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Goals win games, its a simple as that and Robbie Keane has scored lots of goals for Ireland 40to be precise. This campaign has seen him score vital goals in Bari, Nicosia and Dublin, goalswhich might propel us to the World Cup. DONAL CULLEN hails our skipper.

LONG LIVETHE KEANE

BY the time the 1990 WorldCup was in full swing,Fettercairn in Tallaght, like

the rest of the country wasdecked out in the green, whiteand orange of Ireland.And kids watched as Kevin

Sheedy knocked in a goal againstEngland, celebrated as Big Niall

scored against Holland to get usto the knock out stages, heldtheir breath as Dave OLearystepped up to take THAT penoand cried as Toto Skilschl.yerman with the bald head scoredfor Italy to send us home to a glo-rious reception.And then these youngsters

went out to kick some ball aroundhoping one day that they toowould be able to play for Irelandin the World Cup and do some-thing special.

Among them would have beena precious 10-year-old who whenhe was in trouble was referred toby his ma (as we all were by ourown mothers) by our full nameand in this case it was RobertDavid Keane. On the football fieldhe was simply known as Robbie.

The World Cup of 1990 over-shadowed everything that sum-mer and the interest in soccerpeaked as thousands took up thesport across the country. Robbie,like most kids at the time, still

played a bit of soccer and a bit ofga.

He was good at both andplayed for the Naomh EannaGAA club as well as CrumlinUnited. Brian Kerr, later managerof Ireland, once summed upRobbies boyish enthusiasmwhen in reply to his questionabout who they were playing thenext week, Robbie simply said:

Dont know! But Ill scoreagainst them! And he did,against countless opponents in

schoolboy and youth football inand around Dublin. But there is abig step up between youth foot-ball and senior full-time footballand you need to have something

Robbiesaves us in

Cyprus

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special about you to make thetransition. And Robbie was one

of thousands of youngsters withthe same dream.

Representative football was away to attract the interest of thebig clubs and Robbie first cameto the attention of the Irish under-age coaches when he scoredtwice for the Lenister Youthagainst their Westfallen oppo-nents from Germany.

Selection for the Irish U16s andyouth sides soon followed. Theninterest from clubs followed. TheLeague of Ireland clubs were

there but when Robbie wasoffered trainee terms fromWolves he signed for them 18days after his 17th birthday.At Wolves he made an immedi-

ate impact and it was the start ofa wonderful career which took inbig moves to Coventry City, InterMilan, Leeds, Spurs andLiverpool even if the last movewas something of a disaster forthe player.And despite a fortune in trans-

fers fees he insisted on being

released for Ireland games and itwas here that he was to gain leg-endary status.

Keane was a phenomenon inhis first season at Wolves and hisform persuaded Ireland managerMick McCarthy to include him inthe squad for the friendly againstthe Czech Republic in 1998.Ireland had been knocked out ofthe 1998 World Cup in a play-offwith Belgium and he was in theprocess of re-building the team,again. There were six players

who made their debuts in thatmatch in Olomuc, three of them

as sub and one of those wasRobbie.

He played for the second halfalongside David Connolly andlater up by himself. Ireland lost2-1 but Keane almost got on thescore sheet in the 45 minutes heplayed.

Irelands next match wasagainst Argentina in April andKeane played the full gameagainst an exceptional sidewhich won 2-0. Robbie had beencapped three times before he jet-

ted off with the Irish Youth sidefor the 1998 Youth Championshipin Cyprus.

Keane had three youthcaps by this time and fourgoals. He played in all

four games, scoring anotherthree goals as Ireland walked offwith the trophy but that was onlythe beginning for a player whohad only turned 18 before thetournament kicked off.

Robbie was now established asa regular starter for Mick

McCarthys senior side and inthis present time when we have aplayer who wont play for us itmust be said that Robbie didntmiss many Ireland games in theeleven years since his debut.

In fact the first one he did misswas an important qualifier inYugoslavia when Mick McCarthyfelt Niall Quinn was a betteroption as the lone striker andRobbie sat on the bench for theentire match. It was not the onlytime he was to warm the subs

bench for despite an impressivetally of goals, Keane was going

through a lean spell for Ireland.After scoring six goals in his

first fourteen games he was to gothrough an entire World Cupqualifying campaign and thirteengames with just one goal, but avital one at that in the 2-2 drawwith Holland in Amsterdam.

That was to change whenIreland got to Japan and Koreafor the World Cup finals.

Ireland began their third WordCup finals with a draw againstCameroon and then faced

Germany in their second game.Germany led 1-0 deep into injurytime when Robbie Keane got onthe end of a Niall Quinn flick toscore what was perhaps themost memorable goal of hisIreland career to date.

