Irish Footballers

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni still faces an anxious wait ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria in Sofia. With the pressure on following the bizarre circumstances of Dean Kiely’s departure last week, the Irish boss has a number of lingering injury worries – a list which grew at today’s London based training session.

Robbie Keane, Richard Dunne, Shay Given and Caleb Folan all sat out at least some of today’s training session while defender Paul McShane picked up a knock at Arsenal’s training ground and left the field with a heavily strapped ankle.

The Irish camp is already without the services of Darron Gibson, Kevin Doyle and Noel Hunt through injury.

The latest round of FIFA World Rankings have been published and despite a number of moves ahead of them, the Republic of Ireland remain unchanged in 34th place.

However, a relatively quiet period in the international calendar was always likely to produce few changes. June’s World Cup qualifier with Bulgaria could yet have an impact on the next list – due to be published at the start of July.

Saturday’s opponents Bulgaria dropped three places to 23rd in the current list.

Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson will miss Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria in Sofia – suffering from a groin strain picked up playing in United’s final league game of the season.

He had been rated as doubtful over the weekend and it was confirmed today that he will now miss Saturday’s game.

Shay Given and Robbie Keane both sat out today’s training session at Arsenal’s training ground but both are expected to recover in time for Saturday.

Giovanni Trapattoni has called up two goalkeepers to pad up his squad ahead of the World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria on Saturday in Sofia.

Having alienated Dean Kiely and lost the services of Keiren Westwood, Trapattoni was left with just one goalkeeper in his squad.

He has now added Birmingham City’s Colin Doyle and the six times capped Preston North End squad member Wayne Henderson. Henderson was loaned out to Grimsby Town last season and played 14 times. Doyle played just 4 times for Birmingham last season, twice near the start of the season and twice near the end – although only two of those games were in the league.

Confusion surrounds Giovanni Trapattoni’s search for a backup goalkeeper for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier with Bulgaria in Sofia.

Having alienated previous backup Dean Kiely through his bizarre choice to start the injury prone Shay Given against Nigeria on Friday, Trapattoni took another swipe at the veteran West Brom striker following Friday’s draw. Although it seems that Trapattoni won’t call on Kiely again, it is unlikely the veteran keeper would wish to come back anyway.

Quoted on the RTE website, Trapattoni’s comments were a thinly veiled dig at the keeper, “We must look at the mentality – not staying at home and resting but being professional”.

Now though it  has emerged that Friday’s debut keeper Keiren Westwood will miss Saturday’s game as he is getting married. That leaves Shay Given as the only goalkeeper in the squad for the game that matters in this end of season double.

Candidates for the backup role include Joe Murphy – who won promotion to the English Championship this year and was named in the League One team of the season. He has been capped once. Colin Doyle is another one cap wonder who has linked with a call-up.

Bohemians goalkeeper Brian Murphy is the current League of Ireland player of the year, has won back to back goalkeeper of the year awards and represented Ireland at underage level. However, he is likely to be overlooked and the current managerial regime would probably give more weight to his cause if he wasn’t playing for a lower league English side.

The FAI today confirmed the worst kept secret in Irish football – that the Republic of Ireland will host Argentina as the first senior international soccer match at the Aviva Stadium. The rebuilt stadium is set to open in 2010 and is due to host the Europa League final in 2011.

The game against Argentina will take place in Dublin on Wednesday, 11th August 2010 – the date of the first international fixtures following the finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Speaking at the announcement, FAI chief executive John Delaney said “I am very happy to have reached this agreement with Argentina, who will be fitting opponents to mark an opening international match of such significance. Aviva Stadium will be joint owned by the FAI and the IRFU and represents the single largest infrastructural project in the Association’s history. I look forward to welcoming Argentina to Dublin next year to help us celebrate that achievement.”

Robbie Keane’s thirty-ninth international goal was enough to earn the Republic of Ireland a 1-1 draw with Nigeria at Craven Cottage in London on Friday night.

Manager Giovanni Trapattoni handed out five new caps in his starting eleven and goalkeeper Keiren Westwood was a sixth debut as the second half began.

Michael Enemaro had given Nigeria the lead after thirty minutes – and left them on track for a third successive win against Ireland.

However, that lead lasted just eight minutes when Keane nipped through the Nigerian defence to slot home.

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Former Republic of Ireland international Stephen Ireland has resolved his protracted contract negotiations with English Premier League side Manchester City.

The Cobh born midfielder has put pen to paper on a new five year deal and expects to spend at least the majority of his career at the club.

Quoted on the official Manchester City website Ireland said, “I never had any doubts about staying. Regardless, I was going to be here, and hopefully for the remainder of my career. I don’t see why not. I really want to become a hero here, to hopefully achieve things. I’m settled here – I love the club, I love the fans, and I don’t see what’s going to make me leave this club.”

Republic of Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni named a relatively inexperienced starting line-up for Friday night’s international friendly with Nigeria at Craven Cottage, London. The main headline of course was Dean Kiely’s walk out after news that Shay Given will start and Keiren Westwood will replace him at some stage.

In front of Given, the back four will see three new faces as Kevin Foley, Sean St. Ledger and Eddie Nolan get their first senior international caps. Liam Lawrence gets his first cap in midfield while Leon Best will also make his debut as he takes his place alongside captain Robbie Keane in attack.

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Goalkeeper Dean Kiely would appear to have again called time on his international career. The West Brom keeper left the Irish camp yesterday after manager Giovanni Trapattoni announced his starting line-up for the friendly with Nigeria at Craven Cottage on Friday evening.

First choice keeper Shay Given has been bizarrely included in the starting line-up – having just shaken off a hip injury which troubled him for much of the week. Uncapped Keiren Westwood is expected to replace Given at some point in the game but Trapattoni has said that he will look at bringing in someone to replace Kiely. Bohemians goalkeeper Brian Murphy would be many people’s choice but the League of Ireland again looks set to be overlooked.

Speaking on Kiely’s departure the Irish boss said, “If he stayed with us, it’s better, but he wished to go. He said he was a bit disappointed, he thought he had an opportunity. I’m a bit disappointed but my job is to look forward at other situations.”

Kiely originally retired from international football in 2003 but returned when Trapattoni took the reigns.