SOCCER:HAVING FROZEN and lost 2-0 on their short trip to Estonia last week, the Uruguayans appeared more sincere than most when they said they were happy to be Dublin.

True, Oscar Tabarez gave a shrug after every question that seemed to ask: “What do you expect me to say?” But out on the pitch his players played their training game with a sense of joy that suggested they were at least enjoying the sunshine.

Tabarez is known as The Maestro after having achieved so much on the club and international fronts and while it is difficult to imagine how he might top getting the South Americans to last year’s World Cup semi-finals, he certainly doesn’t seem to have given up on doing just that.

And star striker Diego Forlan, who won the Golden Ball after being voted the best player in South Africa last summer agrees with his manager there just might be more to come from this group of players.

“We have a great opportunity to play in the South America Cup,” he says. “It’s a great tournament and we’re playing in Argentina. It’s going to be very tough, all the South American teams are very strong and doing really well. They showed it in the last World Cup. But we hope we can play very well there and try to get to the final if we can.”

The team’s performance at the World Cup, where he scored five goals, and Luis Suarez – absent from tonight’s game through injury – made quite a mark, is certainly an inspiration but now, he says, they must continue the process of developing the team.

How much improving they might do against such a weakened Ireland side is open to question but they will, one suspects, relish the opportunity to get back to winning ways and, perhaps to put on a bit of a show.

Certainly, when asked if he was put out by the idea of so many Irish players the former Manchester United striker seemed a little perplexed by the suggestion.

“No,” he said with a friendly smile, “they played a qualifying game on Saturday and some of the players have been playing a lot of games so what the coach decides, it’s okay. We are here to play a nice game against Ireland. It doesn’t matter who plays in the game, we are here to do our best and to try and win the game.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re young or old, every player from all the over world, when they get a chance to play for the national team they’re going to try to do their best. In this case we expect that so it won’t be easy.”

The pitch, he suggests, might make things even harder over the course of the night with the striker suggesting that it is the one aspect of the new stadium that he did not find so impressive but, he acknowledged graciously, “that will be the same for both of us”.