WORLD CUP QUALIFYING/REPUBLIC OF IRELAND SQUAD:HAVING WORKED hard to achieve a settled side before the Republic of Ireland's bigger group games came around, Giovanni Trapattoni managed to go a step further yesterday by naming an almost unchanged squad for the meetings with Bulgaria (March 28th) and Italy (April 1s t).
The addition of Darren O’Dea is the only change by the Italian, who turns 70 today, to the 25 selected last month for the visit of Georgia. Steve Finnan, who subsequently withdrew from that squad, returns, as does Caleb Folan, but Trapattoni said three or four players will be trimmed from the panel over the next week or so after which they will provide back-up in the event of injuries or suspensions arising out of the opening game of the double header.
O’Dea’s elevation, the coach insisted, is not merely the result of his display in the Scottish League Cup final on Sunday when, in addition to helping to contain Rangers over the course of the afternoon, he also scored his side’s opening goal.
“I always said I hadn’t forgotten about some players,” he said, “that I would take them into consideration. I liked Darren O’Dea against Nottingham Forest (for the Irish B team). He scored a goal (on Sunday) but not only that and it is good that if we are missing one or two players, we have a player like him already with us.”
Finnan, Trapattoni conceded, might lack the match fitness required to play all of both qualifying matches but the 32-year-old has, he said, assured him he is in good shape ahead of the games despite not having been able to break back into the Espanyol team since recovering from injury.
Asked if he would consider replacing the right back or making other changes for the Italy game on the Wednesday, Trapattoni shrugged: “When you go to the table, you think about the food you will eat then. We have time to think about Italy later.”
A win at Croke Park on Saturday week would send Ireland 10 points clear of the group’s second seeds with five games played. The Bulgarians would have one more game remaining but Trapattoni acknowledged that the establishment of such a large lead would effectively reduce the Group Eight qualification battle to a two-horse race.
“Yes, I said for sure, the distance, the gap would be too big but it’s not in our interest to concentrate on that. I am interested only in our mentality, our future because to win our games, that is our task. And if it is not possible to win then it is very, very important not to lose.”
The Bulgarians, he said, would present a major challenge although, he observed, there is a hint of unpredictability about them. “They have a lot of creative players,” he said. “(Dimitar) Berbatov is important, also (Ivelin) Popov and (Stilian) Petrov. Sometimes they play well and sometimes not but they are dangerous, they are always capable of getting a result.”
Inevitably, he was asked about his birthday but laughed the matter off by insisting: “I won’t speak about that. In my mind, I am still a 20-year-old.”
FAI sponsors Eircom, however, had him in early to be presented with a cake and to launch their new website, soccerrepublic.ie. Fifa also sent somebody along to chat about his continuing hunger for success at an age when many of his contemporaries have opted for a much quieter life.
His wife, it seems, would like him to follow suit but, for the moment at least, she will have to continue sharing him with football, he says, when asked about the success of fellow veterans like Alex Ferguson and Luis Aragones.
“I think it is true to say that experience is back in fashion right now,” he laughs. “My wife is always asking me, ‘When will you finish? When will you finish?’ I just tell her, ‘In the future!’ She is always trying to pull me away from football, but not with much success.”
Paola Trapattoni could be forgiven for seeing the end of the current World Cup campaign as a reasonable time for her husband to call it a day but he is far from sure he won’t want to soldier on with Ireland or continue his travels by taking on yet another job abroad.
“Who knows? I’m a believer you leave these things to God, and I have to thank Him for the fact that I am still healthy and motivated enough to continue working,” said her husband. “Beyond the challenge of taking Ireland to South Africa, I have made no plans, so let’s see what happens.”
The team’s chances of making next summer’s finals, of course, depend on their ability to get results against his homeland but the former Italy coach insists there will be no divided loyalties in Bari or, next October, at Croke Park.
“I consider myself lucky to be facing Italy,” he says. “It’s an honour. It will be a strange situation for me because I am a proud Italian, but I am also a professional and very proud to be coach of the Irish national team, so it will be no problem. I do expect that I will be a little emotional when the national anthems are played but when we start the game I am with my players, I am with my team.”
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND SQUAD: Shay Given (Manchester City), Dean Kiely (West Brom), Kieren Westwood (Coventry), Alex Bruce (Ipswich), Damien Delaney (QPR), John O’Shea (Manchester United), Kevin Foley (Wolves), Paul McShane (Sunderland), Richard Dunne (Manchester City), Stephen Kelly (Birmingham), Steve Finnan (Espanyol), Kevin Kilbane (Hull), Darren O’Dea (Celtic), Aiden McGeady (Celtic), Damien Duff (Newcastle), Darron Gibson (Manchester United), Glenn Whelan (Stoke), Keith Andrews (Blackburn), Liam Miller (QPR), Stephen Hunt (Reading), Andy Keogh (Wolves), Caleb Folan (Hull), Kevin Doyle (Reading), Robbie Keane (Tottenham), Shane Long (Reading), Noel Hunt (Reading).
