{"id":523774,"date":"2026-06-29T07:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523774\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T07:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T07:29:16","slug":"tomas-o-se-tried-so-hard-to-look-worried-when-kerry-were-drawn-against-dublin-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/523774\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 S\u00e9 tried so hard to look worried when Kerry were drawn against Dublin \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe may be small, but we have big hearts, we are fighters,\u201d said the proud captain after his wee team defied all the odds and all the doubters to stretch their summer in to July. <\/p>\n

That was Vozinha, captain of Cape Verde, talking. But sure look it, it could just as easily have been Louth<\/a> skipper Sam Mulroy. Because when you think about it, Louth are the Cape Verde of the football championship and Cape Verde are the Louth of the World Cup. The Wee-est in both competitions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is off the charts,\u201d said Brian Fenton of their quarter-final triumph over Monaghan<\/a> \u2013 Louth\u2019s, not Cape Verde\u2019s. The feat was all the more impressive in light of them playing with 14 men for 63-ish minutes to reach their first All-Ireland semi-final since 1957. <\/p>\n

And it was, on the whole, an off-the-charts quarter-final weekend, finishing up with the Dubs coming back from six down<\/a> to win by four. \u201cThe Jacks are back,\u201d Brian beamed, even threatening to hug goalkeeper Evan Comerford when he joined the RT\u00c9 crew for a chat at their breakfast bar at the side of the Croke Park pitch. <\/p>\n

The sun was beaming, Hill 16 was teeming, Con O\u2019Callaghan was scheming, Ger Brennan was dreaming \u2013 for those who thought the Dubs<\/a> were done and dusted, it was like an episode of Reeling in the Years. <\/p>\n

And just to add to Sunday\u2019s enjoyment, how could we ever tire of hearing Ger Canning announce that Se\u00e1n Fitzgerald was unavailable for Galway not because of, say, a hamstring tweak, rather that \u201che\u2019s on Love Island duty\u201d? <\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting to hear the words \u2018Love Island\u2019 ever come out of Ger Canning\u2019s mouth, but there you have it,\u201d as Joanne Cantwell put it. <\/p>\n

By the time the draw for the semi-finals was made, Brian was a bit less beamy, the Dubs having been paired with Kerry, Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 S\u00e9 trying really hard, but failing, to look worried. <\/p>\n

\"PicoPico Lopes celebrates with an Irish flag after Cape Verde’s draw with Saudi Arabia saw them seal a place in the last 32 of the World Cup. Photograph: Francois Nel\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty much like being drawn against Argentina in the World Cup\u2019s first knock-out round, especially when they feature the David Clifford of soccer-ball. What\u2019ll it be like coming up against Lionel Messi? Even the widest widescreen telly couldn\u2019t have captured the entire width of Pico Lopes\u2019s grin when he popped up on RT\u00c9 after Cape Verdes\u2019 draw with Saudi Arabia. <\/p>\n

\u201cWould you believe, I got called for doping,\u201d he said on his FaceTime chat with his Shamrock Rovers gaffer Stephen Bradley after the game. \u201cDo you know,\u201d Bradley replied \u201cafter your last three performances \u2013 and how you passed the ball \u2013 I\u2019d be giving you a test as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

England, of course, have progressed too, their place in the last 32 sealed even before they played Panama. Every four years, incidentally, you can\u2019t but feel for Sky Sports, their lack of World Cup broadcasting rights reducing them to standing outside England\u2019s team hotel and reporting any form of movement. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning we saw Thomas Tuchel and some of his coaches going for an early-morning coffee,\u201d Kaveh Solhekol reported from outside their New Jersey hotel, the wonder being that Sky didn\u2019t plonk \u201cBREAKING NEWS: TUCHEL GOES FOR A COFFEE\u201d on the screen. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we got a glimpse of Jordan Henderson and Anthony Gordon going out for a walk to stretch their legs and to get a coffee as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Whatever you\u2019re paying for your subscription, it isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

Anyway, England got the job done against Panama, if a little unconvincingly, Saint Jude rescuing them when they were beginning to look like a lost cause. \u201cIt\u2019s just like watching Scotland,\u201d said our Roy at half-time in as brutal an assessment of a team\u2019s performance as any pundit could ever muster. <\/p>\n

\"JudeJude Bellingham celebrates scoring England’s opening goal against Panama on Saturday. Photograph: Angela Weiss\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Their struggles were, of course, largely down to the fate-tempting of the ITV commentary pairing of Sam Matterface (\u201cPanama are only playing for pride and want to hold on for as long as possible\u201d) and Lee Dixon (\u201cYou feel like if England get one, they\u2019ll get two or three\u201d). Sam had already intimated that he didn\u2019t regard DR Congo, England\u2019s last-32 opponents, as a tremendous threat. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to bump in to Spain in the last 16!\u201d<\/p>\n

The harshest review of England on the night came from CBS pundit Mike Grella who, after watching the game, turned to (small-budget alert) Troy Deeney and Nigel Reo-Coker and asked: \u201cDo you guys ever think you\u2019re just not that good at football?\u201d Cold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe may be small, but we have big hearts, we are fighters,\u201d said the proud captain after his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6937,2179,61,60,100935,51962,112,4018],"class_list":["post-523774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-dublin-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-louth-gaa","tag-pico-lopes","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523774","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=523774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}