SOCCER:FOR A man fast approaching the business end of a qualification campaign, having endured a fair amount of upheaval within his squad over the last few months, Giovanni Trapattoni's looking quite a serene figure these days.
Maybe he’s grateful he’s not staring down the barrel of a stressful league season like some in his union or, perhaps, like so many have this week, he merely accepts there are more important things in this world than football.
As recently as May, though, the press assembled – in spite of a 5-0 win over Northern Ireland – fully expecting a rant from the Italian after a number of his squad showed less than the requisite desire demanded of them and, for one reason or another, never showed up.
That was a low point, but the simmering rage appears to have passed, with authority restored after solid performances in the Carling Nations Cup, a Euro 2012 qualifying win over Macedonia and a memorable 2-0 triumph against his very own Italy in Liege.
And so it continued last night. In fact, it was the fifth straight game in which the Irish goal wasn’t breached. For a veteran whose first message is the importance of a parsimonious defence, that’s reason enough to smile with the visit of Slovakia and a trip to Russia on the horizon.
It’s a sure sign his message is getting through.
“I am happy for this, because this evening when we prepared I said remember the little details because when I was here first two or three situations change the result,” he said last night.
“I showed when we made these mistakes, like when we played Italy and made a needless foul, it changed a positive result for us. We have improved very, very much.”
The Italian was also grateful to have the central defensive pairing of Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger back together
“These two, they complete each other, they work very well together. And they can sense the ball.”
He’s been showing DVDs to the squad, not just the bloopers but the best bits as well. And is drilling his side with belief before two massive games.
“It is not enough to speak with them, you have to show them, when they see they have a visual picture as well.
“With our quality now, remember what we did last time, against Scotland, Macedonia and Italy the same.
“Our strength, our performance and our belief is what we have.”
He knows Kevin Doyle might not have recovered from his knee injury in time for next month’s games, but he’s looking at the positives for now, like Stephen Ward and Shane Long.
Ward, who also played in midfield after Glenn Whelan came off, has proved he can play ahead of Kevin Kilbane next month if needed. “I think yes, he showed good personality against a very dangerous opponent. He proved we can have trust in him.
“We followed him last season when at his club he played at midfield. I already had an idea about this and when Whelan had an injury he could also play in this position without changing our play too much.”
If Doyle, isn’t there next month he’ll be happy to see the return of others. “I hope we get one or two back, like (John) O’Shea and, though (Darron) Gibson played well, we have also (Keith) Fahey and McGeady too. I have respect for this team, not fear, respect.”
Croatian coach Slaven Bilic was not sounding quite so optimistic for Ireland’s hopes. “I wish you luck but really and truly it is going to be hard,” he said. “Slovakia at home, I would prefer to play Russia at home and Slovakia away. They (Slovakia) can defend deep and can counter-break which they showed in the World Cup.
“But definitely here, you have a chance against any team.”
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