There was play-off heartache aplenty for the Irish abroad over the weekend, and not much else as no fewer than three players suffered defeat in end-of-season knockout competition. With that, 2013’s club football ended for four players across America and Scandinavia
In Sweden, Kevin Walker’s GIF Sundsvall missed out on promotion to the Allsvenskan after going down 1-2 to Halmstads BK on Sunday, 2-3 on aggregate. The sides first met on Wednesday evening and despite taking an early lead, GIF couldn’t hold on against their top tier opposition, conceding a second half away goal.
On Sunday, the second leg followed a similar pattern with GIF regaining the aggregate lead in a commanding first half performance with Walker at the forefront of the charge. A quickfire second half double from Mikael Boman put Halmstads in control for the first time in the tie and Sundsvall’s promotion push ended with a mere whimper.
The defeat came less than 48 hours after Walker was voted into the final five contestants on the latest series of Swedish Idol. Though the prospect of a dream double has ended, Walker’s year may still end on a high note with victory in the talent contest.
There’s to be no such respite for another Irish singing sensation though. Republic of Ireland captain and renowned karaoke star Robbie Keane saw his dreams of a third consecutive MLS Cup victory end with a 0-2 second leg MLS playoff semi-final defeat to Real Salt Lake.
Despite going into Thursday night’s game with a one goal lead from the first leg, Galaxy couldn’t muster a goal to cement their lead. In 90 minutes, they managed just one shot on target while Keane and Co. managed 14 (read it, FOURTEEN) shots off target.
The Dubliner can look back on the season with a degree of personal pleasure. Despite missing two sizeable chunks of the season through injury, Keane scored 18 goals for Galaxy in all competitions, as well as notching seven for his country.
Keane will link up with his international teammates this week ahead of the two friendly encounters with Latvia and Poland, under the management of Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane.
Also in the MLS end of season playoffs, New York Red Bulls’ defeat to Houston Dynamo saw the Irish interest in the competition end completely, with Larne midfielder Jonny Steele ending an impressive campaign in defeat at the Eastern Conference semi-final stage.
Like Keane however, Steele can console himself with international football this week after he received a first call up to the Northern Ireland senior side for their international friendly against Turkey on Friday evening.
There was one Irishman celebrating the season’s end over the weekend however. In Norway, Sandnes Ulf celebrated retaining their Tippeligaen status for another season, despite a 0-2 defeat to Valerenga.
Republic of Ireland Under 21 goalkeeper Sean McDermott, who has been called up to Noel King’s squad for the Under 21’s qualifying double header this week, has lost his place for the final three matches of the season and watched from the bench as Ulf ended their season on a whimper with 0-2 defeat.
With just minutes remaining, their rivals for the final relegation playoff spot Sarpsborg 08, were leading 1-0 against Viking, leaving Sandnes in the drop zone. McDermott and Ulf had their local rivals Viking to thank however, coming from one goal down to beat Sarpsborg 2-1 and save Sandnes.
Also ahead of the international break, Aiden McGeady signed off club duty for the time being by helping Spartak Moscow to an impressive 4-2 win over top of the table Zenit St. Petersburg.
McGeady, whose told The Guardian this week of his intention to return to Britain when his contract with Spartak expires, or even before, lasted 87 minutes as Spartak moved to within three points of Zenit at the top of the Russian Premier League.
In the Ukraine, Metalurh Donetsk put in arguably their best performance of the season to date as they beat high flying Metalist Kharkiv 3-0 at the Stadion Metalurh.
Darren O’Dea, who has missed out on his second consecutive Ireland squad this week, was a late substitute as Metalurh looked to see out the victory that saw them rise to within three places of the Europa League places.
Exiles in Brief
Kyle Lafferty scored his fourth goal of the Serie B season on Saturday, the opener in Palermo’s 3-0 win over Trapani. The Northern Ireland striker fired home after good work on the left by Andrea Belotti. The win lifts in form Palermo to second in Serie B.
Selcuk Tidim played 68 minutes as Hansa Rostock’s reserves continued their excellent form with a 1-3 away win at Luckenwalde. Tidim has not been included in Noel King’s latest Under 21 panel.
On Friday evening, Den Bosch recovered from recent five and seven goal maulings by beating Helmond Sport 3-1, with Barry Maguire again impressing for the Ereste Divisie strugglers.
Paddy Kohlmann returned to the Union Berlin starting line up on Saturday and despite the left back helping them to a clean sheet, the 0-0 draw with Karlrusher saw Union slip to fourth in the Bundesliga promotion race.
In the first of the two legged Toppserien promotion/relegation playoff, Republic of Ireland women’s international Shannon Smyth saw her Amazon Grimstad go down 1-2 to Sarpsborg 08 (them again). The second leg, away to Sarpsborg 08, is this Saturday.
Liam Miller, Billy Mehmet (both injured) and Liam Lawrence did not feature for their respective clubs this weekend.
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