Chasing the American dream

FOR THE youthful and inexperienced players who make up the bulk of Steve Staunton’s makeshift Irish squad, America is this week living up to its billing as the land of opportunity.

For the likes of Wolves striker Andy Keogh, the prospect of a first senior cap means this could still prove to be a landmark trip for the young Dubliner. Keogh turned 21 on the night last week that West Brom dashed Wolves’ dreams of a shot at the Premiership; He was too young to appreciate the heroics of Italia ‘90 but he vividly recalls the peculiar circumstances under which he saw Ray Houghton score Ireland’s winning goal against Italy in the 1994 World Cup in Giants Stadium — the same venue in which Keogh could now make his senior debut for his country against Ecuador on Wednesday.

“I was only about seven,” he recalls. “It was the day we moved into a new house in Dun Laoghaire and we had nothing. We were sitting on the wooden floors with the TV on the ground watching the game and I remember the Ray Houghton goal perfectly. I was with my ma (Linda), my da (Declan) and my brother (Kenny) — the four of us on the wooden floor watching the box. It was great.”