2020 may go down as one as the Republic of Ireland worst ever years internationally. The senior men and women, and the Under 21 men's team all blew great opportunities to qualify for major tournaments.
It's the senior men that will claim the notoriety when we remember 2020 though. In a pandemic hit year, they played eight games under new manager Stephen Kenny in just over two months between September and November. Those games produced no wins, four draws, and four defeats. One of the draws resulted in a penalty shootout defeat to Slovakia which ended our hopes of qualification for Euro 2020, and the team even slipped so far down the World Rankings as to be placed in Pot 3 for the World Cup 2022 Qualifiers.
Most notoriously of all, the eight games garnered just a solitary goal, a late equaliser in the first game of the year against Bulgaria. Ireland have not scored in the the seven games played since, a new record. Besides all that, games were played in empty stadiums, we lost players to Covid and to close contacts, to retirement, to injury, and to suspension. In truth, 2020 really couldn't have gone much worse.
And yet, going into 2021, we have hope. A decent World Cup group, and still the sense that a manager with a new philosophy is blooding a new breed of player for the future. The night is darkest before the dawn, or at least we hope so. Over the course of eight games, Kenny, often through necessity rather than choice, capped 31 players. From some older heads who may have thought their times had passed with the change in manager to the first caps of players with huge futures, there was room for everyone in the year that was.
But how well do you remember those 31 players?
Earlier in the week, we asked you to name every Irish rugby player who earned a cap in 2020, and now it's the time for the footballers. You've got eight minutes to remember the 31 players in question. Good luck!
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