Robbie Keane - The Greatest Irish Striker of all Time?
Written by therock67
Sunday, 13 August 2006
There is currently a revisionist movement taking place in Irish soccer circles, seeking to drag Robbie Keane down a peg or two before he even reaches his peak. “He takes too much out of the ball,” “He only scores against small clubs,” “His somersault is pathetic,” are the comments we most often hear disparaging our current foremost striker and I shall address these protestations in reverse order. Keane’s somersault is far from pathetic. It is being judged through comparison with other more agile players who are performing different routines. The likes of Julius Aghahowa is oft-cited as an example, as is Celestine Babayaro. These men are going for maximum volume of spins and sheer elevation in their leap. It is a matter of strength and speed for this class of celebrator. Spectacular indeed. Keane’s routine is more cerebral however. It is a well-constructed, well thought-out artistic expression of his role in the team. The gold medal in gymnastics for the floor competition does not go to the orphan who can perform most tumbles in succession: rather it is earned by the malnourished athlete who elevates the artistic athleticism highest. A true fusion of the artist and artisan. Keane’s somersault and tumble is by no means the greatest ever embodiment of gymnastics: but it does not pretend to be. It is an expression of enthusiasm and unbridled joy and should be seen in that context as art truly imitating life. I will not speak of the particular nuances and understated movements in the routine as I think they are there for the interested viewer to discover for themselves. However I plead with the people of the country to judge the celebration on its own merits and not as a competitor to the more athletic Nigerian celebrations.
“Robbie Keane only scores against small clubs and minnow nations.” Hogwash! Who has Jermaine Defoe ever scored against? John Aldridge had a brilliant career for Liverpool, Real Sociedad, Tranmere and Ireland. For Ireland he scored against Mexico, Latvia, Malta, only the goal against Mexico could be classified as a goal against equal or superior opposition. Aldridge played in Euro 88, Italia 90 and USA 94 (a bit part). Keane has so far only played in one major tournament and consequently his opportunities to score against major opposition have been limited. He has so far scored against Germany, the Netherlands and Spain in his international career (all in competitive internationals and all goals that affected the outcome of the game - with the exception of the goal against Spain which forced a penalty shoot out). What better teams has he faced in a green shirt? Two games against France. Switzerland and Russia who if he had scored against his critics would be discounting as second class teams.
He has scored some crucial goals for us including that mentioned above: a goal against Iran that ultimately sealed our qualification for the world cup. Goals against Saudi Arabia, Germany and Spain (unheard of for an Irish player to score three times in a major tournament: and I include European club competition in that). The Saudi goal was not against particularly strong opposition but it was a particularly important goal for the team. The campaign for Euro 2000 saw Keane score against the top seeds and group winners, Yugoslavia. Also the third goal in a 3-2 victory over Malta and an opening brace against a decent Macedonia side. In the World Cup 2002 qualifiers Keane again scored against the top seeds in the Netherlands. Euro 2004 qualifiers and Ireland are the top seeds but Keane fails to score against Switzerland. So he is a failure? I could argue and indeed I will argue that far from Keane’s record against major soccer nations being an issue of concern it is in fact unparallelled in the history of association football in Ireland. Some people will never be happy.
I have little inclination to trawl through Keane’s domestic scoring record and pick out trends and causes for optimism and worry. I will point out however that he has never played for a free-scoring team in the top flight. He threatened to score regularly at Leeds: looked very dangerous for them when he did play but O’Leary had a ridiculous commitment to Fowler. He scored freely for Wolves, spectacularly for a poor Coventry side, never got a chance at Internazionale and has been Spurs’ best forward since he joined. Instead young Defoe is the great hope for the future! Well who has he ever scored against? Keane is still very young (24 or so?) and has plenty of chances to score
goals for clubs in the remainder of his career. The argument reminds me an awful lot of what BBC pundits used to say about Larsson - could he hack it in the premiership? And the very moment he leaves Celtic he is nominated for a world player of the year award (after what was certainly not his best season). There is none so blind as he who would not see.
The final criticism of Keane is the manner in which he plays. He holds on to the ball too much. He is selfish with the ball. He doesn’t get in the box enough. All wrong. Why is the same thing not said of our beloved Damien Duff? Damien is that little bit older but let’s face it had about three years of absolute non-existence as far as Ireland were concerned. He holds the ball more than Keane - he certainly loses the ball more. He certainly scores less and he rarely provides an assist. This isn’t intended as an attack on Duff. He is an excellent player who offers us something different creatively but is therefore exempt from cricism. Compare with Keane who is an excellent player who offers us something creatively and is criticised for it. He is not the golden boy of Irish soccer for some reason and despite being far more effective, willing and influential for Ireland than Duff over a longer period of time he is much maligned.
I would like to see him play alongside a bigger man: Sutton at Celtic would have been ideal. I think in that respect he could benefit from not having to do everything in his power to get the ball. What I will always remember about him was when we played Russia away at the start of the last campaign. He was a couple of months with Spurs at the time I think and I remember thinking that if I was a Spurs fan I would have been absolutely delighted with our acquisition. He ran forever that night. The ten other players were pretty much universally abysmal. So Keane kept coming all the way back to get the ball from the back four. Then he burst himself to get forward and try to get on the end of a hopeless pass. A model of commitment and a shining example to his older professional colleagues. He will never lose this drive and enthusiasm and hopefully it can be channeled effectively so that more of his work is done in around the box. Room for improvement: maybe. Scope for criticism: absolutely not.