Steven Reid column: This is a brilliant chance to exploit Mannschaft's World Cup hangover

No regrets. It was the theme of our World Cup. "No f***ing regrets here lads," said Mick McCarthy in team meeting after meeting. "This might be your first World Cup but it might also be your last.

""Make sure you don't look back and say 'I left something out on the pitch. Don't be in a position where you beat yourself up in years to come. Do it now."

We did it against Germany. One nil down with one minute to go. We'd battered them. All night. Ran at them. Germany, three-time world champions at that stage, three-time European champions. Seventy million people versus four million.

"Remember what Mick told us, lads," said Niall Quinn as we walked out the dressing-room after half-time that night. "NO REGRETS."

We have none. I was a kid then, the youngest player in the squad and when I look back now, I can safely say that game, that night, was the best of my career. I loved it. Loved the bond between the players and the fans.

We came back from 1-0 down three times in that World Cup. Cameroon. Then Germany. Then Spain. We never gave up. And the fans never gave up on us. We were in Japan but playing at home.

Stag-do

We'd go back to the team hotel after each match and head down for a pint. Fans were there. They'd buy us one and we'd buy them one. It may sound like a stag-do but it wasn't. We just knew we had to let our hair down. We enjoyed each other's company and enjoyed the fans' company, too.

We wanted to do it for them. We'd leave the team hotel on match day and the fans would create a human corridor for us to walk through and go mental as we walked by them, cheering, chanting, clapping us on the back.

We'd sit in a team meeting and Mick would say his thing and then the video montage would come on and we'd see pictures fans back home. "Come on you boys in green," they sang. Everyone from U2 to the President to the man on the street was wishing us well.

The video stopped and the room was silent. No one said a word. No one needed to. No one cried either. We weren't bloody X-Factor contestants. But we knew what we were doing meant something to Irish people somewhere and we wanted them to be proud of us.

We wanted to do it for ourselves, too. Of course. But the fans connected with us in Japan. One night we all decided we'd swap shirts. Every one of us. Quinny - at 6ft 4ins - swapped with someone a good bit smaller. It looked like he was wearing a belly-top. I got a Celtic shirt off a fan and still have it at home.

I thought of this on Sunday night when I heard someone on TV say how Ireland faced a massive task tonight.

I listened to the argument. Germany, until Saturday, had won 28 and drawn three of their last 31 qualifiers. Die Mannschaft won the World Cup in the summer. Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund are regarded as role models for the rest of Europe to copy. The Germans are the new Spain.

And Ireland? Ireland have only ever qualified for five major tournaments. They went to the Euros in 2012 and lost three times. Since then they've lost Damien Duff and Richard Dunne. James McCarthy and Seamus Coleman are injured for this one.

So what chance have we got? I'll tell you straight. A brilliant chance.

Every one of those players will believe they can get a result. They won't look at the World Cup. They'll zone in on the fact Poland beat them last Saturday. They will look at the team sheet and see that Lahm, Klose, Khedira, Mertesacker, Reus and Schweinsteiger are not on it.

They will look at Germany's results post-Brazil. Argentina - lost 4-2. Poland - lost 2-0. Scotland - won (luckily) 2-1. And they'll believe.

They will believe Germany are on a World Cup hangover. As a player, what do you say to yourself after you win a World Cup? No trophy is bigger and the Germans know that even if they lose one or two games in this group that they will still qualify. Motivation may be an issue.

It won't be for Ireland. To me, this game - although nowhere near as important, not as make-or-break as the one we had in Japan 12 years ago - reminds me of that night in Ibaraki.

Make sure you have no regrets lads.