From Amsterdam to Tehran

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When the draw for the UEFA qualifying groups for the 2002 World Cup was made, most Irish observers reckoned it would prove difficult for Mick McCarthy's team, still down after failure to qualify for France '98 or Euro 2000. With both Holland and Portugal to reckon with, even a play-off place looked probably out of reach. But neither the players nor the manager were prepared to take defeat for granted, and most Irish fans were content to gather their confidence and set out on the journey with hope.

Defeats in their last two home friendlies (against Greece and Scotland) may have been cancelled out for the players by an unbeaten run in the US Cup that summer (two draws, Mexico 2-2 and USA 1-1, and one win, South Africa 2-1); the supporters didn't see much of that, and many were dubious about the quality of the squad.

On 2 September 2000, in the Amsterdam ArenA, some 45,000 fans - most of them Dutch, stunned into silence by the misfortunes of the Orange team - saw Ireland take an unthinkable 2-0 lead, and then squander it in the last quarter. Robbie Keane had brought the Irish the first blood of the match in the 21st minute, and despite the increasingly assertive attention of half-time substitute Clarence Seedorf, Jason McAteer had doubled the visitors' advantage just after the hour. The green army were delirious: we were going to demolish a legend.

But the cold light of day hit the dream when substitute Talan and then in the sixth minute from time van Bronckhorst both struck to save Dutch honour and leave the Irish fans wondering how any of it could have happened, how when they would have been delighted with the prospect of a draw before the kick-off they were now disappointed to have gained only that.

A month later in Lisbon, Ireland did the reverse: half-time substitute Matt Holland struck on 73' to cancel out Conceicao's 57th minute goal, and give the Republic a second, almost priceless, away point. Taken together, the opening matches were by any measure the best result the Irish could have hoped for in a tough qualifying campaign.

Only four days afterwards, the team were in back in Lansdowne Road in front of an already jubilant crowd, convinced that qualification was now barely a formality. And with goals in each half, by Kinsella and Breen this time, they duly gave the fans the result they expected against Estonia. Five points from the first three matches, and all was going to plan.

Before breaking for the winter, the team got together in November for a friendly against Finland, which allowed Steve Finnan and Kevin Kilbane to open their international scoring accounts, and provided Steve Staunton with a welcome opportunity to add to his tally. 3-0 was a satisfactory result.

The following March, the dream trip of the campaign was a pair of Mediterranean matches, against Cyprus and Andorra. Both were expected to be easy prey for a team that was growing in stature and self-confidence, its individual members - mostly - progressing in their clubs as well. In Nicosia, Roy Keane finally opened his account, giving the Republic a deserved lead which Ian Harte doubled just before the break. They had to wait until late in the second period before improving their position, Gary Kelly scoring with ten minutes to go, and Keane getting his second just two minutes short of normal time.

In one sense, the match against Andorra in Barcelona was a disappointment: ONLY three-nil, when by general consent the hosts (playing away from home) were the weakest in the group. But goal difference was not going to be a factor at the end, we mused, so 3-0 or 30-0, it didn't matter. For the record, the three came from Harte (33'), Kilbane (76') and Holland (80').

Another month passed, with expectation rising. Andorra came to Dublin and stunned the 35,000 there by drawing first blood: Lima Sola, after half an hour! But within five minutes the team, who clearly had now woken up, had bounced back, Kilbane and Kinsella putting Ireland into the lead. Gary Breen got his second of the campaign to wrap the game up in the second half.

And then came Portugal. They were out for revenge after their win was stolen from them in Lisbon the previous autumn, and they took the game to their hosts from the start. But Mick's boys held firm, and indeed it was Ireland who went ahead in the second half, Roy Keane scoring on 68'. The least Portugal could now hope for was to reverse the process of the previous game, and this they duly did, Luis Figo snatching a draw with a 78th minute goal.

Off to Tallinn, then, with 12 points in the bag already. No bother, thought the travelling support, we'll hockey them! But faced with a two goal deficit (Dunn 8, Holland 38) the Estonians put up the shutters and held off the Irish to keep the score at that.

There remained only one serious question: would Holland have recovered their morale and their team spirit by the time they arrived in Lansdowne in the Autumn? If they had, the prospect of qualification was still remote.

A disappointing home friendly against Croatia that August saw a 2-0 lead squandered in the final ten minutes, the visitors' equaliser coming thanks to a hand-ball by John O'Shea; but as a warm-up before the re-start, it was, according to McCarthy, 'satisfactory'.

September first - almost a year to the day after the Amsterdam roller-coaster - and the Dutch turn the North terrace into a sea of orange. Mind you, with team sponsors eircom providing free green tee-shirts for everyone else, the rest of Lansdowne was an ocean of that colour. The match was a somewhat ill-tempered one, with the Dutch gaining four cards, and the Irish two: both of those, unfortunately, for Gary Breen, whose participation ended just under an hour in. Ten minutes later, the 10-man Irish netted through Jason McAteer, and that proved the only goal of the match. The celebrations were as exuberant as if we had qualified for the Final itself, rather than just the Finals.

Sometimes the most dangerous opponents are the ones who only have pride to play for, but proud though they are, the Cypriots could do little to stop Ireland when they visited Dublin the following month, and the Boys in green ran out comfortable 4-0 winners: Harte and - appropriately on his birthday - Quinn in the first half (in the process beating Frank Stapleton's all-time goal-scoring record for Ireland), and David Connolly on 63' leaving the honour of final goal of the campaign to captain Roy Keane.

Mícheál Ó hUanacháin

Ireland in Group 2: Facts & Figures

Read more on the friendly matches during the campaign

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