ATHLETES HAVE moments that define their careers. They look to the goal or the race and they see the years of sacrifice being justified by a fleeting rush of success or exhilaration.
Irish hockey was poised to embrace that feeling all week as the men’s team played their way to the cusp of automatic entry into London 2012. All they needed to do was beat Korea.
A crowd of more than 2,000 people sitting and standing around the pitch at Belfield, some peering in from the road that runs alongside, were yesterday geared up for Olympic fever.
President Michael D Higgins was also there for Ireland’s final game of the Olympic qualifying tournament, and he must also have felt the frisson of expectation and belief in the team, which had gone unbeaten all week.
An Irish side had never before qualified for the Olympics, and since the qualifying competition began last week the men’s hockey team had raised its head above the modest confines of the sport and dared to reach for the stars.
In the end, Ireland were cruelly denied by an optimistic slap of the ball into the goal area seconds from the end of the match. Yong Nam Lee crushed Ireland’s hopes with a winning goal for 3-2. The future now for this team is not to allow that moment to define them.
“They are such a strong group of men, they really are,” said Irish defender John Jackson. “We’re staying together. People might have different circumstances, but there is belief in this squad.We’re all staying together and we’re all going to get there together.”
It was fighting talk, but the national team may never come as close again to making the Olympics – by a distance the most important tournament to the players. The other question is how many will be prepared to wager another sizeable chunk of their lives for the prize of Rio 2016, put careers on hold or play professionally in Europe, a career that delivers a lifestyle more than riches.
Even by sports standards it was a heartbreaking finish, a mere eight seconds remaining when Lee glanced the ball past Irish goalkeeper David Harte.
Just a fraction of a second for the goal to silence a willing bank holiday weekend crowd and negate more than four years of sacrifice.
