Ireland were outplayed all over the park in yet another defeat which highlights our ever growing ‘minnow’ status.
The narrative being written heading into this camp from fans, journalists, players but in particular the manager was one of confidence that this could be our year. None more so than Heimir Halgrímsson who seemed to think it was a certainty that The Boys in Green would be in North America next summer. Hopes remained high after the second half revival in Dublin on Saturday but after last night’s disastrous defeat in Yeravan, it’ll now take a “miracle” in the words of the Irish manager to achieve something that according to him seemed a given just a week ago.
We have the quality on par with the likes of Scotland and Wales if not better but the age old problem that no manager in the last few years has managed to resolve is still there: we don’t play like a quintessential Irish team that are hard to play against and get in your face. The manager is always talking about the players not winning enough duels. Any successful Irish team in the past knew how to put a tackle in.
The refreshing sound bites we hear in press conferences are nice to hear but any coach or player’s real talking has got to be done on the pitch. It now looks very grim for Heimir.
The intention certainly would’ve been to apply pressure on a leaky Armenian defense early, which we did after 25 seconds through Finn Azaz who tested Ognen Čančaarevic in goal. A piece of play that we hoped would be a sign of things to come.
Inform Evan Ferguson was inches away from making our early pressure count when he pounced on a mistake from the goalkeeper, swivelled and hit fearsome effort that looked goal bound but the Armenia defender made a fine last ditch goal line clearance to keep it scoreless.
But it didn’t take long for the hosts to grow into the game as Ireland retreated into their shell against a team ranked 105th in the world.
In the 35th minute, Dara O’Shea slipped on the byline after a long ball over the top to allow Armenia time for a couple of bites at the cherry. They failed to take it after hitting the crossbar on the third attempt.
A passage of play which showed the fragility in the Irish defence and the lack of potency in the Armenian attack which was the reason the score stayed respectable.
A foul from Nathan Collins in the box just before half-time gave the despondent Armenian fan base before this game more reason to cheer after a dominant first half performance against a truly dreadful Irish team. Spertsyan bamboozled Kelleher from the spot to put the hosts ahead going into the break.
A reaction similar to Saturday was compulsory for Ireland if we were going to keep hopes of qualification alive heading into October. A second revival of the week was expected.
However, it somehow turned out to be worse than the catastrophic first half. There were no signs of any life in an uninterested group of players.
Just over 5 minutes into the half Borrusia Mochengladbach forward Ranos finished off a move from Armenian which saw them cut throw the mannequin esque Irish team to leave us with a mountain to climb.
Ireland could get no momentum in the game like we could in the second half on Saturday. Partly because of the way the pitch was constantly cutting up in sticky conditions but mostly because of the lack of application and desire from the players.
Evan Ferguson restored some hope soon after going two down after a sweeping Irish move. Idah played the ball into space and unintentionally found the Roma striker who curled emphatically into the top corner.
From there you would expect Ireland to really kick on like they did on Saturday and really show their superiority over a weak Armenian team.
Instead, Armenia gained instant control without Ireland registering a single chance in the remaining half an hour.
A disallowed goal late on and several missed chances from the hosts from some top saves by Kelleher kept it respectable which is a damning line to come out with in which is meant to be a team competing to qualify for a World Cup.
It appears to be another false dawn for Irish fans who are so desperate to see their country back at a major tournament.
There is a lot of soul searching needing to be done and it now does look ominous for another failure of an Irish manager with Halgrimsson’s contract expiring at the end of this campaign which already feels over.