Euro 2012 is finally upon us. And boy, is it a mouth-watering prospect! In fact with the sun shining and Ireland throwing the right shapes against Bosnia Herzegovina in the Aviva Stadium last weekend, it felt like the carnival had already started...

The final send-off could hardly have been better. It may have been a friendly, but the performance was one of the best from an Irish team since the night of the play-off larceny, perpetrated by France in Paris, that dumped us out of the World Cup two years ago.
For a start, Ireland went about their business with huge determination. One of the most glaring faults of recent years was a tendency to drop off rather than pressing the opposition. Against Bosnia, there was more of that old Jack Charlton-style fire than we have seen in a long time. We were getting tight on the opposition; hounding them; winning balls back by tracking effectively; and generally making life difficult for what was a good technical team.
Of equal importance, we also played more football than has generally been the pattern in the Trapattoni era. In the second half in particular, the goalkeeper Keiren Westwood – standing in for the injured Shay Given – frequently gave the ball to the full-backs or to the central midfielders dropping back, rather than hoofing it in the general direction of the strikers. The effect was remarkable: the Irish players passed it across the back and worked at keeping possession. They were patient and probing. And there was no little skill on display, especially on the wings, with Damien Duff, James McClean and Aiden McGeady all turning in encouraging performances.
McClean was effectively on trial, starting an international for the first time, and he came through the test well, running at the opposition successfully, going down the line or cutting inside with equal relish and getting shots off. He looked well capable of providing an attacking threat in Poland – and, of course, the Ukraine if we progress beyond the group stage. But the real revelation on the day was probably McGeady, who came on as a sub, replacing Damien Duff at half-time. He was like a man reborn, showing all of his abundant skills, as he tortured the Bosnian defence, both on the right and the left.
He took people on tanatalisingly, got a number of shots away and crossed the ball superbly. He found Shane Long’s head brilliantly for the goal. He also fed substitute Jonathan Walters in similar style, with the latter’s powerful header smacking the crossbar. And he hit a number of other dangerous balls into the area. Plus he almost scored with his first touch, volleying onto the post from a knockdown just a few minutes into the second half. If things fall into place, he could yet be one of the stars of the Euro 2012.
In some respects, it was an odd occasion. Too often, watching Ireland, you are left scratching your head, wondering just what Giovanni Trapattoni is thinking and why he is not making a change. But here, he did the right thing almost all the way, giving four of his strikers a good run, taking a look at Darren O’Dea alongside Richard Dunne, giving Darron Gibson – who did relatively well in the middle of the park – a chance to shine, and resting players like Robbie Keane and Dunne when they’d had enough. The only smart thing he didn’t do was to replace a tiring McClean with Stephen Hunt, clearly frustrating the latter. Not to worry. There is a game against Hungary to come and Hunt will doubtless feature.
Right now, with a settled team and Trapattoni giving the impression that he might just allow the players to play a little bit more, we are entitled to feel optimistic. As Craig Fitzsimons points out, in his in-depth analysis of the likely outcome of the tournament elsewhere in this issue, while our group is a tough one, both Croatia and Italy are potentially beatable, if we go about it in the right way: pressing them effectively, playing football when we have the ball and giving the attacking stars in our ranks – Duff, McGeady, Keane and Shane Long and McClean when they play – the opportunity to strut their stuff.
It is frequently said that this Ireland team is short of good players. That is wrong. Add defensive stalwarts like Shay Given, Richard Dunne and John O’Shea to the dangerous attacking options we have and there is a very strong core group there. There is, certainly, no really outstanding central midfielder of the calibre of John Giles, Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan or Roy Keane. But we are stronger down the flanks than ever, and have superb options up front with Keane, Doyle, Long and Walters. And Whelan, Andrews and Gibson are all capable of turning in a good shift and scoring the odd goal (Andrews hit a rake of them for Ipswich in the first half of the season).
So this is a good team, which has the potential to flower just at the right time – and to do very well indeed. Or of course, the wheels might just come off the wagon. But we won’t even think about that – until just before the kick-off in the opening match against Croatia.
And if we do well, one suspects that sport will again reveal its value to this country, in terms of both raising national morale – and winning friends and potential tourists from all over Europe. It is a thought worth bearing in mind, following the somewhat spurious controversy over Enda Kenny’s promise to Katie Taylor that he’d organise a grant to install proper dressing-rooms in Bray boxing club, where the world champion and Olympic gold medal hopeful trains.
The truth is that local authorities have on occasion squandered money in the most ludicrous fashion, for example putting ‘ramps’ on roads all over the place, when that money would have been so much better spent on building proper dressing-rooms in parks where young children play sports of one kind or another through rain, hail and sleet in the winter.
The failure to provide basic facilities at grass-roots sporting level has been shameful. If the commitment made by the Taoiseach to Katie Taylor can be the springboard to a proper prioritisation of investment in the kind of simple structures that make all the difference, for example enabling young players to get dressed in comfort rather than huddled underneath the trees in the rain – then it will be a good thing.
The Irish football team are about to embark on an adventure, which has the potential to enthrall and inspire the nation in the most extraordinary way. But most of the players went through indignities as kids that never should have been allowed. They succeeded in spite of official neglect. No matter how they fare, in the long run we owe it to them – and to their brilliant achievements as professional sportsmen – to do better for the new generation setting out now with the ambition of conquering the world in fifteen or twenty years time.
In the meantime, the witching hour is at hand. History beckons. Let’s go out there and slay ‘em...