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Giovanni Trapattoni watches on during his side's game with Austria earlier in the week. INPHO/Morgan Treacy
Review

Opinion: History is a nightmare from which Trapattoni's Irish side are trying to awake

Will the Austria draw be remembered as Trap’s ‘Israel moment’?

IRELAND’S FOOTBALL HISTORY has been dogged by near misses, and last Tuesday night was no exception.

Giovanni Trapattoni’s side’s qualification hopes took a severe blow, as David Alaba’s last-minute equaliser at the Aviva Stadium for Austria meant qualification for the 2014 World Cup became an improbable if not impossible task.

And these lamentable draws when a win was needed have characterised not just the Trapattoni era, but Irish footballing history in general.

Still, there was something especially frustrating about Alaba’s goal, largely due to its ramifications and the unhealthy position it left the team in, as well as the depressing sense of inevitability about the outcome.

A significant majority of Score.ie readers predicted a draw in a poll published prior to the game, while Ireland have gained somewhat of a reputation as draw specialists during the Trapattoni regime, remarkably remaining unbeaten in away qualifiers, while still failing to gain any victories of note against eminent opponents.

The game was more frustrating perhaps, than even the 6-1 mauling by Germany last October. On that occasion, Ireland were at least well and truly outclassed by a superior side. The outcome left no sense of ambiguity or thoughts of what might have been.

On Tuesday however, they played an Austrian team who are well below Ireland in the FIFA world rankings and most of whose players aren’t competing at a level much higher than our own.

Playing at home, the Irish team were clearly capable of dominating the Austrians, as the last 20 minutes of the first half illustrated. Nevertheless, after establishing a 2-1 lead, the home side sadly and all too predictably reverted to type, holding on to their tenuous lead, with ostensibly little in the way of tactics, aside from sitting deep and booting the ball down the field at every available opportunity.

So barring a miraculous turnaround in the remaining qualifiers, Ireland will likely be exiting the World Cup at the qualifying stage, thereby almost certainly bringing an inglorious end to Trap’s time as manager.

Accordingly, if as expected, Trap does leave at the end of the qualifiers, the Austria match will surely be remembered as the watershed moment of the team’s increasingly ill-fated campaign.

And indeed, in the case of past Irish managers, there is invariably one game that’s recalled as constituting the moment where the side’s fortunes began to rapidly unravel.

Of the veteran Italian’s predecessors in the job, (arguably) Brian Kerr’s most regrettable experience – another 2-2 draw, this time with Israel – is surely the example from which the most parallels can be drawn with Austria.

As was the case on Tuesday, the Irish team faced a competent international side that they were nonetheless expected to overcome on home soil. In addition, they were hampered on both occasions by an injury to their most prolific striker – Robbie Keane, although Keane at least managed to play the first 27 minutes of the game in 2005.

And like Trapattoni, Kerr made some contentious substitutions that day – for Paul Green replacing Shane Long, read Graham Kavanagh being introduced for Keane or Gary Doherty coming on in place of Andy Reid. The former decision in particular suggests history repeating itself, as it could also be construed as overly defensive-minded and was made with the ultimately unsuccessful aim of protecting the Irish side’s narrow lead.

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Just as on Tuesday, Kerr conceded at the time that the outcome of the game meant Ireland were “not in the best position” in their group and that it would be considerably more difficult to qualify for the 2006 World Cup as a result. Unsurprisingly, they never really recovered from that result, before their exit from the competition was confirmed following a 0-0 draw with Switzerland.

The end of other Ireland managers’ tenures have also arguably had one moment that, while not being the final nail in the coffin for their reign, certainly hastened the individual in question’s eventual exit.

For Steve Staunton, it was the 5-2 loss against Cyprus. During Jack Charlton’s era, it was the equally humiliating 0-0 stalemate against Liechtenstein. For Mick McCarthy, read the post-2002-World-Cup-hangover-induced 4-2 defeat by Russia.

And even as far back as Eoin Hand’s time, the qualifying campaign for the 1982 World Cup featured a pivotal game against Belgium, which ended in a heartbreaking last-gasp loss in a contest that most observers felt Ireland deserved at least a draw from. Though in this instance, Hand would go on to manage the team for a number of years thereafter, the side never really regained their earlier effervescent momentum following this demoralising result.

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So is there any hope for Trap and co, in light of the aforementioned series of footballing catastrophes? One notable exception to all these dire occasions took place after the Irish side’s infamous last-minute concession of an equaliser against Macedonia, when they were literally seconds away from qualifying for Euro 2000.

This has considerable claim to be the most dispiriting moment in the history of Irish football. Yet Mick McCarthy and his men managed to recover and produce their best campaign ever under the Barnsley-born manager thereafter, as they earned a World Cup 2002 qualifying playoff spot from a group that included two of the best sides in the world at the time – Portugal and Holland.

Trapattoni and his team could therefore do worse than draw inspiration from the spirit of their early 00s compatriots – a side who continually punched above their weight despite routinely being written off in the lead up to big games.

Yet sadly, Trap’s “we are Ireland” philosophy is now the predominant mentality of the side – a far cry from the Roy Keane-driven pathological demand for success and self-belief that inspired the class of 2002.

YouTube credit: sp1873

5 thoughts from the World Cup qualifier between Ireland and Austria>

Explainer: What the Austria result means for Ireland’s qualifying chances>

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