SOCCER WORLD CUP QUALIFYING GROUP EIGHT:WELL, IT'S good to be a lucky general. Giovanni Trapattoni with one bound freed himself from a very tricky position in the mire and retained the credibility of Ireland's challenge for a World Cup place in South Africa next year.
Having conceded a rather shocking early goal Ireland had been doing a lot of storming of the Georgian gates without any sign of penetration when a refereeing decision fell their way like a clump of manna dropping from Heaven. Robbie Keane was flagged for offside but with the referee failing to see the linesman’s flag play went on and the ball was hoofed against the shoulder of a hapless Georgian defender.
Without being prompted by an Irish voice Jouni Hyytia of Finland ordered a penalty. The Georgians went apoplectic.
Their manager, Héctor Cúper, was first into the press conference room to offer his thoughts.
“I didn’t see anything in the situation of the penalty but the linesman had already raised the flag but the play didn’t stop, unfortunately,” said the Georgian manager relatively diplomatically of the incident which effectively ended his side’s chances of a coup.
“We played very good game – I am satisfied with the performance of my team.
“We played very good first half; in the second half, unfortunately, we couldn’t maintain the rhythm.
“I don’t know if we lost the three points because of the penalty but we lost one point. Nobody understood the reason or what happened.
“Everybody is very angry about it. After the penalty I noticed a little nervousness in our players. Such a decision always influences the morale.”
Giovanni, all smiles and toting his largely redundant translator with him, was next into the pit.
He takes his time, does Trapattoni, serenely oblivious to the howling needs of deadlines.
He is beyond caring whether we like him or not and even if he did care, he knows that success will buy our love.
Anyway, he has taken the night’s turbulence in his stride.
That penalty first. Turning point? Would he like to say thank you to Finnish referee?
“I am in football 40 years. Do you know how many penalties like this I have seen? I said probably we are in a lucky situation. Every Saturday and Sunday in every country there are many situations like this.
“In 90 minutes we deserved to win. In the first half it wasn’t easy to find space. I saw the friendly with Romania and it was the same, 1-0, and all the team hid the ball with our mistake and our play in the first half we deserved to lose but in the whole match we gave a great reaction and in the end we deserved to win.”
The Irish recovery had pivoted around the excellence of Aiden McGeady, who increasingly looks like becoming the player which the hype has insisted he would be since he was in his early teens.
But the goals were Robbie Keane’s. If any player is unlikely to have been much affected by the business of changing club yet again for a large sum of money it is the peripatetic Tallaght man for whom major transfers have been a way of life since his turned pro.
Trapattoni was effusive in his praise for the front unit as whole: “Robbie is very important but we have Doyle up front too and Duff and McGeady. With those four we have one of the best offensive teams. We work hard. Work, work, work.
“We had a good balance to us tonight. I have seen a lot of this Georgian team and they are a good team. They are strong. They are a great team. This was a good win for Ireland.”
He was asked what now of Ireland’s chances, given the rather anaemic showing of the Italians on Tuesday night against Brazil. He knows better than to submit any hostages to fortune on nights like this. The Italian display against Brazil had no more relevance, he said, than the Ireland display against Poland in our last friendly.
“What is important is the table. We have to stay high in the table. We play Bulgaria next and then we must play Italy. For now we think only of Bulgaria.”
The group continues to unfold, each episode falling just right for the Irish. The evidence of last night was this is not a great Ireland side but we have had great sides before and they have been bereft of luck.
A slice of good fortune and a quirky Finnish referee might be enough to help us shoo away the bad times next summer.
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