The tidal wave of optimism sweeping John O’Shea into the top job in Irish football subsided a little after a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland. Yet the overall confusion at the FAI is such that O’Shea, even bruised by this defeat, feels like a reassuring reference point: if not definitely a safe pair of hands then at least familiar hands.
All the talk before the game was about the position of the CEO Jonathan Hill, whose days in the job had been reported to be numbered. It was widely speculated that the number of days remaining might be as low as one.
Hill was spotted before the game enjoying the company of Roberto Di Matteo, but the FAI were quick to confirm that this was a serendipitous meeting and not an indication that Hill was about to hand the Ireland job to a man whose last coaching position was a four-month stint at Aston Villa in 2016.
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The match was quite a typical edition of Ireland-Switzerland: few chances, much frustration, and the Swiss coming out on top. On Saturday the big screen had cut to Brian Kerr a couple of times, like he was Jack Nicholson courtside at the Lakers. This time the cameras were drawn to the Mads-Mikkelsen-like Swiss coach, Murat Yakin, so familiar to those who remember Kerr’s time in charge.
After Ireland’s decent showing against Belgium, some overexcited analysts had compared the Irish system to Bayer Leverkusen’s. Now an actual member of that all-conquering Leverkusen had turned up to show us how it’s done. Granit Xhaka ran the first half from midfield – his pinpoint deliveries to the flanks putting Ireland in the kind of awkward positions on the back foot that they had not faced against Belgium. Xhaka came close to adding a memorable goal, when he picked up a stray pass from Gavin Bazunu and nearly embarrassed the Irish goalkeeper with a 40-yard shot that came back off the post.
Bazunu was one of three changes to O’Shea’s starting XI and let’s just say that nobody here will be surprised if Caoimhín Kelleher starts the next Ireland game. The goalkeeper was often brought into Ireland’s build-up play and it was noticeable that Switzerland gave him plenty of time on the ball, as though they didn’t believe he could play a pass that would hurt them.
The crucial moment of the game came midway through the first half when O’Shea’s unnecessary foul gave Switzerland a free-kick on the edge of the box. You don’t want to present Xherdan Shaqiri with this kind of opportunity but even he must have been surprised at how simple it was for him to shoot into the bottom left corner, through a couple of team-mates who had peeled off the edge of a crumbling Irish wall.
Bazunu’s starting position was quite central, as though he was concerned Shaqiri would go over the wall to the goalkeeper’s left side – but the ball was so close to the edge of the box that it would have been difficult for Shaqiri to get the ball over the wall and under the crossbar. The option Bazunu gave him of whacking it into the open side was much easier.
Mikey Johnston also started in place of the injured Chiedozie Ogbene. It wasn’t his night. His first couple of opportunities on the ball he ran into the first man. After that he seemed anxious to make up for it, as though eager to show the crowd his exceptional dribbling ability, and tried to run with the ball all the time when a little variation might have brought the element of surprise. He and Robbie Brady made a mess of a free-kick routine at the end of the first half – the disadvantage of more sophisticated set-pieces is there are more ways to mess them up. That was typical of the kind of errors that undermined Ireland in their good moments.
O’Shea made three subs in the 57th minute in an effort to take back control of the game: Adam Idah, Matt Doherty and Will Smallbone for Johnston, Andrew Omobamidele and Jason Knight. Idah went to centre forward with Evan Ferguson dropping back to the right of the front three and the sparky Sammie Szmodics moving back to the left where he had played on Saturday. The idea was to get Ferguson more involved in the game: maybe his clean technique and cool decision-making could help make something happen. It was worth a try as he hardly had a kick at 9.
O’Shea ended up making all six substitutions, but, perhaps surprisingly, he stuck with five at the back until the end. It wasn’t that Ireland didn’t try to push forward – they did, but without any real creativity. Switzerland looked the more dangerous side on the counter in the closing stages, with Dara O’Shea’s pace bailing Séamus Coleman out of one sticky situation after the captain had missed a clearance on halfway.
Going forward, Ireland kept self-sabotaging with unforced errors. Finn Azaz – who produced a couple of lovely touches after coming on for Josh Cullen in the 87th minute – had roused the atmosphere with a little jink in the penalty area. When Coleman cut out a Swiss attack and broke forward through midfield, leaving opponents trailing, the crowd roared in anticipation – was this the moment? Coleman lofted a diagonal ball over the head of Ferguson and out of play. It was that kind of night.
