Keogh ready to give all for the cause
Though he had scored the first ever goal of The Trap Era, a sublime equaliser in the Italian’s opening match against Serbia in Dublin, snapshots of the likeable Keogh in the green jersey had become collectors’ items as the years ticked by.
Yet, Keogh has regularly been one of those players name-checked in press conferences by Trapattoni during his time in charge and he was duly recalled for August’s friendly against Serbia in Belgrade where he featured for 21 minutes.
His abilities have often been questioned by fans and media alike but never his loyalty and he featured for 90 minutes against Oman last month just hours after learning that his fiancee Natalie had suffered a miscarriage six months into her pregnancy with their first child.
“It was tough but me and Natalie spoke and she came to the game as well that night. She was just like, ‘well, you’re back in now, you’ve been given a chance, get out there and try to play,’ so I just said ‘okay’. She wanted me to and I wanted to do it for us, really.
“I had been left out of the Euros and that was disappointing so to be then given the chance to start for my country again, I wanted to do everything I could to play and the fact she wanted me to made it so much easier.”
Natalie will travel over from England for Friday’s game this week and, though Simon Cox and Jonathan Walters appear to be the front-runners for the up-for-grabs role on the right wing, it would be no surprise if her partner got another run out against the Germans.
It is little surprise that Trapattoni has often found a place for Keogh in his arsenal. A striker by trade, Keogh was prolific for Ireland underage and has traded on his predatory instincts in a nomadic club career but he is nothing if not adaptable.
His first ever competitive start for his country at senior level came in the last home game against Germany, under Steve Staunton back in 2007, and his performance along the right tramline was among the best of the evening.
Four years later and he was performing a similar role, in the friendly 2-0 win against Italy in Liege, when he tracked back on Andrea Pirlo and nullified the Azzurri’s playmaker just as Trapattoni had asked him to.
“I am happy to do whatever the manager asks,” he insisted. “That’s what he is paid to do, to get his squad together and ask them to perform as he wants. It’s his team and if I am on the pitch, I am happy.”
On taking on the wide right portfolio, Keogh says: “I can definitely try my best to do it. I think I did it against Pirlo and that’s what he asked me to do. The next time he asks me to do something, I will try and give it a good go.”
In fairness, he is well used to the have-boots-will-travel side of things. Keogh has already played football for seven clubs — two of them twice — and endured five loan spells since arriving in England nine years ago as a trainee at Elland Road.
Between August of 2010 and August 2011, he actually togged out for three different clubs — Cardiff, Bristol City and Leeds United — on a temporary basis but his wanderings seem to have come to a halt for now.
In January he signed a full-time contract with Millwall and the security seemed to suit as he scored 10 times for the London outfit in the second half of the season and earned the affection of the notoriously hostile crowd at The New Den.
This term has been trickier. Two goals against Middlesbrough have been his lot thus far but the understandable dip in form seems to be levelling off again as his attentions turn to the World Cup campaign. “The aim is Brazil,” he said at one point.
Don’t bet against him making it.
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