Kevin Doyle believes move to MLS has improved his game

It's difficult to pinpoint quite when or why or how things went so wrong for Kevin Doyle in England but if the MLS does half as much for him as it has for Robbie Keane, he just might, he believes, still have a lot to contribute to Ireland's cause over the next year or two.

“I’ve plenty of caps for Ireland, lots of caps, but I’d like to add to that,” says the soon to be 32-year-old of his 61 appearances for the national team.

Just two of those came last season with the only start earned against Oman but his club career was in limbo back then and now, at Colorado Rapids he is playing, and scoring again, the significance of which Martin O’Neill readily acknowledged this week.

“I hadn’t played a lot of football in the last year and a half but I have done in the last three months, so I’m looking forward to showing what I can do if I get the chance,” says the Wexford man.

“I just want to come and enjoy it [because] I’ve really enjoyed playing recently. I feel as fit as I’ve ever done.

“Playing at altitude in Colorado and training every day in 30 degrees, it’s easy to be fit and to feel healthy and strong. Hopefully that shows to the manager here when I come and train.”

Short of confidence

The quality of the defending in the MLS can, of course, act like a tonic on a striker who short of confidence and Doyle, like Keane, looks to be thriving on all so far.

It's been a long and sometimes difficult road, though, for a player who initially made his name in the League of Ireland before shining at Reading and Wolves to such an extent that he was reported to have caught the eye of Arsene Wenger who, it seems, came very close to signing him for Arsenal.

When he was at his best, though, almost anyone would have been happy to have him around and while he wasn’t always the most prolific, there were enough goals being produced to make for a most attractive package.

Turn things around

Over time, though, they dried up and, having missed out on a move to Celtic that might have offered the opportunity to turn things around, he ended up unwanted and on the margins at Wolves where his wages, as much as anything else, seemed to be the issue.

Along the way, his confidence was bound to be affected but the early success in Colorado seems to have reversed the process and Doyle feels that while his game may have changed somewhat since he was a regular in this Ireland team, he has returned something useful still to offer.

“Like any player you change and improve and do different things,” he says.

“Different managers have different ways, but as you get older I’d like to think I’ve improved as I’ve gone along. You’ve good years and bad years, promotions and relegations, just a career of sport – highs and lows.

Moving to America

“It’s something you try and improve on every year. You work on different things and you try to get better.

“There is always more competition coming up behind you to keep you going along. But moving to America, for me personally, gives me another side of playing soccer.

“I wasn’t part of the last squad so it’s nice to be back involved again. When I was playing in the League of Ireland, if anyone would have told me I’d get 60-odd caps and 14 goals, I’d have been a very happy man. That’s more than I’d ever have expected.

“It’s a privilege really to get that many. But now that I have that, I want to add to it.”