INTERNATIONAL SOCCER: PERHAPS IF they had lost on Saturday night, Ireland's training session yesterday would have been in a valley somewhere but having made a winning start to their World Cup campaign Giovanni Trapattoni put them through their paces on a mountain top pitch in Wehen.
Only the fact Shay Given, Stephen Hunt and Kevin Doyle had to sit things out undermined the visual metaphor of a squad on a high ahead of this afternoon's transfer to Montenegro.
Given is said to have taken "a knock" in the 2-1 defeat of Georgia while the others have slight calf strains and Trapattoni will assess their fitness today before deciding whether they will be fit to start on Wednesday in Podgorica. The Italian also said the heat in Montenegro and the home team's strengths would be factors as he weighed up his team for the second game of the campaign but his tone remained decidedly upbeat and an unchanged side remains a distinct possibility.
"My experience is that the second game is a little bit dangerous because we still haven't got everyone in top condition but morale is high now and the players are enthusiastic."
Trapattoni expressed satisfaction that his side had come through Saturday's game with two goals, three points, and not a single booking. The late goal conceded, he acknowledged, was a disappointment, especially as he had warned his players the scorer, Levan Kenia, would be a danger when moving in from the right, but the coach remained so positive about Ireland's defence generally he tempted fate by extolling its virtues.
"I'm superstitious, so I shouldn't say this but we have a good defence," he said. "We were very tidy against Georgia, very organised. We saw the fruits of the work we did against Colombia, Serbia and Norway."
Ireland's work-rate and passing particularly pleased the veteran coach who insisted that, whatever the side's limitations, there is still cause for optimism and pride.
"Sure, we're not Brazilian, we're not Portuguese, we stick to our own style. We shouldn't be arrogant but we shouldn't underestimate ourselves.
"I have been a coach for 30 years and I have known teams with fantasia (flair) and some with good technical ability. We have no superstars, no big star like Ronaldo to score the goals but we have a good group. In the teams with fantasia sometimes you have all that creativity but then players don't run for each other and so it's "bye bye".
"This Irish team has good basic technique. We pass the ball quickly and well and together we have to believe we can qualify."
Asked if his side might do so at the expense of the Italians, who only secured their win in Cyprus on Saturday thanks to an injury- time goal, he was diplomatic. "Football is interesting because you can never say never . . . but they are the world champions."
He admitted that, whatever its implications for Ireland's qualification, he was pleased about Antonio Di Natale's late winner in Nicosia. "If we go to Rome with nine points (he seemed to think the game will be Ireland's fourth of the campaign not the sixth ), everything is good, the violins are playing and Italy lose to us then maybe I will be happy."
Trapattoni responded to criticism over not having travelled to Britain to see the Irish players in action for their clubs, as specifically raised by one of his predecessors, Brian Kerr, in his column for The Irish Timeslast Saturday. "I know all of the qualities of the players in the squad," said the man who regularly watches recordings of games and suggested the difference between the various clubs' style of play and the one he wishes to use at international level negated the benefit of seeing the league games first hand.
"It is different, the English game. It is too different ... boom, boom, flick . . ." he said before concluding: "If Jack Charlton was criticising me then I would be happy because he is a winner, but the others . . ."
