Xford League on tour
D the dream supporting Boys in Green
were being sold on Saturday morning and they were selling them at 8 o’clock. I went along at about five to eight and the queue was about two miles long, six or seven thousand people queueing.
‘I went up to an Italian fella that was second in the line and I asked him how many tickets could you get per person. He said four and he only needed one for himself. I needed two.
‘The tickets were four pound each and I said if you get me two tickets I’ll give you six pound each for them, so he got me two tickets. That was an amazing tournament,’ he said.
At that stage Wallace couldn’t possibly imagine that Ireland would ever be facing the Italians in a World Cup quarter-final, but that’s exactly what came to pass in 1990 when the sides locked horns, with a place in the final four at stake.
‘It was a great night in Rome, it was an amazing night, but Schillaci undone us. Italy were probably the best team in 1990 but they threw it away against Argentina in the semi-final.
‘It wasn’t a great Argentinian team. They had been much better in previous years. Maradona was carrying them on his back that time. Losing a quarter-final to the host nation, who were favourites to win the tournament, there’s no shame in that,’ he said.
With other Irish fans returning home bedraggled, yet invigorated, by the experience, the journey wasn’t over for Wallace as he saw the tournament through to the end, and he recalls playing with fire at the West Germany versus England semi-final.
‘For the semi-finals I wanted to see England and Germany. We were nearly killed at it, we were in the English end shouting for Germany. It was dangerous those days. Anyway the Germans won on penalties.
‘The final was a disappointment, Andreas Brehme scored the winner for Germany and Argentina were short three of their best players for the final, which was a shame.’
While continuing to enjoy the feast of football on Italian soil, Wallace said he still managed to soak in the atmosphere from home as Ireland made a triumphant return to the Emerald Isle, with the adoring public lining the streets in their droves.
‘The crowds that turned out for Ireland when they came home, it was incredible. It was so emotional. I remember Jack Charlton saying “what would it be like if we won?” It was just brilliant,’ he said.
While some may have been critical of Charlton’s put ‘em under pressure, often route one approach, Wallace was, in the main, satisfied with what he saw and will always hold Italia 90 and the European Championships two years earlier close to his heart.
‘There was a big controversy over Charlton not using Brady at the time. Brady was past his best but we still thought he should have used him because he was such a nice footballer. He just didn’t fit into the grander scheme of things.
‘People were very critical of the way Jack’s team played but, in actual fact, if you look back at the games, it was very entertaining just the same. We weren’t pretty but it was entertaining.
‘It was recently the anniversary of us beating England 1-0 in Stuttgart. We played three matches in the group, England, Russia and Holland, and we only just missed out on going through,’ he said.
The famous European Championship triumph over England and the 1-1 draw with the Soviet Union, a game which Ireland deserved to win, will live long in the memory for Wallace.
‘We were unbelievable against Russia. It was probably the best performance ever by an Irish team, Whelan scored. While that was the best performance, the best result has to be beating England in Stuttgart,’ he said.
Since attending his first World Cup in 1982 and European Championship in 1984, Wallace has only missed one of those major tournaments since, but the two that still stand out are the heady days of 1988 and 1990 when the Republic of Ireland announced themselves as a real force on the international stage.
‘1988 and ‘90 were the two most enjoyable tournaments. The first European Championships I went to was ‘84 and I’ve never missed one since. I’ve only missed one World Cup.
‘I didn’t go to South Africa in 2010 because my business was collapsing at home at the time, but that’s the only tournament I’ve missed since I went to my first one in ‘82.
‘That’s a lot of tournaments, but watching Ireland in ‘88 and ‘90 are definitely the ones that stand out,’ he said.