Anaemic Irish performance shows need for surgery

It's shaping up to be a troubled summer for Mick McCarthy and his squad after an anaemic performance at Lansdowne Road on Saturday failed to deliver a first win in four meetings with Mexico.

As if to pre-empt the disappointment of the 29,000 supporters who made their way to the stadium for the last big game of the Irish season, McCarthy had warned that many of those engaged in the task of drawing the sting from the prickly Mexicans would not be back for the opening European Championship assignment against Croatia in September.

To that extent, he will not have been overly disappointed in failing to achieve a first home success in 12 months. However, the unspoken message was that the fringe players would somehow grow to new maturity on the day and produce a performance to foster hope for the bigger challenges ahead.

Disturbingly, this was not forthcoming and apart from confirming Robbie Keane as a probable member of the starting line-up for the European Championship, there was little encouragement for the manager.

It's true that the Mexicans, just weeks away from the start of their programme in the World Cup finals in France, held most of the advantages in motivation and, almost certainly, fitness. And yet, as their 5-2 defeat in Norway in midweek showed, they are scarcely good enough to imbue fear into the better European teams.

The Norwegian experience appeared to have the effect of pitching the visitors' ambition at avoiding another defeat, yet, for all their conservatism, they might well have won the game in the last half hour. Shay Given came to Ireland's rescue, however, by pulling off the save of the game in the 62nd minute and when Francisco Palencia, an experienced substitute, missed a couple of chances subsequently, all the Mexicans had to show for their day's labour were a couple of bruised shins and a sense of injustice that John Ashman, the Welsh referee, hadn't been tough enough on some of the Irish players.

That overlooked the fact that the Mexicans themselves were guilty of blatant gamesmanship on occasions, with Luis Hernandez's antics deservedly getting the "bird" from the crowd before, to ironic cheers, he was replaced shortly before the end.

To burden the wayward visitors with all the blame for a game which was no improvement on their only other appearance in Dublin 14 years ago, is to overlook the deficiencies in an Irish team which never developed momentum at any stage of the game.

They started promisingly enough and with greater thrift would have led at the interval. Later, however, legs began to drag and again one was left with the impression that the season had gone on a couple of weeks too long for them.

It was then that we were grateful for the exuberance of Keane, a precocious 17-year-old who has grown into something of a cult figure in the space of a couple of months. These days central defenders are not accustomed to players running at them and the merit of Keane's game resides in the fact that he does just that.

Several times he went at the heart of the visiting defence without ever being able to apply the final touch. Still, when they counted the votes for the man-of-the-match award, he had a big enough surplus to have won two such accolades.

Sadly, however, the goal which would have decorated it all was denied him with just seven minutes to go. In the Giants Stadium in New York two years ago, Duilo Davino was guilty of the own goal which gave the Irish a 2-2 draw, on Saturday his crass error offered Keane the glittering prospect of a clear run on Jorge Campos's goal.

With all the experience of a man winning his 101st cap, Campos bounded off his line to narrow the angle, but Keane, holding his nerve, appeared to have done everything right until, on the last few rolls of the ball, the trajectory took it just outside the far post.

Damien Duff, the other potential match-winner for the home team, started well with some delicate skills twice taking him through Pavel Pardo's tackles. One always had the suspicion, however, that he wasn't fully recovered from a recent injury and it was scarcely a surprise when he was replaced by Mark Kennedy in the second half.

David Connolly, too, made way for Rory Delap with 17 minutes to go, a measure of his eclipse after the interval. Earlier, however, his impish runs had carried a lot of threat and in the 20th minute he was out of luck when his glancing header from Ian Harte's cross only narrowly missed the target.

Lee Carsley, who together with Gareth Farrelly was responsible for giving Ireland midfield control in the first half, was guilty of a fresh air kick when Gary Breen headed on Gary Kelly's long throw and thereafter the home team's scoring chances dwindled. At the back, Breen's partnership with Phil Babb again lacked guile as well as physical presence. On occasions their naivety was alarming, not least when Hernandez was allowed to get in behind them before scooping the ball over in the 41st minute.

Later there was another chilling illustration of the decline in standards when the route down the centre was shown to be wide open after Hernandez had flicked the ball through to Ricardo Pelaez. But Pelaez, who had replaced Ramn Ramirez just two two minutes earlier, wasn't sharp enough at that stage to steer the ball past the advancing Given.

On this form McCarthy will be entrusting greater responsibility than ever to Kenny Cunningham for the start of his European Championship programme. And there was nothing in the game to suggest that he can afford to dispense with the experience of Denis Irwin and Steve Staunton at full back.

Thankfully Manuel Lapuento, the Mexican coach, wasn't prepared to gamble on the fitness of Luis Garcia and with the man who has wrought so much damage to Irish defences in the past safely removed to the dugout, the visitors' attacking threat didn't amount to much.

Alberto Garia Aspe, seldom prepared to do more than was absolutely necessary, flitted in and out of the game in the centre of Mexico's midfield formation, but with just six minutes to go he supplied the cross from which Palencia might reasonably have been expected to poach a winner.

Fortunately Palencia's timing was marginally astray and that was a mercy on a day when there was little enough to be thankful for in a largely bankrupt Irish performance.

Republic Of Ireland: S Given (Newcastle Utd): C Fleming (Middlesbrough), G Breen (Coventry), P Babb (Liverpool), I Harte (Leeds Utd): G Kelly (Leeds Utd), L Carsley (Derby Co), G Farrelly (Everton), D Duff (Blackburn), R Keane (Wolves), D Connolly (Feyenoord). Substitutes: M Kennedy (Wimbledon) for Duff, R Delap (Derby Co) for Connolly (both 73 mins).

Mexico: J Compos: P Pardo, J Sanchez, D Davino, U Brulio: J Ordiales, C Suarez, A Aspe, R Ramirez: L Hernandez, C Blanco. Substitutes: F Palencia for Ordiales (45 mins); R Pelaez for Ramirez (60 mins); P Chavez for Hernandez (83 mins).

Referee: J Ashman (Wales).

The National League and Derry City have resolved their dispute over the issue of payments of fees for out of contract players moving across the border.