WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : The Jewel of the Emerald Isle : Jack Charlton May Be English and He May Be Rough Cut, but He’s Revered in Ireland as a Gem of a Soccer Coach

He is an Englishman who is revered in Ireland. That happens once every couple of centuries.

His name is Jack Charlton, and his heritage is overlooked by the faithful in Dublin and Shannon and Cork and Tipperary because he has brought new life to the passion of Ireland. He is coach of the Irish national soccer team, and he is good at it.

How good?

Before he took over in 1986, Ireland had never been in a World Cup tournament. Now, it has made its second consecutive advancement to the second round. With a victory over the Netherlands at Orlando, Fla., on Monday, it can match its 1990 advancement to the Cup quarterfinals, in which it lost to Italy, 1-0.

World Cup ’94 in the United States has been even sweeter than Italia ’90 for Charlton and his aging team because Ireland finally won a Cup game. It was not just any Cup game, but a 1-0 score-settler over Italy. The Irish advancement to the second round in 1990 was via ties, followed by a victory over Romania on penalty kicks that set up the 1-0 quarterfinal against Italy.

Now, Ireland is back, and for that, Charlton is held directly responsible. And although Ireland has already voted him its most popular man and awarded him the Freedom of Dublin Medal, the city’s highest honor, the Irish fans cannot idolize him enough.

After Tuesday’s well conceived and well executed 0-0 result here with Norway, which left Ireland second in its group’s final standings and eliminated Norway, the green-clad faithful would not leave before seeing their hero and saluting him.

“We want Jack! We want Jack! We want Jack!” they chanted, the chorus bouncing off the rafters of a sold-out Giants Stadium, where Irish fans overwhelmed the scene and turned Norwegian rooters into a silent minority.

It was all the more significant because Charlton had not been on the sideline during the game. Instead, fined and suspended for the game by FIFA for arguing too strenuously over a slow substitution against Mexico in the June 24 game at Orlando, Charlton directed his team by telephone from a TV commentator’s booth high above the field.

When Charlton finally reached the floor of the stadium through back tunnels and walked onto the field in response to the chant, it was as if St. Patrick himself had returned to walk the streets of Dublin. They cheered and they teared. He was their Jack, come to greet them. English heritage be damned. Must have been a mistake on the birth certificate, or maybe another English plot.

In the basement of the stadium, he met the press. The image met the legend. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

“We are sorry for Norway, because theirs was a bit of bad luck, not being able to go with four points,” he said. “But we are delighted for the people of Ireland.”

At 59, Charlton remains a pillar in both perception and reality. It is not so much that he is 6 feet 4, but the way he carries himself. He is not unlike the Cliffs of Moher that stand so strongly against the elements on Ireland’s rough West Coast. Even in white shirt and green tie, he is stiff and strong, always looking down from above, with a ruddy complexion that furthers an image of rugged impenetrability.

Like his team’s style of soccer, Charlton’s personal style is direct.

Asked of his team’s chances before the World Cup began, he said, “We have good players and a good method of playing. Now, we will just get on with it.”

Asked about an injury to midfielder Andy Townsend, he said, “He just tweaked a knee.”

Asked about his controversial fine and suspension by FIFA that put him in the TV booth Tuesday, he said, “The little confrontation I had with FIFA, I still don’t know what it was about, but it’s over now. We’re all smiling, we’re all happy and we’re getting on with the rest of the tournament.”

And when he kept being pestered by Mexican reporters last Friday about his thoughts on the relative effect the oppressive Orlando heat had on his team and Mexico’s, he cut the news conference short by saying, “Look, you’re going to write what you want, no matter what I say, so go ahead and write it. I’m going to go talk to the Irish press.”

As a player, he spent his entire 21-year pro career with Leeds United in the English First Division, scoring 96 goals in 773 games. In 1965, he was English footballer of the year.

He played on the 1966 and 1970 World Cup teams for England, and in a celebrated victory shared with teammate and brother Bobby, Jack Charlton helped England win the 1966 Cup.

“It was a tremendous feeling, standing out on Wembley when the final whistle had gone and we’d won and thinking--I’m a world champion,” he told English writer Ashley Collie. “To come from the northeast of England, from a mining community, and have your brother Bobby on the same field . . . it was beyond our wildest dreams, but we did it. Nobody in the world can ever take that away.”

If Ireland is ever to experience such a feeling in this World Cup--and that remains a longshot--it will be because of Charlton’s presence. There is no disputing that.

“Did we miss Jack along the sidelines today?” said midfielder Ray Houghton, repeating a question. “We did, indeed. He’s got this big, raspy voice, and you can always hear him yelling. No matter how big the stadium or how big the crowd, you can always hear him.”

So Charlton has become, in the midst of World Cup fever and fervor, the voice of Ireland, as well as its heart and brain. Throw in his soul and the soccer faithful of Ireland will take that too.

The other parts? The English can have those.