Soccer: Fleet-footed Flood fends off Duff comparisons
Duff first came to our attention as Brian Kerr's U-20's crusaded to third place at the 1997 finals of this tournament in Malaysia. Ireland's best current player then sparkled again in Nigeria two years later despite being hampered by injury.
Like Duff, Flood is a waspish wide man, quick of foot and thought with an elusiveness dreaded by defenders.
This afternoon in the Sheikh Khalifah Stadium, the world gets to see Flood for the first time. Ireland open their challenge hoping the Ballyfermot youngster at 18, the baby of the squad as Duff was in Malaysia - can do his stuff on the right flank to open up Saudi Arabia and get us off to a winning start in Group E.
"I don't consider myself like Damien Duff yet, but hopefully in years to come I can be like him," said the Manchester City-based Dubliner. "But we will see how it goes. I've never really given it much thought. It's the media that are starting to build it up."
Duff's rise to prominence has been an inspiration to most Irish youngster now kicking a ball, fellow winger Flood amongst them.
"I do watch him," said Flood. "In the recent match with Canada, Damien was the one player I paid close attention to. How he moved off the ball, how he moved on the ball. I paid close attention to that. You can learn so much from just watching him"
The mounting pressure of his potential juxtaposition with Duff is something the intelligent Flood is fielding well.
"You don't really feel the pressure when you are on the pitch. You just have to think about your own game. On the pitch all that stuff just goes out the window."
Meanwhile, senior team boss Brian Kerr, who arrived at the team hotel in Al Ain yesterday, has given his blessing to his former charges.
"Gerry Smith gave me the opportunity to speak to the players and the thought came to me that I was actually away in the UAE with this team when I was offered the senior job," said Kerr.
"That call came late on the night before we played France in the final match and I spoke to Noel O'Reilly and we said it would be a great way to go out by winning. We duly beat France and won the tournament and I reminded the players of that.
"It was my last match with them and I do have a special little feeling for this group. They've been smashing as a youth team since coming together.
"They qualified for the UEFA finals as under-16s in Israel and then at under-19 level for Norway last year. They had a hard road to get to each of those championships so it's nice to see them at a World Cup.
"I told the players every point they get will be hard won.
"It's funny because we have Mexico and Saudi again while the Ivory Coast will be technically brilliant and it will be tough to get out of the group."
Smith will not name his team until this morning. The fitness of Stephen Elliott, Jonathan's Daly likely strike partner, is the main cause for concern. Elliott has received extensive treatment for an inflamed tendon in his right foot.
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