"We're proud and privileged to have watched them tonight," said RTE cocommentator and St Patrick's Athletic manager Pat Dolan after the Irish Under-16 team had beaten Italy to win the European Championship on Friday night. "Whatever else they do in their careers they'll remember this night forever," said Archie McPherson over on Eurosport. They won't be the only ones.
Only the night before, on TnaG's World Cup Gold, we marvelled at the heroics of the senior team in their 1-0 win over Italy in the 1994 finals. How many of us sighed at the end of the programme, wondering how long we would have to wait for another glorious triumph for Irish football? Just less than 24 hours, as it turned out - from Giants Stadium, New York, on Thursday night to McDiarmid Park, Perth, on Friday.
Reaching the final was a magnificent achievement, beating Italy once they got there was extraordinary; but it was the style in which they won it that was the most heart-warming aspect of the whole wonderful night. The Irish? More Italian than the Italians themselves? Former Celtic player and manager Billy McNeil, McPherson's co-commentator on Eurosport, wondered if the teams had swapped jerseys before they had come on the pitch. "The Irish are such an open and expressive team, they play football like it should be played. They're a credit to their coach, Brian Kerr, they really have done their nation proud," he said.
Those who spend their lives hunting for that endangered species, the winger, would have been thrilled by the performance of Andrew Reid, who was a joy to behold. "Reid, who is the son of a famous man in junior soccer circles, Billy Reid, is by a long way the baby of the team - he won't be 16 until August," said RTE commentator George Hamilton. Sixteen in August? Which means he was five when Ireland beat England in the 1988 European Championships? You don't half feel old sometimes.
Pat Dolan, a man who has promoted local football with much passion over the past few years, was an excellent and appropriate choice as George Hamilton's co-commentator for the occasion. "All the people who work day in, day out to produce these players throughout Ireland can be very proud people tonight," he said, and you couldn't help but think of the pleasure the occasion gave those people who give up so much of their time to nurture the talents of players like Reid, David McMahon and Liam Miller, all of whom were unknowns to most of us sad Sky Sports junkies before last Friday night.
Was it their all-white strip, or a bonky television set, that made the entire Italian line-up look about six foot three and no younger than 27? And hands up who was frightened when the Italian team was announced - Posocco (AC Milan), Lazzari (Torino), Lanzaro (AS Roma), Pelanti (Fiorentina), Papa (Juventus) . . . granted, we'd never heard of any of them, but they're the kind of names world class players have and they're the kind of clubs world class players play with. "Well, our fellas did very well to reach the final - what harm if they lose," may well have been the common reaction in the living rooms of Ireland.
Oh we of little faith. "One of the qualities of this Irish team is their confidence - they're tremendously self-confidence without having a touch of arrogance, they're absolutely convinced they can win this game," said Eurosport's McPherson. Maybe it's a generational thing, maybe it's as a result of working with Brian Kerr; but if you looked closely enough you could almost see the words "self belief"' written on the faces of the Irish players. A night to remember indeed - all the more so when we were able to watch it live on television . . . a luxury, unfortunately, not afforded to Celtic fans, who won't forget Saturday afternoon in a hurry either. What a pity Sky Sports couldn't have covered the final day of the Scottish season in the same manner as they covered the dramatic end of the English Premiership season yesterday afternoon. Still, Celtic fans (if they've come to yet) should get their videos ready for Ole Ole on TnaG at 9.0 tonight, when they will show extended highlights of the championship-clinching victory over St Johnstone. "I'm sure you don't care Alan, but it's a sad day for Rangers, isn't it," Sky Sports' Dominik Holyer asked Alan Brazil on Saturday afternoon. A large grin spread across Brazil's face, a grin that didn't say, "Yeah, I'm really gutted for them". "It's quite clear, I'm a Celtic man," he said instead, before offering some less than heartfelt words of consolation to the deposed champions. What did Holyer want him to say? "Yeah, it's a real pity that they didn't win their 10th successive league title, thereby continuing their annual humiliation of Celtic"?
One of Kerry's All-Ireland winning line-up from last year, Killian Burns, got the better of Dara O Se on Sideline View last Friday by revealing that his team-mate does "makeovers on himself after matches, plucks his eyebrows, looks at himself in the mirror and applies a bit of make-up to the areas where he has discrepancies". Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall at the next Kerry training session? "Paidi, could I mark Killian please," O Se might ask as they prepare for a little practice game.
Not certain either about Killian the comedian. His favourite joke? "Peter Robinson wakes Ian Paisley out of a coma he's been in for 25 years. He tells him that he has some bad news and some desperate news. Paisley says `give me the bad news first'. Robinson says, `Gerry Adams is president of a united Ireland'. `Oh my God, that's terrible,' says Paisley. `What's the desperate news?' `Celtic beat Rangers at the weekend,' says Robinson. `Oh my God, that's terrible - what was the score?' `2-14 to 1-5,' says Robinson."
