Prior to Saturday’s match, the atmosphere was rife with considerable apprehension. In a pregame chat with Tony O’Donoghue, former footballer Ronnie Whelan was requested to express his anticipations for the day. Known for his realistic views on Irish football, Whelan simply responded with a hope of escaping a calamitous defeat, a sentiment that essentially reflected national expectations.
It was; however, pointless to wallow in the nostalgia of past triumphant times when a good try could attain a winning outcome. As the saying goes, it is what it is.
From the RTÉ panel, ex-goalkeeper Shay Given emanated a radiant wave of positivity by declaring everyone was filled with eagerness and optimism. In contrast, Richie Sadlier and Didi Hamann’s demeanour suggested they anticipated the opposite. Over fond memories of previous glory days at Fortress Lansdowne Road, Hamann noticed how inviting the Aviva Stadium has become for opposing teams.
Despite his relief over the FAI finally appointing a compatible coach, Hamann had quite humble expectations for Heimir Hallgrímsson. He saw the Icelander’s primary goal as bringing top teams to our competetive level.
Over at ITV, Roy Keane was less than enthusiastic when queried about the Irish line-up unveiled by Mark Pougatch. Keane commented that it would be a significant challenge after studying the team graphic momentarily.
Roy hinted towards considerable challenges that Ireland would face in the forthcoming years, owing to the limited talent pool available to coach Hallgrímsson. He also threw subtle jibes at the management team at the FAI, although acknowledging that there were many good individuals within the organisation. This was followed by fits of laughter from Ian Wright and a pale-faced reaction from Pougatch, given the unceremonious nature of the comment during an early evening broadcast.
The sentiments were echoed by Richie towards Peter Collins, stating that the coach’s short period of preparation time was a reflection of the Irish football body’s mismanagement. The atmosphere for the event was, as a result, rather grim.
The topic of the national anthem controversy was inevitably brought to light with panellists laughing about the absurdity of the situation, or as Roy says, “the reality of coaching England.” Lee Carsley found himself in the middle of this commotion, and his appearance on the Irish side seemed to signal his resignation from the role. However, it turned out to be an innocent misunderstanding.
Moving onto the national anthems, the barrage of boos during the British national anthem were fodder for upcoming opinion pieces about the nation’s maturity. Although ITV’s Sam Matterface pointed out that the two nations are only separated by the Irish Sea, others speculate the divide to be much deeper. An intense week of discussion and analysis was on the horizon.
The first half of the game was prolonged and tiring. Unexpectedly, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish scored the first two goals, leading Sam to comment, “Maybe it was just meant to be.” Offering a silver lining, Townsend mentioned that his former Everton colleague Séamus Coleman is “probably the greatest man on Earth”. A pleasing comment to many viewers, no doubt.
The comfort came when the goals stopped coming, an outcome that was immensely unexpected. We were bracing ourselves for a rugby-esque result when the scoreboard read 2-0. Roy attributed this not to Irish tenacity, but rather to the blatant over-confidence demonstrated by England. He criticised their lacklustre performance in the second half – players too focused on their individual games, taking excessive touches, attempting extravagant passes, and even the substitute players strolling on and off the field, exuding arrogance.
Yet, it was another undeniably poor performance from our team. “What do you understand now about the manager that you didn’t before?” Darragh Maloney questioned Ronnie.
“Nothing,” was his disheartened answer.
However, we face Greece on Tuesday, once again filled with anticipation and optimism. We certainly aren’t looking forward to an outright defeat, are we?