The Waiting Game

AFTER experiencing Heaven and Hell in Croke Park on Saturday, Irish football now finds itself in Limbo. (Ask your granddad).

Certainly, if a nation is holding its breath today, it’s more in anticipation of next Monday’s play-off draw at FIFA headquarters in Zurich rather than tonight’s dead rubber World Cup qualifier against Montenegro in Croke Park.

Ever the professional, Giovanni Trapattoni might talk up the significance of the game in terms of how a good result would increase confidence, boost rankings and maintain Ireland’s unbeaten group record but when, in the next breath, he recalls himself saying that there are no such things as “friendly games” in international football, he inadvertently gets closer to describing tonight’s contest for what it really is: a waiting game.

And it’s precisely the fixture’s lack of any real competitive significance which sees the manager prepared to reshuffle his troops in advance of next month’s decisive play-offs.

Although Trapattoni wasn’t yet ready to confirm his selection in Malahide yesterday, he dropped enough clues to make it possible to have a reasonable stab at the make-up of tonight’s starting XI.

The yellow cards hanging over Celtic’s Aiden McGeady and Blackburn Rovers’ Keith Andrews mean those two regulars definitely won’t start while, for the same reason, Hull City’s Paul McShane is likely to lose out to Stephen Kelly of Fulham at right-full. Manchester United’s John O’Shea may be rested, although Middlesbrough’s Sean St Ledger should partner Manchester City’s Richard Dunne as usual in the heart of the defence. Completing the back four, Hull’s Kevin Kilbane will mark his 100th cap with an equally remarkable 58th competitive game in succession in the green shirt.

Central midfield, with Stoke’s Glenn Whelan already suspended, will have a radically different look, with Trapattoni confirming that QPR’s Martin Rowlands will partner Hibs’ Liam Miller there, while Hull’s Stephen Hunt and the fit-again Damien Duff of Fulham will patrol the flanks, giving Stoke’s Liam Lawrence some extra rest after his impressive exertions against Italy. Up front, Noel Hunt of Reading and Kevin Doyle of Wolves are likely starters with Robbie Keane expected to be confined to the bench at least until the break.

We already know that the Spurs striker has surrendered the captaincy for tonight’s game, passing on the arm-band to Shay Given for the third time on what will be the occasion of the Donegal man’s 100th cap for his country.

Considering Trapattoni’s near obsession with the “leetle details”, it’s something of a surprise, to say the least of it, that his zero-tolerance of yellow card players does not extend to his goalkeeper. After all, one mistake by Given or one dive from an opponent or one poor refereeing decision – and Ireland’s Number One would be marked absent for the first leg of the play-offs.

But Trapattoni seems convinced that the odds are stacked against the nightmare scenario.

“For a goalkeeper it is not a problem,” he maintained. “In midfield, there is struggle, there are fouls. It was a peculiar situation when Given was booked (against Cyprus at home for what the referee interpreted, rather harshly, as time-wasting). It is rare for a goalkeeper to be booked. With experience, the goalkeeper has time in his head to think about how to react to a situation. It’s different outfield.”

But even if the manager has one eye firmly fixed on the play-offs, he still maintains that tonight’s final qualifier is important to Ireland’s self-belief.

“We must increase our trust and our winning mentality,” he said. “There is the show and there is the result. We are a team who look for the result. I reviewed all of the Italy game yesterday. Some players were a little bit nervous and made mistakes which they do not normally make. But our mentality, our discipline, especially in the first 20 minutes against Italy was huge. With this performance, we can achieve everything, whether we end up playing France, Greece, Russia, or Portugal. Sure, the fans who pay for the tickets want a show but the result is possible by other means. On Saturday there were four goals and three of them came from set-pieces.

“In Ireland and also in Italy we get confused a little bit between the showmen and the winning players. Balance, mentality, these are important. The aesthetically beautiful is okay but not always enough to win.”

Whatever else happens tonight, the fervent hope of Irish supporters will surely be that Shay Given’s ton of caps won’t bring with them a ton of trouble for Giovanni Trapattoni.