How many Irish players would have confronted the Bosnians during the warm-up on Monday night?
A few stray kick-outs and Robbie Keane was all over the visitors – furiously gesticulating, roaring and shouting. The Republic of Ireland’s captain was fired up for the second leg. The fact he was unlikely to be involved was inconsequential.
His assistant manager and former team-mate Roy Keane knows the qualities his namesake and other senior squad members like John O’Shea and Shay Given, can still contribute.
“Don’t be writing these boys off, these boys have all contributed and played some of the bigger games earlier in the group. They won’t give up their places easily. Even when they’re not in the starting team, it is what they bring to the dressingroom, the training pitch. Robbie Keane has been absolutely brilliant.
“I wouldn’t be writing them off because I know for a fact they believe they can get in that starting 11 in France.”
VIDEO: Robbie Keane exchanged words with a Bosnian player after their kick-out practice started to get in his wayhttps://t.co/gsU0u2iQaz
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) November 16, 2015
Roy Keane may still believe in Ireland’s record goal-scorer but it would appear he is in the minority.
Jim McGuinness brings a wild-eyed intensity to most things but he really relished reordering the “Good Wall” on Second Captains last week.
With a flourish he introduced legendary Gaelic football manager Mick O’Dwyer at number one, bumping Brian O’Driscoll down to 10 and jettisoning Paul O’Connell altogether.
There was much rugby blueblood on the RTÉ studio floor but one man immune from the vicissitudes of his fellow Irish sporting heroes’ opinions is Robbie Keane.
Marcus O’Sullivan, Christy O’Connor Snr and Carl Frampton have all been on the wall but, five series in, and Keane has yet to feature.
This is not a barometer of the nation’s opinion, but rather that of Keane’s elite sporting peers, and clearly the likes of Liam Brady, Niall Quinn and Paul McGrath have assessed the contribution of Ireland’s record cap-holder and goal-scorer and thought “nah”.
Unfortunately for Keane, there is little evidence to suggest our sporting elites are diametrically opposed to the great unwashed when it comes to their opinion of the 35 year old.
Keane is fifth in the list of all-time European goal-scorers, his 67 goals bettered by only Gerd Muller, Miroslav Klose, Sandor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskas, yet we all seem more enamoured with Shane Long, his 14 goals and winning smile.
Ahead of the first leg of the play-off he was asked if would remind Martin O’Neill of his goal-scoring prowess.
“I don’t think I need to do that. I think 67 goals probably says that a little bit,” the LA Galaxy striker shot back as quickly as he reacts to a loose ball in the penalty area.
However given his last five goals came against Gibraltar, plus his prolific form in the MLS, the opinion seems to have formed that Keane is a flat-track bully.
Of the 18 goals he has scored since pitching up in Los Angeles in 2011 almost a third have come against Gibraltar. The only “top” side to feel the wrath of Robbie in the past four years are Sweden and describing them as a top side is a stretch.
Clare, Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick and even Cork were not exactly powerhouses when O’Dwyer was hoovering up Munster titles with Kerry. During the seventies the All-Ireland was effectively a play-off with a Dublin side who could blow as cold as they did hot.
Does that make McGuinness any less correct about O’Dwyer’s legendary status?.
Keane had scored in four play-offs before Bosnia – Turkey, Iran, France and Estonia – and you could argue the last goal he scored against world class opposition came on that fateful night in Paris in 2009.
Blame it on the relentless onset of middle-age mediocrity, blame it on the non-challenge of soil-creep-slow MLS defenders or blame it on the difficulty associated with scoring goals in an average international side but Keane is not the player he once was.
But was Keane ever the darling of the Irish nation? Euro 2012 can be discounted. Keane, struggling in a relatively poor team outclassed in an horrendous group, never got a sniff.
But, back in 2002, Keane was Ireland’s greatest weapon at a World Cup where the team arguably exceeded expectation by taking Spain to penalties in the second round. He scored in that game, as well as against Saudi Arabia and eventual finalists Germany.
He scored three goals in four games at the biggest tournament of his life but has he entered the pantheon of Houghton ’88, Quinn ’90 or McGrath ’94? Imagine Wayne Rooney scored three goals at a World Cup finals?
If the goals have dried up the commitment never has. Keane has repeatedly spoken of his desire to carry on playing for Ireland for as long as possible. He says this often because he is often asked about his retirement. Keane’s appetite to represent his country have never dried up, even as the starting places have.
He takes a 12-hour flight from LA, often after bruising matches on astroturf pitches, to train for a week before being rewarded with a place on the bench behind Daryl Murphy. Not once has he complained but this will come as no surprise to his many, many fans in the United States.
“Robbie Keane has been the best designated player signing in the history of MLS,” Alexi Lalas reckons. “You can say what you want about MLS but, for my money, it’s the most competitive league in the world.
“I didn’t say it’s the most entertaining or the sexiest or the most popular, but it’s the most competitive. I think Keane recognised that and embraced that and understood how to function within a league, a country and a continent where things are done very differently.”
Here's a picture of the legendary Robbie Keane scoring his first ever penalty for Crumlin United. #FirstOfMany #CUFC pic.twitter.com/a52qnGTcc9
— Crumlin United (@crumlinunited) March 28, 2015
Keane is as naturally talented a footballer as we have seen but he is also an out-and-out grafter. From the age of 15 he slogged away in the ludicrously competitive world of English football. Passing up on playing for his childhood favourites Liverpool, he instead signed for Wolves as he knew that was the smart move for his career.
And what a career it has been: Wolves sensation, Coventry’s record-breaking teenager, Inter’s Irish trailblazer, European hero at Leeds, Tottenham mainstay, Liverpool letdown, prodigal Spur, Bhoyhood dream and LA MVP.
The one constant through all that has been a dedication to Ireland unswayed by his emigrant status. Since leaving home for Wolverhampton at the age of 15, he has only been on the old sod for work and holidays. He is of Ireland but no longer from Ireland.
If selected, EURO 2016 will almost certainly be his international swansong.
Keane’s greatest exploits might lie in the past but it would be a real shame if we didn’t learn to appreciate him while he is still part of our present.
