For Ireland, qualification for major tournaments has always rested on our ability to beat lesser teams. For USA 94, we picked up maximum points from our games with Albania, Latvia and Lithuania. For 2002, we took 18 points out of 18 against Cyprus, Andorra and Estonia. We failed to qualify for 2006 because of two draws with Israel, two games which we dominated but missed our chances. In 2000, it was two dropped points in Macedonia that cost us. In the last campaign, we dropped points against Cyprus and Slovakia, which left us playing catch-up. In the four games, we were quite competitive against Germany and the Czechs, despite the erratic team-selections and general mismanagement of the squad.
In international football, the saying rings true; 'you don't trip over a mountain, you trip over a stone.' Scotland threw away qualification for Euro 2008 with a defeat in Georgia. Northern Ireland beat Spain, Sweden and Denmark, yet were crippled by defeats to Iceland and Latvia. If we are to be competitive, we must beat the weaker teams; I firmly believe that we have better players than Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro and Bulgaria, and I have faith in the team's ability, particularly under such an excellent manager, to turn things around. Our players have to be ruthless and confident when playing in the green jersey - it's the manager's job to instil these qualities in the team.
In the last three-and-a-half years, respective managers have utterly failed to extract any potential from the players at their disposal. Our results couldn't have been any worse. We don't know what our best team is, as we haven't played a meaningful game since last September. Thus, we don't know how good we really are, and will only really know by next April. But I'm optimistic; I can understand how disillusioned people feel, but if I remember correctly, a similar kind of pessimism surrounded the team before the 2002 qualifiers. History can repeat itself.
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