AS A gentle warm-up for the main event in Germany next month, Ireland could not have fared much worse at Lansdowne Road last night. A young and injury-hit team were no match for an almost hypnotic Holland side as they fell to their biggest home defeat since losing 4-1 to Denmark in 1985.
At least they avoided equalling the worst home defeat in Irish history, the 5-0 loss to Spain in 1931. It did, though, equal the 4-0 defeat against West Germany in 1966, another damning statistic that will not sit easily with Steve Staunton, Ireland’s rookie international manager. It was only his third match in charge.
It had not been a good week for Staunton. He lost the services of Sir Bobby Robson, his assistant, because of poor health, faced a “gunman” in a frightening confrontation outside the team hotel and had eight players withdraw from this friendly because of a series of injuries.
There had been encouraging news from Richard Dunne, one of the absent eight, earlier in the day when he reported that he should have recovered from a hamstring strain in time to play in the main event, the 2008 European Championship qualifying opener against Germany in Stuttgart on September 2. “I’ll do all I can to make sure I’m fit,” Dunne said.
Yet whether Shay Given, Ian Harte, Robbie Keane, the captain, Damien Duff, Stephen Ireland, Alan Lee and Terry Dixon will be fit - not to mention Stephen Carr and Steven Reid, who suffered respective hamstring and ankle injuries last night - is in the lap of the gods.
If a good percentage of them do not make it, the World Cup semi-finalists could have a ball, as Holland did here, in Stuttgart.
Staunton might have been happy with the displays of Kevin Doyle and Alan O’Brien, who enlivened Ireland in the second half, but there was little else to glean from a shabby overall performance. That said, Holland were disciplined, fluent and incisive, nigh on untouchable, in their first outing since they disgraced themselves in the last 16 of the World Cup finals, when their tussle with Portugal produced 16 bookings and four sendings-off. Even a full-strength Ireland team might have struggled to compete.
”We were disappointing in the first half, we couldn’t get close to them,” Staunton said. “Perhaps we could have pulled it back to 2-1 in the second half, but then they broke away to make it 3-0 from an unforced error. At least we kept going forward in the second half, but we haven’t got a lot of time between now and the Germany match for the injury situation to ease. It might be hard to pick the lads up.”
The steady flow of the Orange soon became a torrent, with Arjen Robben, the Chelsea winger, leading the way and swapping flanks with Robin van Persie at every opportunity. Not that Glenn Roeder, the Newcastle United manager, and Freddy Shepherd, his chairman, would have been too impressed early on. They had flown over from Tyneside in a private jet to watch Dirk Kuyt, a prospective transfer target, but Marco van Basten, the Holland coach, had not seen the script. Kuyt, the Feyenoord striker, started on the bench.
Ireland, increasingly confused, were also contributing to their own downfall. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, the prolific young Ajax forward making his senior debut, was left unmarked at the far post and nodded in from van Persie’s pinpoint corner in the 24th minute. Four minutes before half-time, Stephen Elliott, in trying to help out his overworked defence, succeeded only in giving the ball to Huntelaar, who quickly released Robben to beat Paddy Kenny.
Ireland were booed off at half-time - a rare occurrence at Lansdowne Road - but Roeder and Shepherd were a shade happier after the break, when Van Basten was kind enough to bring on Kuyt. Staunton made four changes to immediate effect, with Doyle chipping a cross-cum-shot narrowly over and Aiden McGeady driving wide, but Holland almost casually completed the rout, on the break, through Huntelaar and van Persie.
Van Basten had consoling words for Staunton. “Normally it is a difficult job here and I was surprised how easy it was,” the Holland coach said. “But if Ireland are able to use their big names that were not here tonight in Germany, then they will have a good team and can perform well.”
Ireland (4-4-2): P Kenny (Sheffield United) - S Carr (Newcastle United; sub: K Doyle, Reading, 46min ), Andy O’Brien (Portsmouth), J O’Shea (Manchester United), S Finnan (Liverpool; sub: S Kelly, Birmingham City, 64) - A McGeady (Celtic), S Reid (Blackburn Rovers), G Kavanagh (Wigan Athletic; sub: Alan O’Brien, Newcastle United, 46), K Kilbane (Everton) - C Morrison (Crystal Palace; sub: J Douglas, Blackburn Rovers, 46), S Elliott (Sunderland). Substitutes not used: L Miller (Manchester United), W Henderson (Brighton & Hove Albion), D Murphy (Sunderland).
Holland (4-1-4-1): E van der Sar (Manchester United) - J Heitinga (Ajax), A Ooijer (PSV Eindhoven; sub: K Jaliens, AZ Alkmaar, 77), J Mathijsen (AZ Alkmaar), T de Cler (AZ Alkmaar; sub: U Emanuelson, Ajax, 60) - S Schaars (AZ Alkmaar) - R van Persie (Arsenal), D Landzaat (Wigan Athletic; sub: N de Jong, SV Hamburg, 46), R van der Vaart (SV Hamburg), A Robben (Chelsea; sub: D Kuyt, Feyenoord, 46) - K-J Huntelaar (Ajax). Substitutes not used: T Janssen (Vitesse Arnhem), H Timmer (Feyenoord), J Vennegor of Hesselink (PSV Eindhoven).
Booked: Landzaat.
Referee: T H Overbo (Norway).