Hence, something similar to the more structured game plan which applied against France seems likely. Ireland’s strength is in their pack, where the set pieces have been excellent all season, and once again Connor McGuinness and Eric Elwood can be expected to test the Welsh in the air early and often, while also kicking for the corners.By contrast, Welsh prowess rests in their back-line, even if Scott Gibbs’ big hits and ability to bounce off props may be missed. I have reminded them that all internationals are difficult and that any side are going to be tough opposition.”Gatland has demonstrated an acute understanding of the Irish psyche and has shown himself to be an expert motivator both with Connaught and now with Ireland.Aside from instilling more self-belief, he has also brought the team back to basics “One-nil would do,” he says. With the best will in the world, this Welsh team does not strike that same fear into anybody.
Identifying and ensuring the correct mental approach is one of the prime tasks facing Warren Gatland, the pragmatic Kiwi coach, who has brought Ireland back to basics after the more utopian ideals of Brian Ashton.”I heard a couple of players’ comments that they didn’t consider the Welsh to be a big threat, and that was kicked into touch straightaway. Yes, fear was one of the main sources of motivation against a French side halfway towards a second successive Grand Slam. It may sound cliched, but there’s an element of truth in the old adage that Irish teams are happiest when underdogs.

Indeed, perhaps the Lansdowne Road crowd are as well, when one compares the frenzied atmosphere for the visit of the All Blacks to the somnolent air for the game against the Scotland After the latter encounter, the team was pilloried Now, they’re everybody’s favourite team again hereabouts. The degree to which this optimism spreads to the home dressing-room may well determine the outcome. IRELAND expects, and all that, and therein lies the rub. Maintaining a national tradition of veering from extreme pessimism to unbridled optimism, victory over Wales is confidently expected at Lansdowne Road this afternoon after the unexpectedly strong showing in Paris. After the rugged US international centre-half had committed his first offence in the opening seconds of the game, the commentator employed by the television network ESPN gleefully announced: “Kooiman has committed more fouls than any other player in Major League Soccer history!”Despite being short-staffed for over an hour, a Washington side including John Harkes and Roy Wegerle gained a 2-0 win over Miami, who are in their first MLS season and fielded the Colombian playmaker Carlos Valderrama.Miami could not afford to play in the city’s famous Orange Bowl stadium, so they stage their home games at Lockhart stadium in nearby Fort Lauderdale.

If the Czech and Greek sides had won their quarter-final ties, every semi-finalist apart from Chelsea would have been controlled by the same company.United StatesLAST weekend’s opening fixture of the new Major League Soccer season was an uncomfortable experience for Jaime Moreno, the Bolivian international forward who has had two spells with Middlesbrough.Moreno, who plays for Washington DC United and was the league’s top scorer last year, was sent off after just 28 minutes of the encounter with Miami Fusion for a retaliatory foul on the Miami defender Cle Kooiman.Moreno should have known better than to tangle with Kooiman. The offer includes a commitment to spend at least pounds 6m on players to help Ferencvaros qualify for the Champions’ League.The Hungarian club have also received investment proposals from both the Canadian-based International Management Group and from the British- based English National Investment Company, which also has controlling interests in Slavia Prague, AEK Athens and the Italian club, Vicenza.The removal of Slavia and AEK from the Cup-Winners’ Cup on Thursday means that Uefa, European football’s ruling body, has avoided what would have been a very tricky problem. But these players have talent and we still have three months in which to improve.” The ians were due to play Nantes last night and finish with a match in Montpellier on Tuesday.The presence of the ians has also provided some useful practice in surveillance measures for the crack French police force RAID (Research, Assistance, Intervention, Dissuasion). “For us it’s a chance to hang around and test our mechanisms before the finals,” their commander, Loic Janot, said.HungaryGIORGIO CHINAGLIA, the former Italian international centre-forward who began his playing career with Swansea City, is the figurehead of a pounds 16m bid by an American company to buy the Budapest club, Ferencvaros.Chinaglia, who went on to play for Lazio and New York Cosmos, will become the president of the club if the bid by Dicobe International Associates is successful. “The defence stayed back too much,” Tomislav Ivic, ’s Croatian coach, who was once in charge of Paris St- Germain, said “You can’t win if you don’t take risks.

