The edgy beauty of Ireland's Far East passage

www.ireland.com ^ | Tom humphries

[Colosis]

From Tehran an evening filled with wonder, packed with some lumpy football of the desperate kind and laced with more than a little chaos. And each nerveracking moment of this world cup play-off was beautiful.

Imagine, Ireland stepped out into the clamorous strangeness of the Azadi Stadium in Tehran and played with serene purpose and sweet calm. With each dying second the World Cup loomed larger. It ended in remarkable scenes. Iran scored a late, late goal but by then the Iranian fans were burning paper and anything else that came to hand as they expressed their disapproval. Then came the final whistle. Riot police burst from every corner of the ground, the place was filled and the first Irish cheers of the night could be heard.

"When the whistle went it was a wonderful, wonderful feeling," said Irish manager Mick McCarthy. "It's a wonderful achievement. We sometimes dug ourselves out of adversity, but we stuck together. We worked damn hard for this. I'm so proud of the team and so delighted for them." McCarthy's next official engagement is in South Korea. He travels to Busan on December 1st for the World Cup draw. As pleasant an end of year duty as he could have imagined for himself.

So, the long wait is over. Twelve years to the day after qualifying for their first-ever World Cup Ireland are back in the big time. The finals in Japan and South Korea will be green hued.

This was a magnificent performance. In the hot, sweat-tinged air of the Azadi, where the elliptical curves rise and fall like a rhythmic chant, the Irish played with unforgiving professionalism, the Iranians with nervy desperation.

There were times, of course, when the blood ran cold. Early in the second half Shay Given seemed frantically busy in the Irish goal. High in the stands above the din we whispered to our hearts, quiet there, quiet, this too shall pass. It did. When Iran broke through the game and their hopes were dead.

The Irish had come armoured with a two-goal lead, but one footstep onto the Azadi turf rendered that protection as wispy as gossamer. The atmosphere, the fevered sense of expectation almost defied description. Horns blew, firecrackers sounded, men roared and hands waved a scoreline prediction: three fingers from one hand raised while the other made a zero.

Many trailed out before the end, grieving for their team, but as their Irish conquerors left town speeding towards an early morning welcome at Dublin airport, they hardly took a glance back.

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Irish players celebrate after the match in Tehran yesterday (from left) Robbie Keane, Lee Carsley, Clinton Morrison and Ian Harte.
Photograph: Andrew Paton/Inpho

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[Colosis]

I know 99.9% of you in the US will not have the slightest bit of interest in this, but we are dancing on the streets here in Ireland.

[Colosis]

Ping to you all.

[Colosis]

special ping for you!

[jjbrouwer]

Thanks, Colosis and congrats to the Irish!

You forgot the important *ping* though, the most fanatical Ireland footie fan in Freepland, Happygal, so I've done it for you.

[KirklandJunction]

Congratulations Ireland!

[Colosis]

Thanks - I knew there was someone I forgot. Sorry HappyGal.

[Neets]

BTT

[Dan De Quille]

Congratulations. Who all, besides the Irish, are in the finals there in the Far East?

[Colosis]

France, China, Korea, Japan, Cameroon, S.Africa, Tunisia, Senegal, Nigeria, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, Denmark, Croatia, Italy, England, USA, Costa Rica - well that's most of them.

[NewAmsterdam]

Congrats and good luck to the Irish!

[Happygal]

~Shush~ Those pings are kinda loud today (Holdin' an ice pack to me head)

Well a gal MUST celebrate *L*

As being the biggest footie fan...hmmmm, maybe. But WHEN are we gonna talk hurling? (The sport, not the projectile vomiting contest! *L* We leave that to English fottie fans, eh jj? ;-P)

[jjbrouwer]

Happy, you must sign up to my chat club in time for the World Cup. I only started it last weekend but we have about 45 members, Freepers and humans.

But come the World Cup it is going to be like a virtual pub. We might even beam the games into the chat area. Details on my profile...

[Happygal]

OK! I'm all signed up and ready to go! *L*....Can't for the life of me figure out how to post on it, and stuff...Guinness, sure does rot the brain! *L*

[Happygal]

Now this is what you call a sport! *L*

[Benson_Carter]

thanks for the ping and congratulations!

[Happygal]

Damn cyber blonde am I!!!!! I can never get the hang of posting pics here *poutin*

[BritBulldog]

Just goes to show what we Irish can accomplish when working together. Wonder how far they might've gone working under the crown? LOL.

Win the finals. Reach the semi-finals more than once?

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I hate the term 'soccermom' but I am one...and Irish to boot. My oldest son (one of the captains of his HS team) watches soccer on cable all of the time and was complaining that he couldn't get most of the WC games on our system. He'll laugh when he finds out the Ireland game was covered on FR...

Congrats from the mom of an FAI fan!

[jjbrouwer]

Nice one, Happy! And I like the screenname you chose. Actually it is dead easy to work this little box of tricks. You've done the hard bit.

All you need to do now is go to the homepage, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and see who is in 'chat'. Then you just click enter and you are in.

Give it a while to warm up though as it is early in Yank Land.

Go out for a few celebratory ales and then log on.

We had ten in the chat area at the same time on only our second day of business. Now we have double the registered users I reckon we will be jam-packed with about 20 drunks tonight and tomorrow!