A BROKEN RECORD
Kenny’s hard-luck stories can’t
AT HIS truncated post-match press conference in Glasgow on Saturday night, it was put to Stephen Kenny that Ireland had finished third in their Nations League group on seven points, which fell short of the manager’s objective.
Kenny replied that Ireland were not on seven points, rather four, and would first have to earn the win over Armenia tomorrow.
Earn it. It’s a phrase Kenny used a lot before games. It implies that nothing is given out handy.
Kenny is finding out how true that is. He’s had 20 competitive matches in charge of Ireland and he’s earned three wins in that time, against Azerbaijan, Luxembourg and Scotland.
The Dubliner is adamant he should have more and after every game he laments the breaks that go against him, and his players. It has become akin to a broken record.
Listening to Kenny, you feel he reaches for green-tinted glasses after games. No matter what the outcome, his message is that his team has been hard done by.
On Saturday, he stated that Ireland had scored ‘a good goal, a very good goal by Troy Parrott that was disallowed.’
Pressed, Kenny admitted he hadn’t actually seen the replay of the Parrott incident and had to ask journalists whether Parrott had been offside. We were able to confirm that he was, by a distance – this was two hours after the incident.
Kenny then insisted that Alan Browne had been pushed by a Scotland player and the penalty award that decided the game was ‘contentious and harsh’.
In this instance, he confirmed that he had seen a replay of this incident. From which angle, I wondered?
Browne was pushed by John Egan and there is clear contact with ball and arm. There is no Scottish player in sight. It was a penalty, as clear as night and day.
Maybe Kenny was still frazzled by how a game that Ireland dominated for 45 minutes slipped away from them. At half-time, Ireland were a goal up through Egan, and on top. Nathan Collins was playing like Franz Beckenbauer, and the pacy pair in attack, Parrott and Michael Obafemi, were twisting the Scots inside out. And then? Ireland nodded off at the start of the second half and the Scots were energised. At 1-1, Parrott should have put Ireland ahead, and his squandered chance tasted like vinegar when Ryan Christie tucked away the late penalty. Once again on the road, Ireland played well for long spells, only to have sand kicked in their faces. First in Faro against Portugal, then in Lodz against Ukraine and now Glasgow.
Three games where a potential nine-point haul was whittled away to one.
As manager, the buck stops with Kenny and nothing can change that, for all his post-match hand-wringing.
Should Ireland avoid defeat tomorrow to Armenia, the 92nd team in the world, they will finish a distant third in the Nations League.
Two years ago, they were also a distant third in the Nations League, while last year they were tailed off third in the World Cup.
Third of four, third of five, third of four. That’s the tale of the tape. Is that progress?
For all the decent football, Ireland have yet to back it up by delivering results on Kenny’s watch and FAI chiefs, who armed the Dubliner with a new deal for Euro 2024, may be feeling a little twitchy.
The loss on Saturday will not have helped CEO Jonathan Hill in his two-year search for a sponsor.
Following the latest Nations League games on Saturday, Ireland are now confirmed as third seeds for the Euro draw on October 9, which will make a top-two finish that bit trickier.
As regards the 12 play-off passes via finishing positions in the Nations League, which offers three teams a chance to get to Germany, nothing is guaranteed.
Four of those 12 tickets have already been allocated to the four group winners of League C, Turkey, Greece, Kazakhstan and Georgia.
That leaves eight to filter down. Coming third in their Nations League group for Ireland may not be enough.
That’s assuming Ireland do finish third. To achieve that pyrrhic ambition, they must beat Armenia in Dublin tomorrow.
They should do so but Ireland have been jittery at home when expected to win and nothing is guaranteed.
In the World Cup qualifiers, Luxembourg won in Dublin while Azerbaijan were minutes away from doing so.
If it’s level with 15 minutes to go tomorrow night, get the rosary beads out.
Armenia can’t believe their luck that they’ve a shot at saving themselves after losing four games
‘Being good is learning how to close out games, whatever it takes’
on the spin. With England dropping down to League B, they have a 4/1 chance of hosting the boys from Blighty should they succeed in Dublin. That is a further motivation.
I fully expect Ireland to win, but beating Armenia would be no reason for celebration.
May I suggest that, should Ireland score tomorrow, Kenny and his staff refrain from jumping up and down on the touchline as if they’ve won the World Cup.
Rather it should be cause for relief at avoiding the embarrassment of relegation to the third tier, where the teams ranked 33rd to 48th include the might of the Faroes, Gibraltar and our old pals, Azerbaijan and Luxembourg.
Should the worst-case scenario come to pass and Armenia win, the FAI’s case for keeping Kenny at the helm for Euro 2024 would carry little weight.
I’ve used the old coaching axiom about ‘being good, not looking good’. Ireland have looked good, at times very good under Kenny.
The football is often pleasing to the eye, the team pass the ball better and carry a pacy threat in attack.
But being good, is learning how to close out games, whatever it takes, and seizing the moments in front of goal because this is the hardscrabble world of professional sport. There has to be a return.
On Saturday, there was a vulnerability evident at Hampden.
Jason Knight, an old head on young shoulders, perceptively observed that Ireland must deal with crosses better – the Scots’ two goals came via that route.
The great NFL coach Vince Lombardi once said: ‘Confidence is contagious; so is a lack of confidence.’
Which way now for Kenny’s Ireland?