EURO 2004 QUALIFIER: Emmet Malone talks to Gary Breen about the importance of the young striker's return to the squad.
The absence of Irish skipper Kenny Cunningham may be a major blow to the Republic's hopes of securing the win they need in Basel this weekend, but for Gary Breen it is the return of Robbie Keane to Brian Kerr's attack which may tip the balance in Ireland's favour and keep the team on course for a trip to Portugal next summer.
"I'm not sure what Kenny's plans are," said Breen after Ireland's first training session yesterday, "whether he's travelling out with us or not. But I hope so because he's still the team captain and he's got an important role to play.
"I think we've got strong options in the centre of defence, though. Kenny's obviously a huge loss, but if I had been out with injury as well then even with Richard (Dunne) missing too you still have Andy O'Brien and John O'Shea to play there.
"Up front, though, Robbie's return is a huge boost for us," he added. "I don't think that it's any coincidence that he's come back in at Spurs and suddenly they're winning again. I spoke with Lee Carsley and Kevin Kilbane after the game at the weekend and they said he was the difference. Obviously he has the talent to be the difference for us too this weekend."
Breen feels that the experience the current squad has amassed in previous campaigns will stand to the Irish now, as they look to complete what would be an impressive Group 10 comeback.
"We've certainly been there before. As youngsters in Belgium and then in Turkey and Iran. We've done it before and so I don't think we have anything to fear really going into this game.
"Obviously they beat us here and not many teams do that, so you have to respect them for it. But I think we'd be more disappointed with ourselves in that game last year than especially impressed with them. We let things slip away from us and then, in our eagerness to rectify the situation, we conceded another goal. In retrospect, of course, we should have settled for the draw."
This time, he feels, a tightly-fought game will suit an Irish team that may just possess the individual talents to nick the required win.
"Hope it's not 4-4," he laughs. "If it stays tight and goalless for a long time then it will be up to the special players to decide it. That will suit us, because the likes of David Connolly, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff are all players that can win games for you."
Keane's return, in particular, will boost the Irish he feels, with the 23-year-old's form for both club and country in recent months suggesting that he could be the one to steal the show this Saturday.
"For all the talk I still don't think people really realise just how good Robbie is," he says. "If you look at him he doesn't look all that big or strong, but he's fantastically strong. People see his ball skills but they don't realise how good he is at holding the ball up.
"I remember how good he was even at Coventry," he continues, "but he's come on so much since then. Even the short stint in Italy would have helped him, for one, to realise how great his own potential was because he must have gone there to join up with this squad of so called 'world class' players and realised that he could do anything they could.
"Damien's in a similar position and together they're a terrific pair for any team to have going forward. Going to somewhere like Switzerland needing to win the game is a tough situation to be in, but I think we've done well away from home since losing in Russia and we have players that are capable of winning any game."
