WORLD CUP 2010 PLAY-OFFS: Emmet Malonetalks to Kevin Doyle who feels the French are in the play-offs because they haven't been playing well
ON EVERY wall of the Wexford Youths clubhouse, it seems, there is at least one picture of teenager Kevin Doyle alongside a newspaper article about some cup final in which he played a few years back. Both have come a fair distance since parting company seven years ago but on Monday the now Republic of Ireland striker returned, Premier League team in tow, for a game aimed at raising much-needed funds for the continued development of Ferrycarrig Park.
Doyle was quite the local hero even before helping to get Wolves over for a game which attracted nearly 3,000 supporters, most of whom had braved a wet and blustery night with the goal of seeing one man: him. Now, he has the chance to take that status national, for the 26-year-old will be a key figure in Ireland’s play-off games against France and a goal or two over the course of the two legs will have Irish fans everywhere celebrating his name the way they did back home this week.
The striker is characteristically circumspect about how much he might be able to contribute to the Irish cause in Dublin and Paris over the next couple of weeks, but his confidence in the team’s chances of progressing to next summer’s finals is clear, so much so that somebody asks him if it is just a front, a bit of bluster for the consumption of Les Bleus.
“No, no! I am confident, all the players are,” he insists. “It is just about two games now, not a whole qualifying campaign. It’s been a long campaign and we have gone unbeaten. If we go unbeaten in the next two games then we’ll know in three weeks whether we’re going to the World Cup.
“We’ve been talking about it for a long time so I’m just looking forward to finding out.
“In a way, it being France will take the pressure off a little bit, because people will think: ‘It’s France’ and they’re meant to be former world champions and have world-class players. So, if we do well, we do well. But they are in the play-offs for a reason. They haven’t been playing that well and I fancy our chances against them.
“I think if we had got a so-called lesser team like Greece, more pressure would have been on us. People would have expected us to win the games. But we usually do better as a slight underdog.”
Trapattoni, he says, will help too by building up the squad and playing down the occasion.
“His saying is ‘football is football’,” says Doyle. “It’s just another team and a lot of it is in our head, to do with our mentality. He uses that word a lot – and he’s right. You look in the Premiership this year and everyone is beating everyone. We (the Irish team) can go anywhere and beat anyone and I think we’re starting to believe that.”
Individually, though, the Irishman readily acknowledges that the French will present quite a few challenges. He has watched the team’s striking talent with admiration from afar while mixing it with a few of their defenders on the pitches of the Premier League. He singles out Karim Benzema as a particular threat while suggesting virtually any combination of the available defenders will have the capacity to make life tough for himself and Robbie Keane.
“It’ll be very difficult alright; they’re strong, fast, quick, everything that most defenders are in the Premiership. I have played against them before so hopefully that helps. But it’s not going to be easy. It is do-able, though, I think.”
Perhaps a little dangerously, then, he agrees when it is put to him that keeping things scoreless in Dublin would be a good outcome from an Irish point of view. “Yeah,” he exclaims, “get a draw at home and I think everyone would be very, very happy. I don’t mind whether we are home or away. Everyone prefers to be away first but I don’t think so. If you keep a clean sheet it’s a massive bonus going away from home. That would make it very difficult for them.”
The last time the sides met, it was supposed to be difficult for the French because they had to come to Dublin and win if they were to take top spot in the group and avoid the play-offs, but that is exactly what they did with Thierry Henry scoring the decisive goal.
Doyle was with the Irish Under-21s and though the games generally are a bit of a blur, he remembers that goal: “It was very good observes, and it’s people like that who can make a difference. But we’ve just to try to keep him quiet and nick a goal of our own.”
Strip it right down to its bare bones and that’s probably close to the game plan Trapattoni will hand to his players prior to kick-off on Saturday week. In the stands, the supporters will be hopeful they can pull it off while on the pitch Doyle will be confident.
Back in Wexford, meanwhile, it’s a safe bet they’ll be proud of him, one way or the other.
