Survival test for Ireland

WORLD CUP QUALIFIER GROUP C:

The scoreline makes it sound rather more exciting than it was. In front of a third-full Millennium Stadium, on a suitably grey day, and with nothing meaningful at stake for two countries already left well behind in the quest for Euro 2008, it took a typically energetic introduction from the bench on the part of Stephen Hunt — replacing Liam Miller; yep, that’s how long ago it was — to raise the spirits of the small band of travelling Irish supporters.

You suspect it will be a wee bit different tonight when Noel King takes the reins as Ireland’s latest stand-in gaffer, proudly plugging the gap between Trapattoni and his as yet unidentified successor.

This time, the task facing the caretaker could hardly be more daunting — awesome Germany, roared on by a full house in the Rhein Energie Stadion here in Cologne, looking to secure the win that would confirm their imperious passage to the World Cup finals in Brazil.

In the build-up to the game, and despite his best efforts to be diplomatic, Germany manager Joachim Low still couldn’t help pigeon-holing at the uglier end of the beautiful game.

Irrespective of who is in charge, the Irish can only play one way, he said on Wednesday, an observation which failed to get a rise out King, who has been assiduously straight-batting everything all week.

“That’s his view and I respect that, but it’s not my view,” was the interim manager’s succinct response last night.

Even with Germany stripped of a few of their best-known names, such is the stellar array of talent still at the disposal of Low that all form and logic really would have be turned upside down if the Irish — themselves already shorn of two hugely experienced campaigners in Richard Dunne and John O’Shea and now looking in danger of losing a third in Keane — are to decant even a soft drizzle on the German parade.

But if the night is full of meaning for Germany, it is hardly meaningless for Ireland.

King might be out of the running for the permanent job but, for this stalwart of the Irish game, from the League of Ireland through to the U21 international side, there is huge professional and personal pride at stake as he goes head to head with Low.

For the players too, there is the customary pride in donning the shirt, but also a keen awareness that tonight’s game effectively doubles as the first trial under the watchful if unseen eye of the next manager of Ireland.

One is also entitled to expect a collective determination that, having been reduced to cannon fodder the last time these two countries met, the players will want to be able to walk off the field tonight with heads held high, disappointed maybe, but not disgraced.

Being realistic, the pattern of tonight’s action should be entirely predictable, with Ireland being forced to defend in numbers in the face of almost relentless German pressure and then, when the scant opportunity permits, doing their best to hurt the opposition on the counter-attack.

The serious injury concern over Keane — which, with the odds against him, will only be resolved one way or another this morning — is a significant disruption for King, since the skipper was the one player he was prepared to confirm would definitely have started.

Of course, there are a couple of others we can take as certainties, among them David Forde, Seamus Coleman, James McCarthy and, on the basis of his surprise appearance at the pre-match press conference at the stadium yesterday, Damien Delaney, the Corkman now set to belatedly make his senior competitive debut.

King has also been keeping his tactical cards close to his chest but even if he opts for some variation on 4-2-3-1, 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 — all of which have been road-tested in training — Ireland will inevitably have to revert for long periods to a default 4-5-1 in a bid to stifle the Germans.

What will be fascinating to see is if the visitors, when they do get on the ball, are better able to retain possession and then use it to more creative purpose, than they were under Trapattoni.

With just one week’s preparation, and against the calibre of the opposition they face, it’s a lot to ask of King’s team that they show a new face of Irish football to the world but, if the likes of Darron Gibson and McCarthy can season the usual stew of guts with a bit of guile, there might yet be some joy in the evening’s proceedings for Keane (if fit) or Anthony Stokes (if selected).

Though Kevin Doyle and Shane Long would also be in the running, King yesterday described Stokes as “a strong candidate” to shoulder the lone striker burden, noting how disciplined he had been in doing trojan defensive work for Celtic against Barcelona — hardly an imperfect template, you’d have to say, for tonight’s assignment.

But for King, setting a new-look side out to face Brazil-bound Germany must be like launching a boat directly into the teeth of a storm.

You can’t help but wish the best to all who sail in her because, barring something truly miraculous, tonight in Cologne will surely be a test of Ireland’s ability to survive rather than thrive.