Republic of Ireland under-17 head coach Colin O'Brien is anticipating "unique and unpredictable" circumstances as his side get set for their FIFA World Cup opener against Panama on Wednesday.
The 12:30pm (Irish time) kick-off, which along with the Boys in Green's other games at the tournament in Qatar will be broadcast live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, marks the first ever World Cup match for Ireland at that age grade.
After opening up against Panama on Wednesday, they will then face Paraguay and Uzbekistan in Group J.
While his players are used to coming up against other UEFA nations, O'Brien said his team have prepared as diligently as possible for opponents from further afield that they are not accustomed to meeting.
"Pre-tournament is so intriguing having the three different confederations," he told RTÉ Sport on Tuesday.
"We're bursting to get going"
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🇮🇪 Ireland U17 head coach Colin O'Brien speaks to @RafDLeitrim ahead of his side's World Cup group opener against Panama
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"I spoke to the players all along. They're not going to see anything different more so tactically. Either teams are going to set up in a back four, maybe with a back three.
"They might play with two centre-forwards (or) one. There'll be nothing that they haven't come across.
"There might be a little bit of difference in some of their characteristics on the pitch in certain situations, that's something we have the team prepared for.
"But the first game in any tournament, it doesn't matter what size the country is, it doesn't matter how they qualified, they can be really unique and unpredictable games because we're like every other country here at the moment.
"We're bursting to get going and Panama are the same. We haven't been ignorant in our preparation, we haven't been disrespectful in any of our preparation.
"That's not how we work. We plan the same for any opposition and we'll see now where we land tomorrow."
In the context of the post-Brexit era, Irish players cannot join UK clubs until after the age of 18 and consequently, of the 21 players that flew out to Qatar last Friday, 16 of the squad have come through the League of Ireland pyramid, with 12 currently lining out for domestic clubs.
Many of them have been thrust into their respective first-teams and have collectively totalled 13,392 minutes of men's club action in their careers to date - a figure not matched by their fellow European rivals at the World Cup.
"Look, I suppose it's great. It is 16 players we spoke about that have come through the League of Ireland system or the Irish system as such that are in the squad," O'Brien said when asked about the potential benefit early first-team experience could have for his players during the tournament.
"A lot of them are playing at really good levels within the club. That's something that's not very unique, we'll say, to other countries as well, that that does go on.
"I'm not particularly one that really would zoom in much on numbers. I'll still look at teams, still observe matches.
"There's a lot of quality within this tournament here and we have in (our) group as well and we just want to start tomorrow and let that quality go."
As part of their preparations before flying out, O'Brien invited Thomas Morgan, the captain of Brian Kerr's Irish under-20 team that won bronze at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championships, to speak to the U17s.
"What Thomas and Brian and all those players done back in that time, I can remember it myself," O'Brien said.
"To have the captain of the (1997) team come in and impart his knowledge and his insights of that great time to players was invaluable.
"What we wanted, we got. It was real honesty from Tom. You just can't beat a player, whether it's an international player or a younger player, a player that's played youth internationals at a high level, coming into speak to the group and it was fantastically received not only by the players but all the staff and Thomas just spoke from the heart. It was brilliant."
The togetherness of the 1997 and 1999 under-20 World Cup sides was particularly notable in a pre-smartphone era, and O'Brien, who has led Irish underage teams at previous European Championships, said his set-up would allow his players to have the freedom to follow collective and individual pursuits at the team base.
"Society has changed. I've been involved a long time working with young teams and international teams, there's a lot of experience there," he said.
"You still have to mould them. You still have to give them opportunities to have their down time, trying to connect.
"But we do that within the group. There are plenty of things we can do with the players in their down time and some of the time they just need to be left alone. Players need their own space at times.
"But what we've seen here with this group all season and particularly since we went in, there's really good team harmony within the group."
Watch Republic of Ireland v Panama in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup on Wednesday from 12.20pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport
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Watch the Sports Direct FAI Cup final, Shamrock Rovers v Cork City, on Sunday from 2pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
