Friendly
19.08.2003 at 00:00 - Lansdowne Road
Australia will provide Ireland with the type of challenge they can expect from Russia in three weeks time when they meet at Lansdowne Road tonight. This means that manager Brian Kerr will not depart from his expected championship team selection for a game he won't want to lose.
For that reason he was delighted when all of his selected squad reported for duty with the exception of the injured pair, Lee Carsley (Everton) and Steven Reid (Blackburn), when yesterday he conducted the only full training session the pressure of club matches allowed before the match.
He said: "I was pleasantly surprised to have everybody turn up. It is not usual to have all of the players who played over the week-end come through without injury and I had notified a few players they were on stand-by just in case. Now I will be able to pick a very strong team, one that will not be too far from the strongest available to me."
Kerr will give a first start to 29-year- old goalkeeper Nick Colgan whose only three appearances to date have been as a substitute. Colgan, with a year to run on his contract in Scotland with Hibernians, is currently on loan to Stockport and under instructions by the cash-strapped Hibs to find a new home.
The retirement of Alan Kelly and Dean Kiely last season left Ireland short of experienced cover for Shay Given and while the Newcastle man will play for at least some of tonight's match, it is important that Colgan is given as much international experience as possible.
Experience is what he is going to get against an Australian team that will be as competitive as Australia traditionally are in all sports whether it is football, rugby, cricket or compromise rules. And with such highly-rated strikers as Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell to fire the bullets, he will see plenty of action.
Kerr's task then is without complication. He must pick the best possible team to meet Australia's vigorous challenge in an effort to maintain the good feeling developed over a seven-match unbeaten run since he took over. Ireland need to be high on confidence when they face Russia.
The downside of that, of course, is that he will not be able to experiment as he must do if Ireland are to qualify for the European finals in Portugal and improve on their achievements in the World Cup finals of last year.
His regular team have done so well after Ireland's losing start to the qualifying tournament that they are clearly strong enough to qualify. But something more will be needed if they are to do better than they did in Japan and South Korea.
For this reason it is frustrating that Kerr will not be able to give John O'Shea a run in central midfield, a move that might well yield handsome dividends. O'Shea has done extremely well at left-back for Ireland and surely well enough to be regarded as an automatic first-choice at this stage for United and his authoritative presence in midfield might well lift the team to another level.
Likewise Kerr must try and arrive at a regular combination up front where Gary Doherty has proved to be a useful operator in substitute appearances. Can Clinton Morrison prove to be a regular partner for Robbie Keane or can David Connolly's continuing success at club level can be transferred to international football ?
Australia have come on a mission, however, after their sparkling win over England in their last match. Their manager, Frank Farina, yesterday spoke of how big an impact a win over Ireland would have back home and they will approach this match as if it were a cup final.
For this reason I expect that Kerr will postpone any attempt at experimentation until the pace of the match slackens in the second half. And it will be a surprise if he departs from the formation he used in recent competitive matches with Damien Duff operating as a link between central midfield and a strike force of Doherty and Keane.
Kerr will have to weigh up the fact that some players have had only two days to recover from matches on Sunday Duff, Matt Holland, Gary Kelly, Andy O'Brien, Kenny Cunningham, Gary Breen, Stephen Carr while others like Morrison, Colin Healy, Ian Harte, Mark Kinsella, have played little football.
The only conclusion to be drawn is that Ireland face a very difficult assignment, where they will run up against a team as honest and as hard-working as themselves. They will be physically tough as well for Australia play so few matches that they regard each one of these 'friendlies' as a chance to prove their pedigree.
Team captain Kenny Cunningham yesterday summed up Ireland's attitude when he said: "This match is very important from a performance point of view. We do not want to be going into the Russia match on the back of a defeat and from the players' point of view it will be taken very seriously."
Cunningham is likely to run up against his colleague at Birmingham City, Stan Laziridis, in the course of the match and this level of familiarity between the players on both sides means it will be very close and highly competitive. In the circumstances a drawn match seems most likely.
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