the job hard enough. A lot has been said of the squiggled sphere in Irish press conferences over the past few weeks, but not much to the goalies. On a night of swirling wind and bucketing rain, Given was taught a lesson on FIFA’s, with the help of Adidas, latest innovation.

“The colours of the ball don’t help, when they are coming towards you, I don’t know why that is, I think they changed it just to be different because of the world cup but whoever designed the ball certainly wasn’t a goalkeeper.”

Still, even with the handicap of the new football, Ireland have their first clean sheet in this World Cup. A little fact which shouldn’t be forgotten when thoughts of the Spaniards Raul and Morientes fill the mind.