IT MAY have been an anticlimax in the final chapter but the Republic of Ireland’s qualification for next summer’s European Championship soccer finals deserves to be recognised as a significant sporting achievement. Irish supporters have waited 24 years to see the team take their place at the elite level of European football and the sense of joy and pride at the Aviva Stadium on Tuesday night emphasised what a fillip success on this scale can provide to the country. For the players, many of whom play for some of the less glamorous sides in English football, it will be the fulfilment of a dream to compete at a major championship. The honesty and commitment they showed throughout the qualifying campaign underlined how far an average team in any sport can progress with the right mental attitude allied to astute management.
The role of manager Giovanni Trapattoni since he took over in 2008 has been central to the team’s progress through to next year’s finals. A surprising appointment at the time, the 72-year-old Italian came to the job with a rich pedigree and a reputation for instilling a conservative style of play in the teams he had managed. There was little or no deviation from those strongly held beliefs in the whole qualifying campaign and the team’s performances regularly drew as much criticism as praise.
Although ultimately vindicated by qualification, many supporters would now welcome a more ambitious tactical approach at Euro 2012.
Whether that comes to pass or not, qualification for one of football’s great international tournaments is certain to generate a sense of optimism and excitement that goes beyond the sporting fraternity. That feel-good factor could yield a welcome boost to the economy next year and will lift the national mood for the two or three weeks that the team is competing in the finals.
Good fortune favoured Ireland in the qualifying campaign and the team they drew in the play-offs. If that luck can hold in the draw for the finals on December 2nd, the thousands of Irish supporters who will travel to Euro 2012 will find themselves in Poland rather then Ukraine next summer.
Aside from the better infrastructure in Poland, the ties that have been built between both countries in recent years through the influx of Polish immigrants will certainly add considerably to an event that will light up the Irish sporting landscape next summer.