Consulting the FAI website informed me that the team was bottom of the table by a long shot in a group including the titans of Estonia and Armenia. They had also been on the receiving end of a 4-1 beating from the latter. Seriously? I thought the Irish youth system had a fairly respectable set up and history stretching back to the glory days of Brian Kerr. I was soon informed later by a mate that a lot of the previous results can possibly be put down to previous coach Don Givens whose relationships with players was far from fruitful to put it lightly. A new beginning though and a new coach in former Irish women's team manager Noel King.
All this lead me to feel quite uneasy about what kind of performance I'd see, following the senior team normally results in nights spent on the stand watching drastically ugly football, tonight however was not going to be the case. Quite a few in the starting line up had already gained caps such as James McCarthy, Anthony Stokes, Cillian Sheridan and captain Eddie Nolan while I was familiar with players such as Seamus Coleman and Owen Garvan from their Championship exploits.
The game started off rocky enough with Estonia having the better of the opening 15 minutes and keeper Stephen Henderson making some good saves in what seemed like an all too typical Irish performance - Henderson playing the role of Shay Given the saviour. Fortunes all changed on the 15 minute mark when Anthony Stokes took the ball from the left flank, cut in and got the first albeit with a nice deflection. Expecting a state of panic from the team on what to with the lead, I was surprised to see that this team just took over and set about killing off the competition. 15 minutes later and again Stokes was attacking from the left, this time being taken down in the box and then unleashing an audacious penalty reminiscent of the final penalty in the Uruguay and Ghana game in the World Cup. That said, he just about got it under the bar. The second half as more of the same, some great work from Stokes set up James McCarthy to add a third, even more fantastic play from the Hibs man - this time using a bit of skill that'd make a Brazilian blush - resulted in a goal for Seamus Coleman which he knew nothing about and finally the man of the match finished it off by setting up Owen Garvan for a simple tap in.
5-0, I was not expecting that. It certainly bodes well for the future of Irish football if this team can continue to perform like this. Players like James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman should not just be in the senior squad but should be given a shot on the first team. In the case of Coleman, he's one of the most exciting right backs I've seen in quite some time, not afraid to take people on, a good passer and defensively solid. Surely he's worth a punt over Paul McShane? His fellow full back Gavin Gunning looked decent in a position - left back - we've been without a specialist at that slot since Ian Harte.
What struck me most was the size of the team - the majority being under 6 foot I imagine - and how they actually played football, each goal scored was a true team effort, simple passing and movement was in every move. It has me wondering why the senior team can't follow suit and get away from the long ball tactics we continuously resort to. These kids can play so when they get their chance I can only hope they're allowed to. Maybe Trapattoni had a live feed in his hospital bed in the Mater, I can only hope he did.
