Breen waits to decide future

Gary Breen is to wait until the end of the Republic of Ireland’s Far East adventure before resolving his future.

The last few weeks have been a dream for Breen, who headed to the finals without a club and was not one of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy’s first choices for the centre back role.

After choosing to end his five-year association with First Division Coventry, Breen found Kenny Cunningham barring his path to the Ireland side, with Steve Staunton already assured of his place.

But a hamstring injury to Cunningham opened the door for Breen, who has not looked back since, capping a string of fine performances with Ireland’s all-important second goal in their 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia and so guaranteeing their place in the last 16.

Upon his return home, Breen will have to sift through offers from clubs interested in securing his services.

For now, club prospects are on hold as Breen said: ‘‘I was offered a new contract at Coventry, but I’d been there five years and, to be honest, that was long enough.

‘‘When I then hooked up with Ireland I made a conscious decision to concentrate solely on them, leaving my agent to deal with other matters.

‘‘Hopefully, everything will take care of itself when I get back. You would hope with my performances somebody will come in for me. That’s the idea anyway.

‘‘The World Cup is certainly the ideal shop window, but it’s not a personal agenda, it’s all about doing well for Ireland, and that is what’s happening.

‘‘You could make the assumption, when the numbers were given out, Kenny was starting ahead of me, but I didn’t. I was focused on starting and training as if that was the case and then hoping I caught the eye.

‘‘I’m now playing in a World Cup finals, which is well documented that it’s always been my dream, so to cap it all with a goal is even better. I’m over the moon.’’

Needing to win by two clear goals to be certain of reaching the second round, Ireland made the perfect start when Robbie Keane grabbed his second goal of the tournament and his 12th in 36 internationals after just six minutes.

But McCarthy’s side made heavy weather of their progress on a wet, humid night until Breen volleyed home Staunton’s curling free-kick in the 62nd minute.

Damien Duff completed the scoring with his first international goal for 10 months - only his second in 29 appearances - courtesy of an error from Saudi goalkeeper and captain Mohammed Al Deayea.

Ireland now head to Suwon in South Korea where they will face either Spain or South Africa on Sunday, with Breen confident it will be the Spaniards.

‘‘It’s been a funny World Cup because there’s been a few shocks, with the so-called lesser teams improving and catching up with the bigger teams,’’ he added.

‘‘I’m sure we’ll be the underdogs going into the Spain game, but I’m sure they’ll be a bit worried about playing us.

‘‘We’ll look forward to it. We prefer being the underdog because we play better against sides classed as the favourites, and I think we can do well against them.

‘‘I hope the adventure ends back here in Yokohama in a couple of weeks’ time. That might be dreaming a bit too much, but why not?

‘‘We’re a difficult team to beat and when we get that early goal, like we did against Saudi Arabia, then teams find it hard to break us down.’’

McCarthy refuses to rule out a return to Japan - which for the Irish would be the World Cup final on June 30.

McCarthy said: ‘‘It’s very pleasing that we’re going on, and now I want us to go as far as we can.

‘‘I know I’ll be sad to see the back of Japan because I’ve enjoyed it here, but you never know, we might be back.

‘‘We came with the ambition of trying to win this tournament. Is that realistic? Who knows.

‘‘But then people didn’t think we would get where we are now. People thought we were beaten in the first two games.

‘‘We fight against doubters all the time, we fight against critics all the time, and we do it very well.’’