The organisers of the Nations League, UEFA's jazzy new competition introduced to lessen the number of meaningless friendlies, really missed a trick in not launching a 'Whole New Ball Game' style promotional campaign, complete with footballers from competing countries poncing about in the gym.
As a result, we arrive at the eve of Ireland's first competitive international in nearly a year and the sense of anticipation is not palpable.
The task of hyping up the away match in Cardiff has not been aided by general uncertainty about the precise significance of the fixture.
Many fans have some sense that the game is important, or at least that they should regard it as important, but they're not exactly sure how.
The Nations League format is probably easy enough to grasp once you get a two-minute primer but such is the apathy around, most fans don't seem to have the energy to bother studying up on it.
Most groups of pub-talkers have at least one member who has made a proper study of it, but he will be foiled in his earnest attempts at explanation by the glazed eyes and the sighing impatience of his compadres.
For those still floundering, Ed Leahy has given a comprehensive rundown on this site.
Where does this week's build-up sit on the Apathy Evaluation Scale? Are we breaking new ground? Have we hit previously unrecorded highs for a competitive international?
It's a big claim. Be hard to beat the mixture of pessimism and indifference that preceded Ireland's visit to Kazakhstan at the beginning of the 2014 World Cup campaign - Trap still hollering away hoarsely at our defenders, and mere months after we were brutalised in the Euros in Poland. Or indeed, the general indifference that hung in the air before Aiden McGeady scored a couple of stunners in Georgia a couple of years later.
The 'buzz' that preceded those games has been replicated this week and that's not just on account of the allegedly nebulous format.
Grumbling about the state of Irish football is now a national past-time and the recent squad announcement prompted another round of bellyaching. Given the well publicised opt-outs and injuries, it's difficult to know what people expected to find in the squad.
It's been gently suggested that Ireland are currently 'in transition' though the cynical view is that 'transition' is a euphemism for 'decline'. It might be early to suggest that Ireland are in decline but 'transition' implies 'temporary' and there's no indication that a golden generation is bounding over the horizon.
This week, the general consensus seems to be that we are looking at one of the most unpromising squads in Irish football history.
First, the good news. The defence is no weaker than it was the last time we played Wales. Indeed, it is stronger thanks to the return of Ireland's most internationally respected player, Seamus Coleman.
He will no doubt start at right back. We're practically spoilt for choice on the other wing - that might be pushing it - with Stephen Ward an ever-present for Burnley and Matt Doherty now a Premier League regular with Wolves.
The central defensive partnership will be the same one that stymied the Welsh last year, with the home side's long balls hopefully re-acquainting themselves with Shane Duffy's powerful forehead again and again and again...
So, with the defence looking relatively solid, we shall move up the pitch... ah...
Our midfield options are woefully depleted for various reasons, some more self-inflicted that others.
Declan Rice - who Ireland had been using in midfield - is currently understood to be undergoing a crisis of national identity and will arrive at a decision in the coming weeks.
Harry Arter has made himself unavailable, with Martin O'Neill curiously passing up the opportunity to say that a bust-up with Roy Keane played no part in the decision.
And James McClean, who we're confident would never willingly miss an international fixture, is out after breaking his wrist in two places at training.
To top it off, Alan Browne, probably the most in-form player left in the squad as of this morning, has just been ruled out with a calf injury. This writer had just spent a couple of paragraphs rhapsodising about Browne's stunning volley against Bolton Wanderers at the weekend and painting him as a bright spot in a dark landscape and now he's had to bin that.
Where does that leave Ireland in midfield? Only one midfielder, Jeff Hendrick, is currently playing for a Premier League club. He's started every game for Burnley so far. Sean Dyche's side aren't exactly pulling up trees and have lost three on the trot to Watford, Fulham and Manchester United.
The remaining options in midfield are David Meyler, Alan Judge, Conor Hourihane, Shaun Williams, Daryl Horgan and Callum O'Dowda.
Meyler played well for the Republic of Ireland during the last World Cup qualifying campaign, never more so than in the 1-0 away win in Austria when he was introduced for an injured Glenn Whelan early on. His physicality also made life hell for the slight, ball playing Welsh midfield in last October's unlikely victory.
Horgan has made a bright start to life at Hibernian, scoring against both Ross County and Livingston and immediately emerging as one of their most creative players. But many now deride the Scottish club game and probably won't regard his exploits up there with too much reverence.
If scanning our midfield options left you downbeat, then a quick glance at our attacking artillery may leave you slumped in a morose stupor.
Both Shane Long, who has scored very infrequently over the last two seasons in any event, and Preston's Seanie Maguire are both injured.
That great old soldier Johnny Walters has been a terrific servant down the years and will likely start up front again.
He's 34 now and no longer playing in the English top flight. Hobbled by persistent knee injuries, he failed to make any headway at Burnley last season and joined Ipswich Town on loan in August. In an ideal world, we wouldn't be still reliant on him.
The three remaining strikers named are Graham Burke, who recently joined the League of Ireland finishing school at Deepdale, Callum Robinson, also at Preston, and Aiden O'Brien of Millwall. Burke, having featured during the summer friendlies, is most likely to appear.
As if we hadn't been saddled with enough bad luck, Denmark are now on the cusp of effectively forfeiting their game against Wales at the weekend, a dispute over image rights potentially resulting in the selection of a mixture of futsal players and various lower division Z listers from the Danish League.
The game is, of course, a repeat of last October's famous 1-0 win over Wales in Cardiff when our team of bruisers left our cocky hosts crying hot tears at full-time as yet another World Cup dream faltered at the final hurdle.
Had we gone on to complete the job of qualification, it might go down in the annals of great nights in Irish football. As it is the memory is soured by the realisation of what it teed up a month later.
Wales aren't as hamstrung as they were on that night in 2017. The headline difference being that Gareth Bale is fit.
We'll also be doing well to end Joe Allen's involvement early in the game for the second year running.
On paper, Wales have the star quality to beat this Ireland team comfortably, though outside of the trinity of Bale, Allen and Ramsey, their advantage is arguably marginal enough.
Managers often go to unreasonable lengths to talk up the opposition and Ryan Giggs is doing no different this week.
But he did allude to one stat which many Irish supporters, adrift in despondency, might have forgotten. The Republic of Ireland have avoided defeat in their six most recent competitive away fixtures. Essentially, they went the entire World Cup campaign unbeaten on the road.
Such is the level of gloom around, and performative gloom at that, that at any attempt to allude to a positive is usually met with scoffs and irritation.
But Ireland, with their stubborn defence and deeply conservative gameplan, are a pain to break down for home sides. For all the limitations up the pitch, don't overlook the possibility that we shut them out at the other end.
Follow Wales v Republic of Ireland with our live blog on RTE.ie and the RTÉ News Now App and listen to live commentary on 2fm's Game On from 7pm
