Ireland, like the FAI, flirt with disaster but all's white on the night

Caoimhin Kelleher saves a penalty from Joel Pohjanpalo.

The Adventures of Tintin aren’t the most obvious of places to kick off here but then they do say the best art imitates life and the scrapes of Captain Haddock, Snowy the dog and Hergé’s intrepid young reporter tend to pop to mind when it comes to the FAI. Or, more accurate to say, one image in particular.

In it, the bedraggled captain is hunched over a table, cheeks red, eyes reduced to pinpricks as he utters a weary, ‘What a week, huh?’ To which Tintin, leaning in from the side, lands him with another blow. ‘Captain, it's only Wednesday’. And so to the cartoon strip out in Abbotstown.

By Wednesday, it seemed like whole hordes of the country’s football fans were feeling just as hollowed out by the association’s tone-deaf decision to invite Robbie Keane in to hand out caps on the back of his far-from-popular tenure with Maccabi Tel Aviva.

This only followed on from the backlash a day earlier from the launch of a new ‘Hype’ jersey and general merchandise range that was supposed to hark back to the men’s team’s efforts at the World Cup in the USA 30 years ago. This in itself was a lesson in how not to make friends and infuriate people.

The white jersey bears references to Ray Houghton and Giants Stadium on the inside collar but, and here's the thing, it's the wrong colour lads. That Ireland were wearing it, at home, against a Finnish side that usually wears, well, white, was another red rag to the bull.

If the Keane chapter generated more heat and takes us deeper into more serious issues then the launch of a ‘Hype’ line before the struggling men's team played this most low-key of Nations League games against another struggling side is worth lingering on.

That the design is awful is bad enough but the constant ask of spectators to put hands in pockets has reached unacceptable levels, and it comes on the back of huge upset over the bundling of match tickets for September's England/Greece double-header.

This latest jersey brings to eleven the number of different strips that the Republic of Ireland has sported in their last 33 games. Eleven! That’s an average of a new nylon every three fixtures during which time they have played in green, white, orange, black and blue. The last two of those colours seem most apposite.

All smiles from head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson. 

When Umbro launched a new range just over four years ago they drew on inspiration from Italia ‘90 for a white offering that did at least resemble the (adidas) original. The PR guff that launched it touched on the need for the team to “make our on moments” from here on.

Well, here we were five campaigns and a new manager later and still waiting.

This tie was never going to be the type to give kit manufacturers grandiose ideas 30 years down the line. First priority was avoiding a loss that would have added up to a disastrous hat-trick of blunders for the FAI inside three days.

It didn’t look good. Heimir Hallgrimsson had spoken about the need for quicker starts. Then Ireland took an age to get going again, this time against a poor Finland team that had sent three of its best young players off to play with their U21s.

Early efforts with the ball were almost all harried backwards towards Caoimhin Kelleher who would punt it long. Then Matt Doherty flicked a ball cleverly past an approaching Finn for a teammate to bomb upfield and it changed.

From there, with 21 minutes gone, Ireland would create seven scoring chances before the break. They took one, when Evan Ferguson headed home a Mikey Johnstone cross, had another for Sammie Szmodics ruled out, and all the while played with fire at the other end.

It was all undeniably fun at this point but the sight of Hallgrimsson standing arms folded with a hint of a scowl on the sideline spoke for the ease with which the visitors poured through the centre unopposed time and time again. Someone really should fix that at this stage.

One-up at the break, Ireland could have been three in front at that point. They almost certainly would have been a few down against a team of note. Like the FAI, they were flirting with disaster, not least when Kelleher had to save Joel Pohjanpalo’s 78th-minute penalty.

Next up, England at Wembley after they thumped Greece 3-0 in Athens.

The week’s not over yet cap’n.