‘We want to do it for the people’: Séamus Coleman ready to give Ireland something to shout about in Prague
It was put to Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson on Wednesday morning, before a training session at the Fortuna Arena in Prague, that he is a preternaturally calm person.Even in Budapest, after Troy Parrott’s hat-trick, as the striker was pursued by team-mates on his celebratory run around the Puskás Aréna, Hallgrímsson was a picture of poise.“Even after Armenia,” quipped the Icelander, referencing his side’s 2-1 defeat during the group-stage qualifiers.Sitting beside Séamus Coleman, the former Ireland captain he overlooked for that near-disastrous loss in Yerevan last September, Hallgrímsson was confidant enough to mention the lowest point of a World Cup qualification campaign in advance of its climax.The hope is his composed demeanour seeps into the players come kick-off on Thursday night.“I think we all know by now why we got good results and good performances, and that’s the key: not to be over-ambitious tomorrow, stay on point, focus on why we are here and trying to improve, not only in this game, but continuously.”The full 25-man squad trained on the Fortuna pitch, home to Slavia Prague, in advance of the playoff semi-final against the Czech Republic that could secure a winner-takes-all contest against Denmark or North Macedonia in Dublin next Tuesday.The obvious concern is that Coleman has only played 10 minutes of football since Ireland beat Hungary 3-2 on November 16th. A recurrent hamstring injury saw him limp off at Old Trafford on November 24th, and while the 37-year-old returned to the Everton bench in January, he comes into this game worryingly low on match fitness.“I didn’t have many minutes before the last games,” Coleman countered. “But, to be honest, I train 100 per cent every single day, sometimes to my own fault. Maybe I sometimes go too hard and it’s cost me at times, but it’s the only way I know, and thankfully at club level we do train hard.“When you pull on the green shirt, when everything is at stake, with the games I’ve played in past, I’m feeling good and I’m ready for the game.”Hallgrímsson conceded that Ireland do not really know how the Czechs will shape up as there was turmoil in their camp following the 2-1 loss in the Faroe Islands last October. The 74-year-old Miroslav Koubek was parachuted into the manager’s job after Ivan Hasek was sacked, and West Ham’s Tomas Soucek was stripped of the captaincy.Reports in the Czech media suggest Soucek, capped 87 times for his country, will be replaced in midfield by 35-year-old Vladimir Darida, who has come out of retirement to start behind Pavel Sulc, Lukas Provod and Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick, while Wolves defender Ladislav Krejci is their new skipper.“It’s difficult to say,” said Hallgrímsson. “It can be a change with a new coach. We’re not overly-analysing them. We are just focusing on ourselves, trying to build on what we’ve been doing.”Asked what it would mean to guide Ireland to the World Cup in North America, having brought his native Iceland to Russia 2018, he replied: “This is not about me, this is about the team and the nation, so whatever it means to me, it’s irrelevant. I’m just one of this group.”An outstanding achievement from Coleman’s long career would be to play at a World Cup, but the Donegal native preferred to speak about the impact it would have on the country.“A bit like the boss said, selfishly, it would be amazing because as players you do want to do as much as you can in the game. After the last two games [Portugal and Hungary], seeing what it did to our country, it was incredible.“Even speaking about it now, it was incredible what it did to our country, how it lifted our people, how it made people happier and gave them something to get up in the morning and talk about.“That is so important. As much as us players want to do it for ourselves and for the manager and all the people behind the scenes, we want to do it for the people of our country.”
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