SOCCER INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY Rep of Ireland 1 Colombia 0FOUR YEARS after their games at the Valley attracted small crowds and minimal excitement for those fans who did turn up, London's Irish turned out for something of a party last night at Craven Cottage where a much-deflected Robbie Keane shot just three minutes in proved enough to leave them still celebrating at the end.
Keane will claim the goal, but if the game mattered more then the officials who decide these things would hardly give it to him. To the two-thirds or so of the 18,612 who were cheering for the Irish on a wet and cold night it made little difference. They'd seen the Republic's first victory under Giovanni Trapattoni and both the coach and his skipper were celebrated in song over the closing stages.
The Italian has said the Colombians would present a different sort of challenge to the rather more sedate Serbs, and so it proved. In stark contrast to the slow and subdued contest endured by the 50,000 or so who turned up at Croke Park on Saturday, the approach of the South Americans lent itself to a fairly frantic affair.
With Damien Duff sidelined by a bout of sinusitis, the Irish made three changes to the side that had featured in the drawn match. John O'Shea and Aiden McGeady started as planned and Andy Keogh benefited from the Newcastle winger's illness.
As it turned out it was a good opportunity for the young wide men to show what they could do, for Colombia played with a midfield diamond, leaving space out on both flanks. Both sought to seize the chance, with the pair, who switched sides on a couple of occasions, looking to run at the full backs from early on.
McGeady did fractionally the better of the two, but both were involved in setting up Irish chances and would have really made a major impression had it not been for the ability of their Colombian opponents to physically edge their respective battles.
Still, McGeady had a hand in the approach play that led to the Irish goal. The defence might have cleared the ball more effectively after it had been worked into their area for the first time, but as they tried to play their way out of trouble, Liam Miller won possession back and quickly fed Keane whose shot was blocked by Cristian Zapata, only to ricochet off Elvis Gonzalez and in.
That was just three minutes in but, with the exception of the decisive deflection, it was fairly typical of what followed, with both sides creating a succession of chances and both defences getting though by the seat of their pants at times.
On the Irish side, a great deal of credit for keeping the Colombians at bay was owed to Dean Kiely, who underlined here just what an asset he can be to the new manager in the event that Shay Given's injury problems persist over the coming year and a half.
For the most part the West Brom goalkeeper had only to keep his wits about him, for the Colombians finishing fell well short of what it should have. But in the dying seconds of the first half he did quite brilliantly to save Falcao Garcia's long-range strike at full stretch, then get back to his feet to block Edixon Perea's close-range follow up.
In front of him things didn't always look entirely under control, for Miller and Glenn Whelan were getting a little swamped in central midfield and, as the Colombians played through them, Richard Dunne and Paul McShane found themselves having to make some pretty tough choices.
They didn't always get things entirely right, but both certainly had their moments, with the Manchester City defender getting in an important block after Miller had initially blocked Garcia's header on the line and the younger centre-half producing a quite wonderful tackle on Perea as the striker looked set to bear down on the Irish goalkeeper.
Further evidence that productive work is being done on the Irish training ground came in the form of a couple of well worked frees, but the best of them, a curling ball over the wall and into the path of an unmarked Damien Delaney, unravelled when the full-back's first touch let him down.
Delaney did well overall, though, and will head off for the summer break with some cause for optimism that he has played himself into contention for a place in Trapattoni's plans.
There were a handful of other individual performances that will have pleased the Italian in one way or another, but perhaps most pleasing of all was that for the chances they conceded there were no goals for the Colombians who found the Irish back four increasingly difficult to penetrate.
By the time Georgia and Montenegro come around in September, there are quite a few aspects of this performance that really wouldn't be deemed good enough, but there will be some important players back by then and a good deal more work done.
Having seen his side come from behind on Saturday, Trapattoni was understandably upbeat after witnessing their first victory.
"It could have been 1-1, but our defenders played well, and Dean Kiely made many good saves. A player like Damian Delaney improved 80 per cent, and we saw that in midfield our defensive players Glenn Whelan and Liam Miller - they are not big but they work very very hard.
"The win is important," he added, "because in the dressingroom now the players are happy, and they go away for the summer confident. It is important."
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND:Kiely (West Brom); O'Shea (Manchester United), Dunne (Manchester City), McShane (Sunderland), Delaney (QPR); Keogh (Wolves) (Houlihan (Blackpool) 90 mins), Miller (Sunderland), Whelan (Stoke City), McGeady (Celtic); Doyle (Reading) (Murphy (Sunderland) 86 mins), Keane (Tottenham). Subs not used: Joe Murphy, Kelly, McPhail, Long, Scannell, Foley, O'Dea, Westwood, Bruce, Garvan.
COLOMBIA:R Zapata; Bustos (Vallejo, half-time), C Zapata, L Perea (Moreno, 66 mins), Gonzalez (Armero, 70 mins); Guarin; Sanchez, Torres (Hernandez, 73 mins), Escobar (Vallejo, 65 mins); Garcia (Polo, 65 mins), E Perea. Subs not used: Julio, Motta, Amaya, Valencia.
Referee:M Clattenburg (England)
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