Why Troy Parrott’s magic moment meant much more than just the World Cup play-offs to Ireland | OneFootball

As the Irish fans sang, and Troy Parrott’s teammates were already watching clips of his goal, the hero just let it out.

“This is the first time I’ve cried in years as well… I really can’t believe it.”

There are few who can. This is partly why Parrott was far from the only Irish person crying after his deft finish.

The 23-year-old’s comeback hat-trick that culminated in an incredible 96th-minute winner was not just a sensation of an event; of the type that has emotionally captured all of football in the way only the World Cup can.

It was a feat that probably shouldn’t have been possible, that involved a lot of defiance from everyone involved - not least the hero.

Just over a month ago, after all, Ireland sat bottom of the group with just one point from half their qualifiers being played. They didn’t seem to have a prayer.

A dismal 2-1 defeat away to Armenia appeared to be a nadir, a rock bottom from decades of neglect. The League of Ireland, one of the few positive stories, just looked isolated.

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Ireland fell to defeat against Armenia earlier in the group (Hakob Berberyan/AP)

This squad had commonly - and correctly - been described as the country’s worst in living memory. At the top, it didn’t have anything close to a class player like Dominik Szoboszlai. A lineage of world-class players running from Johnny Carey in the 1930s to Roy Keane and arguably Robbie Keane in the 2000s had long been broken. Even Parrott, once considered a great hope of the Irish game, had been dismissed as classic wasted potential. He’d been let go by Tottenham Hotspur, left to find his way at AZ Alkmaar. Even the young forward now ranked ahead of him, in Roma’s Evan Ferguson, had been blighted by injury. Typical. Beneath that, though, Ireland barely had any players close to Europa League level.

That came from decades of dysfunction, culminating in multiple controversies and a notorious overhaul at the top of the football association just before Covid. The organisation has even been subject to government enquiries.

A lot of money had been wasted, but it was more than that. Ireland seemed to have wasted the glory years of 1988-2002, its football culture now constantly cast unfavourably against the higher-performance higher-society world of Irish rugby.

Pathways and dreams were broken, faith was ruptured. Talent was going into other sports.

The fateful final opposition of Hungary represent quite a symbolic contrast here, given that an authoritarian leader like Viktor Orban had pumped so much into their national game for nationalist reasons.

You could get into all kinds of metaphors about modern society here, given Ireland’s democracy had seemed to allow its own most popular sport - by participation and interest - to fall into decay. Such socio-political dimensions are all the more poignant given how intimately Ireland’s initial football success was linked to the state of the country.

Euro 88 and Italia 90 did more than give people joy amid economic misery. They were credited with firing a confidence that played into the Celtic Tiger.

And now, here they were, one of Europe’s most expensive countries barely able to produce a player a footballer of value.

The very appointment of Heimer Hallgrimsson seemed like some desperate last attempt to conjure the magic of the past. If Ireland had once enjoyed success with a little fancied outsider like Jack Charlton, why not now? And sure, Hallgrimsson wasn’t a 1966 World Cup winner, but he had overseen Iceland’s Euro 2016 win over England.

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Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson (Zed Jameson/PA)

It was as if all that the Irish team had left was manifestation. And yet none of Irish football history suggested anything like the last week was possible.

Even in the country’s best days, the most common big moments were 1-1 moral “victories”.

All of this had finally given way to proper humiliation in the last decade, from a 5-1 evisceration by Denmark to a 1-0 home defeat by Luxembourg, and whatever it was that Hallgrimsson ended up conjuring in Armenia.

This, outside small League of Ireland stadiums, was a moribund national team.

And now it’s alive.

For Hallgrimsson’s part, there had been signs before Yerevan. Ireland were becoming tougher to play against. A coherence was returning, even if it wasn’t all there yet.

A 1-0 October home win over Armenia at least restored some respectability - and a chance. There’s nevertheless a chasm between respectability and what was required in the last two matches, home to Portugal and away to Hungary. It shouldn’t have been possible.

But Hallgrimsson had tapped into something. He knows how to nurture a team spirit, and one of Ireland’s long strengths had been a soul. It might no longer have been visible to outside fans, but it was there.

Being hard to play against quickly translated into being a nightmare to play against. Influenced by Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, they have aggravated a series of opposition players into red cards. Play-off rivals are going to be mindful of this. Cristiano Ronaldo wasn’t.

His theatrical dismissal only added to the drama of this week, but an absolutely vital point here is that this was about much more than stars.

It was about classic football qualities, a lesson to any country. Portugal couldn’t get around Irish defiance. They weren’t ready for it.

And Parrott, in a new formation, finally had the platform to build on burgeoning club form. He pounced, to make it 1-0, then achieved cut-through, to make it 2-0.

Parrott described that as the best night of his life, little knowing what was to come. Who could?

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Troy Parrott scored twice against Portugal (Liam McBurney/PA)

In Budapest, it all seemed like this would be the same old story, as Hungary went 1-0 up within three minutes. That final match instead became a microcosm of the entire group, as Ireland rallied at the death.

Parrott first showed a new nerve with that delayed penalty to make it 1-1. It was needed, given how Hungary asserted their superiority again for 2-1, and Chiedoze Ogbene’s cruel hamstring injury appeared to illustrate this was not going to be Ireland’s day.

That was only because it was all set up to one of the greatest days. Parrott, having been quiet, stirred everything up with a surprising equaliser on 80 minutes.

It stood out all the more for its ingenuity, which had a symbolism. In that one deft little touch-and-lift was the type of inner-city Dublin street footballer that had defined much of Ireland’s history, but also the kind of talent it was failing to maximise.

It was the past, and the future, but Ireland were more alive in the present.

They may not have had a star like Szoboszlai but, against that, they had nothing to lose. Hungary began to panic any time the ball went near their area.

So it was that it fell to Parrott. He still needed to produce, for an instinctive run that just coursed into a leap of jubilation.

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Troy Parrott scores his hat-trick goal in Budapest (Denes Erdos/AP)

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Parrott turns to celebrate after scoring Ireland’s winner (Reuters)

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Ireland teammates and staff pile on with joy (Getty Images)

Those in the Puskas Arena were struck by the immediate silence. No one in Ireland would have noticed, given the joy. There’s still nothing in sport that gets the country going like the national team, and there had been nothing like this.

A double comeback and 96th-minute winner to make it three successive wins and stay within reach of a World Cup: this shouldn’t have been possible, and for reasons way beyond the difficulty of this Hungary match.