Irish football's coming of age
It's been a long period of misery for Irish football - progressing to the World Cup play-offs is a coming of age moment for the team and these players.
Apologies for the brief hiatus on here over the past few weeks. A badly-needed holiday to the South of France followed by a taxing return to work this week meant I hadn’t had a chance to put pen to paper on anything until now.
Frequent readers will find it as no surprise as to what the topics of this week’s newsletter will be. It’s Irish football.
You’d want to have been living under a rock to not have seen the scenes, videos and images of Ireland’s come-from-behind victory against Hungary in Budapest, sending them to March’s play-off round of qualification for the 2026 World Cup.
It’s a moment that has sparked across the nation, lifting the smog that has burdened the landscape of Irish football for almost a decade, and a feeling that has transcended well beyond just our shores and been seen and enjoyed all around the sporting planet.
It’s hard to convey just how low of an ebb things had been for Irish football. Troubles both on and off the field over the past decade, even two, have left Ireland in an almost terminal state of football decline, having to somehow kickstart a struggling engine mid-flight, all while countries around us were investing in their football, gradually improving and overtaking us on the field of play. Ireland were far from football powerhouses, but we were rapidly becoming a minnows on the international stage.
The past week has shown we haven’t fully gone away, or at least, for now, are showing sprouts of life that we may have been able to crawl through a pipeline of shit just enough to reveal a brighter future on the other side.
What’s pleased me most about the victories over Portugal and Hungary, a do-or-die must-win double for Ireland to have any hope of heading towards next summer’s World Cup, is its a long overdue coming-of-age moment for a lot of these players who were dumped in the deep end of international football prematurely.
Mostly out of desperation and a glaring lack of alternative options, when Stephen Kenny took on the COVID-riddled role in 2020 he was left with an ageing side that had a monumental schism between those were approaching the end of their careers and the next era. What came was the promotion of players who were far too young, inexperienced and had barely scratched the turf of senior club football, but were being hyped as Ireland’s next great hopes.
Headlining that billing this week was Troy Parrott, who was parachuted straight into the national team as a promising teenager at Tottenham, despite having barely a lick of first team experience. He wasn’t the only one - Dara O’Shea, Jayson Molumby and substitute Adam Idah were amongst those dropped into the fray at an extremely young age, in addition to several names who missed the squad this week through injury or having fallen through the cracks in that five year period.
Parrott, who made his debut in 2019, is still finding himself as a footballer. This past week, with five goals in two and a 95th minute hero against Hungary, he’s now catapulted himself beyond that wiry but determined youngster who was too unproven and unready for international football into a bonafide star.
He’s now a 23-year-old Eredivisie striker with 33 caps to his name. He’s been linked with moves to the Premier League and around Europe’s top flight. For the first time this past week in a green shirt, he finally looked like he had arrived as a football. Parrott had played a fleeting role in the qualification campaign until an Evan Ferguson injury offered him a chance to shine up front. Ferguson, the other young talent who we’ve had to ask far too much from far too soon. He’s only 21 and has 26 caps, and has yet to truly find himself at club level. But we’ve burdened these guys with so much pressure.
That build up of pressure and expectation uncorked like a bottle of fine champagne on Sunday afternoon and the release of emotion from Parrott and his team was palpable. This is the moment a lot of this squad and this nation of football die-hards needed, to quell all the doubt and misery that’s come before them. Announcing to the world stage that we haven’t gone away.
It’s also a marker that although we might seem down and out, we’re not an easy match for anyone. Cristiano Ronaldo was baited into red card-worthy rage last Thursday, while Hungary, despite the almost single-handed best efforts of Dominik Szoboszlai, couldn’t stop the Irish push from 1-0 and 2-1 leads.
The future is now clear and the path to a World Cup next summer has been enlightened. An away play-off against Czechia in March will see the winner get a home tie against one of Denmark and North Macedonia. On paper it’s far from the most difficult draw, but all four of those nations will be thinking the same over the next few months. If the match was next week it’d be impossible not to fancy Ireland out of pure form and the high of emotion alone, but March is a long way away.
But to be in the race at all is incredible. In the first international round, Ireland lost to Armenia away from home and the future looked terribly bleak, not least for manager Heimir Halgrimsson. Many wondered if he’d see out the campaign. The Icelandic dentist who moonlights as a football coach somehow turned Ireland’s fortunes around and a play-off is all anyone could have asked for at the beginning of the campaign.
Maintaining this momentum will be tricky, but not impossible. With three wins on the bounce and marquee victory over a tier one side in Portugal, there should be a billowing of belief around the Irish squad and these players. The sheer will and desire to win against Hungary is testament to their mindset that nothing is impossible now.
Why can’t we dream? Why can’t Parrott, now a shining name across the football sphere, not dream of going further and being the catalyst for success? This is where this team have left us, and why sport is so important in this country. It’s given everyone a lift. It’s given us something to look forward to and a chance to dream of bigger and better nights ahead.