Young guns take fresh aim
THERE is pain in defeat but the future offers promise. The post-mortems will now begin but what is clear is that this is not a Republic of Ireland team ready to be examined on a cold mortuary slab.
The scalpels can be put away, only minor surgery needs to be carried out to repair some of the damage done in France. There is life, there is exuberance, there are young men of character who all live by a standard code of hard work and collective endeavour. But they can play a bit, too. The win over Italy proved as much and for 45 minutes here they built on that display in Lille.
That can never be taken away, performances that must remain in the consciousness to remind Irish players both now and in the future that they can go head to head with the recognised superpowers of European and world football and get the better of them.
And in the case of the Azzurri, outclass, outwit and outplay them in each and every department. A triumph that didn’t simply rely on luck or the usual hard work. At half-time yesterday Ireland were looking good again but the confidence was soon drained from their systems as mistakes were punished in clinical fashion.
Just as Sweden forced their way back into the reckoning during the opening Group E game, Ireland just weren’t able to keep France at bay as the pressure built. But a new Ireland team has emerged during this campaign and this was their final lesson. The manner of the defeat wasn’t so much a reality check, more a reminder of the requirements that must be met to triumph at this level.
Be it concentration, decisionmaking or end product, France proved to be a class above when it mattered most in the decisive moments of the game. Shane Duffy will suffer through the summer as he replays in his mind the decision to get so close to Richard Keogh and leave all that space for Antoine Griezmann to get on the end of Olivier Giroud’s knock down for France’s second goal.
Small margins that make a huge difference. The red card which followed will add to the torture ahead for the 24-year-old. But Duffy must not let it weigh too heavily.
‘If you’re going to stay in this game for a long time, you’d better get used to disappointment,’ Roy Keane said on Friday. ‘And so you deal with it. And we dealt with it well the other day. We just hope there’s no disappointment to deal with on Sunday.’
There was, but there are no regrets for the Ireland players as they fly home today. Darren Randolph, captain Séamus Coleman, Duffy, James McCarthy, Jeff Hendrick, Robbie Brady and Shane Long. These are the men now entrusted to take on the baton.
John O’Shea may decide to continue beyond his 15th year as a senior international but for Robbie Keane and Shay Given the end is nigh. Nobody escapes the natural passing of time and what is most promising is how there is no major void to be filled. The changing of the guard has already happened.
It has been the twentysomethings who have thrived at these championships and been handed the responsibility by Martin O’Neill.
As they departed the stadium yesterday evening some were already looking ahead to the World Cup qualifiers which begin away to Serbia in September. Qualification is the only acceptable outcome.
‘One hundred percent. I think we will take some positives from this. We can see that we have some quality players. You hear things about the future not being so bright, but we showed that we have got a bit about us,’ Brady said.
‘We accept nothing more than getting out of our World Cup group and representing the country on the big stage again, and letting so many thousands of Irish fans come and show what they are about.’
This was only a glimpse, there is more to come.