International friendly: Republic of Ireland v Belgium (today, Dublin, 5pm)
IT’S been an eventful enough camp for Republic of Ireland with a few of ripples of tension and debate filling plenty of air-time and column inches - while Ormeau Road man Mark Sykes turned up to Abbotstown living the dream and hoping for some minutes.
Manager Stephen Kenny had to defend comments he made in 2018 about the perceived lack of quality among the English coaching fraternity while appointing one in John Eustace, who replaces one in Anthony Barry.
It was a slightly awkward, slightly unfair juxtaposition for Kenny to counter in one of his press conferences earlier this week ahead of this evening’s friendly clash with Belgium in Dublin.
And where would the media be without social media?
Darren Randolph, the out-of-favour ‘keeper, responded to a social media post about being overlooked for a recall to the Ireland set-up this week following the twin withdrawals of Gavin Bazunu and Mark Travers.
“I haven’t retired yet – I must be too old,” said the 34-year-old ‘keeper, who has played just four times for West Ham since his last appearance for his country in November 2020.
It was reported at the time that Randolph was unhappy with Stephen Kenny’s historical video chronicling Anglo-Irish relations prior to the England friendly at Wembley at the tail end of 2020.
Since then, the 50-times capped ‘keeper hasn’t gone out of his way to declare again for the Republic of Ireland and it was telling when Max O’Leary of Bristol City and Bohemians’ James Talbot received call-ups before the more experienced man to fill the goalkeeper void.
As it was, all the pre-match talk yesterday centred on another goalkeeper – Liverpool’s cool-as-ice number two Caoimhin Kelleher who will start against the Belgians at tea-time today and again against Lithuania on Tuesday night.
The 23-year-old Liverpool keeper, who scored the winning penalty for his club in last month's Carabao Cup final, has got the nod with number one Bazunu missing through illness and Bournemouth's Travers injured.
It will be Kelleher's third senior appearance for his country, although he has had to remain patient after his own unavailability gave Manchester City's Bazunu, currently on loan at Portsmouth, an opportunity in March last year.
"Caoimhin will definitely start, that's absolutely right, for sure,” said Kenny. “He'll most likely play the two matches now, I think it's fair to say, and deservedly so.
"He's had to be patient because of an unfortunate injury. He missed the last March camp with injury and Gavin Bazunu has come in and been absolutely outstanding.
"We're on a run of four and a half games now consecutively without conceding a goal - and Caoimhin has played his part in that because he played against Qatar.
"In Caoimhin's two matches to date against Qatar and Hungary, he hasn't conceded a goal either, so he deserves his chance because he's been absolutely excellent."
Asked which of Kelleher's qualities stood out, the manager said: "His composure under pressure and his general athleticism, his ability to make brilliant saves.
"But obviously he's been in a great environment at Liverpool for a few years now and training every day at a very high standard and playing in the games that he's played in, so he's got good experience."
In a friendly game that will celebrate the FAI’s centenary, the Belgians – ranked number one in the world by FIFA – will be missing a host of their big stars when manager Roberto Martinez insisted he would not field any players with more than 50 caps.
Kenny, however, noted that quite a number of the travelling Belgian squad were sitting on 40-plus caps and fully expects a tough examination.
Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard will not play, but Martinez can call upon Youri Tielemans, Michy Batshuayi, Christian Benteke, Adnan Januzaj, Divock Origi and Leandro Trossard.
