It’s says something about a year in which the national team beat Italy in a tournament and got out of its group into the second round that the abiding memory of 2016 is of that man above waltzing across the continent, as Dundalk brought unprecedented success to the domestic game and made a lot of people in Ireland finally sit up and take notice. While I never reached the fever pitch of Lille while watching Dundalk – I’m a Rovers fan – the feeling of pride was even more powerful. Dundalk was pure, true made-in-Ireland football success. It was about a border town pummelled by recession finding in its club a voice and an expression of solidarity and of community. It was everything the GAA claims only it can give (on the local scale only of course) writ large across the continent. It must have been magic to be a Dundalk football person these last few months.
But 2016 wasn’t all about the Lilywhites. Football went through a lot this year in Ireland and the UK. The start of 2016 was dominated by Leicester City and their preposterous run to the English league title. They were phenomenal however. Us Liverpool fans had this confirmed in spectacular fashion in February:
But as we all know, while Leicester deserved the title, it was a freak. A massive, massive freak that may never happen again for another 100 years. Every big team was muck last season (Spurs aren’t a big team. Cop on!). Leicester took advantage brilliantly, where the like of Spurs and the entire rest of them did not. Normal service has resumed due to a combination of the big clubs getting their shit together and Leicester quite rightly focussing all their energy on Champions League progress, having been largely found out in England. If the season ended tomorrow, Leicester fans should be happy enough, but they could get past Sevilla in the last 16 and then it’s truly in the lap of the gods. Theirs is a wonderful story for 2016 , but it means nothing for football. The Premier League is as lopsided now as ever, as dominated by big club oligarchs and capitalists as ever, as greedy and as voracious as ever, and as captivating and brilliant as ever. And we continue to lap it up.
Given the dearth of big-club success across the water (I think United won the FA Cup maybe?) and that the domestic campaign was only starting, I think it’s fair to say that the minds of all Irishmen and women were on matters international for the first 6 months of the year. Euro 2016 would see the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland share the spotlight on the international stage for the first time. Northern Ireland’s first tournament in 30 years would be a memorable one. Led by a great Irish football man Michael O’Neill – a man whose footprints Stephen Kenny followed this year before digging his heels in to make his own even greater mark – our neighbours were never there for just a party. They meant business and they put in some creditable performances, losing in the group by the odd goal to Germany and Poland (most would do worse), while an excellent 2-0 victory over Ukraine in the 2nd game was enough to see them through. They were eventually undone by a Welsh team on fire, but again only the odd goal separated them from the eventual semi-finalists. They also gave Europe this (via Wigan).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3YuvPGQ0Cc
I had enough to say about England and their toxic national football team’s poxy showing in France back in June. Not long after, the new manager Sam Allardyce was undone in the most clumsy hamfisted manner imaginable. England have been in a dreadful mess. On the pitch they had squeaked past Slovakia in their first qualifier, in Sam’s only competitive game, while off the pitch they were thrust into yet another period of soul-searching and questioning. Only a few months after the last one. Gareth Southgate is now in charge. They will obviously qualify for Russia. And then do fuck all when they get there. Some things never change.
Unlike across the border in Wales, whose phenomenal tournament – their first in almost 60 years – kinda went unmarked here on yardofgrass. They put in the best performance of the month when they dumped Belgium out in the quarter-finals. Bale was magnificent throughout, but the form of Joe Allen was mighty along with the likes of Ashely Williams, while Hal Robson Kanu gave us this magical memory:
But two teams owned Euro 2016.Not the French, Italians, Germans or Spanish as you’d expect, but champions Portugal and the magnificent Iceland. The Portugeuse finally won the trophy their football over many decades has deserved, with Ronaldo’s generation laying to rest the ghost of Lisbon 2004. This was despite squeaking out of the group with 3 draws. The best player on the planet had brought home a prize for his country, something a certain you-know-who has never done. His almost co-management of the team in the final having gone off early with injury added another great touch of melodrama to the occasion. Any of you reading thinking “yeh but what an etc.” really need to snap out of it. This was Ronaldo’s year, which makes it a great year for football. And a fine, fine footballing nation finally has something to put on its mantlepiece. Ronaldo led his country to something Eusebio, Figo et al never did. There are no caveats necessary.
As for Iceland, where in the name of Odin did that come from. Largely expected to be swept aside in the group stages, instead they marched on ahead of Portugal with 5 points, including a win over the disappointing Austrians. The thunderclap had become established by then as they became everyone’s second team. Unfortunately England awaited, ready to sweep them aside in the 2nd round. I actually missed most of this game, but managed to avoid the result to see the highlights. It was 1-0 to England when I turned it off. As I tuned in later, I could not believe what I was seeing. First the Icelandic goals, and then – as with highlights, you never know what time in the match it is – I saw Joe Hart go up for a corner – we were into injury time. The whistle blew, and the Icelandics had a moment that must’ve felt like a million Stuttgarts. Outrageous. The continent didn’t know whether to laugh at England or cry with joy for Iceland. The latter was far more satisfying. What a dream for this tiny isolated country; a footballing minnow until very recently, and never likely to bother the last 8 of a tournament. Yet here they were. Despite being undone by a rampant French side 5-2 in the Quarter Finals, Iceland to this day remain the story of Euro 2016.
