Current Ireland side get the win in Bulgaria that eluded  greats of Irish soccer 

Last week’s Italia ’90 World Cup reunion on The Late Late Show was rather special for the welcome memories it evoked from arguably the biggest sporting success achieved by an Irish team.

It was a surprisingly sweet gathering of our sporting heroes from all of 35 years ago, now pushing on in years themselves, recounting their memories of a World Cup that has been theorised as the event that transformed the nation in not only raising expectations of our performances in world sports, but also how we, from then on, performed economically, politically, and culturally on an international stage.

Stark differences

Seeing Ray Houghton, Kevin Moran, Packie Bonner, et al, together again was great, especially when Mick McCarthy and Niall Quinn touchingly recounted their memories of the boss Jack Charlton and the late Alan McLoughlin. As pleasurable it was to listen to Ronnie Whelan, Frank Stapleton, Chris Hughton, Andy Townsend, and Kevin Sheedy talking about their exploits on and more hilariously off the field. But it also acted as a stark reminder to the contrast in mood and quality surrounding the current Irish team, who the following Thursday night played Bulgaria in the first leg of the promotion/relegation playoff of the UEFA Nations League in Plovdiv. As Ireland, rather depressingly, looked to avoid relegation into the competition’s Group C.

Not only was this a tough situation for the side to be in anyway, circumstances off the field leading into this game were far from conducive to getting a positive result. Irish boss Heimir Hallgrimsson and his assistant John O’Shea fielded more questions on criticisms than tactics. Those criticism coming from former Irish player Glenn Whelan, who suggested certain Irish players were too comfortable with losing, and that some were “very lucky” to be playing for Ireland.

Then there was the League of Ireland falling out by Damien Duff and Stephen Bradley with Hallgrimsson, when the Irish boss seemingly suggested that domestically-based LOI players would need to move abroad if they wanted to boost their chances of making the international team, which understandably angered the Shelbourne and Shamrock Rover bosses, considering the strides they have made with their clubs both domestically and in Europe. It seemed like the FAI  and Irish international football is either struggling on the field or kicking lumps out of itself off it.

First away win

Yet despite all these drawbacks, the Irish lads defied expectation and pulled off an unexpected 2-1 away win, with some decent shifts put in by Matt Doherty, Josh Cullen, Robbie Brady, Troy Parrot and most impressive of all in the first half from the goal scorer Finn Azaz.

It needs to be ed that  Bulgaria, and Sofia especially, has never been a happy hunting ground for Irish teams, with Thursday’s game the first time an Irish senior international team has won there, ever. And that includes the greats of Jack Charlton’s team, where a number of very dubious refereeing decisions saw the great side lose 2-1 in their Euro ’88 qualifier. But for Scotland’s Gary Mackay bagging a late winner against the same Bulgarian side in the last match of the qualifiers, we may never have had the glory of Euro ’88 and Italia ’90. Maybe he should have been included in the Late Late reunion too.

Of course, this current Bulgarian side are a far shadow too of the side Charlton’s players faced. Back then they were going through their own golden era of football, with great players like Trifon Ivanov, Krasimir Balakov, and of course the legendary Hristo Stoichkov available to them.

Build on progress

Still, Ireland can only play what is in front of them, and unlike all other Irish sides before them, won their game away in Sofia. With a mix of hard work and brave interventions, as in Matt Doherty’s headed winner. Probably best of all was the unglamourous but competent game management to see the game out. A special mention must go to the travelling Irish fans who made the half empty stadium their own and must have lifted the Irish players.

Ireland play the return leg tomorrow evening in Dublin and they must be determined to build on that away result. The Bulgarians are not good travellers, Northern Ireland beat them 5-0 in Belfast in the last of the group games. A win tomorrow, might then see Ireland and Hallgrimsson build on these results and maybe rekindle the spirit of Jack’s Army back in 1990.