International game still stirs emotions
Premier League is box office but revived interest in Irish side shows...
PURPLE, in the Catholic tradition in which Jose Mourinho was raised, is associated with penance and suffering. It is most readily identified with Lent as a result, and perhaps the newly humbled Mourinho had that in mind when he appeared bedecked in purple at his first Spurs training session last Wednesday, and at his introductory press conference the following day.
Purple features heavily in the team’s away jersey, but white with navy trim are the Tottenham colours.
In eschewing them in favour of purple, maybe Mourinho was harking back to the faith into which he was born.
‘You are what you are, for the good things and the bad things,’ he said. ‘I know in my career that I’ve made mistakes.’
Then, one remembers that purple is a colour with more than a liturgical significance: it is also the colour of royalty.
And then Mourinho favouring it this week made more sense – as did this statement at his first press briefing in charge of Spurs.
‘I was always humble,’ he announced to the media before him. ‘The problem was that you didn’t understand that. I was always humble but it was in my way.’
This is a man whose humility is even special. And it was at that moment that the watching world should really have started to savour his return to the Premier League.
Mourinho back in charge of an English club adds fascination to a competition that, for all of its venality, is among the most compelling in the sporting world.
And with its return this weekend after the interregnum imposed by an international break, the superiority of the club game looks more pronounced than ever.
It is many years since the former succeeded the latter as the most glamorous and skilful theatre of soccer, the result of the money that has sluiced through the sport since the mid-1990s.
The game’s brilliance is now concentrated, not in World Cups and European Championships, but at the top of the Premier League and La Liga, and in the knock-out rounds of the Champions League each spring.
The particular attraction of the Premier League is the number of major figures in the game lured there by the money on offer. The best player in the world might still be in Barcelona, but probably the two best managers are at Liverpool and Manchester City.
And with Mourinho’s improbable return, a man who once vied for that status is back, just under a year after he looked spent at this level.
Yet there was another story this week that showed why international soccer still has a relevance.
The atmosphere in the Aviva Stadium on Monday night was magnificent, for large parts of the game the best there has been in the Dublin 4 ground for a soccer match since its redevelopment. That includes the 1-0 win against Germany, and it rivalled the afternoons of rich rugby drama, too, from beating the All Blacks to defeats of England.
The crowd were entirely invested in the game because there was something at stake, but also because, over the last year, the connection between the team and the supporters has been restored in a way that did not seem possible in those awful last days of the Martin O’Neill era.
This is, to a large degree, thanks to the return of McCarthy who, despite the criticisms of how he prepares the team to play, is a very popular figure. That is thanks to his playing record but also to his integrity, and because it is clear the players want to do well for him.
Changes in the administration of the FAI have been important in reviving the passion of the supporters, too.
The departure of John Delaney and the upheaval that triggered has done more than change the culture of an organisation that desperately needed it.
It has improved the humour of fans, as well.
That speaks to the way in which Delaney wielded power, and is a reminder that it is never a good thing when the suits become the story. Ireland’s limitations were painfully clear against Denmark, too, but most supporters do not share the distaste that some have for how Ireland play.
An organised, motivated and high-pressing team can prove very effective, as Ireland showed for over an hour.
It would be wonderful if they could move the ball around like a Pep Guardiola team, but they plainly cannot.
But there is the Premier League and the attractions of the club game for fans who want that.
International soccer still has its charms, in the forms of Shane Duffy and friends.