Two games in the space of four days, both won with a clean sheet; Germany’s qualification for the World Cup next year is drawing closer. They owe that to the Northern Irish, who on Friday defeated the Germany-beating Slovakia and on Monday narrowly lost to the Germans, thereby propelling them to the top of the table.
At least Northern Ireland have been the reigning British champions since 1984, which is true only because the competition has not been played since. On Monday it was a dull affair in the first half. Apart from the offside goal by Daniel Ballard in the 14th minute and Nick Woltemade’s debut goal – which he scored with his shoulder – a quarter of an hour later, essentially nothing happened. In the second half it became a bit livelier; the Northern Irish had plenty of half-chances, but the biggest scoring opportunity came from Karim Adeyemi in the 47th minute when he appeared alone in front of goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell.
George Best would have converted one of the chances even in a fully drunken state. That is the problem with the Northern Irish team, they have no one like him, the best winger of all time, before he drank himself to death. Where should the quality come from anyway? The clubs of the English Premier League swim in money; they buy finished players abroad and waste no time in developing the youth from the neighboring island.
The current players either play in lower-tier leagues or for the grey mice of the Premier League – except Conor Bradley, who plays for Liverpool, but was unavailable on Monday due to a yellow-card suspension. He might have made a difference, but with him out the German side barely got the job done.
Anger over the referee
It was Northern Ireland’s first home defeat in almost two years. Michael O’Neill, who was greeted with standing ovations for his 100th game as Northern Ireland manager, was afterward furious with the Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano. “It is ridiculous to only give two minutes of stoppage time,” he fumed. The referee had been overly petty otherwise as well.
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann, on the other hand, was satisfied. It may not have been a superb game, he said, “but today the table mattered.” In response to questions from Northern Irish journalists he answered in flawless English, but with a heavy dose of cliché: “That will be a tough match … we want to win the group … great atmosphere ….”
Northern Ireland has taken part in three FIFA World Cups and reached the quarterfinals in 1958 and 1982. Until Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 2006 World Cup, Northern Ireland was the smallest nation at a World Cup. Most recently they qualified for the World Cup in 1986, and for now that will remain the case.
Next year the Northern Irish will not travel to the World Cup, and they will also miss the European Championships two years later in Ireland and the United Kingdom — presumably in contrast to the Republic of Ireland team, which has fairly good chances of grabbing one of the two host slots for hosting nations. The Aviva Stadium in Dublin is the venue, Windsor Park in Belfast is not.
Officially the arena has since last May been called “Clearer-Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park,” because the soft-drink manufacturer is the main sponsor of the Irish Football Association (IFA) for the next eight years. In 2000 the IFA launched the campaign “Football for All” to combat sectarianism and racism at Northern Ireland games. The image was rotten, and with the campaign they wanted to make people forget the time when, for the Catholic-nationalist portion of the population, visiting the stadium could be a dangerous adventure.
The stadium has an infamous history. It lies in the Village, the district in Belfast where Protestant terrorist organizations held sway. To enter the stadium, fans had to pass through narrow alleys with anti-Catholic murals before the arena was modernized and the entrance relocated.
Only the national anthem still deters Catholic-nationalist spectators. While the other three teams of the United Kingdom have long since replaced “God Save the King” with their own country-specific anthems, the Northern Irish still cling to it.
