Irish get ready to attack the Czechs

"Here on the left you can see energetic husbands happily washing rugs," said the tourist guide on the sight-seeing boat trip around Helsinki harbour yesterday. Yes, Wednesday was rest day in the European Nations' Cup Qualifier, time for the Irish squad to unwind and enjoy the mini-heatwave the city has been experiencing since they arrived last week. It was also a day of mourning for Riet Kuper and Gino Schilders, the respective Dutch coaches of Ireland and the Czech Republic, who had watched Holland lose to Brazil in Tuesday night's penalty shoot-out in the World Cup semi-finals.

Sarah Hilliard, one of the two goalkeepers in the Irish squad, who watched the game in the team hotel, may have risked losing her place in the starting line-up after expressing her admiration for Ronaldo's second-half goal and insisting that she'd love it if the game went to penalties (typical goalkeeper). Kuper is known to be an open-minded, friendly character, but even she can be pushed too far.

Today Kuper and Schilders will have to pick themselves up in time for their teams' meeting in the semi-finals of the European qualifier, when the winners will guarantee themselves a place in next summer's Nations' Cup finals in Germany.

"Realistically we don't expect to beat Ireland, because I think they are the strongest team in the tournament and have come out of the toughest pool, but we will have a go and even if we lose we still have a chance of qualifying if we win the third-fourth place play-off tomorrow," said Schilders, who has been in charge of the Czech team for just three months. Schilders was a player with Dutch club Den Bosch for almost 10 years, the same club where Kuper spent most of her career, both as a player and coach. The two know each other well and share a similar hockey philosophy.

It is that very approach to the game, namely that it should be all about attacking, creative hockey, that has Irish captain Mary Logue insisting that this is the happiest spell of her international career, in which she has won over 100 caps.

"I'm loving hockey now, I'm loving the attacking approach and Riet's whole view of the way the game should be played. She's superb and we're really enjoying working with her," said the Railway Union midfielder.

"It will take us time to get it right because I think we're all still getting back our individuality as players, but we're getting there. I'm looking forward to getting at the Czechs, knowing we have the licence to attack. We can be better than we have been so far." In both their pool games, against Wales and Belarus, Ireland failed to reproduce the form they showed in the build-up games to Helsinki, but still managed to accomplish their goal of finishing top of their group.

While their pool games proved to be hard, physical battles, the team expect a more open match against the Czechs, who have impressed to date, not least with their display against France on Tuesday.

"The good thing is nobody was really happy after our two pool games, we expect more of our ourselves and came off the pitch disappointed with the way we played. We're delighted to have finished top of the group but we don't feel we've produced what we can produce," said Logue.

And if the energetic Finnish husbands can drag themselves away from their happy rug-washing sessions they should see the most entertaining game of the tournament, one, incidentally, that could be decided by penalties if the teams are level after extra time. At least Sarah Hilliard will be happy.