Looking back on it, nine yearslater, and it still brings a lump tothe throat. He scored again in the3-0 win over Saudi Arabia toqualify Ireland again for theknock-out stages.

There Ireland faced Spain and

again it was Robbie with a lastminute goal, albeit from the pen-alty spot, which forced extra timeand ultimately defeat in a penaltyshoot-out.

The little 10 year old boy whohad watched the heroics of theplayers in Jack Charltons Irishside in Italy was now performingheroics for Ireland.

Following the World CupRobbie continued on his scoring

Robbie scores against Malta in 1998, Germany in 2002 and Holland in 2004

Continued on next page

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exploits and began scoring even better goals. Theone against Holland in 2004 was a fantastic goaland possibly the one in Wales three years later wason a par with that.

But Robbie has also continued to perform heroicsand recent examples includes the goals in Bariagainst Italy and the winner in Cyprus last month.And yet there are still detractors. Some Irish fans

used to their forwards putting themselves about abit and even tracking back dont see that fromRobbie Keane.

True he disappears for long periods in games but

Robbie is unlike any striker Ireland had before.Whereas Frank Stapleton was a workhorse and thelikes of Niall Quinn a target man, Robbie is a puregoal getter.

He makes the runs and does the flicks that are thenorm of strikers but when the moment comes he isalways ready to take the chance.

Take for example that goal against Germany. Bythe 90th minute all the players were tired includingthe German defenders and when the freshest manon the field Niall Quinn f licked on Steve Finnanslong ball Keane was still full of running but facedwith three German defenders and a Goalkeeperwho had performed heroics of his own during the

game.It was a simple head on but directed by Quinnstraight where Robbie had asked it to be. The oneGerman defender who reacted quickest was proba-bly in the mindset that the game is over and all heneeded to do was hack it clear.

But Robbie showing all the energy and enthusi-asm that he always shows when playing for Irelandhad one quality which was overlooked.Determination. Determination to get to the ball.Determination to score. Determination to succeed.He got to the ball first, left the German defendersprawling and then twisted his body in a way to getin a powerful shot which at last beat the GermanGoalkeeper.

The words he spoke to Brian Kerr all those yearsago Dont know! But Ill score against them! weremore then mere words. They stated his determina-tion and still do.

Robbie is still the same player he was when hestarted out with Fettercairn and Crumlin United andstill has that boyish enthusiasm and that determina-tion to succeed.And for those who think that playing for Ireland is

something that come second to making money oreven martial arts it should be noted that in the 100or so games that Ireland have played since Robbiemade his debut he has only missed 22 and for mostof them he was sitting on the bench waiting for thecall, determined to play.

Seven years after the heroics against Germanyhe is still performing heroics for Ireland. To score40 goals in international football is a phenomenalachievement and he is not finished yet.And for someone with such determination there

are still targets to set his sights on. Here is a list ofthe top scorers for each country who have scoredmore goals then Robbie.

From previous page

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Robbie Keanes Appearances for Ireland1. 1998 v Czech Re F A L 1 2 Sub (HT)2. 1998 v Argentina F H L 0 23. 1998 v Mexico F H D 0 04. 1998 v Croatia EC H W 2 05. 1998 v Malta EC H W 5 0 2 Goals6. 1999 v Paraguay F H W 2 07. 1999 v Sweden F H W 2 0 Sub (78)8. 1999 v Northern Ire F H L 0 19. 1999 v Macedonia EC H W 1 010. 1999 v Yugoslavia EC H W 2 1 1 Goal11. 1999 v Malta EC A W 3 2 1 Goal12. 1999 v Macedonia EC A D 1 113. 1999 v Turkey EC H D 1 1 1 Goal14. 2000 v Czech Rep F H W 3 2 1 Goal15. 2000 v Greece F H L 0 116. 2000 v Scotland F H L 1 217. 2000 v Mexico F N D 2 218. 2000 v South Africa F N W 2 1

19. 2000 v Holland WC A D 2 2 1 Goal20. 2000 v Portugal WC A D 1 121. 2000 v Estonia WC H W 2 022. 2000 v Finland F H W 3 023. 2001 v Cyprus WC A W 4 024. 2001 v Andorra WC A W 3 025. 2001 v Portugal WC H D 1 126. 2001 v Croatia F H D 2 227. 2001 v Holland WC H W 1 028. 2001 v Iran WC H W 2 0 1 Goal29. 2001 v Iran WC A L 0 130. 2002 v Russia F H W 2 0 1 Goal31. 2002 v Denmark F H W 3 0 1 Goal32. 2002 v USA F H W 2 133. 2002 v Nigeria F H L 1 2

