Happy Birthday Roy.
It’s Roy Keane’s birthday today, and we thought it would be a fitting tribute to one of Ireland’s finest ever footballers to compile a list of his greatest moments as Ireland’s premier midfield general.
Keane made 67 appearances for the Irish international team, featuring at the 1994 World Cup. He was also named in the 2002 World Cup squad but, well, let’s not mention the ‘S’ word today. It’s the man’s special day, after all.
Instead, let’s think about the good times and thank Keane for the memories. We reckon that Roy isn’t the type to go in for birthdays in a big way but hey, this one’s on us.
5) Man of the match against Mexico, 1994
Ireland’s performance at the 1994 World Cup didn’t quite live up to the dizzying heights reached in the Stadio Luigi Ferraris four years earlier, but Roy Keane’s performance was, at the time, one of the most encouraging signs for the future of Irish football.
Against Mexico, our players were heavily burdened by the kind of heat that the Mexican team could simply brush off – but Keane battled for every ball and passed it around the pitch with a precision and composure that is not often the preserve of a 22-year old. Keane was named Ireland’s best player of the tournament.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxrs7Vu92ks
4) Ireland 2 – 0 Croatia, 1998
Many see the 2002 World Cup as the pinnacle of Ireland’s unfulfilled potential. They might be wiser to look at our failure to qualify for the 2000 European Championships. We were denied automatic qualification in the last minute of the entire group stage when Macedonia equalised against us, and dumped out of the play-offs by a Turkey away goal, courtesy of a penalty yielded by a Lee Carsley handball.
But it had started so brightly for us. Three minutes into the qualification campaign, a Denis Irwin penalty gave us the lead. Roy Keane followed this up by putting a header past the Croatian keeper to double Ireland’s money after only 16 minutes. He would score again in the next game against Malta, and Ireland looked sure to have qualified for a fourth major tournament. Alas, that wouldn’t come until 2002, and again Keane would play a vital role.
3) These two goals against Cyprus, 2001
Ireland had taken only five points from their first three games in the qualification process for the 2002 World Cup. If Ireland were to have any hope of beating Portugal or the Netherlands to earn a ticket to Japan and South Korea, beating Cyprus on Nicosian soil was essential. Roy Keane bagged the first goal of the game in a four-nil win, but the cracker he produced to finish off the rout was something special.
2) Putting us in front against Portugal, 2001
Ireland had spent the whole of the first half on the back foot against a Portuguese team that included legends of the late-nineties and early-noughties Luis Figo, Pauleta and Rui Costa. The two sides began the second-half on an even keel thanks only to the heroics of Shay Given, the woodwork and (who else but…?) Roy Keane. Keane’s reputation as a marvel was fairly won. An incisive attacker and an tough defender who passed as sharply as he tackled. He was peerless in his completion.
Keane rattled the Portuguese when he latched on to a quick McAteer throw-in a casually stuck the ball in the net, giving Ireland a bit of room to breathe and keeping the pressure on the group’s top two seeds.
1) ‘Welcome to Landsdowne Road’, 2001
Roy Keane was the undisputed talisman of the best Irish side of the last twenty years. Sixty seconds into our pivotal, penultimate World Cup 2002 qualifier against the Netherlands, Keane clattered into Dutch winger Marc Overmars with a tackle that told his opponents that they would be lucky to leave Landsdowne Road with their legs, let alone a point.
In that moment, Keane was the embodiment of the intensity that Ireland needed to see off a team full of superstars, managed by Louis Van Gaal. Keane set the standard, as he always had, for aggression, passion and power – and his teammates matched his stride.
Later on in the game, Keane burst forward, evading a tackle or two before shifting the ball towards the centre of the pitch – starting the attack that ended with Jason McAteer taking the proverbial roof off of Landsdowne Road. George Hamilton’s voice-box was never the same again.
Clips via Keepitonthedeck, sp1873, & Chimpanzeethat.
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