Where would a victory against the French rank?

[Stuttgart88]

i expect the match to be over as a contest by about 7.45 on Saturday evening. 15 minutes before kick-off? That's pessimistic even by your standards.

[Emmet7]

15 minutes before kick-off? That's pessimistic even by your standards.

If they bottle it in the dressing room, he could be right, but yeh, it's a good point, it can't be over before it's begun...unless someone like Robbie Keane, Shay Given or Richard Dunne is injured before the game.

[mjpcc]

if we beat france it will be our greatest victory because it will be over two legs. even if we don't win either of the games, that's more impressive, to match a world class side over 180+ mins.

If we beat France over two legs, I'll be legless .........:D

[paul_oshea]

I love welondinho, assuming we do lose to France, he will be back on here saying "I told you so and none of ye would listen and trap has to go". Yet this would be the only one he would have "predicted" "right"....out of all the others he predicted :D

He still hasn't acknowledged all the other ones he got wrong yet...:D

Foot.ies Eamon Dunphy.

[magnumpi]

thank god weldondinho is predicting that we'll get hammered, just like in every other game so far this campaign. i can sleep easy now.

[weldoninhio]

I love welondinho, assuming we do lose to France, he will be back on here saying "I told you so and none of ye would listen and trap has to go". Yet this would be the only one he would have "predicted" "right"....out of all the others he predicted :D

He still hasn't acknowledged all the other ones he got wrong yet...:D

Foot.ies Eamon Dunphy.


There were threads about the predictions for the other games that were full of predictions, i acknowledge i was wrong now, should i set up a "acknowledge you were wrong in the predictions" thread?? we drew instead of losing, so what?? Is it just me that should acknowledge i was wrong?? What about all the people who said we would win in those threads?? Where should they acknowledge that they were wrong??

I would love to see the back of Trap.

[irishfan86]

I would love to see the back of Trap.

There are plenty of sites like that but foot.ie isn't one of them.

[M@ttitude]

There were threads about the predictions for the other games that were full of predictions, i acknowledge i was wrong now, should i set up a "acknowledge you were wrong in the predictions" thread?? we drew instead of losing, so what?? Is it just me that should acknowledge i was wrong?? What about all the people who said we would win in those threads?? Where should they acknowledge that they were wrong??.

4 acknowledges, 3 predictions and 3 wrongs in that paragraph.. You've ingrained those words into my brain now! I acknowledge your predictions are wrong.

[weldoninhio]

4 acknowledges, 3 predictions and 3 wrongs in that paragraph.. You've ingrained those words into my brain now! I acknowledge your predictions are wrong.

OK, get back to me after the play-offs, i expect my prediction hoodoo to end. Spectacularly.

[as_i_say]

1-0 against the Dutch in 2001 still the greatest ever win for me. Playing the last half hour with 10 men and scoring as well, with everything at stake. A transitional Dutch team no doubt but still.

Beating the French to qualify would top it.

[OwlsFan]

OK, get back to me after the play-offs, i expect my prediction hoodoo to end. Spectacularly.

A stopped 24 hour clock is right once a day ;).

Hopefully nonetheless you will be supporting Ireland.

[paul_oshea]

There were threads about the predictions for the other games that were full of predictions, i acknowledge i was wrong now, should i set up a "acknowledge you were wrong in the predictions" thread?? we drew instead of losing, so what?? Is it just me that should acknowledge i was wrong?? What about all the people who said we would win in those threads?? Where should they acknowledge that they were wrong??

I would love to see the back of Trap.

NO, but its just how wrong you were, and yet everytime you made another bold prediction you were more adamant(right). From what I saw was as though you thought well I cant be wrong all the time, so surely Ill get this one right.

The more bold the prediction the more unbeleivable it was, but you probably thought that you would be more right by predicting it that way when it did happen :)

[weldoninhio]

A stopped 24 hour clock is right once a day ;).

Hopefully nonetheless you will be supporting Ireland.

To be honest, i'd rather not see an Irish team embarrass itself on a world stage playing the turgid, anti-football that Trap is pushing on us. I would support us if we played proper football. In my defence, i turned down tickets to both legs, so that someone with an interest could go.

[Zizou]

Nesun Dorma on here.. Jaysus the goosebumps.. If we beat France its fourth after getting to 90 94 + 02

[Stuttgart88]

To be honest, i'd rather not see an Irish team embarrass itself on a world stage playing the turgid, anti-football that Trap is pushing on us. I would support us if we played proper football. In my defence, i turned down tickets to both legs, so that someone with an interest could go.My support for my national team is not conditional on how they play, but each to his own I accept.

What gets me though is why you bother posting on a forum about something you admit you have no interest in. I don't post on GAA forums because, eh, I have no interest in it. Yours is about as close an admission to being a WUM as we'll ever see here and it'd be nice if the mods took note.

