TWO SATURDAYS AGO, Xavi Vazquez might have struggled to comprehend how he went from that to this.
It was three years or so since he greeted Galway with little English and little else. Before him sat a panel of kids from the city or county of the Tribes, a place with much-celebrated links to his native Spain – though he’d prefer to be known as Catalan.
Some were upset. Rhys O’Connor, one of eight players in the squad who progressed to United from Mervue, had endured a serious injury. The league final was in the midst of a lengthy pause.
The relationship between United and Mervue has in the past been toxic. But here, leading 1-0 at half-time against Shamrock Rovers’ U14s, a United XI was being cheered on by 1,200 fans in Lissywollen, many of Mervue hue.
Xavi, the United U14s manager, might have quarreled with history’s weight. United are a chronically underachieving side, a 1991 FAI Cup win their only notable success ever. After not even half a year in charge of the ’14s, Xavi’s boys were on the outskirts of winning the club’s first ever league title at any level.
“You could see the players were upset,” he reflects now. “And Rhys just said: ‘win it, win it, win it’ – before he went to the hospital. It was so strange, a really long half-time. The players had a lot of time to think, to lose focus.”
𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗘́ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗘́ 𝗢𝗟𝗘́ 𝗢𝗟𝗘́ 𝗢𝗟𝗘́ 🏆
— Gaillimh Aontaithe (@GalwayUnitedFC) November 7, 2021
Congrats to our U14s side who won the @EASPORTS League Of Ireland! 🥳
The side will present their trophies at half time at the game this evening! 😍#ItsATribalThing pic.twitter.com/jmrlrz7RDU
***
His was a happy life. Born and weaned outside Barcelona, the football-mad Xavi was coaching at CF Santvicentí locally. But he reached a point where he all but gave up on that pursuit.
He needed to better himself and, he thought, abandon football. He spoke to girlfriend Anna. It was time to take a gamble.
“I’d coached for 12 years. I didn’t coach at the highest level. It’s so tough in Spain. I don’t like too many changes and I was happy. You coach a team who play 30 games a year, no games called off because of weather or anything.
“Football in Spain is so, so important. Football is the first sport in Spain; I can tell you it’s the second and the third as well. Even when not at the highest level, you can coach very good players and in very good leagues.”
He wanted to learn English and, due to Boris and the boys, Britain didn’t appeal to him.
“This man had an agency and he said: Glasgow, Manchester, Cork or Galway. We said no to Glasgow and Manchester: with Brexit and so on, it was too messy. Anna was in Cork for one summer when she was young. So she said, ‘Why not try Galway?’
“I didn’t know anything about it. We arrived here three years ago – for three months. Then I met Johnny Glynn.”
***
Johnny Glynn is best known either as the goalscorer at Lansdowne Road in 1991 when Galway United shocked Shamrock Rovers, or as dad of Ellen.
Whatever about the extent to which United were longshots to topple the Hoops 30 years ago, Ellen overcame astronomical odds last year when, along with cousin Sara Feeney, she was rescued by a fisherman southwest of Inis Oírr, having spent 15 hours in the water of Galway Bay.
Between these life-changing moments, Glynn became head of United’s academy. Despite introducing Patrick Hoban and John Mountney to the League of Ireland whilst performing heroics at Mervue, he has not managed a senior team since.
“Xavi came to Ireland to learn English. He emailed the club looking for an opportunity so we met for coffee. He only had a few words of English.
“He continued his studies and came to observe our coaching sessions at the community academy,” Glynn recalls. “As his English progressed and we got to know him better he joined the coaching team.”
There are snakes in the ruthless world of professional football but Glynn and Xavi are two of the good guys. Xavi’s smile lights the room as he talks about Glynn’s influence and, having done a bit of coaching underage at Knocknacarra, the bearded Iberian was getting to know the west of Ireland.
“His first job with us was assistant to our U13 manager, Brendan O’Connor. And this year, with the U14s taking off, he took the main job,” says Glynn.
And so around two dozen boys from city and county would travel to Kiltullagh in the south of the county. They would play 26 games, culminating in a visit to Athlone, Xavi at the wheel.
***
With the guts of 50 million people, little rugby and no Gaelic games, Spain isn’t comparable to Ireland. It’s nearly 20 years since a Damien Duff-inspired Irish outfit brought the Spaniards to penalties in Suwon but the Boys in Green haven’t made a World Cup since.
