Soccer/World Cup Qualifying 2006: As if the locals here in Basel didn't have enough concerns about the Irish ahead of this evening's World Cup qualifier at the St Jakob Park, billboards all over town carry news of our next threat to their quietly cultured way of life.
Come the middle of next month Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance will be in town, continuing its apparently never-ending mission to peddle to the people of the world a vision of an Ireland that never was.
To judge by his views on the Republic's football team, FC Basel defender Murat Yakin might be sitting dead centre front row when Flatley's highly sophisticated cash-gathering operation arrives here on the banks of the Rhine. Asked what he expected of Brian Kerr's side this evening, the 29-year-old defender pondered the issue a while before providing us with his clearly well researched views on the matter. "Ireland," he said, "will play their simple Irish football."
The dismissive attitude would be somewhat more excusable had Yakin been taken in after sitting through a few too many of Kerr's own "I'm only a simple Dub" routines.
Swiss coach Kobi Kuhn, however, will presumably have made tapes of Ireland playing during past 12 months which, if the defender pays any attention, may provide evidence that both the Irish manager and his team have come a long way since the abject surrender of last October.
Kerr was impressive in his final press conference before the game yesterday, giving little away about his intentions for this evening and making only modest claims about the team's chances but nevertheless exuding a certain confidence that the outcome this evening can be a great deal more satisfactory for the visiting supporters, whose cause for singing last time more or less ended with the playing of the national anthem.
Calmly he acknowledged what he had declined to do for some time after the 2-0 defeat - that those players who had needed to rise to the occasion had failed to do so, while a few who have established reputations for cruising above the altitude required that afternoon barely even registered on the game's radar.
Since then he has used the friendly matches his team has played well, bringing through a couple of the country's most promising young talents and firmly bedding into his first choice side a couple of others who will start tonight having watched helplessly from the sidelines last year.
"You'd never be happy unless you got to the stage when the team was consistently winning both at home and away," he said yesterday, "but the team has progressed. What we have now is more competition in every area of the pitch and clearly that's a good thing. We've come here without John O'Shea, Liam Miller, Matt Holland and Rory Delap and it still looks like we have a decent squad."
Roy Keane's presence is, of course, of major significance, something that Kuhn has probably underestimated over the past couple of days when he said it made little difference to the way Ireland would play whether the Corkman, Matt Holland or Graham Kavanagh played in the centre of midfield. The Manchester United midfielder will, for a start, inject confidence into the team as a whole and his presence is likely to provide those around him with a freedom to venture forward that was almost entirely absent from last year's encounter.
The home side's coach was right, though, when he emphasised the importance to the Irish of Duff ahead of this evening's encounter. The 25-year-old is set to start the game having trained yesterday without any apparent problem with his calf and the Swiss coach's view is that the Irish, given Andy Reid's emergence, will now pose a threat on both flanks in a way that they simply didn't when Kilbane played on the left.
Kuhn, indeed, is considering switching Christoph Spycher, assuming the Grasshopper Zurich player is fit enough to play, from the left to the right side of the Swiss defence in order to counter Duff, for the 26-year-old did well in the role last year. That Spycher is reported to have no ability with his right foot whatsoever seems only a secondary consideration.
But then Ireland will almost certainly be playing a right-footed player at left back where John O'Shea's absence has left Kerr with a slight problem. Alan Maybury has played more football there than any of his rivals but his performances for Ireland have been a mixed bag and while the Swiss have nobody with anything like the pace down the right of Ifeanyi Ekwueme, the Nigerian winger who gave the Hearts defender a torrid time at the Valley back in June, Steve Finnan still looks more solid and the most likely bet.
Other changes remain possible, though. Kerr may still opt to play Maybury at left back, Finnan on the right of midfield and Duff up front while dropping Morrison.
There were even suggestions yesterday that he may be tempted to change his formation and play with his two wingers up front, either side of Robbie Keane, while starting both Roy Keane and Graham Kavanagh, as well as Kilbane, in midfield.
Having seen his side do well in recent games with a more traditional approach there may be few enough changes from Saturday when the Irish executed an all too familiar game plan well. Simple Irish football, as Murat Yakin might say. Let's hope it is to his taste tonight.
PROBABLE TEAMS
SWITZERLAND: Zuberbuhler (Basel); Haas (West Brom), M Yakin (Basel), Muller (Real Mallorca), Spycher (Grasshoppers); Cabanas (Grasshoppers), Vogel (PSV), Wicky (SV Hamburger); H Yakin (Stuttgart); Rey (Neuchatel Xamax), Vonlanten (PSV).
IRELAND: Given (Newcastle United); Carr (Newcastle United), Cunningham (Birmingham City), O'Brien (Newcastle United), Finnan (Liverpool); Reid (Nottingham Forest), Roy Keane (Manchester United), Kilbane (Everton), Duff (Chelsea); Robbie Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Morrison (Birmingham City).