[paul_oshea]

Well its good to have objectivity on the board, and whilst I was going to post something along similar lines, I didnt bother as I thought that was giving receipt of reading his post, and thats playing exactly into a WUMS hand.

I enjoy people coming on giving different views to the majority, but I dont really see why you would come onto the Ireland forum, posting something when you don't support your country. BUt like so many others in Ireland "support" is like a light switch they can turn it on and off, except it seems to turn on and off more than a hoor changes her wet knickers.

Support is unconditional, hence why its called "support". Or at least it should be.

[weldoninhio]

I'm Irish and i do have an interest in the national team. Its just my opinion that we are using turgid, anti-football tactics at the moment. I still watch the matches on TV, i'm just averse to paying E70 to watch a style of play that does not excite me. I have no interest in supporting this "try not to lose, don't try to win" senile old man with his dour tactics.

Everyone is going on about how trap has made us more solid etc, but how many times have we gone ahead and thrown away that lead??

Its a forum Stutts, if everyone agreed with everyone and had the same opinion it would be pretty dull, like trapattonis Ireland!!!

[Stuttgart88]

Why don't you just say so then? There's an antagonistic tone to nearly everything you write and you go on record as not having any interest, only to qualify it it later.

I'm more in favour of Trap than I am against and there are things I'd like to see done differently, but I'm as excited as hell about the games we have coming up. I don't think we'll win for what it's worth but I think suggesting it's over before it even starts is pretty miserable.

[Junior]

Lets be honest here. When was the last time we play open attacking football? The beautiful game?

Yep me neither, I cant say I ever remember feeling like we played that way.

The good old days what?

[weldoninhio]

Lets be honest here. When was the last time we play open attacking football? The beautiful game?

Yep me neither, I cant say I ever remember feeling like we played that way.

The good old days what?

I never once mentioned open attacking football, i merely stated that i hate the anti-football that we are playing at the moment.

[Junior]

I never once mentioned open attacking football, i merely stated that i hate the anti-football that we are playing at the moment.

Out of interest and just to indulge you. Give me an example of a performance that you really enjoyed from Ireland? - Irrespective of result of course as that is not something that is being taken in to consideration with Traps "anti-football" performances.

[weldoninhio]

Out of interest and just to indulge you. Give me an example of a performance that you really enjoyed from Ireland? - Irrispective of result of course as that is not something that is being taken in to consideration with Traps "anti-football" performances.

I enjoyed our 2-2 all draw in Holland in qualification for the WC02, especially Dunne kicking Kluivert up the arse out in the corner, always likes Dunne since that game. Disappointed not to get the win, but ces't la vie. Also enjoyed our 1-0 against Holland to qualify.

Don't think we've played consistent, decent football since McCarthy left.

[OwlsFan]

I'm Irish and i do have an interest in the national team. Its just my opinion that we are using turgid, anti-football tactics at the moment. I still watch the matches on TV, i'm just averse to paying E70 to watch a style of play that does not excite me. I have no interest in supporting this "try not to lose, don't try to win" senile old man with his dour tactics.

Everyone is going on about how trap has made us more solid etc, but how many times have we gone ahead and thrown away that lead??

Its a forum Stutts, if everyone agreed with everyone and had the same opinion it would be pretty dull, like trapattonis Ireland!!!

We play 4-4-2. We play with two wingers. I am not sure you could call that "turgid, anti-football tactics". I am not sure anyway what the latter phrase means. There is no set way of playing football as far as I am aware.

I accept there are different views but I couldn't care less what style we play. I certainly wouldn't base my support on the country or club I follow upon the manner in which they play the game.

What you have therefore is conditional support. But I wonder how far that conditional support of yours would go if the team you followed attempted to play the ball on the ground all the time but lost most games. Would you still pay your €70.00 a game to watch it lose? Were you a big fan of Trapp's successor, Stan, who tried to play the game you aspire to without much success alas. I doubt it.

I wouldn't describe Trapp as "a senile old man". Have you ever met him? He is far from senile and if you ever achieve a fraction of what he has achieved in his lifetime, you'll be a lucky man. I take it by your description of Trapp that you want a young manager (e.g. Stan) who attempts to play exciting football without necessarily winning (e.g. Stan) or is it exciting football and winning you want. I would suggest therefore you follow Real Madrid, Man U and Spain/Brazil and leave the rest of us to the real world of trying to qualify for South Africa no matter how. If you want to see excitement, watch the country's reaction if we do.

[weldoninhio]

We play 4-4-2. We play with two wingers. I am not sure you could call that "turgid, anti-football tactics". I am not sure anyway what the latter phrase means. There is no set way of playing football as far as I am aware.

