I have no issue with Henry, I’d do exact same
Damien Duff says he felt no sense of injustice after Ireland’s last World Cup play-off in Paris
DAMIEN DUFF has war on the brain, but it’s not ‘pain-in-the-a**e parents’ of those Shamrock Rovers Under-15s he is guiding along a path to professional football that he has in his sights. ‘I’m reading World War II National Geographic at the minute. A proper geek,’ he says. ‘It’s good, it just caught my eye.’
The perfect reading material before he takes one of his 6.30am training sessions with the Rovers Youth. ‘Yeah, just to get me in the mood,’ Duff smiles. Last month he explained that one of the toughest aspects of his new role at the League of Ireland club is managing the expectations of parents, rather than teenagers who weren’t even born when the Dubliner starred at the 2002 World Cup.
‘A few have tried getting involved – saying “my little Johnny is this or that” – but I just tell them to p*** off. It doesn’t help the kids,’ Duff said.
It’s this black-or-white view which the 100-times capped former Ireland international has taken into his role as a pundit on RTÉ, and he is not about to complicate his assessment of the upcoming World Cup play-off against Denmark.
‘It’s life or death, isn’t it? If you f*** up, you’re out, whereas over a group of 10 games there’s a chance to recover. You’ve got the away goals as well. There’s a sense around of excitement but there’s no better feeling and you’ll never feel more alive than a play-off game,’ he feels.
‘People talk about friendly games being flat and it can be like that around the hotel. Competitive games are the pinnacle and before you get to a major tournament, there’s a play-off game [for Ireland].’
Duff’s experiences of these occasions are contrasting. He was part of the side which missed out on Euro 2000 against Turkey, was absent through injury for the triumph over Iran to reach the 2002 World Cup while the travesty of Paris in 2009 – more of which anon – was only somewhat forgotten when Ireland reached the 2012 European Championships by overcoming Estonia quite comfortably.
This will be Martin O’Neill’s second play-off in as many campaigns and Duff is confident of a repeat of the performances which earned a place at Euro 2016. ‘The lads weren’t fazed at all in the Bosnia-Herzegovina game last time, they beat a good team over two legs and I expect nothing different,’ he reckons.
‘I don’t think we’re a team that takes the game on, having possession and penning sides in. We’ve a different way of doing things so maybe being away, sucking it, playing the long ball and maybe set-pieces, that suits us more. Being away in the first leg, sometimes that can bite you in the a**e. ‘I’ve had it before where it was that way and you think you’re alright going home but if you concede an early goal it soon dampens the mood around the ground.’ The Ireland squad gather in Dublin tomorrow as the build-up to Saturday’s first leg in Copenhagen reaches crescendo. Another World Cup play-off, the country’s first since Thierry Henry’s infamous handball eight years ago, will ensure old wounds are reopened. In his recently released autobiography, Shay Given revisited that faithful night at the Stade de France and revealed how the senior players defied manager Giovanni Trapattoni’s safetyfirst tactics. ‘For the second leg in Paris, Trap wanted us to remain as we had in the
first match. He wanted us rigid and deep without pressing too much. He wanted us to nab a goal from somewhere and maybe force extra-time – and then who knows what might happen?’ the Donegal native wrote in Any Given Saturday.
‘As a squad, though, we felt this was the time to roll the dice. On the day before the match, driving through the streets of Paris with The Dubliners blaring out, the message was the same. “We’re after ye France. The Boys in Green are coming after ye.”
‘I’d said my piece in the build-up to the match and I was as black and white as I could be. “Lads, I don’t care what he says, we’re going to go at these tonight,” I said. “We’re going to f***ing go for it, we’re going to press them, we’re going to hurry them, we’re going to throw everything at them. Whatever happens, if we get beat we get f***ing beat – but nobody gets back on this bus without giving it everything.”
Duff’s memory is somewhat different. ‘Shay said he got us together? Lads would do anything to sell books. F*** me, Shay giving team-talks,’ he adds dryly and with typical caustic humour.
‘Listen, we were down the back of the bus going to training the night before the match and then to the game. It was proper Paddies off the street just going “let’s give this a f***ing lash”,’ Duff continues.
‘Shay didn’t bring us into his room to give us roles and responsibilities or anything like that. It was bus talk, down the back where all the senior players sit, saying let’s have a f***ing crack off these. Then in the dressing room beforehand, we had nothing to lose. In the warm-up, nothing to lose. That’s all that was. No disrespect to… there was nothing coached, we just went for it and I think that showed in the performance.
‘Listen, you still go within the guidelines which is what it was but I guess the game, it’s a blur and I’ve never watched it back,’ Duff reveals.
‘But we took it to them and we deserved to win. The goal was the goal, I’ve no problem with that as I would have done the same. It was just we said we’d give it a f***ing lash. Sometimes it can be that simple in football.
‘Shay must have been keeping notes all along, writing everything down,’ Duff laughs, as he insists he won’t be going down the same road as his fellow international centurion.
‘Na, na, na, a book is not for me. I am who I am. The coaching thing I didn’t think I’d do it but I’m doing it. The punditry I didn’t think I’d do but certainly a book… I’m a borderline recluse and I’ve nothing to tell. We all have our secrets but I’ve nothing to air in public. I am who I am and a book isn’t me. Simple as that.’
He’ll stick with war for now.
We had nothing to lose, we took the game to France and deserved to win