Friday, November 22, 2024

Tommy Martin: In the blink of an eye we have swapped places with Georgia

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On the opposing escalators of international football, the Republic of Ireland and Georgia lock eyes once again. 

When you sit up late and watch the highlights of goals going in around the continent on international football nights you begin to see the patterns. At first it all looks the same. Parochial scuffles in half-empty stadiums in various European capitals, the kind of places that remind you of when Ian Wright described the venue for an England away match in Belarus as a “right moody gaff”.

Then you notice a team like Georgia, bobbing up on the international waters, catching your eye. Georgia, our old friends! Back in 2009 we stole a win off them in World Cup qualifying under Trapattoni at Croke Park. Georgia were on their way to finishing bottom of the group then, a proper minnow.

But a Stephen Kelly mistake handed them an early goal and they looked well set for a famous result until disaster, typically, struck. Poor Georgia defender Ucha Lobjanidze had a penalty awarded against him for handball when it clearly struck his shoulder and we, not yet acquainted with the cruel pecking order of international handball decisions, laughed at our good fortune as Robbie Keane first scored the spot kick, then added a winner against the sickened visitors.

“I don’t know if we lost the three points because of the penalty that was given against us, but we definitely lost one point,” said Georgia’s Argentinian coach Hector Cuper. “The team did not deserve to lose today. The penalty given against us influenced the further performance of the team because they did not know what happened.” 

Cuper, the grizzled former Valencia and Inter Milan boss, was the kind of man Georgia looked to in those days to raise their meagre post-Soviet fortunes. Among his predecessors were Klaus Toppmoeller, who led Bayer Leverkusen to the Champions League final in 2002, and legendary, snake hipped former French playmaker Alain Giresse.

Come the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign, we were at it again. An Aiden McGeady pirouette and curler in the final minute of regulation time saw us elope from Tblisi with three points before Jonathan Walters settled a dreary scuffle at the Aviva Stadium in September 2015 with the only goal of the game. It seemed that we existed to remind Georgia of their place in the grand scheme of things.

Little did we know, on our way to Euro 2016, those days of Robbie Brady and serenading nuns on French trains, that Ireland and Georgia were already heading in different directions. 2015 was the year the Georgian FA launched a five-year strategic plan, aimed at improving the football culture at all levels of the game.

The domestic league was souped up and rebranded, growing attendances and viewership numbers. Grassroots leagues were expanded. Over 1900 coaching licences were handed out. The number of registered male players increased from 14,676 in 2015 to 37,600 in 2021, the number of female players increasing tenfold.

Robbie Keane celebrates after scoring his side’s second goal in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Georgia. Picture: David Maher / SPORTSFILE

Money was found internally and from UEFA funding to build 37 new football pitches, allowing Georgia to host the under-17 Euros in 2017 and the under-21 Euros in 2023. These tournaments allowed young Georgian players to compete at the top level for the first time. A new national football academy had been set up in 2014 partially funded by UEFA’s Hat Trick scheme.

By the time they launched their second strategic plan in 2022, focused on developing a unified playing style across all international teams, they were well on their way. When the UEFA Nations League was launched in 2018, Georgia were down with the dregs in League D, with Ireland beginning the fraught residence in League B that looks more endangered with every passing international window.

Georgia romped home top of a four-team group that included Kazakhstan, Latvia and Andorra. Then they consolidated in League C, finishing third along with Armenia, North Macedonia and Estonia, before the 2022 edition which saw them finish seven points clear of Bulgaria at the top of their group. That top spot earned them the play-off that earned them their place at Euro 2024 this summer, which is when everyone else began to take notice.

By that time everyone knew they had Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, the brilliant Napoli winger, but soon they would also know players like striker Georges Mikautadze, mercurial playmaker Giorgi Chakvetadze and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili as well.

More to the point, they would recognise a distinctive Georgian style, built on high-energy, explosive counterattacking. This was no accident. In the Soviet days, Georgians were stereotyped by the region’s explosive style of male folk dancing, their footballers thought to provide exciting, unpredictable counterpoint to the stoic Russians in the national team. Sometimes you have to lean into your identity.

At Euro 2016, the Republic of Ireland’s run ended at the last 16 when they gave eventual finalists France a bloody nose before losing 2-1. At Euro 2024, Georgia’s run ended at the last 16 when they gave eventual winners Spain a bloody nose before losing 4-1. We have officially swapped places with the one-time minnows and it has happened in what feels like the blink of an eye.

The Nations League escalator moment came this week when Georgia made it two wins from two in League B, an 1-0 away win in Albania following up a 4-1 home thumping of Czech Republic. There is every chance that Georgia will be playing in League A next time, and that their current performances will earn them the backup of a playoff for 2026 World Cup qualification, something that already looks well beyond the Republic of Ireland.

Going by Georgia’s experience, Ireland is about ten years away from competing at the top level of international football again, but only if we start doing the right things now. But then we knew that. One of the annoying things about the Irish national team’s dire trajectory is that international matches are no longer an excuse to have a few pints and cheer on the team. Instead, they have become case studies in decline and precursors to debates about investment and structures.

We didn’t need to meet Georgia on the way down to know we were heading in the wrong direction.

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