Given takes heart from season of safe keeping

Ireland's goalkeeper stands on the brink of history and a boyhood dream is about to be fulfilled. Simon Turnbull talks to a player inspired by his side's mastery of the Dutch

Shay Given is sitting comfortably in a swivel chair in the press room at Newcastle United's St James' Park. "So, when you're out there in the Far East, getting ready for that opening game against Cameroon, will you be thinking of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dennis Berkgamp and Patrick Kluivert, sunning themselves on some beach somewhere?"

The Premiership's No 1 goalkeeper (as voted by his colleagues) laughs at the question. It does have its serious point, though. In qualifying for the World Cup finals, Given and his colleagues in the Republic of Ireland team have already delivered one of the knock-out blows of the World Cup competition as a whole. The team that drew comparisons with the Dutch masters of 1974 with their 6-1 hammering of Yugoslavia in the quarter-finals of Euro 2000 will not be going to Japan and Korea because of Mick McCarthy's marvels.

Whether Bergkamp would have made it there is another matter. The alternative route the non-flying Dutchman might have taken is not Given's worry. It would have been difficult (a marathon rail trip to Moscow, then the Trans-Siberian Express to Vladivostock, and a ferry to the west coast of Japan), though no more so than the route the Republic have taken to get to Niigata, the west-coast Japanese city where they open their campaign on 1 June.

McCarthy probably chose the ring tone on his mobile phone – the theme from Mission Impossible – when the draw was made for the qualifying groups. It pitted his team not just against Bergkamp and Co, but against Luis Figo and Portugal too. Having emerged unbeaten, though, and subsequently survived a two-legged play-off against Iran, McCarthy and his men must be heading east with the feeling that anything is possible for them now. Given, certainly, does not disagree. "As soon as the draw for the qualifiers was made, people said, 'There's no way you're going to get out of that'," he says, smiling at the memory. "That reaction really brought us on. We wanted to try to prove a lot of people wrong, which we did. If we can beat teams like Holland and Portugal, or get good results against them at least, then there's no reason why we can't do the same in the World Cup finals.

"We've got Germany in our group and they're probably in the same bracket as Portugal and Holland. On the day, hopefully, we can match anybody. It will be tough, because the other teams who have qualified are all top teams [the Republic face Cameroon and Saudi Arabia either side of their match against Germany], but we've got a chance of getting out of our group. After that, it depends who you're drawn against. We'd just keep our fingers crossed and – with a bit of luck on the day – you never know."

Never mind luck; with the spirit in McCarthy's side, you never know what they could achieve. It has brought them thus far, confounding the critics and supposed higher- class opponents along the way. "The team spirit is one of our strongest assets," Given says. "We have a really good laugh together, always messing. Gaz Kelly's always up to something. I think it shows out on the pitch, because we're all fighting for each other.

"Like the Holland game at home... We'd seen a bit of their match against England and Mick commented that they were tackled once in the first half-an-hour. So in the very first minute I think Roy Keane nearly halved Kluivert. That set the pattern of the game. We were getting in about them, not letting them play their passing game. I think that upset them."

It also upset the Dutch in Dublin last September that Given was in such fine goalkeeping form as the Republic – reduced to 10 men after the dismissal of Gary Kelly – emerged 1-0 winners, courtesy of Jason McAteer. It upset Iran even more in the play-offs, Given taking man-of-the-match awards in the 2-0 win at Lansdowne Road and in the 1-0 defeat in Tehran. His performance in the intimidating atmosphere of the second leg was all the more commendable considering that what he presumed to be smoke bombs thrown towards him when he performed his pre-match warm-up turned out to have been live grenades.

With his indomitable strength of character, and his ability to maximise his not inconsiderable talent whenever he plays at international level, Given typifies the qualities McCarthy's remarkable team bring with them to the World Cup finals. He made his debut for the Republic in March 1996, in a 2-0 home defeat against Russia – the match that marked the start of the McCarthy era – and has emerged through the play-off failures for France 98 and Euro 2000 to establish himself as a high-class international goalkeeper.

He has also come through setbacks in his club career (released by Celtic at 16, frozen out of the first-team picture at Blackburn by Tim Flowers and dropped by Ruud Gullit for the 1999 FA Cup final) to be voted by his fellow professionals as the Premiership's premier keeper this season. Now, a month past his 26th birthday, he stands on the brink of history with his national team. Ireland might have reached the quarter-finals in Italy in 1990 and the second round in the United States in 1994, but Jack Charlton's heroes only won one of the nine matches they played over the course of two World Cup finals: the famous 1-0 victory against Italy in the Giants Stadium eight years ago. Given and his team-mates could go at least one better.

The goalkeeper could even make it on to the silver screen, as his predecessor did with the penalty shoot-out against Romania for a quarter-final place in Italia 90. Packie Bonner's vital save and David O'Leary's clinching kick feature in a memorable pub scene in The Van, the film version of the Roddy Doyle book. "Yeah, I've seen it," Given says. "It's a great, great film. I was at home with my family in Donegal watching that match on television. Everyone was celebrating out in the streets afterwards, with all the flags out and everything. People were just going mad. You'd have thought we'd won the World Cup.

"The whole country was united, wishing the lads to do well. At my age, 14, the players were all heroes and legends to me. Thinking now, to be playing for Ireland, never mind playing in the World Cup finals... you have to pinch yourself sometimes." Meanwhile, on some beach somewhere, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Kluivert are probably pinching themselves too.