I accept there are different views but I couldn't care less what style we play. I certainly wouldn't base my support on the country or club I follow upon the manner in which they play the game.

What you have therefore is conditional support. But I wonder how far that conditional support of yours would go if the team you followed attempted to play the ball on the ground all the time but lost most games. Would you still pay your €70.00 a game to watch it lose? Were you a big fan of Trapp's successor, Stan, who tried to play the game you aspire to without much success alas. I doubt it.

I wouldn't describe Trapp as "a senile old man". Have you ever met him? He is far from senile and if you ever achieve a fraction of what he has achieved in his lifetime, you'll be a lucky man. I take it by your description of Trapp that you want a young manager (e.g. Stan) who attempts to play exciting football without necessarily winning (e.g. Stan) or is it exciting football and winning you want. I would suggest therefore you follow Real Madrid, Man U and Spain/Brazil and leave the rest of us to the real world of trying to qualify for South Africa no matter how. If you want to see excitement, watch the country's reaction if we do.

We play to "not to lose" rather than playing to win. This is anti-football, football is a game that is decided by who scores the most goals. I would prefer to lose some games and win others i.e. if we lost to Italy and beaten Montenegro we'd have 1 point more than we ended up with.

[Emmet7]

As Trap says, football is not a show or about entertainment. It's not about allowing other teams to score and you score more.

Football at the top level is basically a game of chess. A mistake by one side can be punished by the other in the blink of an eye. That's the context in which Trap has managed through his whole career. He has realised that if you let your defense down for even a few seconds against top players you will get punished.

Against Italy in the second leg, we let our guard down for a few seconds towards the end, and they scored a goal which cost us victory. It was largely because most of the Irish team were in the Italian half, attacking when at least a few more players should have stayed back. It demonstrated there is a time for attacking football and a time for defensive football. It also showed when we try to play open expansive football with the players we have, we get carved up so easily.

If we had world class players, we could play exciting attacking football like Real Madrid and Barcelona. But we don't have world class players and so must play a certain way, a negative way sometimes, but it has to be done.

[Supreme feet]

The best football I've seen from an Irish team in recent years was during our U-21 game against England in Southampton. Garvan, Quinn and O'Toole dominated the midfield, we passed the ball around nicely, and showed flashes of real skill and technique.

We lost 3-0.

In fairness, we could be retaining possession better in midfield and playing more aesthetically attractive football, but I seriously doubt that Trap is telling Andrews and Whelan to hide from the ball. He's not encouraging them to give it away at every opportunity. If you cast your mind to the opening two games of the campaign, and the friendly with Norway, we were playing some nice, patient, passing football. That went out the window when Steven Reid got injured. Andrews hadn't even made his debut this time last year, and Whelan's international career is still in its relative infancy. Its their lack of experience that lets us down in that area.

Compared to the experience and pedigree we have in other areas; Given, O'Shea, Dunne, Duff, McGeady, Doyle, Keane; we are lacking in central midfield, and have been since the retirements of Roy Keane, Holland and Kinsella (and, I might add, the failure of McPhail, Thornton, Miller and others to step up to the plate). After the game away to Cyprus, Trap actually stated that Andrews and Whelan 'need to trust themselves more'. He's not telling the players to shy away from keeping possession or passing the ball.

[Supreme feet]

Don't think we've played consistent, decent football since McCarthy left.

You obviously don't remember the 0-0 draws at home to Iceland or Lithuania in 97, the defeat to Macedonia in the same year, the Croatia loss in 99 when Zvonimir Boban, watching from the stands, described Ireland as 'the worst team I've ever seen', and saying that even Malta even showed more ambition when playing Croatia a month earlier. What about our turgid 1-1 draw in Macedonia, when McCarthy inexplicably left out Duff and replaced him with Gary Kelly? I could go on and on here. Point is, it took McCarthy a hell of a long time - more time than most international managers get - to get the balance right between playing good football and actually getting results.

[geysir]

Its a forum Stutts, if everyone agreed with everyone and had the same opinion it would be pretty dull, like trapattonis Ireland!!!
Dull? time to look in the mirror to see what dull is.
Trap's style of play is an absolute carnival compared to the relentless monotone drone of the negativity seeping through your every post on this site.

[weldoninhio]

There were threads about the predictions for the other games that were full of predictions, i acknowledge i was wrong now, should i set up a "acknowledge you were wrong in the predictions" thread?? we drew instead of losing, so what?? Is it just me that should acknowledge i was wrong?? What about all the people who said we would win in those threads?? Where should they acknowledge that they were wrong??

I would love to see the back of Trap.

This can be the thread that acknowledges that everyone that predicted an irish win can acknowledge they were WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AS PER ABOVE!!!