Euro 2016 finished on the 10th July in Paris. 3 days later, as Icelandic football was still on the ceiling, their domestic champions Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar travelled to a small town on the Irish border for a 1st round Champions League qualifying match. The euphoria from both island’s performances in France only days earlier was still in the air, completely overshadowing this fixture as a few thousand people witnessed a 1-1 draw which caused no ripples across each country, let alone across the continent. A week later on the more northerly island, the game ended 2-2. Irish Champions Dundalk had scraped through to the 2nd qualifying round on away goals. They would face BATE Borisov, a team who had taken 7 points from Roma and Bayer Leverkusen in the group stages the previous season, having dispensed with Dundalk in qualifying. They had absolutely no chance, and duly lost by an albeit creditable 1-0 over there. A week later, however, a thunderclap of the Louth variety went off in Tallaght, and Brady, Hoolahan and the Boys in Green would start to be overshadowed by Horgan, McMillan and the Lilywhites. An imperious 3-0 victory put this Dundalk team on a pedestal alongside the greatest domestic teams in Irish history. They were simply magnificent that night and were through to the final qualifying round.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngM3kyE2EDI
Legia Warsaw awaited. And in front of over 30,000 people including this writer who was drowned in a summer monsoon on the cycle down the canal to the match, Dundalk went down 2-0 to the Poles. A dodgy penalty and one of those late goals you give away when you’re chasing the game. Dundalk looked done and dusted, despite showing once again that there was very little between them and their far more illustrious opponents. The following week in Warsaw, they once again showed a trait that, alongside their attractive brand of football, would define their campaign – their willingness to go out and try and beat teams. Robbie Benson gave the Lilywhites the lead after 19 minutes with the sort of goal you dream about – a screaming volley from 15 yards out – meaning Dundalk were one goal away from taking these guys to extra time. Legia then were reduced to 10 men on 67 minutes, and at no point over the next 20 minutes did you ever think Dundalk incapable of coming back. Unfortunately they came up against a well organised team with no little ability to close out a game which needed closing out. Warsaw undeservedly pegged back an equaliser and Dundalk were out, down into the Europa League group stages.
Surely at this point they would unravel! But no. They only went and got 4 points from their first 2 games, as Ciaran Kilduff wrote his name into Irish soccer history, first by scoring the equaliser away to AZ Alkmaar to secure the first point for an Irish team in a European group stage, then by getting the winner at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv to secure the first win. Dundalk were off to a flyer. But again surely the gulf in class would show eventually. Not a chance. A double-header against Zenit St. Petersburg saw a single goal between the teams in each game – Dundalk taking the lead in Tallaght and drawing level in St Petersburg. And despite going down by a single goal to Alkmaar in Tallaght, they went into the last round of fixtures with an outside chance of progressing to the knock-out stages. Unfortunately another single goal defeat followed in Israel and Dundalk’s season was finally over.
This run was unprecedented. As a Rovers fan, I remember 2011 well.No points and a few hammerings. The highlight was the 7 or 8 minutes in the lead at White Hart Lane, before losing 3-1. But Dundalk took every game to their opponents. Home and away. The most surprising thing about their performances was that they stopped being surprising. To the extent that I almost expected a home victory by the time Alkmaar came to town. That alone is ridiculous. Others who had not seen them play before were pleasantly surprised by the standard and brand of football played, but plenty of domestic teams know how to knock it around like that. But they were a phenomenal advertisement for the League of Ireland, in particular in the business-like manner of Stephen Kenny and the players – talking of victories and progress, not content to be there; not happy just to take part. In my lifetime there have been great performances at the highest level by the Irish national team on many occasions. Dundalk’s 2016 European run is up there with them all. It’s unlikely they can keep the momentum going as already they have lost 3 key players in Daryl Horgan, Andy Boyle and Ronan Finn – and it was only an away goals victory against an Icelandic team that made it all possible after all – but their success is a lesson for all Irish soccer fans. Get out and support these lads. They’re your neighbours and they are the same lads you might have kicked a ball around with as a kid; and every so often they end up representing you like this in Europe. They deserve better than we give them.
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Despite the many memories of on-field heroism and against-the-odds triumphs throughout the year, for many thousands of people the greatest football victory of 2016 was secured off the pitch, when 27 years of lies around the Hillsborough disaster were finally shut down for good. The verdict that the victims were unlawfully killed lifted the heaviest burden from the shoulders of survivors and victims families. The final vindication for a lifetime of struggle for so many people. They faced down politicians, police and the entire British justice system in their fight. The scenes on the steps of Liverpool’s St. George’s Hall the day after the verdict were football’s most poignant of the year, as 30,000 people stood in solidarity and then sang that famous song. Football thinks it creates heroes every day. But the heroics of Margaret Aspinall and the campaigners for justice, some of whom did not live to see this day, are simply beyond words.
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Thanks for reading Yard of Grass throughout 2016. I’ve enjoyed writing it and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it. Have a great rest of Christmas break and have a Happy New Year and see you all again in 2017. I don’t ask for much for the new year but for Ireland to top the group and for Liverpool and Rovers to win their titles would be nice…
A Yard of Grass 