Thankfully it’s over, the most turbulent international period in Irish soccer since the Saipan drama in 2002. We started our Nations Cup campaign on Sept. 24 with a 1-0 defeat to Kosovo in Pristina, then a few days later we secured a comprehensive 3-0 win over Israel in the Hungarian city of Debrecen. Last Thursday Austria came to Dublin and many Palestinan sympathisers took to the streets of Ballsbridge to protest about the FAI going ahead with the games against Israel. Troy Parrott scored a brilliant goal, rated by many pundits and supporters as the best goal ever seen at the Ballsbridge venue and then he confidently scored a penalty just before half time - we seemed to cruising to another win. But in the second half the Austrians came back to score twice and they went home with a point. On Sunday in the neutral Serbian town of Backa Topola we dominated possession in the first half against Israel, but didn’t create many clear cut chances. Jimmy Dunne was fouled in the penalty area and after a VAR check we got a penalty, which the very cool Troy Parrott converted in the 39th minute.
But we now seem to be a ‘first half team’ and once again we faded in the second half. Israel show a huge improvement and they equalised 90 seconds after the re-start. Oscar Gloukh shot from outside the Irish penalty, the ball struck Liam Scales on its way through and fell into the path of Peretz, who fired into the bottom corner from close range. Later in the half Israel saw two efforts come of the same goal post, with keeper Kelleher beaten. In the 74th minute Irish sub Chiedozie Ogbene hit a perfect volley from the edge of the penalty area, but goalkeeper Tzur parried his effort.
Overall ait was a poor game which was well controlled by Spanish referee Juan Martínez Munuera. But there with some nasty fouls; Israel had four players booked, while Scales was booked for a tackle just before half-time. With Troy Parrott well marshalled we didn’t get many clear scoring opportunities. The young Dubliner was winning his 41st cap on Sunday and scored his 15th international goal. After the game there was a report that Irish fitness coach Damien Dunne was spat at by an Israel player as the teams left the pitch at half-time and that the incident was witnessed by local security staff. As happened in Debrecen in the first leg the Irish players again wore black armbands to remember the Palestinians killed in Gaza. On Sunday the Israeli players also wore black armbands to remember, they said, the people who were killed in the Hamas attack on October 10, 2023.
Irish captain Darragh O’Shea has to return to England at the weekend as his partner was due to give birth. In his absence Caoimh Kelleher wore the captain’s armband. Irish XI on Sunday v Israel: Kelleher, Dunne, O’Brien, Scales, Manning, Knight, Moylan, Coventry, Molumby, Idah, Parrott. Subs: Ogene for Moylan, Vata for Idah, Bagen for Mannin, Lawal for Coventry.