34. 2002 v Cameroon WC N D 1 135. 2002 v Germany WC N D 1 1 1 Goal36. 2002 v Saudi Arabia WC N W 3 0 1 Goal37. 2002 v Spain WC N D 1 1 1 Pen38. 2002 v Finland F A W 3 0 1 Goal39. 2002 v Russia EC A L 2 440. 2002 v Switzerland EC H L 1 241. 2003 v Albania EC A D 0 042. 2003 v Norway F H W 1 043. 2003 v Albania EC H W 2 1 1 Goal44. 2003 v Georgia EC H W 2 0 I Goal45. 2003 v Australia F H W 2 146. 2003 v Switzerland EC A L 0 247. 2003 v Canada F H W 3 0 2 Goals

48. 2004 v Brazil F H D 0 049. 2004 v Czech Rep F H W 2 1 1 Goal50. 2004 v Romania F H W 1 051. 2004 v Nigeria F N L 0 352. 2004 v Holland F A W 1 0 1 Goal53. 2004 v Cyprus WC H W 3 0 1 Pen54. 2004 v Switzerland WC A D 1 155. 2004 v France WC A D 0 056. 2004 v Faroes WC H W 2 0 2 Goals(1 pen)57. 2004 v Croatia F H W 1 0 1 Goal58. 2005 v Portugal F H W 1 059. 2005 v Israel WC A D 1 160. 2005 v China F H W 1 061. 2005 v Israel WC H D 2 2 1 Goal62. 2005 v France WC H L 0 163. 2005 v Cyprus WC A W 1 064. 2005 v Switzerland WC H D 0 065. 2006 v Sweden F H W 3 0 1 Goal

66. 2006 v Chile F H L 0 167. 2006 v Germany EC A L 0 168. 2006 v Cyprus EC A L 2 569. 2006 v Czech Rep EC H D 1 170. 2006 v San Marino EC H W 5 0 3 Goals(1 pen)71. 2007 v San Marino EC A W 2 172. 2007 v Wales EC H W 1 073. 2007 v Denmark F A W 4 0 2 Goals74. 2007 v Slovakia EC A D 2 275. 2007 v Czech Rep EC A L 0 176. 2007 v Germany EC H D 0 077. 2007 v Cyprus EC H D 1 178. 2007 v Wales EC A D 2 2 1 Goal79. 2008 v Brazil F H L 0 1

80. 2008 v Serbia F H D 1 181. 2008 v Columbia F N W 1 0 1 Goal82. 2008 v Norway F A D 1 1 1 Goal83. 2008 v Georgia WC A W 2 184. 2008 v Montenegro WC A D 0 085. 2008 v Cyprus WC H W 1 0 1 Goal86. 2009 v Georgia WC H W 2 1 2 Goals(1 pen)87. 2009 v Bulgaria WC H D 1 188. 2009 v Italy WC A D 1 1 1 Goal89. 2009 v Nigeria F N D 1 1 1 Goal90. 2009 v Bulgaria WC A D 1 191. 2009 v Australia F H L 0 392. 2009 V Cyprus WC A W 2 1 1 Goal

ROBBIES STATS

Ali Daei (Iran) 109 goalsFerenc Puskas (Hungary) 84goalsKunishige Kamamoto (Japan)82 goalsPele (Brazil) 77 goalsBashar Abdullah (Kuwait) 74goalsHossom Hassan (Egypt) 69goalsGerd Muller (Germany) 68

goalsMajed Abdullah (SaudiArabia) 67 goalsStern John (Trinidad andTobago) 64 goals

Kiatisuk Senamuang(Thailand) 64 goalsSaeed Hussain (Iraq) 63 goalsGabriel Batistuta (Argentina)56 goalsCha Bum Kun (South Korea)55 goalsAdrian Altalyani (UAE) 53goalsPoul Nielsen (Denmark) 52goals

Hakan Suker (Turkey) 51goalsBobby Charlton (England) 49goalsThierry Henry (France) 49

goalsSven Rydell (Sweden) 49goalsJan Koller (Czech Republic)48 goalsWlodzimeirz Lubanski(Poland) 48 goalsHristo Bonev (Bulgaria) 47goalsPauleta (Portugal) 47 goalsDavor Suker (Croatia) 45

goalsPaulo Wanchope (Costa Rica)45 goalsToni Polster (Austria) 44goals

ALL TIME TOP SCORERS

Pele