JOE’s Top Five memorable Irish football moments of 2010

It wasn't the greatest year in the history of Irish soccer, but we had plenty of memorable moments to choose from.

By Conor Hogan

1. The opening of the Aviva Stadium

Croke Park, magnificent as it is, never felt like home. It was a bit like staying in your older slightly more successful brother's house while you were between places. And he was polite and everything, and he let you use his oven and television while he wasn't there, but you knew that he was thinking 'when will that bastard ever leave?'

Well, you've left now, and your new place is smaller but it suits you more. It's a fancy, exciting looking place with all the mod cons. In fact, it looks like the kind of place the Jetsons might live in and it's enviromentally friendly to boot.

But enough of the tired metaphor, the Aviva is a spectacular looking arena; its wave-like roof design is both aesthetically pleasing and practical, as it doesn’t block light from local residents like other stadiums of its size do. The first football match it was to host was the slightly embarrassing hammering a League of Ireland selection took at the hands of Manchester United and unfortunately, it is yet to prove a fortress for the Irish team.

2. Robbie Keane's 100th cap

It has been a pretty forgettable year for Robbie Keane at club level. Save for a couple of months where he banged in countless goals for Celtic in the rather easy SPL, the Tallaght man has been basically frozen out at Spurs - finding himself behind Roman Pavlyuchenko, Jermain Defoe and even Peter Crouch in Tottenham's pecking order.



At international level, it's been a completely different story for the 30-year-old. Well okay, not a completely different story, as his form has been somewhat affected by his situation at club level.

On 11 August, however, Robbie Keane walked out onto the pitch for the 100th time. Standing in the middle of the pitch with his son in his arms, Keane was where he's at his most comfortable - the centre of attention.

Keane is a man who seeks constant adulation, and for a brief fleeting moment he could feel the warmth from 50,000 people. And boy did he ever bask in it.

3. France getting their comeuppance

It was arguably the best moment in Irish football this year and we didn't even have to be involved. France, and we hate to go on about it, robbed us of our place at the World Cup. It was karma that it would all go horribly wrong for them.

And appropriately enough it was a team in green who did it to them. Mexico completely outplayed France in a crucial group game in South Africa and the final score of 2-0 was frankly, flattering to Les Blues. Nicolas Anelka was sent home for abusing Domenech at half-time of that match and the rest of the surly bunch went on strike, refusing to train.

Then, they were embarrassed by hosts South Africa in the third group game, Raymond Domenech was sacked after the tournament and new manager Laurent Blanc was so disgusted that his first action on taking over was to suspend all 23 members of the squad.

4. Seamus Coleman sitting on the bench at full time

Grimsby Town's Nick Colgan has eight caps for Ireland. Gary Doherty has 34 caps for Ireland. Joe Lapira, remember him? That Irish American lad that Steve Staunton spotted outside a stadium in Ireland's 2007 tour of North America? He has a cap for Ireland.

Seamus Coleman, however, 22-years old and starring every week in the Premier League, has yet to play for the senior team. We all thought he'd be brought on in the meaningless friendly against Norway, but like the also highly-rated Marc Wilson, Trapattoni didn't take a risk.

And then we only went and lost anyway. Trapattoni's refusal to take a chance on the likes Wigan's James McCarthy and other young talents has been the major frustration of his reign so far.

5. Shay Given and Kevin Kilbane break national record

On 2 March, Shay Given walked out onto the pitch as the most capped Irishman in history. Okay, so he had to share the honour with Kevin Kilbane, had to do it in London, not Ireland and didn't have his children out on the pitch with him - but then again you can't have everything.

He has since overtaken the Hull substitute for Irish appearances, though. Hopefully, he'll have some appearances for his club sometime next year.

Honourable mention



Following Ireland's disappointing draw with Slovakia in Zilina, it would take a lot to lift the mood of the Irish fans. Enter John Delaney, chief executive of the FAI, who splashed out €5,000 of his own money on fans for the Irish fans after agreeing to provide free transport (and beer) for them between Bratislava and Zilina.

It is a drop in the ocean, admittedly, when you compare it to the €400,000 he makes a year for doing a generally incompetent job (this is the man who hired Staunton ) but his cheap publicity stunt was much appreciated by the hoi polloi, who carried him on their shoulders like Rocky ... in that film Mask starring Cher.