Good and bad news rolled together. Evan Ferguson is fit to start against the Netherlands in Amsterdam but Chiedozie Ogbene has an ankle injury and will miss the last match of a miserable European Championships qualification campaign for the Republic of Ireland.
Ronald Koeman’s Oranje are primed to cut loose with Xavi Simons and Cody Gakpo sitting behind the giant Wout Weghorst. Win and they go to the Euros in Germany next summer with a game to spare against Gibraltar on Tuesday. Three points for the Dutch will send Gus Poyet’s Greece into the March play-offs.
It’s already official, Ireland made up the numbers in two qualification campaigns under the management of Stephen Kenny but there have been vague signs that Irish football can eventually turn the corner.
Like the 2-1 loss in Dublin last September, a result engineered by Koeman’s ability to change tactics on the sideline to combat Ireland’s super high press. One of many nights forever drenched in regrets, Adam Idah rolled two opportunities for Ogbene to score a second Irish goal before half-time. Both shots were blocked by Nathan Aké, who is also out injured.
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“We hope they will play man-on-man, that would be good for us,” said Koeman. “Maybe because of the start last time they will try the same thing again. We will see.
“We expected Ireland to start differently. I was surprised. We lost a lot of ball in attack and that gave them confidence.”
The old Barcelona stopper embraced the challenge. He also sounded unmoved by the rise of Ferguson in the Premier League as his squad has a wealth of teenagers, like 17 year old Ajax defender Jorrel Hato, and anyway, 21-year-old goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen trains with him every day at Brighton. Also, Virgil van Dijk will be on the pitch.
“[Ferguson] is a good striker. We have good information about him from Verbruggen. He is young and can score a lot of goals. We have to defend him well.”
It is hard to take positives from the year Ireland have experienced. But they do exist. Andy Moran, if capped, will become the 27th player Kenny has given a competitive debut to since September 2020.
The new caps won six competitive games, with seven draws and 15 defeats as Ireland plummeted from 34th to 58th in the Fifa rankings, which creates the possibility of being fourth seeds come the World Cup qualification campaign in 2025, when only 16 European nations go to North America. That might seem far, far away but the 12 groups of four or five teams makes it imperative for them to stay in the top 36 of European countries. They are currently 28th.
Point being, the current run of defeats – five losses from seven in Group B – needs to end. Ideally, at a stadium named after the greatest superstar-turned-manager the game has ever known. Giant Johan Cruyff images, charting his entire life, adorn the concrete walls of this 55,885 capacity venue on the outskirts of Amsterdam. The walk along “Johan Cruijff Boulevard” ends at an escalator were two elderly men paused to have their picture taken with a bronze bust of the chain-smoking-genius.
All this football heritage makes it extremely difficult to dream up an Ireland result but it has happened here before. In 2000, the Dutch needed a Giovanni van Bronckhorst rocket to draw 2-2 after goals from Robbie Keane and Jason McAteer teed up a monumental night for Irish football.
Those were the glory days. This week finds the FAI executive trying to explain why their CEO Jonathan Hill had to repay €20,000 for commuting expenses and in lieu of holidays not taken. Also, Hill is struggling to convince the football family to vote two additional women on to an extended 14-person board of directors or suffer losing €4.3 million in Government funding.
“As Jonathan has said, all money has been paid back in relation to whatever tax issue it was,” said Kenny. “Overall, I feel Jonathan is someone who looks like he is a very capable CEO, he has had to come in at difficult times to manage the organisation.”
The association also published their 2022 accounts yesterday, reporting a €3.5 million surplus, borrowings of €50.9 million and sponsorship income of €4.6 million, which is a drop of €1 million from 2021. “Certain affairs of the association remain under investigation by the Office of The Director of Corporate Enforcement, as part of a long-running investigation,” it also read. “The association continues to support this investigation in every way that it can.”
Later this month FAI director of football Marc Canham will review the Kenny era before turning the page, so a draw with the seventh best team in the world would be cause for celebration. This group, players and staff, remain united but they have lacked the quality moment required to compare them to the team that scalded the Dutch 23 years ago.
Ireland (possible): Bazunu (Southampton); Doherty (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Collins (Brentford), Duffy (Norwich City), Scales (Glasgow Celtic); Knight (Bristol City), Cullen (Burnley), Browne (Preston North End); Johnston (Glasgow Celtic), Ferguson (Brighton and Hove Albion), McGrath (Aberdeen).
Netherlands (possible): Verbruggen (Brighton and Hove Albion); De Vrij (Inter Milan), Van Dijk (Liverpool), Blind (Girona); Dumfries (Inter Milan), De Roon (Atalanta), Veerman (PSV Eindhoven), Hartman (Feyenoord); Simons (Red Bull Leipzig), Gakpo (Liverpool); Weghorst (1899 Hoffenheim).
Referee: Andrea Colombo (Italy).
