Kerr’s salute to Robbie
Keane, 24 years of age with 55 international appearances, has scored 21 goals and shares the record with Niall Quinn. He claimed his last goal for Ireland in the 3-0 win over Cyprus in the World Cup qualifier last month.
Manager Brian Kerr lauded Keane’s achievements yesterday.
He said: “He’s a very young player yet as a striker. He plays a lot of games, he’s always available and the record will come sooner or later.
“But it’s not an issue. If anyone can get goals for us we’ll be happy wherever they come from. It doesn’t bother me whether Robbie breaks the record or not in this match, it’s not an issue.”
Ireland’s exciting performance in Paris has raised expectations in this World Cup and the Republic may have a great opportunity of going into the winter break on top of the group.
France play in Cyprus tonight and with Switzerland set to play the French on March 26 in Paris, Ireland could be in a position to take a firm grip on the tournament when they play Israel on the same night.
First, the Faroe Islands must be defeated and Kerr yesterday said the Irish squad are so professional that they will not risk failure by underestimating their part-time opponents.
He said: “We haven’t had too many upsets over the years, the main one would be the dropping of points in Liechtenstein (a 0-0 draw in 1995), that would be the only one seen in that light. We’ve had the odd scare ... Andorra scored the first goal here, the team came back and won well.”
He suggested, however, that the trend was towards more unpredictable results - a suggestion that seems logical given that so many more international matches are played nowadays.
He said: “Every time you see a series of results you see matches you could pick out and say that’s a strange result. But the strange results are becoming more frequent and we’ve just got to be ready to do our stuff and be determined and be on top of it.”
Kerr reacted with impatience at the media conference after yesterday’s training session when it was suggested he might use this game to give the reserve goalkeepers, Nicky Colgan (Barnsley) and Paddy Kenny (Sheffield United), more experience.
“This is serious stuff, Shay (Given) is the best goalkeeper as we currently stand and Shay will play.”
The smooth passing game that helped Ireland so well in Paris was given added impetus by the impressive tempo of Ireland’s approach and Kerr emphasised how important that was in the context of international football.
He said: “It was very important against Cyprus in the first game to get into a rhythm of the match. We had hoped to be that way in Switzerland and we were initially. They obviously matched the tempo and got their time on it and made a few chances not long after we scored.
“In France we wanted to set the tone for the game, that we weren’t going to be pushed around. That comes from the players as well, their understanding of what it takes.
“Our approach came from their understanding of what’s going to possibly unnerve the opposition in an away match; like when you come and start having a go at the off and they’re pushed back into your own half and forced to defend deep.
“Teams can get used to that and some international teams play like that, they’re prepared to soak it up and play on the break. But I don’t think that suits us and the players we have.
“We’re more comfortable in possession and moving the ball and getting possession in the other half of the pitch. We like to play that way so I would hope for a high tempo tomorrow.
“I think that’s what the players want, they understand that. If we play at an easy pace the Faroes team will get comfortable in that, so we need to play at a tempo that they’re not quite used to.”
Everything Kerr said suggested he is ready to start against the Faroes with the team that finished against France, with Andy Reid playing as partner to Robbie Keane. He did not rule out the possibility of using a more orthodox approach with the bigger, stronger Gary Doherty in as target man alongside Keane.
He said: “We’ve haven’t had the luxury of ‘lorrying it’ into the box and playing off the big men, we haven’t had so much of that more recently since Niall (Quinn) retired. We’ve had to try to play our way in and use the individual skills of our players and that’s what we’ll continue to do tomorrow, we’ll try and use the width of the pitch as best we can.”
Andy Reid faces a fitness test on a damaged ankle today and the Irish team is expected to be:
Shay Given; Stephen Carr, Andy O’Brien, Kenny Cunningham, John O’Shea; Steve Finnan, Roy Keane, Kevin Kilbane, Damien Duff; Robbie Keane, Andy Reid / Gary Doherty.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
