Irish press calls Euro 2012 exit 'end of an era'

Irelands newspapers said Tuesday the Irish football teams third straight Euro 2012 defeat ended the misery but also called time on many of the players and the teams tactics.Some papers also drew comparisons between the humiliation on the European football stage of Giovanni Trapattonis side and the republics bailed-out, battered economy.Their 2-0 defeat to Italy on Monday, with a last-minute goal by Mario Balotelli and a late sending-off for Irelands Keith Andrews, came after a 3-1 loss to Croatia and a 4-0 humbling by reigning champions Spain.End of pain, end of an era, said the Irish Examiner.Pressing for the goal and the point which would have given them something tangible on the table to take away from an otherwise forgettable experience, their fragile world collapsed again.It had the look, to be honest, more of eras end than tournaments end for some of them.This was by some distance the most spirited and disciplined Irish performance of these Euro finals.Yet, even this improved display still wasnt enough to prevent Trapattonis men -- with three defeats on the spin and nine goals conceded -- equalling the record for worst-ever performance by a team at the Euro finals.The Irish Times drew parallels with the countrys bailed-out economy.The Irish soccer teams humiliation exposed the false pragmatism that rules our political life, wrote Fintan OToole.What is the misery of Poland and Ukraine 2012 a metaphor for? A paradox: impractical pragmatism.What has been so ruthlessly exposed in the fantasy world of football is, as it happens, precisely the thinking by which we live in the real world. It is a way of behaving that looks exactly like hard-nosed, calculating pragmatism.Except for one little twist -- it doesnt work.Trapattonis awful football is the essence of impractical pragmatism.It reduces everything to numbers -- the final score -- that justify everything.Which is all very well except that, in the end, the only results produced by this pragmatism are humiliation and failure.The Irish Independent paid tribute to the fans who supported their team to the last, despite Ireland being the first side knocked out of the tournament.One word easily sums up the mood of Irish fans in the stands last night -- defiant, it said.Defiance against circumstances since there was nothing to play for but pride.It would be wrong to say the result didnt matter, but most people were realistic saying even a goal would do.