Iran

IRAN this week became the first of the World Cup finalists to arrive in France for a tour of the country which will host the tournament.
The ians have embarked on a three-match tour against opponents from the French First Division. The aim is to help the players become used to playing in France; results are of secondary importance.The first game of their trip, on Tuesday, resulted in a 1-0 loss to Guingamp. The commission has warned that if a solution is not found it will initiate formal proceedings against France which could culminate with a fine of well over 10 per cent of World Cup revenue.. “There is no reply yet from CFO [the organising committee] I’m afraid,” a commission spokesman said.
The commission wants the small amount of tickets left – 160,772 – to be sold entirely to non-French fans, but last week the CFO offered foreign federations only 50,000 tickets.The French sports minister, Marie-George Buffet, said last week it was “quite unacceptable” that France should have to make all remaining tickets available to foreigners as the event had been paid for partly with French taxpayers’ money.However, the Commission has taken the view that the sales system represented an abuse of a dominant position and discriminated between EU nationals – both offences under European law.A meeting between the CFO and the European competition commissioner, Karel Van Miert, failed to to find a resolution, although the commission is still hopeful the CFO will make last-minute proposals. THE European Commission said yesterday that it had still not yet received any new proposals from the organisers of the World Cup about making the remaining tickets for this year’s finals available outside France.

Inter, last season’s losing Uefa Cup finalists, will play Spartak Moscow, while Lazio drew Atletico Madrid, the conquerors of Aston Villa.European CupSemi-finalsJuventus (It) v Monaco (Fr)Real Madrid (Sp) v Borussia Dortmund (Ger)First leg 1 April, second leg 15 AprilCup-Winners’ CupSemi-finalsVicenza (It) v Chelsea (Eng)VfB Stuttgart (Ger) v Lokomotiv Moscow (Rus)First leg 2 April, second leg 16 AprilUefa CupSemi-finalsAtletico Madrid (Sp) v Lazio (It)Internazionale (It) v Spartak Moscow (Rus)First leg 31 March, second leg 14 April. “Everyone wanted to play us, but we drew United and we are still here. All the teams have won many titles and we’ve won nothing up to now, so we just have to work with what we have.”In the Uefa Cup, Lazio and Internazionale also avoided each other, raising the possibility of an all-Italian final and an Italian clean sweep in all three competitions. It can make the home leg very tense and I believe it is better to risk a few mistakes in the first leg by trying to score goals instead of leaving everything up to the home game.”Vicenza’s next two Serie A games are against Roma at home tomorrow and away to Milan the following Saturday, and Vialli will send two of his coaching staff, Graham Rix and Eddie Niedzwiecki, and also his assistant manager Gwyn Williams to spy on them while he concentrates on next Sunday’s Coca-Cola Cup final against Middlesbrough.In the draw for the semi- finals of the European Cup, last season’s finalists Juventus and Borussia Dortmund remained on course for a rematch in the final.Dortmund, who beat the Italian champions Juventus 3-1 in last year’s final in Munich, will face Real Madrid, while Juve, bidding for their third successive final, were drawn against Monaco, who ousted Manchester United on the away goals rule at Old Trafford.For Monaco, the only club left in the competition never to have won the title – or any European competition – the draw was not what they wanted.”This is the most difficult draw that that could have happened to us,” their technical director, Henri Biencheri, said. We are not very good at that, it seems.”And in any case, it is dangerous to try to play for 0-0. And I’m not so sure it is best for us to play away first.”So long as we go there and play positively and don’t make too many silly mistakes we can do it But we can’t play for 0-0 in the away leg. I know their manager quite well and he’s an excellent organiser.”Their ground is quite tight and the crowd are close to the pitch, a bit like an English stadium.