Yet you ask Xavi about the talents of our kids and he sparkles. “When I took over the U14s it wasn’t that I didn’t trust them — I didn’t know their positions.
“I knew we had very good players; it’s just you never know how the Dublin teams are. Every generation is different. We had no expectations at the beginning.
“We went to train three times a week, every week. A lot of hours. We played 26 games this season including friendlies. We lost the first two games in pre-season, one more in the Cup and one more in the league.”
Xavi implemented an aggressive attacking style of football and an ambitious formation that wowed Traynor and Murphy. When United were holding on a little against Rovers in the second half in Lissywollen, LOITV commentator Gordon Brett couldn’t get over how they were leaving two players up top at all times with Kyle Fitzgerald in the ten behind.
They played without fear. “Sometimes we forget they play football because they love football,” says their manager. “I see teams focus only on competing but you have to make it enjoyable.
Every session, every game. This is a game for them. They are not mature. They are kids. They have an hour and a half of free time. Some go home and play in the garden with the football. That’s fantastic, something we have to keep in their lives as long as possible. The most important part is to make it enjoyable for them. Design the sessions for them to work hard, have fun and laugh with them: they’ll remember the periods of times laughing more than the pure sessions.
United’s highlights reel from their U14s contains goals given away by losing possession at the back but mainly goals of their own making. “Don’t punish a mistake. If you want to try something, try it,” is their coach’s message.
“I’ll go with your decision to the end. Just make sure you make all the mistakes you have to make at this age. So at a professional level, you have this experience, and you can perform a little better.”
With Rovers desperately seeking a winner, Fitzgerald ran at the Hoops’ own tiring defence and, with a stunning left-footed pile-driver, sealed the deal for Galway United.
A team of coaches essentially paid expenses and, while trying to find their own way in the erratic world of Irish football, had pulled off an amazing feat but not necessarily a shock. United’s underage sides have been creating waves, with Damien Duff’s Shelbourne U17s suffering a 3-1 defeat to Galway in the Mark Farren Cup semi-final at Tolka Park last month.
Mikey McCullagh, who scored twice, has been training with United’s seniors, whose manager John Caulfield will no doubt be a keen observer when the final takes place Wednesday evening against Cork City at Turner’s Cross, where professional life began for one Chiedozie Ogbene.
That is sublime from Kyle Fitzgerald! What a goal to win a game...@GalwayUnitedFC have taken a two goal lead against @ShamrockRovers and they're about to be crowned U-14 champions. A special goal to seal it!
— SSE Airtricity League (@SSEAirtricityLg) November 6, 2021
Sign up 📺 | https://t.co/vfkMjbvRwA#LOITV | @EASPORTSFIFA | #LOI pic.twitter.com/ENQZphXjzv
There’s an underage revolution taking place all over Ireland and it might be time to listen to an outsider telling us that we have the talent.
“I always say the quality is there. We don’t have worse players than Spanish players. If you train three times a week you’ll be better than training one time per week.
“In Spain we have U7 leagues with 30 fixtures every year. This for me is normal. Give them shape when they are six. Is it the right way? It depends on the priorities in the sessions.
“Technique, coordination to do 100% of the things they can do, every year a little more. The job is done when they are 13.
“Of course we can develop the talent less if we train less. And in five years’ time it looks like the Spanish players are better than the Irish players – absolutely not true. We have a lot of quality. I am impressed, really impressed, with the quality of the National League players here.
“The standard of Shamrock Rovers was amazing, amazing – and every game they played they played better. We are in the process of developing all this talent, with the FAI and the clubs, this pathway. How to play 4-3-3, how to play offensive football.
Maybe football was different in Ireland ten years ago but now in the national team, we have Stephen Kenny – who is trying to play a style of football, a fantastic example for everyone in the country. This is a process.
“We can’t be the best in Europe in five years. But we are getting closer.”
Xavi, Glynn and Galway United have now teamed up with Galway FA, so long another adversary, to do sessions with the county’s clubs, starting with kids born in 2010.
He’s coached the players. How he’s keen to coach the coaches. “We want to help the whole community. Since I arrived here the academy’s progress has been huge. And it is only starting.”
He’s becoming one of us, and making us feel better about what we can do.
