Keith Rowland
Northern Ireland v Germany
27th March 1999
Playing against three times World Cup Winners and the then reigning European Champions, Germany, in a competitive match can only ever be described as a "big match" for any player, Keith Rowland, who celebrated his 31st birthday on the first day of this month, has done just that. Indeed the ex QPR man appeared as a sub against the same opponents three years earlier in a friendly International match that ended 1-1 in Belfast.
However we're looking closely at the game in Group 3 of the Euro 2000 qualifiers. The Northern Ireland side had been drawn in a group that also featured Turkey, Finland & Moldova. They'd started the campaign with a 3-0 loss in Turkey, Keith played the first half before being subbed by Jimmy Quinn, the hosts featured Rustu in goal plus Alpay, Tugay and Hakan Sukur whilst the Ulstermen included Neil Lennon, in the news recently after being hounded out of the team by idiots.
Match number two ended N.Ireland 1 Finland 0, the scorer being our man Rowland, Hyypia, Litmanen and mates couldn't prevent the then QPR player from grabbing the vital goal. A disappointing 2-2 home draw with Moldova followed before the big game at Windsor Road.
Germany's games up to that point had seen them lose in Turkey to a Hakan Sukur goal but win 3-1 in Moldova, so at kick off, the Irish were above the German's in the table and hopes were high for a shock result. Managed by Lawrie McMenemey, Keith's team was able to boast only four players from the Premiership in their starting line up, West Ham's Steve Lomas, Blackburn's Keith Gillespie, Michael Hughes from Wimbledon and Lennon from Leicester City, though Danny Sonner of Sheffield Wednesday, then a top flight side, came on as a sub.
Indeed the green & white's lined up with three players who earned their keep in Division Two at the time, Fulham's Maik Taylor in goal, Man City's Kevin Horlock and a certain man making his International debut, Chesterfield's very own Mark Williams. Keith also had two Loftus Road colleagues alongside him, Ian Dowie (now Oldham Manager) and Steve Morrow. The 11th Irishman was Dundee United's Darren Patterson.
As for Germany, their starting XI was strong, Kahn, Babbel, Worns, Jeremies, Matthaus, Strunz, Heinrich, Hamann, Bierhoff, Neuville and Bode. Playing subs were Nowotny, Preetz and Jancker.
The Irish started brightly, Iain Dowie should have done better when Rowland's cross presented him with a clear heading opportunity from close range, but the QPR striker made weak contact and Germany keeper Oliver Kahn safely held on. Spireite Williams was denied a goal when Kahn missed Gillespie's corner under pressure from Dowie and Lothar Matthaus cleared Williams' shot off the line.
Those escapes woke up the visitors and, on 11 minutes, Oliver Neuville's cross from the right found Marco Bode unmarked to head home from eight yards out. Three minutes before half-time, Bode received the ball from a free kick, and from 30 yards drove a powerful shot past Taylor. On 62 minutes, Newcastle's Hamann killed off any hope for the Winsdor Road faithful, his free-kick taking a wicked deflection off the unfortunate Steve Morrow and past Taylor for goal number three to end the scoring and give victory to Erich Ribbeck's side.
Keith remembers the match well, "It was a Saturday afternoon and we went into the game hopeful of a result, we started the game quite lively for 20 minutes but for the next 70 they just took over!" He added, "Out of the blue little Neuville who's at Bayer Leverkusen started taking the game and he gave Kevin Horlock quite a hard time then put a good cross in for Bode to score. We were 2-0 down at half time and against the Germans you don't come back from that. We tried our best but it was a containment job after that".
After that defeat, Keith didn't play in any more of the qualifiers in which N.Ireland drew in Moldova (0-0), lost at home to Turkey (0-3), were beaten 4-0 in Dortmund when Christian Ziege got a hat-trick and they finished a disappointing campaign with a 4-1 loss in Finland. They finished 4th of the 5 teams in the group, heading only Moldova.
Keith's only Caps after the Germany game, his 18th & 19th, were in a match with Canada in Belfast (1-1) and his last call up was in the historic first ever "friendly" match between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic on 29th May 1999, St Johnstone's Daniel Griffin bagged the game's only goal to give the North a win against Robbie Keane and Damien Duff's Southerners.
By Phil Tooley
