Triumph of substance over style brings sweet reward

Match Report:  In the end it may not have been as stylish as we had dreamed of the night before but as the final whistle sounded…

Match Report: In the end it may not have been as stylish as we had dreamed of the night before but as the final whistle sounded and the delirious celebrations got under way in the stands you would have been hard pressed to have imagined anything ever having been quite so sweet. From Emmet Malone in Yokohama

Certainly there was no mistaking the pride of the Irish players as they completed their lap of honour at Yokohama's International Stadium and left their more than 10,000 supporters to celebrate a win that comfortably puts them through to the second round of this World Cup.

To Suwon then and a second-round clash that will be against Spain unless South Africa can beat Jose Camacho's team in Daejeon this afternoon. It will hardly matter much either way to the Irish for the way they are feeling right now they'll surely view a game next Sunday with either side as just another date with footballing history.

Even if this Irish team fails to go any further in this competition, however, they have already done more than enough to travel home with their heads held high.

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Not once during the past week and a half have they played well for an entire game but on each occasion they have had the wherewithal to put poor first-half performances behind them in order to overwhelm their opponents during the closing 45 minutes.

Against the Saudis the contrast was even more stark than in either of their previous two Group E outings.

The start they got could scarcely have been better with Steve Staunton and then Gary Kelly setting up Robbie Keane for the 12th goal of his still short international career just seven minutes into the contest. But they allowed themselves to be put under pressure by a side that thrived during the remainder of the first period only because they were allowed to play by what was, when it boiled down to it, an obviously superior Irish side.

Clearly, getting the breakthrough so early in the game had been just what Mick McCarthy and his players had been hoping for beforehand.

And aside from the actual taking of the early lead itself, the manner in which the goal had come about, with gangs of Saudis standing off as Keane stepped up ahead of three team-mates to volley Kelly's cross goalwards, must have left everyone in the Irish camp believing that the team's progression to the second round could be done and dusted before the half was even out.

If so then they were soon brought down to earth for while the Saudis might well have been forced to defend even a small deficit for fear of another hammering had pressure been applied quickly after the goal, Nasser Al Johar's team were instead given plenty of time to regroup and start exploring ways of getting forward themselves.

Ian Harte, said afterwards by McCarthy to have been nursing toe and knee injuries during the build-up to the game, again became the focus of the team's difficulties as Mohammed Al Jahani, Ibrahim Al Shahrani and, in particular, Nawaf Al Temyat set about Ireland's left flank with a mixture of graft and invention that probably should have yielded a goal.

More than once excellent cover work from Staunton and Gary Breen around the box protected Shay Given from the danger but the Donegalman's contribution was also outstanding on a night when swirling rain and gruelling humidity made his task especially difficult.

Had the Saudis equalised at that stage then there is really no telling how badly rattled the Irish might have become.

Instead they once again were shook into life by an intense encounter with their manager at the interval.

McCarthy, who had clearly been dismayed by some of his side's first-half antics, moved to counter the opposition's main threat by switching Kevin Kilbane to left back, moving Damien Duff into an advanced role on the left side of midfield and introducing Niall Quinn to the action somewhat earlier than even the big Sunderland striker must have anticipated.

The effect was immediate, though, with the Irish choking the supply of ball to Saudi Arabia's one real striker, Al Hassan Al Yami, at one end and suddenly posing a far greater threat themselves at the other.

Duff, a victim during the first period of Redha Tukar's relentless attention, looked to have been liberated in the wider role while Quinn's presence swiftly put Al Nasser's defence back under the sort of pressure that left it looking so shaky through the opening few minutes.

Over the spell that followed there were three chances for Keane to extend Ireland's lead by the margin required if the team was not to be dependent on things going their way between Germany and Cameroon at Shizuoka.

By the time the 21-year-old struck the third attempt straight and rather tamely at the goalkeeper, however, Marco Bode's more successful finishing from a similar distance at the other venue had gone quite some way to ensuring that it would be the African champions who would be flying home rather than to South Korea this morning.

The Irish, though, were in no mood to rely on charity and after Al Temyat brought Kilbane down out wide on Ireland's left, Staunton sent in a curling free-kick that his central defensive partner, Breen, turned quite superbly past Al Deayea and into the bottom corner with the outside of his right foot.

From then on it was difficult to imagine a way back for the Saudis despite the fact that they continued to keep the Irish on their toes at the back thanks to the occasional break from midfield. By now, though, Mark Kinsella and Matt Holland were far more effectively containing the side's sole creative force, Al Temyat, and rarely was Given called on to make anything even approaching a real save.

In contrast Al Deayea and his defence were coming under growing pressure from an Irish attack that was finally looking as though it was enjoying itself. With 13 minutes remaining Quinn, Duff and Keane came close to linking up for what would have been a memorable goal after the three worked the ball in from well out in midfield. Sadly, though, the Saudi goalkeeper spotted the danger and came off his line to cut out Duff's low cross from the left.

Ten minutes later the goalkeeper looked just a little less heroic after Holland had slipped the ball upfield to Duff and the Blackburn Rovers man had driven straight at Al Deayea from an angle on the left.

The save should have been easy but instead the Saudi skipper prompted a further escalation in the celebrations among the thousands of Irish supporters behind his goal by merely palming the ball into his own net.

The error marked the end of any lingering doubt about Ireland's qualification and so, with understandable glee, Duff and his team-mates milked the moment.

And on a day that the European and World Champions, France, had made their exit from this tournament without so much as scoring a goal, who could possibly blame them.

SUBSTITUTES

Republic of Ireland: Niall Quinn or Ian Harte (46 mins); Jason McAteer for Gary Kelly (80 mins); Lee Carsley for Mark Kinsella (89 mins).

Saudi Arabia: Mohammad Al-Shloub for Abdulaziz Al-Khathran (67 mins); Abdullah Jumaan for Abdullah Sulaiman (68 mins); Ahmed Dokhi for Mohammed Al-Jahani (79 mins).

YELLOW CARDS

Republic of Ireland - Steve Staunton.

Saudi Arabia - Nawaf Al-Temyat.