Friendly fire can't dictate what happens next with Ireland job
Switzerland, a country so diplomatic it was able to stay neutral as two world wars raged around it, has made for an unlikely bête noir. Then again, this is very much a modern phenomenon as dysfunctional relationships go.
The first time ‘Ireland’ played a senior game after dropping the pretence that was the ‘Irish Free State’ was a 1-0 win against the Swiss at Dalymount Park in 1936, and the Boys in Green had the better of the arrangement through the 20th century.
John Giles, Alan Kelly, Eoin Hand and Jack Charlton all earned wins and contentment against the land of the cantons. That changed this side of the millennium. Ireland hadn’t beaten them in 32 years prior to kick-off here.
The Swiss are, in the main, more vanilla than villain. They’ve qualified for tournaments and missed out on others and never really added much flavour to the run of events either way. That unthreatening façade invariably melts when they face Ireland.
It was a 2-1 loss to Switzerland in a Euro 2004 qualifier at Lansdowne Road that signalled the end for Mick McCarthy first time around. A toothless 0-0 draw with them in a World Cup qualifier three years later brought an end to the Brian Kerr experiment.
Not that we had official word of Kerr's departure after the final whistle.
“I hope he gets the opportunity to carry on,” said Kenny Cunningham then. “Sometimes a change can freshen things up, but sometimes continuity is a good thing as well. Is there a better man out there to do the job? There's not too many. That's out of our hands, but I hope he gets an extension.”
Cunningham’s claim, one echoed by Irish players this week for John O'Shea, was that the squad was squarely behind Kerr. Others felt that a fatal conservatism had been to blame for a
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