From the land where bicycles are king, Ireland have a striker in Troy Parrott freewheeling into the upcoming World Cup play-off.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands has become his home away from home for the past two-and-a-half years and the adulation visible at AZ Alkmaar on Wednesday underscored why he resisted offers to move elsewhere.<\/p>\n
A red wall of fans around the 19,000-seater AFAS Stadion was speckled with the odd tricolour, an occurrence not confined to their Dutch Cup semi-final win.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few Irish flags in different parts of the stadium,\u201d he explained. \u201cI don\u2019t know who the people are because they\u2019re all high up in the stands so I\u2019ve not spoken to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I love seeing them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parrott\u2019s passion for his homeland was illustrated by his words and actions last November.<\/p>\n
Tears streamed down his face as he spoke about the importance of Ireland salvaging their World Cup fate. Only through his five goals in victories over Portugal and Hungary did Ireland make a first global tournament for 24 years possible.<\/p>\n
His only wish was that the play-offs to complete the journey to June\u2019s games in Mexico and Atlanta weren\u2019t sooner. It will be four months since Budapest when Ireland line up in Prague on Thursday fortnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice if the games didn\u2019t stop \u2013 and we\u2019d get straight into the play-offs – but the club matches are coming thick and fast,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019m going to keep doing what I\u2019m doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s been doing is scoring goals and thankfully, for Ireland\u2019s sake, avoiding injury.<\/p>\n
His haul for the season for club and country by this point in early March ought to have been 30, only for his winner in the semi to be reclassified as an own goal.<\/p>\n
There was a classic poacher\u2019s instinct to him outfoxing Telstar goalkeeper Ronald Koeman, son of the Dutch legend, but the final touch was deemed to have come off Neville Ogidi Nwankwo.<\/p>\n
That Cup showdown against Nijmegen on April 19 is far from Parrott\u2019s thoughts amidst this hectic period.<\/p>\n
Tonight will see him lead the line at runaway leaders PSV before they meet Sparta Prague in the last 16 of the Conference League on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Such is the relentless schedule that AZ\u2019s star striker started last weekend\u2019s trip to Utrecht as a substitute.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re in sixth place, five points behind third-placed Ajax, but Parrott feels they should be in the Champions League spots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve not been great in the league recently; up and down, too inconsistent,\u201d he outlines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still not far off and still have a lot still to play for this season. I\u2019m buzzing to get to another Cup final. It was something we set as a target from the start of the season.<\/p>\n
“Now we’ve got to go and win this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manager\u2019s decision last weekend stood to me because I\u2019d played a lot of games recently. It was good to have a little rest. I felt fresh for the semi-final.<\/p>\n
\u201cEuropean games are important for this club because of their history. Sparta will be difficult because they finished fourth in the Conference League table.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is feeling good and believes we do well in the Conference League. It gives us the opportunity of playing against some of the big clubs around Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy with how we\u2019re playing and my role in the team. Everything is good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That must be good news for Ireland too.<\/p>\n
With every game and goal for Parrott comes the risk of Ireland\u2019s hero getting injured.<\/p>\n
Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson is already without Josh Cullen and Mikey Johnston and his desire to accommodate Evan Ferguson in the same team as fellow attacker Parrott has been torpedoed by his knee injury.<\/p>\n
Parrott\u2019s value to the Irish team is unquestionable but he won\u2019t be adjusting his style over the next five games to dodge a knock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a big tackler so should be alright,\u201d he jokes with a glint in his pearly blue eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice to have Evan so it\u2019s important to have as many good players because these are hard games. Whoever is there will be there and we know what we\u2019ve to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I\u2019m not going to play any differently. It\u2019s vital that I stay in a good rhythm and be ready to go when the games come around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every time he sees teammate Mat\u011bj \u0160\u00edn is a reminder of Czechia looming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been speaking to him about the game,\u201d he admitted about the young midfielder.<\/p>\n
\u201cCzechia seem confident about beating us but I don\u2019t think they’re as confident as we are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Astride the saddle and rearing to go, Parrott\u2019s conviction for another glorious golden moment in Irish football history is absolute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the land where bicycles are king, Ireland have a striker in Troy Parrott freewheeling into the upcoming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,1842],"class_list":["post-335724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}