Irish squad still thinking the unthinkable

GROUP 2: Republic of Ireland v Cyprus

Wishfully, they were still thinking the unthinkable in the Irish camp yesterday. Mick McCarthy, for one, readily admits that it's "more in hope than expectation," but the prospect of Ireland beating Cyprus and Portugal somehow messing things up against Estonia has the sort of appeal that makes it a scenario terribly hard to set entirely aside - no matter how unrealistic manager and players concede that it really is.

Keeping the Irish end of the deal is uppermost in the minds of the Republic's panel, of course, and yesterday's training went without a hitch as Mark Kennedy participated fully for the first time and Gary Breen, "did what he had to do," to maintain the expectation that he will be fit and ready for tomorrow's game.

Still, the thought of a trip to the play-offs dominated the conversation with McCarthy again yesterday.

For the moment the Ireland manager is making plans to spend a good portion of the next six weeks or so in Asia, either watching prospective opponents or travelling with his own players.

"I'll tell you one thing, though," he says, "if things look to be kicking off over there I'll settle for watching the games on video because I'm no hero and if there is a danger by the time we are due to go there, I won't be putting anybody else at risk."

At this point in time, he insists, however, there no problems to worry about. "They're playing their games and hopefully everything will remain calm and we'll play ours. It would just be nice to think somebody has a contingency plan, though, because at the moment I'm here fumbling around in the dark just like everybody else."

On a minor point, the question of how players on yellow cards going into the play-offs will be treated has at least been clarified by FIFA who have confirmed in a letter to the FAI that those carrying suspensions out of the group matches will have to serve them but those on a single caution will have it expunged from the record prior to the play-offs.

On the broader picture, though, McCarthy says that the players have all talked about what might happen some weeks down the line and it has been an important part of his work this week to keep them focused on the fact that what will transpire is entirely beyond their control and that, for now, they must get on with the business of winning tomorrow's game.

And so he talks about the game although ahead of naming his side at lunchtime today there is little new to add on that other than that Steve Staunton will play.

That, of course, was never in much doubt. More interesting is whether Gary Breen, lauded as his more experienced natural central defender by McCarthy on Wednesday, will be fit enough to partner Ireland's most capped player at the heart of the back four.

Breen clearly thought so yesterday despite only having played a peripheral part in the morning's training session. The 27-year-old has been struggling with a minor hamstring problem for the past week or two, a relatively minor ailment compared with the stomach problem that eluded even a diagnosis for some time before the player had to undergo surgery in order to have a cotton mesh inserted to strengthen the muscles in his groin during the summer.

"It caused a bit of bad feeling with the club to be honest," he says, "the fact that I had the summer off resting it and then, when it came time to start pre-season training, I had to go in for the operation."

Those, though, were the days at Coventry City when Gordon Strachan was the manager and with the Scot's departure in recent weeks much has changed for Breen, who never exactly saw eye to eye with his former boss.

In the few short weeks since Roland Nilsson replaced Strachan, results have improved dramatically, Breen has been made team captain and his long running objections to signing a new deal at the club have all but been totally overcome.

"It's been brilliant," enthuses Breen. "I mean, for one thing Roland treats the players like adults.

"I want to stay at Coventry," he continues, "but it's hard to make the decision when basically you don't know who the manager is going to be.

" I can't see them not giving it to Roland and hopefully when they do we can sort everything else out very quickly. We've a great squad there and I'm convinced we can go straight back up this season."

On the international front things are looking good too. In his absence the players, he feels, have come of age and have taken another couple of significant steps towards a major championship finals. With luck, Breen will be on hand to help the team wrap up their place amongst next summer's travelling parties.

"I still think about that lad running in when we were in Macedonia and how close we came to qualifying for Euro 2000, which I really think would have been a great time for a lot of this squad to show what they can do.

"I think we've grown stronger since then, though, and it says a lot about us now that the lads could do so well against the Portuguese and Dutch this year when supposedly key players like Kenny Cunningham were missing. It's brilliant.

"We've been together for five years now and that's hugely important. Everybody in the squad knows exactly what's expected of them. We all pull together in a way that I don't think you see many other groups of players doing.

"I mean, I talk to other players at the club, the lads who play for Wales and Scotland and when they see what we've been achieving without seven or eight world class players in the side they're just in awe of it."

The most recent of those achievements was, of course, last month's dramatic win over the Dutch which Breen watched from London where he was working for Sky television.

"It was marvellous," he laughs. "I was watching it in the studio with the presenter who I'd always thought was pretty negative about us but he was there tearing his hair out and I was going mental.

"I don't know how you lot keep watching us to be honest, cos we don't half make it hard sometimes."