IT’S NOT OFTEN that there’s cause to write a column about something that’s certainly not going to happen. 

In the end, Ireland’s World Cup play-off semi-final against Czechia played out more painfully than even the most pessimistic punter could have predicted (this sentence was brought to you by Peter Piper, and I didn’t even mention the word ‘penalties’). 

After defying all odds to reach a stage we had no real business reaching, getting a relatively comfortable draw, and going two goals up within 25 minutes… We should have sensed that something was amiss. Indeed, despite the gradual intensifying of the Dearg Doom riff in each of our minds over this past week, we should have known hope was never really ours to lose in the first place. 

When it comes to the on-pitch events of Thursday night, there is very little sense in running counterfactuals. Maybe if Ryan Manning doesn’t tug Ladislav Krejci’s jersey we go on to win 4-0, or maybe the Czechs redouble their efforts and put us to the sword in normal time. Maybe if Jayson Molumby’s strike from the edge of the box is an inch inside the post we secure a comfortable 3-1, but then we come into the Denmark game too complacent. Who’s to say? 

We can’t know what the eventual consequences of any individual on-pitch action might have been. What we do know, however, is what it means to not qualify for a World Cup. Indeed, we are experts in this field. When you take Saipan into consideration, we’re basically one of the only teams on earth that can make qualifying for the World Cup almost feel like not qualifying for the World Cup. And we’ve done it again. 

Even though there was but a slim chance we’d have cleared........

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