Andorrans warm and stoic ahead of test

SOCCER:THE AGREED technical term for Andorra's national football team is "minnows". It did not matter that the footballers who filed out of a Bus Éireann coach and stood in the tunnel looking out at the splendour of the new Lansdowne Road stadium were in any way small.

Physically, they look like any other international football team. But you cannot read a word about them without discovering that they are one of the “minnows” of international football. After last Friday’s rather encouraging 2-0 home loss to Russia, they have the honour of starring in the first competitive football fixture in the new stadium.

They came brandishing no talk of storming victories but instead filed into the bright, wood-panelled press conference room and gave a warm and stoic appraisal of their chances. The press conference room has 200 seats, six of which were occupied. The seats are staggered, as in a film theatre. And the gathering felt a bit like a Monday Night Movie club that was showing a particularly obscure director from the old East.

Kaldo Alvarez, Andorra’s coach, may have the toughest job in international football. His challenges are of a different nature to those say, of Fabio Capello or, indeed, Giovanni Trapattoni. When asked whether he was worried about the famed Irish capacity for putting teams under pressure, Kaldo smiled and said:

“We have plenty of things to be worried about.”

His captain, Ilde Lima, chuckled beside him and the team doctor, who was acting as translator for the evening, also gave a quiet laugh. And you couldn’t but immediately warm to the Andorrans.

Asked whether his team had any injuries, Kaldo shook his head gravely and then asked hopefully. “And Ireland? Shay Given, maybe? Robbie Keane?”

Andorra know what to expect. Against Russia, they caved into the pressure eventually in front of 250 loyal fans. Tonight, they will be expected to play like, well, minnows, in front of the Irish fans revelling in the glamour of the new stadium. Nine years ago, Andorra came here and had the audacity to take the lead from a set-piece before order was restored with a 3-1 home win. That goal came courtesy of Lima, Andorra’s all-time leading scorer with seven strikes.

“We don’t have a chance to create so many chances so we have to rely on people like me from set-pieces,” he said modestly. “It was 10 years ago but we will try to put in the same performance and get a good result.”

He has clear memories of the ramshackle, original Lansdowne Stadium. Asked what he thought of this new pearl of Irish sport, the Andorran man shrugged and said that, on the whole, he preferred the one we demolished.

“It is a very different place than it is now. The history and the charm was that it was the oldest stadium . . . and now it is completely different.”

But what about the plush carpets, the state-of-the-art changing rooms, the warm-up chambers, the perfect swathe of green, the art deco covering, the palindrome name? What about all the money we spent?

“I liked the old one,” he said agreeably.

The first 15 minutes of the Andorran training session were “open” but the visitors were slow to appear on the field. They probably feared drowning. The rain was heavy and never-ending.

Kaldo wasn’t bothered by the weather, though. “It is the same for both teams,” he said.

The coach apologised that he could not announce his team as he had yet to break the news to his players, but it is thought likely that he will go with the men who kept the Russians to within two.

Fernando da Silva, nominally a striker for Andorra, is expected to play at fullback; when Andorra are playing stronger teams, his heading prowess is better employed in the last line rather than anywhere else.

All the Andorrans promise is they will do their best.

Towards the end of the evening, Kaldo raised his eyebrows when asked about how many points he would like from this group.

“All of them,” he said. “We hope to win all of them. But we must realise the stage we are at.”