Tommy Coyne scored the winning goal against the Netherlands in an unlikely win ahead of USA 94. David Maher / SPORTSFILE

MENTION Irish football and 1994 and the memories of the World Cup finals in the USA come flooding back.

There was Ray Houghton’s goal in Giants Stadium and Paul McGrath’s majestic performance in the same match against Italy.

We had John Aldridge expanding the English language vocabulary of a Brazilian fourth official with a magnificent rant as the Scouser tried to get onto the pitch against Mexico.

There was the nerve-shredding finale to the match against Norway, as the Boys in Green hung on for the point that would take them through to the last 16, before the loss to Holland that ended it all.

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There was always the heat too, the infernal June heat of the Big Apple, but especially the Big Orange as Orlando came to be known. With teams asked to play at 4pm in the afternoon in America to suit European television, both venues were furnaces, not football arenas.

It’s all right walking around Disney World in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts at that time of year in the middle of the day, but trying to play in world football’s greatest competition in the conditions was a joke.

Yet in that year, on much cooler nights, Ireland also achieved two results that still stand out at a distance of more than two decades. In the World Cup build-up, Jack Charlton’s team went to Tilburg in Holland in April and beat the home team 1-0, followed a month later by beating Germany 2-0 – who were heading to America to defend their crown – in Hanover.

The matches were only friendlies, but neither of our opponents were taking things lightly. Ronald Koeman, Frank Rijkaard, Marc Overmars, Dennis Bergkamp and the De Boer twins played for Holland, while Germany started with Jurgen Kohler, Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann, and brought on Rudi Voller in a bid to save the day for the hosts.

Yes, Holland would have their way with us when it really mattered, two months later in Orlando, but those two wins are worth recalling.

The victory in Tilburg was hugely significant in one respect – it finally convinced Charlton, after eight years as Irish manager, to scrap 4-4-2 and ‘put ‘em under pressure’.

He had been thinking about it for three reasons. Firstly, could his team play that system in the oven-like heat of Orlando particularly? Secondly, there had been the emergence of two young Irish midfielders in English club football, tough-tackling Roy Keane and ball-playing midfielder John Sheridan. Suddenly, Jack had options in that area.

But, thirdly, he hadn’t got options up front. Niall Quinn had torn his cruciate ligament and was out of the tournament. Aldridge at 35 could not last a full 90 minutes of running. He could come on for the last 20 minutes, as he famously did against Mexico, and contribute massively.

Tony Cascarino, at 31, had younger legs, but not quick ones. As it turned out a training injury, just before Ireland left for America, would see him play only a bit part at USA ’94. But Charlton didn’t know that then.

No, Big Jack was looking for a forward who could work hard on his own, run around at pace, occupy defenders, and hold up the ball while awaiting support from the five-man midfield that was forming in Charlton’s mind as he scanned those classy midfielders now at his beck and call.

The man he settled on for the job was Tommy Coyne, then with Motherwell in the Scottish League, who won 22 caps and scored six times for Ireland, but is most remembered for working his legs off for Ireland at that World Cup.

Coyne was actually top scorer in the Scottish League, while playing with three different clubs, Dundee, Celtic and Motherwell. Imagine if Mick McCarthy had a striker of that quality to hand as he battled through the Euro qualifiers where goals were so hard to come by?

Imagine if Stephen Kenny had Coyne now? He’d surely be the first name on the team sheet.

Tilburg was a rehearsal of a 4-5-1 formation and it caught the Dutch off guard, they were expecting to be craning their necks as balls went over their heads repeatedly as Ireland had done to the ‘Oranje’ at Euro ’88 and Italia ’90.

In hindsight, Ireland showed their hand to Holland that night and paid the price. But when the game was played, Charlton had no clue that we would be playing Holland in the last 16 of the World Cup.

His new tactics worked a treat. Coyne even got the 55th-minute winner. With his goal and performance, Coyne had got himself a place on the Aer Lingus jumbo jet to Florida.

Jason McAteer and Gary Kelly would do exactly the same in Hanover. Charlton had to open up his tight-knit squad to make room for the pair after their youth and freshness commended them to Big Jack in northern Germany.

McAteer’s run down the right created Cascarino’s first-half goal and Kelly scored the second in the second period, cutting inside from full-back to crack home a shot via a wicked deflection.

Germany battered away at Ireland’s defence, but as so often in those times, the Green wall was not breached, Ireland had spoiled Germany’s going-away party as World Champions.

They were great times indeed for Irish football. Yet they just seem so far away now.

Online Editors