Tempo: The speed or rhythm of a piece of music; the speed of any movement or activity
"What's your definition of tempo?" pondered Stephen Kenny at the pre-match press conference on Monday morning.
The question relating to tonight’s clash with Armenia, which has, all of a sudden, turned into a relegation battle, with the threat of demotion dangling over this Ireland team going into the last game of the UEFA Nations League.
A trio of terrible campaigns, in truth, for Ireland in the relatively recent Nations League competition, as they finished rock bottom in their first venture – a Martin O’Neill/Roy Keane production – before scraping through a final-day relegation battle with Bulgaria second time around under Kenny.
Third time has not been a charm from a results perspective, at least, with Ireland looking to get to a maximum of seven points from six games played – they currently sit on four, with the only win coming against Scotland in June.
Armenia come into tonight’s game just one point behind Kenny’s side, thanks to that shock victory over the travelling Irish in Yerevan at the start of the summer series.
Adagio rather than allegro in that particular encounter, as Ireland failed to move the ball at the required pace to trouble a deep-defending Armenia side, before a top-class Eduard Spertsyan strike decided the contest.
"What does it mean? It's such a word that is used, isn’t it?," continued Kenny, on the meaning of tempo, almost sounding Shakespearian on the subject. "Does it just mean to get it forward quicker?
"In my book it doesn't, but we need to move the ball quicker than we did in the away game, for sure.
"Our passing needs to be crisper and we need to penetrate in a more progressive way than we did in Armenia."
Swelterin
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