Back in 2002, the Soccer Show was RTE's flagship football programme, and if I remember correctly it aired on Friday evenings. In one edition shortly before the World Cup that year, official FAI travel partner and guitar-playing ex-international Ray Treacy took broadcaster and songwriter Shay Healy on a tour of the hotels, training grounds and stadiums that Ireland would use during the first round of the tournament.
Unfortunately, the lads didn't stop off in Saipan, which may have exposed the true nature of the facilities there before the squad ever arrived, since the pair had an extreme fascination with the quality of the grass at every pitch they visited.
Despite not reaching Saipan (maybe because Ray didn't want to be found out, but more likely because of the gargantuan distance and cost it would have entailed) the pair ended up unwittingly predicting the future on a couple of occasions. Firstly, when Shay asks Ray to show him Roy Keane's bed, Ray replies that the bed is off limits but he can show him the floor Keane will be sleeping on. Later on, more happily, Healy does his Mick Byrne impression by triumphantly bear-hugging Ray (who had just made a decent stab at Mick McCarthy's accent) at the Irish bench at the Kashima Stadium. Whereas the throwaway comment about Keane was more of a portent of unease to come, the Mick-onMick embrace definitely did happen.
Another highlight was their visit to the virtual golf course at one of the hotels, the inventively-named "Club le Club", which was kitted out with swing analysis cameras and "sand bunkers". There were also obligatory shots of quirky local youths saying helpful phrases, Ray's demonstration (clothed) of how to take a "Japanese bath", as well as Shay's visit to a busy public restroom where he shows us how to straddle a squat toilet. To round off the cliche, The Vapors' 'Turning Japanese' features throughout, despite, well, despite not being about that at all ...
For a long-distance junket it was all rather amusing - the facilites were exactly as you'd expect them to have been but the pair made for an endearing double act. Watch the whole thing below, and if you have any other memories of The Soccer Show do share them with us.
