October’s International Round Up: Part One
The meteoric rise of Aaron Connolly continues. A week after his full Premier League debut yielded two goals for the Albion against Tottenham Hotspur, the 19-year-old striker was given his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in their 0-0 draw away in Georgia.
Connolly was introduced by Mick McCarthy for the final 10 minutes and had two good chances to win it for the Boys in Green in his short time on the pitch.
His first effort was a low shot repelled by Georgia goalkeeper Giorgi Loria. His second saw him go through one-on-one but he could only fire into the side netting. Connolly admitted afterwards that “I got two chances and probably should have put one of them away.”
Before the game, there was a clamour for McCarthy to start Connolly in Tbilisi. When the Ireland boss only named the teenager among the substitutes, Twitter reacted angrily which was all rather ridiculous as Paddy Power put so eloquently when tweeting, “People who never heard of Aaron Connolly before last week are now absolutely fuming that he isn’t starting for Ireland.” Connolly Mania is alive and well.
Because of the furore surrounding our new goal scoring hero, it almost went under the radar that Shane Duffy made his comeback from injury at the heart of the Ireland defence.
Duffy had been expected to be out for some time with the calf problem he picked up when captaining the Albion’s Under 12s in the 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat to Aston Villa.
Yet he trained with the Albion in midweek and Graham Potter agreed to allow him to join up with the Ireland squad for their crucial qualifier as a result. Duffy got through the 90 minutes fine and perhaps should have scored himself but he headed an effort straight at Loria.
The fact that Duffy was allowed travel to Eastern Europe and play 90 minutes after just one training session and two-and-a-half weeks out is a sign of just how out of Potter’s thinking the defender currently is.
If the Albion boss valued Duffy and wanted him in tip-top condition ahead of a crucial month of Premier League fixtures, he wouldn’t want to take any risks by letting him play for Ireland so soon after injury.
Yet Potter clearly doesn’t mind if he re-aggravates the problem in a green shirt. It’s hard to imagine the club taking a similar approach had this been Lewis Dunk with England, and it doesn’t augur well for the Albion future of Duffy if the manager is happy to risk him playing for his nation when most players would be wrapped in cotton wool in that situation – see Davy Propper not joining up with the Netherlands.
Duffy will next test his calf when him and Connolly are in action away against Switzerland on Tuesday night. Victory in Geneva will see them guarantee their place at Euro 2020.
Down in Australia meanwhile, the Socceroos ran out 5-0 winners over Nepal in their latest World Cup 2022 Qualifying match. Maty Ryan, newly crowned as Professional Footballers Australia Player of the Year, was completely untroubled in Canberra.
Aaron Mooy was taken off after an hour with the hosts already 4-0 ahead and with one assist to his name having delivered a pinpoint corner for Fleetwood Mac Town defender Harry Souttar to head home.
There should be a chance for Australia to rack up another big win on Tuesday when they face Chinese Taipei in Kaohsiung. Nepal, so outclassed by the Socceroos, beat Chinese Taipei 2-0 in an early group stage meeting.
