Trap meets obvious end

The end?

Almost certainly for Ireland’s World Cup hopes, barring the kind of transformation this performance just never offered any encouragement of.

That is the starkest and most damning aspect of all of this — and why this regime has likely run its course. On a night when Giovanni Trapattoni’s side hoped to break new ground by finally winning a key qualifier, they succumbed to old flaws and lost the game as well as any hold on a play-off place.

The story of it could have been written beforehand — an early goal, a withdrawal, an equaliser, and then a somewhat lamentable loss of energy — except this time with a different ending. Rather than a draw that leaves no conclusions, we had a defeat that appears to close things out.

The most nagging element of all this, going right back to Trapattoni’s first days, is that there is always just the hint of something with so much more potential there.

That was initially the case here.

Just as in Stockholm, Ireland started the game with some pleasing — but also assured — passing football. Rather than take the opportunity to punt that key first ball forward, it was played inside.

Just as in recent games, too, Marc Wilson set something of a tone by opting to actually take control of a ball out on the wing rather than resorting to the easy option. That early assuredness exposed Swedish nerves, with Erik Hamren’s side looking uncomfortable any time an Irish player got amongst them — especially in defence. This was clearly a game there to be won.

Even before Robbie Keane’s goal, there were uncertain clearances and fearful touches.

Admirably, Ireland initially sensed this vulnerability and went for it. For all James McClean’s recent drop-off, too, he was creditably influential in a lot of this with the way his challenges and surges added to the impetus. The opening goal was almost a culmination of all this, as Keane illustrated his career-defining opportunism in punishing Swedish haplessness.

Most regrettably, it was clearly there to be punished more. Had Ireland gone for a second goal in that eminently fruitful period, the three points could have been secured. Sweden were that poor, that fragile.

Most depressingly, the next part was all so predictable. The next few minutes were effectively the Trapattoni era in microcosm — and may well finish it all off.

Despite the fact that Ireland were so commanding and so exciting, they immediately ceded the impetus to allow Sweden to claw back both a goal and the game itself.

It was quite amazing that Ireland could go from that to this in such a short space of time.

Psychological case studies could be written on the mentality of this team and the effect an opening goal has on them.

Except the difference now, in contrast to those early days, is that it makes even less sense to withdraw so extensively when the team has more young ball-players than grizzled ball-winners. For the first three years of the regime, it was understandable that the team was built on the back line given the primacy and influence of players like Shay Given and Richard Dunne.

Now, there is much less cohesion at back, much less quality in terms of basic defending. The team is more easily unravelled.

That was illustrated almost immediately as, in the first serious Swedish attack, Zlatan Ibrahimovic picked out a massive hole in the Irish defence.

By the 33rd minute, there didn’t even need to be such a gap, as Johan Elmander simply outmanoeuvred Dunne. It was the same on 57, as the Swedish attackers just brushed aside Irish defenders for Anders Svensson to score the winner.

Just a minute before, Sweden had attempted the exact same move, this time through Sebastian Larsson and — again — the exceptional Ibrahimovic.

So, Ireland had forewarning.

It’s not the first time that’s been the case. It may well be the last time in any meaningful sense, though, for this regime.