[shakermaker1982]

This can be the thread that acknowledges that everyone that predicted an irish win can acknowledge they were WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AS PER ABOVE!!!

what do you want? A medal?

[seanfhear]

When we win now it certainly will rank as one of our finest victories

[Stuttgart88]

as if it wouldn't have anyway!

Surely now there'd be little argument that it would be THE finest? - although I'm sure many would point to the fact that it's not a great French team blah blah blah.

[OwlsFan]

Yes, no argument now ;)

[geysir]

It would be a statistic for the Guinness book of records now.
The WC would be an anti climax.

[paul_oshea]

Its never going to happen :(

[Straightstory]

Ireland have NEVER beaten a top European team (Germany, England, France, Spain, Holland etc) away in a competitive match, so a win against France will obviously be best ever achievement.

[Scram]

As hopeful and wishful etc. as we can be, it's not likely to happen, and, in fairness, does Trap deserve it, playing muckball?

One paper said "Trap's luck runs out" and I think this was spot on. We were lucky to get what were in fairness pretty mediocre results. And, Andy Reid sitting at home.

[elroy]

Who cares if we deserve it or not. There has been plenty of times when we have deserved more and got less.

I have never felt so gutted for so long after a game of football. Even after Spain in 2002 I dont think i felt this bad. It really has taken the wind out of our sails. I hope by the time the game comes around again the lads will have raised their spirits and give it all they got. Anything can happen in football, its very unlikely but we'll all be there behind.

Without doubt to qualify now would be the greatest achievement ever. HOPE and PRAY.

[Brian Boru]

I'm Irish and i do have an interest in the national team. Its just my opinion that we are using turgid, anti-football tactics at the moment. I still watch the matches on TV, i'm just averse to paying E70 to watch a style of play that does not excite me. I have no interest in supporting this "try not to lose, don't try to win" senile old man with his dour tactics.

Everyone is going on about how trap has made us more solid etc, but how many times have we gone ahead and thrown away that lead??

Its a forum Stutts, if everyone agreed with everyone and had the same opinion it would be pretty dull, like trapattonis Ireland!!!

You mustn't have been around in Jack Charlton's day. We had a superior team with some of the world's best players ( eg McGrath and Brady). We still played even more negatively. I didn't and don't care as long as we win. Trappatoni is a pragmatist. By the way Whelan's goal against Italy was very entertaining.

After Saturday's result getting to South Africa would eclipse any of our previous achievements. It's possible. Believe.

[Reality Bites]

Score first and who knows- it would be the greatest Irish Sporting achievement since the penalty shoot-out in Italia 90 make no mistake. Possible but unlikely.

[Scram]

Who cares if we deserve it or not. There has been plenty of times when we have deserved more and got less.

I have never felt so gutted for so long after a game of football. Even after Spain in 2002 I dont think i felt this bad. It really has taken the wind out of our sails. I hope by the time the game comes around again the lads will have raised their spirits and give it all they got. Anything can happen in football, its very unlikely but we'll all be there behind.

Without doubt to qualify now would be the greatest achievement ever. HOPE and PRAY.

Yes, HOPE and PRAY, that's about it.

[paul_oshea]

Come on lads lets forget the negativity. ANyone out there is going to need to not let up for hte 90 mins, keep going lads lets keep the lads going, when hte legs are getting heavy and the lungs are getting sore and dry lets keep roaring them on. Whatever about the effort the last day with the singing we as the fans need to up it even more.

So for the next 35 hours lets just forget the negative stuff and get right behind the lads. A nation all as one.

[Scram]

The best I am hoping for is 0-0 at half time and us to get a winner in the 85th minute, but the team will have to be a lot more coordinated in passing in the French half.

[paul_oshea]

I think fitness is going to be key for us to be honest.

[antrimgreen]

Agree Paul let's stay confident and drop the negativity, but it contradicts your post up above post #85.

Come on you boys in green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[paul_oshea]

That was a long time ago, a whole day ago.

Its time to forget that now, that was in another time :D

[Leeside Swagger]

Would have to rank as the greatest ever, untill we go on to trash England in the quarters that is.

[antrimgreen]

Would have to rank as the greatest ever, untill we go on to trash England in the quarters that is.

Love it :D:D

[Scram]

That was a long time ago, a whole day ago.

Its time to forget that now, that was in another time :D

"Its never going to happen :( " yes you fcukin schizo!!

And going totally back on my negativity...

IT'S HALF-TIME, WE ARE 1-0 DOWN.

HOME OR AWAY HAS NO BEARING.

Think World Cup, Robbie Keane v Germany, and have faith!

She's not singing yet:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41804000/jpg/_41804464_french_woman_203x300.jpg

[paul_oshea]

Scram are you going over you bandwagoner?