Nerves hang by a thread in Big Apple

FROM THE ARCHIVES MONDAY, JUNE 20TH, 1994:Republic of Ireland 1 Italy 0

THE SCORELINE which for close on 70 years was no more than a distant aspiration for Irish supporters, was inscribed indelibly in the record books after Ray Houghton’s goal, just 11 minutes into the game, had defined victors and vanquished amid some incredible scenes in Giants Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday.

Italy became the latest of football’s major powers to fall to the Irish when Houghton delivered on the entreaties of an entire nation with the strike which would echo across five continents in the ensuing hours.

Back on a miserable day at Lansdowne Road last November, we watched in dismay as Packie Bonner and Paul McGrath got their calls mixed up and Spain were in for a fateful goal.

Now the roles were starkly reversed as the Italian defence dropped their concentration, momentarily and the seal of invincibility was stripped from some of the most distinguished names in football.

Gianluca Pagliuca, the Italian goalkeeper was already yards off his line in anticipation of Dennis Irwin’s towering cross carrying to him when Franco Baresi, under pressure from Tommy Coyne, attempted the ill-judged headed clearance.

He merely succeeded in knocking the ball sideways, directly into the path of Houghton just outside the penalty area and the rest, from an Irish viewpoint, was sheer perfection. Houghton, chesting the ball under control, looked up to see Pagliuca in no man’s land and with the precision of a Jack Nicklaus wedge shot, looped the ball over the goalkeeper’s head into an unprotected net.

At Stuttgart eight years ago, Houghton had played on the nerves of his people with a similar goal after just six minutes against England, to set in train one of the longest countdowns any of us had ever experienced in sport.

Now the agonising wait was marginally shorter but no less tense as Irish supporters in the crowd, perhaps, as many as 40,000 of them, willed away time and every minute seemed like an hour.

The Dutch referee, Mario Van der Ende, with scant regard for the nervous systems of those watching his every move, somehow found cause to play four minutes extra-time. But then , joyously, it was all over and Irish people everywhere were walking with an extra spring in their step.

If it would be misleading to attribute to the game a place among the technical classics of football, there was much to commend it as one of the most memorable of our times. For one thing, the setting was stunning with a capacity crowd of almost 74,000 locked into the stadium in the sweltering heat.

Surprisingly, the Irish fans appeared to outnumber their counterparts by at least two to one, perhaps the only occasion that Italians have ever been outshouted in the New York area and for 94 minutes of unbroken suspense, it was difficult to tell whether the passion on or off the pitch, was the greater.

Before the game, Jack Charlton pledged that his team was prepared to expend every last ounce of strength, in the challenge of undoing the fetters of recurring defeat by the Italians.

The plot was to prove it was no empty promise, no mere gesture to sustain against the menace of the dark. There were occasions, almost certainly, when players ran 40 yards or more in expectation of the return pass and cursed their trade when it failed to materialise. But it didn’t undermine their faith that the next one would arrive on schedule and they were off again in search of glory.

Among those who gave most in this context were Houghton and Terry Phelan. Houghton’s game is primarily about running and after the long months of doubt, he showed that his legs were still strong enough to carry him across every blade of grass on the pitch on a day when the lesser committed might have been tempted to hide.

In some respects, Phelan’s contribution was still more remarkable for, at a stage in the game when the sap had begun to run dry and the increasingly compacted nature of the game testified to the problems of keeping engines at full throttle, he was still scampering down the left flank.

And yet, they were but two of 11 heroes on the day. There were those who doubted Paul McGrath’s ability to conjure up another performance to match his reputation as a man for the big occasion but long before the finish, those reservations had been set aside and McGrath was embarked on another display to enthral.

Even in defeat, Roberto Baggio looked the special player that he is and against lesser opposition he might well have had a goal or two to prove it. But no less than Guiseppe Signori alongside him, he discovered there was no way past the twin obstacles of McGrath’s power and Phil Babb’s pace.

Babb, growing in stature with each passing minute, effected one marvellous tackle to deny Dino Baggio in the second half at a stage when the Italians were in full cry of an equaliser. Even more critical, perhaps, was Dennis Irwin’s subsequent tackle on the same player in a situation in which the timing had to be precise to the split second.

Midfield, as we expected, was to be the setting for the game’s most crucial duels and in the end, the Irish just shaded it. Roy Keane, in the anchor role, was sharp and unsparing in the tackle: Andy Townsend’s strength on the ball complemented it and if Stephen Staunton suffered more that most in the heat, his, too, was an important role.

If there was a downside to this performance, it was the booking of three players, Phelan, Coyne and Irwin. That was an ominous development which will impose still more pressure on Jack Charlton and his men in the coming weeks.

ITALY:Pagliuca, Tassotti, Costacurta, Baresi, Maldini, Donadoni, Albertini, D Baggio, Evani, (Massarp 45 mins), R Baggio.

IRELAND:Bonner, Irwin, Babb, McGrath, Phelan, Keane, Townsend, Houghton (McAteer 57 mins) Sheridan, Staunton, Coyne (Aldridge 59 mins).

Referee:M Van Der Enda (Hol)