World Cup ’94 : WORLD CUP USA ’94 / GROUP E PREVIEW : Some Tough Irishmen : Players Aren’t Afraid to Take Matters Into Their Hands on the Field, but They Might Be Afraid of Big Jack
The coach lives in the center of a storm, criticized for his harsh treatment of players, chided for poor-mouthing his team, revered or despised but never ignored.
The players are smart, hard-working, selfless, forced to give up their individualism for the good of the unit.
The fans are loud, sometimes obnoxious, often partying from the morning of the game until the morning after.
Notre Dame football?
No, we’re talking about the real fighting Irish.
Introducing Ireland’s promising World Cup soccer team.
Please, shake their hands, they could be on the verge of making history.
Then duck.
Fresh from a shocking victory over defending champion Germany in Hanover--the Germans’ first loss at that home field in 56 years--the Irish are ready to bruise their way to stardom in just their second World Cup appearance.
“Oh, we don’t actually tackle the other guys, not like your American football,” protested hard-hitting midfielder Steve Staunton during a phone interview from Dublin. “All we do is close the other guys down. We don’t knock them down, we close them down.”
Then why do European soccer observers talk about this team as if it were the Dallas Cowboy defense?
Why, when asked about the Irish offense, do experts change the subject to hitting and intimidating?
And exactly what are all the Irish opponents doing leaving the field with grass stains on their faces?
“Some of the other guys may fall, but they are not tackled,” Staunton said. “Some of the guys just, uh, slip.”
Whatever the Irish are doing, observers feel that if they do it well enough to survive a difficult group containing Italy, Mexico and Norway, they could advance even further than in 1990.
That year, they lost to the host Italians in the quarterfinals, 1-0.
“Most people in this country feel that if we can make it out of our group, we can win it,” said Eamonn Gibson, columnist for the Irish Press daily newspaper in Dublin. “This team is not afraid of anyone.”
Liam Brady, considered the Joe Montana of Irish soccer, is just as optimistic.
“As well as we are playing now, I honestly think we will be tough to beat in the States,” said Brady, 38, who is now coaching in England.
Brady is not a member of this team, nor the World Cup team in 1990, despite competing in 72 international matches.
The reason can be summed up in two words that are spoken more in Irish pubs than “Another round!”
Those words are Big Jack. As in, Jack Charlton, a former coal miner and member of the 1966 English World Cup champion who took over as the Irish coach in 1986. He has since led them to a 40-11-25 record, even if it hasn’t always been pretty.
When Charlton cut Brady from the 1990 team, it was only the first in a series of moves that has made him a strong presence on the previously quiet Irish soccer frontier.
If he doesn’t like a player, that player is gone. If he doesn’t like a question from a reporter, that press conference is over.
And if the feisty Irish journalists would ever dare imitate their British counterparts by criticizing their coach personally?
“If anybody ever calls me a name, I’ll punch them in the nose,” Charlton, 59, said to Irish reporters.
But, well, he wins.
“I’m not a tough coach if you understand football,” Charlton said from Dublin. “I know how the game should be played. And if the players play it my way, they won’t have a problem.”
Three consecutive victories over World Cup teams certainly do not constitute a problem.
Not that his team doesn’t have other problems, according to Charlton, whose sorry public appraisals of his team would make even Lou Holtz blush.
“We’re not a big fish in the sea, we’re just little ol’ Ireland,” Charlton said. “We’re a 33-to-1 shot . . . and that’s about right.”
The Irish could have a problem in the heat of the many midday World Cup games.
“If you ask me, it all depends on the heat,” Staunton said.
The best thing about these players might be that they look like an English team, they talk like an English team . . . and actually should be an English team.
One reason that the English did not qualify for the World Cup this year might have been that many of their best players are playing for Ireland.
Only seven of the 22 players were born in Ireland. They all qualified for the team because their parents or grandparents were born in Ireland.
And none of the 22 play in Irish leagues. All but two play in England.
“I don’t think it’s fair to make a big deal of that,” said Staunton, one of 12 players returning from the 1990 World Cup team. “A lot of players here, their parents couldn’t get jobs in Ireland and so they moved to England. You can’t blame us for that.”
Other key returnees from the 1990 squad include goalkeeper Pat Bonner, defenders Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran, midfielders Ray Houghton, Andy Townsend and John Sheridan, and forwards Tony Cascarino and John Aldridge.
Most impressive among the newcomers is midfielder Roy Keane, who competes for world power Manchester United in England.
Just as Charlton prefers, nobody on this team is a hero. But together, come July 17, there might be no bigger heroes.
“We know a lot of people in the United States are from Ireland, we know we’re going to hear a lot of cheering,” Staunton said. “We’re going to try to give them a good show.”
