Sayonara with honour and passion

'I think we've every reason to be proud of a performance like that . . . we're going out of the tournament unbeaten in my mind' - Mick McCarthyManager's reaction: Tom Humphries sits in on Mick McCarthy's final but emotional World Cup post-match analysis

Mick McCarthy at the end of the rainbow. When you walk into your first dressingroom on your first day as a manager, you can scarcely dare to dream further than this, an honourable, passion-filled exit at a respectable stage of the World Cup. A night when your team once more wrings the best from itself, a night when it comes close to humbling a team of greater talent but lesser will.

You don't dream of anything more because will and desire are the greatest things you can give to any team and Mick McCarthy gave them to a side which would have been excused if it had lain down and quit at any time over this last extraordinary month.

So Mick McCarthy sits down and he smiles but his eyes have no part in the act. He'll talk all night to you about pride and spirit but when he closes the bedroom door, he'll kick a wall because he hates losing.

Farewell to the World Cup then. Naturally, like the rest of us, he's remembering Genoa, two days that balance each other out. "I've been in two penalty shootouts, won one and lost one. It's not a good feeling to lose one, but it's mixed with immense pride and satisfaction for the way we played and the way we conducted ourselves in this tournament."

Battered. Greyed. Wrung out and drained. And proud. "I think we've every reason to be proud of a performance like that," he says. "We're going out of the tournament unbeaten in my mind. I know on penalties we have lost but in terms of playing and during games we are unbeaten. We've played some terrific football; I think we are known for our spirit and courage, desire and courage and determination which is wonderful but we've got good players."

He said goodbye to a pair of the best of them last night and spent many minutes eulogising Niall Quinn and Steve Staunton and what they have contributed this past month in terms of healing a team sundered from it's major star, and turning that team into something more than the sum of it's individual talents.

McCarthy talks about the past month up to a point, but the game is still running through his head like a movie reel. He's totting up what might have been. "We've had the best of the game. We played Spain off the park, probably done them some damage for future games. I think we'll have taken a lot out of Spain tonight."

And you can see in his face the professionals dilemma. Romance and homecomings and the whole happy-clappy side of things are for the rest of us. For the professional it's different. It's about surviving. It's about inflicting. Ireland didn't survive but they inflicted enough on Spain to make them tired, to make them doubt, to make them feel exposed and vulnerable.

"In extra-time" says McCarthy still mulling it "I fancied our chances. We left it at 3-4-3. We were geared to play that way and we went for it. I fancied us then."

It came down to penalties. The one way of exiting a tournament which we have never tried. The team practiced penalties for a few days this week out at their military sports centre training pitch but it means naught, not when you step up in front of a shrieking stadium, now when the humid night is haunted suddenly by the giants of Genoa. The immortality accorded to O'Leary and Bonner beckoned. Who wouldn't tremble. Yet his players stepped forward and offered to take them. First Robbie Keane who would be dead by now if confidence was toxic.

"Practising penalties is garbage," said McCarthy afterwards. "You stand up and take them on the night. That's the test. I saw one of the best players of the last couple of years, Mendieta, scuff a penalty there tonight and I saw Mattie Holland who has been immense in this tournament, one of the players of the tournament for me miss a penalty. And Kevin Kilbane who's been a massive influence. Dave Connolly; I really feel sorry for the lads. You can stand and practice them a night before, two nights before but standing up on the night. I really feel for them."

Uncharitably, he is reminded that Ian Harte also missed a penalty during the course of the game. Nobody ever expects criticism of a player from Mick McCarthy, least of all Harte who has grown up under his wing and who yesterday showed signs before the penalty of rediscovering his old form.

"You stand up and you take it," said McCarthy, "what can you do. He didn't mean to miss it. No criticism or recrimination from me. Not for any player who has the guts to stand up and do that."

Another thought is floating across his mind now. Spain have gone on and he's wondering can they keep floating on, did his pros inflict enough on them. If they keep on going, if what doesn't kill them makes them stronger, well what if.

"Can Spain win this thing? I thought they were a potential winner but tonight we played very well. Maybe I shouldn't do that, maybe I shouldn't knock the Spanish. I know them and how good they are, I should say how well we played. Maybe if we'd got through this maybe we'd be a potential winner. Who knows? We were as good as Spain tonight."

Obliquely, because everyone still tiptoes around it, The Great Absence is commented upon. "I think we've shown . . ." begins Mick, "I don't think that incident or person, requires or deserves any mention at this moment. It's about 22 wonderful players who performed through the tournament. Talk to me about them and I'll be happy to discuss it. It's maybe galvanised us all. I've nothing but admiration for them all."

Any favourites? "Mattie Holland has been outstanding," he says, reluctantly choosing one from the fold but perhaps pointedly choosing a central midfielder. "An inspiraton in the middle. It was hard because of what happened prior to the competition. He's heartbroken as is Kevin Kilbane. But everybody who has played has been wonderful.We Irish, we get het up and heated; we're passionate and people can see we enjoy it. I think we've made a lot of friends."

A month back that didn't seem possible. We leave with tears and smiles and McCarthy departs with choices. He has moulded a side which could be on the brink of the good times, a side that will travel in the future more in confidence than in mere hope. He can walk away with his reputation enhanced or he can enjoy the harvest.

"People watch us and know we are enjoying our football. I'm not enjoying being out of the World Cup I can tell you."

Those are his last words and they are superflous. His face and his body tell us already how little enjoyment he gets right now from defeat.

In a day though, in a week, he will look back on this whole wild adventure and smile.