O'Shea feels it's time for players to stand up

SOCCER:IT'S ALMOST a decade since the Republic of Ireland last travelled to Moscow and while most of those who took part in the game would probably prefer to forget what turned out to be a traumatic night, John O'Shea, who watched from the sidelines, appears to have genuine difficulty recalling it.

The Waterford man eventually settles for describing the frantic 4-2 defeat as “interesting”, which it certainly was, although not in a good way.

Last year’s defeat by the Russians in Dublin is somewhat fresher in the 30-year-old’s mind and he is clear about the need for the team that starts at the Luznikhi Stadium next Tuesday to impose themselves on the proceedings a little more effectively than they did at the Aviva Stadium last October.

“It was perhaps time the team grew up a bit,” he says of the game. “They dominated the game; came away from home and were able to do it. That was the disappointing factor that night.

“Tactically we let them dominate too and we could have done one or two little things for five or 10 minutes just to keep hold of the ball better ourselves. We have to make sure we do that this time.”

The trip to Moscow looms large on the horizon, although clearly Friday’s game against Slovakia, with whom Ireland also share top spot in the qualification group, is the team’s more immediate concern and O’Shea insists he is trying not to look beyond the first match.

He admits to being a little relieved to be involved in either having picked up a hamstring injury while away on his new club’s pre-season tour. It meant he only made his competitive debut for Sunderland last weekend and the real business of settling in will resume when the two internationals are safely out of the way.

O’Shea is upbeat both about the challenge that awaits him at the Stadium of Light and the club’s prospects of finishing sufficiently high in the table this year, despite what has been a disappointing start, to qualify for next season’s Europa League.

It is not a competition he has any experience of after more than a decade with Manchester United and it is a measure of the difference between the two clubs that Sunderland aspire to taking part in Uefa’s lesser club competition whereas his former employers would have considered being involved in it as a major sign of failure.

O’Shea is philosophical about it all but he certainly never attempts, as some would, to portray his close-season switch as the upshot of any desire on his part for a change of scenery.

“No. I always said that the manager would come and tell me what games I’d be able to get and different things. That was the case. I had a year left and Sunderland came in with a four-year deal so it was fairly straightforward.

“It (Old Trafford) was a home from home as such because I’ve been there my whole career. But if it was going to happen, it was going to happen. Life goes on.”

Finishing up at Wembley in a Champions League final would have been a nice way to go out, but he admits his eagerness to stay involved towards the end of last season ended up backfiring on that front as he returned to training from an injury too late to have any serious chance of featuring in the game.

That game, though, like United’s previous defeat by Barcelona, had a part, he reckons, in sealing his fate as Alex Ferguson decided it was time to overhaul his squad in the hope of being better able to compete with Pep Guardiola’s side in the future.

“I think the finals against Barcelona were a key to the manager thinking: ‘Right, I have to get energy and vibrancy back into the squad’. And that’s clearly what he’s done.”

He laughs without the slightest sign of bitterness as he observes: “I can see that they’ve gone downhill, they’re not creating any chances, they’re struggling . . .”

Roy Keane, of course, took Ferguson’s decision to axe him badly but O’Shea prefers to dwell on the positives.

“How could I have regrets?” he asks. “No, nothing like that, not at all.”

And asked about the highlights, he shrugs. “One or two,” he says with a smile before adding: “Just everything; the whole lot. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

Giovanni Trapattoni, as it happens, makes much of his own work to rejuvenate this Irish team but the very idea of jettisoning O’Shea is absurd to the veteran manager who readily acknowledged in the build-up to the Croatia game earlier this month that, whatever the options he has developed, the right back need only be fully fit to be assured of his place.

At Sunderland, Steve Bruce has spoken of the little bit of Manchester United attitude O’Shea brings to his squad and Trapattoni certainly appreciates the positive influence O’Shea has on those around him. The Ireland boss will need the Sunderland skipper to exert every ounce of it during the crucial games to come.