Weiss confident despite setback

THEY MAY be ranked significantly higher than the qualification group’s original top seeds – Russia – by Fifa these days, but Slovakia remain intriguingly inconsistent. However, the fact that his side have never lost twice in a row has convinced manager Vladimir Weiss that a win tonight is very much on the cards against the Republic of Ireland.

Last Friday’s 3-1 away defeat to Armenia in Yerevan seems to have come as a big surprise to the locals in Zilina, especially after their remarkable win in Moscow a month ago. It probably shouldn’t have, though. The Slovaks are masters of mixing things up when it comes to their results in big games with even their highly successful if slightly anomalous World Cup campaign in South Africa providing ample evidence of their unpredictability.

Drawn in a group with the representatives of Oceania (minus Australia), middle-ranking South Americans and the defending champions, they contrived to draw with New Zealand, lose to Paraguay and beat Italy.

Even within games you can take little for granted for they squandered endless chances to put the All Whites away before sloppily conceding a late equaliser only to produce a late surge against Italy, scoring twice in the last 17 minutes as Marcello Lippi’s men desperately tried to rally so as to avoid going home in disgrace.

In truth, the only game they played that went more or less to form was the round of 16 encounter with the Dutch, a game in which they battled valiantly and played some decent football but could ultimately manage no more than to keep the margin tight against the eventual runners-up.

Weiss, the team’s coach and father of one of the more talented players, the Rangers right-sided midfielder of the same name, had some attractive options after the World Cup but chose to stay on in the hope of building on what he had achieved in his first two years at the helm.

At first glance, the 1-0 victory in Moscow suggested his side were setting themselves on a firm course for a second major championship, but in reality the Slovaks were outplayed by the Russians to much the same extent the Irish were at the weekend; the key difference being they took one of the rare chances that came their way – a deflected shot by former Chelsea player Miroslav Stoch from distance that followed some ponderous passing out of defence by their hosts – while the Russians were not as ruthless as they proved in Dublin.

This evening, though, Weiss senior looks set to start with as few as five of the team that began in the win over Italy and he may sorely miss three players who would have been included had they been available – Robert Vittek, who scored four goals in South Africa, Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel, and Zdeno Strba, a hugely-experienced central midfielder who, it was suggested yesterday, has retired from international football since Friday’s loss.

The team still contains some talented players with Stoch quickly developing into a menacing threat on the left flank, Napoli’s Marek Hamsik generally directing things well from the centre and Jan Durica of Lokomotiv Moscow providing strength and expertise at the heart of the defence.

They should be a better side than the one the Republic of Ireland took four points from two campaigns back when they came from behind to draw against Steve Staunton’s men in Bratislava but lost to Germany, the Czech Republic and Wales (2-5) at home.

On the way to the World Cup, they looked less slipshod but they did drop points at home and lost both games against Slovenia while essentially securing qualification as group winners by beating Northern Ireland, Poland and the Czechs on the road.

Taking that sort of form as a guide, there might be cause for Giovanni Trapattoni to be more concerned about the side’s next meeting, in Dublin next September.

More immediately, however, all the evidence points to a situation where just about anything could happen tonight.