As far as international friendlies are concerned, there is nothing more prestigious than playing against the most glamorous and successful team in world football, Brazil. On 3 July 1973 a packed Lansdowne Road had the pleasure of watching the reigning World Cup holders take on an Irish side. But this was an Irish side with a difference: for the first time since the 1950s, the team was made up of players from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The concept of a unified Irish team was the brainchild of Louis Kilcoyne, who had recently taken ownership of the Dublin-based club Shamrock Rovers. Kilcoyne had travelled to Brazil in 1972 to watch the Republic in a friendly tournament. Once he heard about Brazil’s intentions to tour Europe the following year as part of their preparation for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, he was determined to get Ireland on to an itinerary that already included games against Germany, Austria, Sweden, Italy and Scotland.
Kilcoyne lobbied João Havelange, the president of the Brazilian football confederation, to add Ireland to the trip. Havelange was running to be the president of Fifa at the time and, with the inducement of securing a vote from the FAI, he was readily convinced of the case for a game in Ireland. Kilcoyne embellished this offer with the promise of a unified Irish side, which was politically highly sensitive given the Troubles were at their height.
He had a job on his hands to persuade both the IFA and the FAI to agree to an All-Ireland XI as both were implacably opposed to such an idea. Since the FAI had seceded from the original association in 1921, there had been little love lost between the two.
It was going to take a fair amount of cajoling, especially as the IFA president Harry Cavan made every effort to get the game called off. Kilcoyne was not to be denied and his masterstroke was calling his side a “Shamrock Rovers XI” thereby neatly circumventing the rules about friendly internationals and avoiding the thorny issue of a united Ireland football team. Kilcoyne also recognised that making the match a fundraiser would reduce the strength of resistance to the idea. And so the proceeds of the ticket sales went to two charities, Unicef and the Irish Cancer Society.
He also enlisted the help of his brother-in-law Johnny Giles, who just so happened to be the Republic of Ireland captain, to put together the side. In turn Giles approached his friend, the Northern Ireland captain Derek Dougan, to complete the team. “If you can get Brazil, you can rest assured I will bring six players and myself,” Dougan told Giles. Dougan leveraged his considerable influence: “I was in a good position to get people at the time because I was chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association but the reality is that everybody wanted to be involved because of the opposition,” he said later.
Dougan later claimed that his involvement in arranging the game led to him being ostracised by the Northern Ireland team. He never played for his country again and believed that the Northern Ireland manager, Terry Neill, had been told not to pick him by the IFA. Others pointed to the fact that he was already past his prime at 35 years old, had not played for Northern Ireland for more than a year, and had not scored for more than two years as more plausible reasons.
Between them, Giles and Dougan assembled a team with even representation from both sides of the border and one that was capable of standing up to the might of the Brazilians and giving them a decent test. The majority of the players were regulars in the First Division in England, including goalkeeper Pat Jennings who was playing for Tottenham at the time, Ipswich’s Bryan Hamilton – who went on to become Northern Irish manager in 1994 – Stoke’s Terry Conroy and Don Givens from QPR.
There was one player missing from the side, though, as Crystal Palace full-back Paddy Mulligan later reflected: “The one regret I have over that game would be the fact that the late, great George Best wasn’t available unfortunately. It would have been great to see him show off his skills against the Brazilians. That was a pity.”
With or without Best in the Irish side, the Brazilians were formidable opposition. Mário Zagallo – who had won the World Cup as a player in 1958 and 1962, and then repeated the trick as manager in 1970 – was still in charge. And he had a few of the imperious 1970 side: Jairzinho, the only player to ever score in every match of a World Cup finals, and Roberto Rivellino were the pick of the bunch, alongside central defender Wilson Piazza and midfielder Clodoaldo. Having beaten both West Germany and the Soviet Union earlier in the tour, they were in good form.
The game followed a predictable pattern initially with Brazil cruising to a 4-1 lead just after half-time courtesy of a couple of goals from emerging forward Caju, plus one each from Valdomiro and, almost inevitably, Jairzinho. Dougan and Conroy reduced the arrears with goals in the second half and Jennings saved a penalty from Caju in the last minute, denying him his hat-trick and keeping the score at a respectable 4-3. The Irish side gained further kudos by being the first team to score three goals past Brazil since 1968, when they lost 3-2 to Czechoslovakia.
By losing so narrowly the Irish players earned the respect of the football world. Their Brazilian counterparts, meanwhile, earned hard cash. They were reportedly paid a handsome $500 if they won the match, but nothing if they drew or lost. Some elements of the South American press suggested that their earnings were squandered quickly, hinting that the players indulged themselves a little too much during the tour.
Many years later Conroy mischievously alluded to such goings-on at a get-together for the players when recalling how Jairzinho joined the Irish players in some post-match celebrations. “Funnily enough, after the game he wanted to come out to a nightclub with the lads, and obviously the Brazilians like to samba a bit. So he came out to a club in Dublin. All night he kept pestering me and I said: ‘Leave me alone – the game’s finished.’ But what he wanted to know was: ‘Terry, can you teach me the proper way to dribble.’ There you go, what can you say to Jairzinho after that?”
Liam Tuohy was the Republic of Ireland manager at the time and he took charge of the all-Irish side that day. He later reflected: “The game was great. They played their usual brand of dazzling football. There was more to them than that. They had great balance in the side and all worked very hard – but we played very well against them.”
Brazil failed to repeat their 1970 triumph in Germany, eventually finishing fourth after losing to Poland in the third-place play-off. Almost 50 years on, this match remains the last time an all-Ireland team has played together.
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/33DaIUc
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