Spain take the spoils but plenty of positives for new-look Ireland

Spain 2 Republic of Ireland 0

John Riordan, Yankee Stadium, New York

Sean St Ledger thought, for a little longer than he likes admitting, that he had scored an equaliser against Spain at Yankee Stadium last night.

But the linesman rightly spotted Simon Cox had drifted offside and instead the World and European champions went onto to see the game out with an excellent Juan Mata goal two minutes from time.

"I went away celebrating," laughed St Ledger afterwards, "but it was actually a really good decision from the linesman, having seen it again… He could have told me earlier and I wouldn't have looked silly celebrating away!

"At 1-1, maybe if we could have held on, it would have been a memorable result against Spain, but it wasn't to be."

There was plenty of reason to enjoy this brave performance by a young Irish team in front of a crowd of almost 40,000 high-spirited football fans in the Bronx and St Ledger was already looking ahead to September's set of crucial qualifiers.

"I looked at the table just before we got on the coach with Sweden beating the Faroes," he said. "It's very tight and we know what's ahead of us, Sweden at home and Austria away and that's going to define the group now. I've seen them both. Our away performances have been very good under the manager and hopefully we can get the results, it would be great to finish second and then have a chance to get into the World Cup which would be fantastic."

When the first goal finally arrived, the manner of it neatly summed up Spain's world-famous tendency to toy with their opponents.

Right back Álvaro Arbeloa had enough time to juggle the ball twice past James McCarthy before laying it off to sub Roberto Soldado whose clinical finish low to the bottom left hand corner finally unlocked the courageous Irish back line.

"The better team won, they are the champions of the world," said Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni who felt aggrieved by the offside decision..

"They controlled the game for 45 minutes but we had a good balance and a good personality… We know the Spanish players, they are superior technically and they usually have more possession but football is particularly strange because we have Sammon and the goal was a goal."

With about ten minutes to go, James McClean latched onto a Conor Sammon lay-off down the left and fired in a great shot that tested Spain's substitute keeper, Iker Casillas.

The resultant corner found the head of Stephen Kelly's header was deflected in off the underside of the crossbar just as substitute Simon Cox was left isolated inside by the Spanish defenders. His nudging of the ball into Sean St Ledger's path was unfortunately the undoing of the defender's scrambled finish and while the players celebrated by the home dugout of the Yankees, the referee's assistant's flag was shot across in the direction of the six-yard box.

That was their chance to share the spoils gone. After substitute keeper Darren Randolph saved excellently from Santi Carzola in the 84th minute, the Spanish substitute forward slid a beautiful pass through to Juan Mata four minutes later and the Chelsea player dinked the ball past the Irish keeper with ease.

Playing against this great team was as difficult as St Ledger remembers from last summer.

"To be fair, I thought we actually did a lot better than we did in Poland.

"They are an unbelievable side for hanging on to the ball - but they do that to nearly every team in the world.

"We watched highlights of the France game and the possession stats were probably nearly just the same as here, so it's not just us.

"They are a fantastic side and I can't see any other winners of the World Cup next year."

The fans were slow to take their seats but by the time the teams headed for the half-time break without a goal to show for their efforts, the ballpark was as full as could be expected for such a meaningless friendly. And the atmosphere lively to go with it.

Most of them had just enjoyed a relatively entertaining first half with Spain's superiority gradually beginning to shows as the minutes ticked by.

Apart from the half-dozen decent chances which Spain had to open the scoring, the most telling evidence of their dominance was the dilution of Ireland's threat out wide. Seamus Coleman and Andy Keogh started brightly with the former forcing Pedro into the concession of an 11th minute free and the first half's only yellow card. Keogh looked sharp out on the left too but eventually right back Álvaro Arbeloa and, in particular, left back Jordi Alba began to impose themselves a little.

A 19th minute Spanish corner forced James McCarthy to clear off the line from Gerard Piqué while Jordi Alba came close two minutes later, shooting just over from the left. Another goalmouth scramble in the 24th minute saw Piqué and Sergio Ramos then drew a brave tackle out of Sean St Ledger.

Conor Sammon wasted a gilt-edged chance to get Ireland the lead in the 27th minute when he's brave though probably high challenge dispossessed Piqué and gave the striker a clear run on goal which he didn't manage to take advantage of, pushing his shot past Victor Valdés from a fairly narrow angle.

Irish keeper David Forde finally made a couple of saves, a straightforward one from Xavi on the half hour and then an excellent block with his foot nine minutes later from David Villa who was set up by wonderful touches from Xavi and David Silva.

Two minutes later, the biggest chance of the first half brought the game's biggest cheer up until that point when Pedro drilled a dipping strike over Forde but onto the crossbar, the rebound blown over by Silva.

"When you go in 0-0 at half-time, it's obviously a bonus," said St Ledger.

"You are always up against it because they keep so much of the ball and you just hope you get a break-away or you can maybe get a corner and hopefully get a goal.

"They are a great side, but I think we can take confidence from the performance…. It was a great experience to play in this stadium."

And as the crowds disappeared out to the Bronx and beyond, the famous stadium's ground staff were already hosing away the white lines of the temporary soccer pitch in preparation for the return to normality and the summer of New York Yankees baseball that lies ahead.

SPAIN: V Valdés (I Casillas 59); A Arbeloa, G Piqué, S Ramos, J Alba; S Busquets; A Iniesta (C Fábregas 59), Xavi (capt) (J Mata 69); D Silva (J Navas 45); Pedro (S Cazorla 80), D Villa (R Soldado 59).

REPUBLIC of IRELAND: D Forde (D Randolph 74); P McShane, S St Ledger, D O'Dea, S Kelly (D Delaney 89); S Coleman, J McCarthy (D Meyler 85), J Hendrick (S Quinn, 45), A Keogh (J McClean 74); R Keane (capt) (S Cox, 57), C Sammon.

Referee: Jair Marrufo.

Attendance: 39,368.