Kenny dream has no future after this nightmare defeat
THERE WILL be no World Cup, but after this abject humiliation, that disappointment looks a passing trifle. Whether there will be a tomorrow for the national team as dreamed up by Stephen Kenny is the question now.
How the manager recovers from this truly shocking performance and result is difficult to see.
Poor results can be defended against good opponents when there are signs the team is improving, when there is tangible proof that the sophisticated future envisaged by Kenny is attainable.
But there’s no future with results like this.
This was indefensible, and given the eager platoons of champions that have remained vigilant to any slight on their man, that says something.
To see a World Cup qualifying campaign end after two matches is sobering, but when it happens in these circumstances, it demands major questions.
Kenny hasn’t been able to summon enough answers in 10 games in charge, to the demands of international soccer. Now, he has an even bigger problem and serious questions have to be raised about his ability to solve it.
Finding a way back from this will take all of his ideas and his selfbelief.
But that all supposes that he will be given the time to do so, because a defeat this serious raises critical questions.
The difficulty for Kenny is that this project is supposed to be about the style as much as the outcome.
This was an embarrassing failure on both fronts, and this was in a game when agonising about how Ireland play seemed less relevant given the modest quality of the visitors.
This, it was supposed by all sides in the great Irish soccer culture war, would be the game in which Kenny finally enjoyed a victory in charge of his country, at the tenth time of asking.
Instead, any ambitions he had of managing Ireland beyond this one qualifying campaign look deluded.
If the failure to score against a minnow was embarrassing, this misshapen performance completely undermined the tactical reboot that is supposed to be the point of his term in charge.
After the encouragement offered by the effort in defeat against Serbia, this was not merely a step back; it was a disaster.
Stitching a number of good games together has been beyond Ireland for years, and it remains so.
A failure to reach the World Cup or even a play-off place could be justified by proof that the team are improving. But stuttering like this against Luxembourg, God help us, indicates anything but.
There was a focus on the inadequacy of the Irish attack in the absence of Aaron Connolly, but this can’t be pinned on James Collins and Callum Robinson.
If they were poor, they had plenty of company. After his strong showing in midweek, Alan Browne didn’t take enough care of possession. Again, he wasn’t an outlier in that. The stubborn argument that Ireland don’t have the players to play as Kenny wishes has been challenged by the games in Slovakia and Serbia, but even if it remains at least partly convincing, it shouldn’t have mattered here.
But Ireland were dull and frequently vulnerable.
Kenny’s pre-match quotes around the availability of Connolly, and whether this was a mustwin game, read as decidedly odd.
Some managers are not comfortable in setting games up as do-ordie, but this was so patently a match that Ireland had to win that simply agreeing with that view was the sensible thing to do.
His selection at goalkeeper betrayed the importance of the game but also this window for Kenny.
The point of qualification campaigns is in the name, and if a manager is to maximise his team’s chances, then selections like this one are required.
Given the exhaustive attention devoted to Kenny’s experience with injuries, it was bracing to see another old-fashioned tight call confront him.
Gavin Bazunu’s start justified the call, just as most of the tactical and selection choices Kenny made for the game in Belgrade were rewarded with the best performance of his time in charge so far.
From the first moments here, there was little to suggest that status was going to be challenged. Ireland were sloppy and regularly out-played and, astonishingly, as the game wore on it was Luxembourg that were looking the more consistent attacking force.
And so it came to pass.
The Luxembourgers did not dazzle with their skills or their daring movement, but they passed the ball reasonably well and, more importantly, they had more of that ball than any Irish fan could have imagined.
Ireland’s defence withstood some moments of authentic attacking danger, but wouldn’t it want to against the team ranked 98th in the world?
Midfield was uninspired, though, and the visitors were able to play through the Irish unit regularly.
Kenny got more aminated as the time went on, with Keith Andrews and Anthony Barry supplementing his urgings, too.
If Ireland shook themselves after a stodgy opening half-hour, it was improvement from a dismally low base.
Just as Irish pressure was tightening, possession was splurged again and eagerly accepted by Luxembourg, who went down the field and won their second corner of the game.
The match was now taking on a coltish nature that must have horrified Kenny: Ireland attacked but then they did, too. When another ball was lost on the edge of their area, this time by Seamus Coleman, Luxembourg moved the ball up field to within about 35 metres of Bazunu’s goal, whereupon visiting striker Gelson Rodrigues tried to chip the debutant.
This is in danger of becoming a kind of hazing ceremony for young Irish goalkeepers, but unlike Mark Travers on Wednesday night,
‘MISSHAPEN DISPLAY UNDERMINES HIS TACTICAL REBOOT’
Bazunu retreated quickly enough to slap the ball out from under his bar.
Mortification was averted, and a 0-0 half-time score was preserved.
But as the second half careered towards a conclusion whose repercussions could be enormous, the visiting team did not wilt.
As Robbie Brady, James McClean and Shane Long were all introduced, they continued to make chances.
During an extended break in play around the 75th minute, as a Luxembourg defender was treated at length for an injury, Andrews led an urgent tutorial with the now swelled ranks of Irish attackers. Kenny weighed in with his view, too, and the magnitude of what was unspooling, already obvious, was emphasised.
Still the original dynamic of the match was maintained: Ireland attacked but then the unlikely lads did, too.
There was no surrender, and if anything it was Ireland that spent more of the closing 10 minutes pinned back, until Fernandes battered his shot past Gavin Bazunu.
The ball arrowed past the keeper, and there was a sudden roar around Lansdowne Road as subs, coaches and players from Luxembourg tore up the sideline in celebration.
Outside, the well-appointed streets were restrained under the silence of lockdown. Inside the ground, there was an explosion of noise.
The detonations of what happened in the 85th minute here will not be easily stilled, though.
Stephen Kenny has many well-wishers, but this does enormous damage to his tenure.
This was a night when the win seemed straightforward, and when the improvements shown against Serbia could be nurtured.
Instead, all was chaos.
And it will be, for a long time to come.
Irish soccer’s new order is a wreck.