It didn’t look like Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane knew they were being recorded.
After the pre-match press conference on Tuesday night, the pair made their way to the much-maligned Stade Pierre Mauroy pitch along with Seamus Coleman and the cameras picked up their every move.
Just 10 minutes previous, the Ireland boss appeared with his right back in front of the press and he seemed sombre. A football personality can be off with the media for any reason – whether it’s an article they didn’t like, false reporting, rumours, or they just generally might not be arsed. But the Derry man was there for the guts of 20 minutes before the cameras and dictaphones and he came across more upset than he did three nights ago in Bordeaux after the Belgium game.
O’Neill reiterated the same, old points: they beat Germany, they’ll take inspiration from the Bosnia match, Jon Walters probably won’t make it and the players know what they have to do. They sounded so tired and used and downbeat that they almost came across as hollow.
Then, he arrived on the pitch.
He strolled around the surface himself and took it all in as 50,000 empty seats enclosed with a rooftop stared back at him.
He felt the grass, stamped his feet and came back looking animated as he pointed out onto the field.
In the dugout, Coleman and Keane sat – a convention between the future Irish captain and manager perhaps.
O’Neill joined them. A few laughs, a few gestures, a few playful actions. Suddenly, it got serious.
Roy was rolling his eyes, heads were being shook and the three would glance out onto the pitch every so often – a stage where history beckons.
It’s funny how quickly it can turn. From Sunday through to Saturday, the whole of Ireland was having a party and it seemed like the entire island had ended up in France. Paris was invaded, Bordeaux was painted green and a good performance against Sweden was sandwiched with dancing in the streets and a national feel-good factor. The fans were taking the plaudits of the world and, at last, the team was competing at the top level again.
A bad defeat and everyone jumped on the rugby for like 20 minutes before quickly moving onto golf. There’s never any real dejection that follows low points of Irish football. It’s either extreme highs or extreme indifference and, when it gets bad, people would happily move on with their lives if they could – pretend like it never happened.
Roof closed, pitch bumpy. Lille is all set for tomorrow night pic.twitter.com/xieNcaNG0K
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 21, 2016
And yet, here we are.
On Wednesday, one of the biggest nights in the country’s footballing history awaits.
On Wednesday, Ireland have the opportunity to record what would arguably be their finest ever result.
On Wednesday, immortality is there for them if they want it enough.
In Lille, in an empty stadium, a deserted pitch and from the safety of a lonely dugout, it sure as hell looked like Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane wanted it enough.
There was a stage where the assistant manager was talking and he appeared from the TV monitors in the media tribune to grow emotional. He smacked his hands together, it almost looked as if he was biting his teeth, he even clenched his fists. Whatever they were chatting, it wasn’t friendly and it wasn’t messing – at least it seemed from the second tier of the stadium.
Only on Monday, in his press conference, Roy Keane talked about courage and bravery. He talked about balls. He talked about doing what was necessary to win, hauling a man down if you had to. He talked about never going into a game with the mindset that they’re better than you. He talked about winning. Like it was done before.
When Martin O'Neill talks, people listen #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/8C8BckoXok
— Conán Doherty (@ConanDoherty) June 21, 2016
But Martin O’Neill isn’t too keen to discuss 22 years ago. Ireland have won just three matches outright in major tournaments in their history. Only one of those have occurred in the last two decades. It’s not going to help the country in a must-win clash on Wednesday night in Lille.
“I think that we’ve got our own recent memories to inspire us, none moreso than the night in October time when we beat the world champions,” the manager said. “When you say it like that, it just seems to disappear into the ether but we beat the world champions on a night that we had to win. That’s extraordinary.
“We’re talking about a side who, just 16 months earlier, had gone to Brazil and won the World Cup. That was a great moment for us and it was inspiration enough for us to go on and beat Bosnia over two games in a playoff. That’s where we drew inspiration from. We don’t have to go back to ’94. We have the set of players that did it.”
And when you looked at Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane talking on their own in the deserted stadium on the eve of one of the country’s biggest ever nights, you could see plain as day without even the benefit of audio that they’re not reading history. They’re trying to make history.
In all the flatness from the fallout of Belgium, the two leaders at the helm looked poised for battle. They looked ready for their own shot at immortality.
