Post Match and looking ahead

[jo84]

The atmosphere was incredible on Saturday night, I was there for the rugby on Sunday as well, in pretty much the same seats and it was like a library in Croker.




You're comparing two completely different occasions there. The atmosphere at some Irish matches in football at Croke Park has seemed like a library too, compared to six nations games against France and England at the same venue.

[northerncelt]

Im feeling a little more confident about the game then I was on saturday night. We really are still in it. Im confident Traps experience will have the players in a positive frame of mind come wednesday.

Hopefully he gives Duffer and McGeady a go. Hunty on 65 min if needs be. I wouldnt be completely against the idea of giving Best a go instead of Doyle either. It seems harsh on Doyle but I think we need to change upfront as we never look dangerous with keane/doyle. That said, Ill be the happiest man in Ireland if Doyle nicks one on wednesday because he deserves it.

I said after the game that Andrews had a nightmare on saturday. Ive since watched the game again and can see why lots have disagreed. Although we really cant afford to give the ball away as cheaply as we did on some occasions in Croker.

It is true that we rarely ever go down without a fight especially in huge games against superior opposition. The least i expect from wednesday is to be a very nervous person for atleast 90 minutes. Im reasonably confident we can hit the front at some stage. If we do that…. Who knows!

BTW anyone know the latest with the TV rights?

[tetsujin1979]

I just wish someone would tell the players to SHOOT FROM DISTANCE, that is a major weakness for Llloris and if Whelan or Keane gets space they should have a crack.
Whelan tested him from distance a few times, drawing saves from Llloris, Andrews had one shot straight at him, albeit between their two centre halves.

[mypost]

I dont know where all this optimism is coming from, we had a couple of half decent chances, and that was about it. We contained them well, but that was in a game where we thought we could go there with a 0-0 and still be ok, it backfired.

It's not optimism, it's delusion.

At times, they ran rings round us on Saturday, they had nearly 70% posession. :eek: And that was when they were only half-arsed. They would have been thrilled with 0-0, to take home and finish the job there in full flow.

0-0 wouldn't have been a great result for us, because if we were going to win the tie, it had to be won in Dublin. We had to take something to Paris. Instead, we took nothing, and our workload has now doubled in half the time.

There's no hope in this world or the next, of us holding them scoreless in Paris for up to 2 hours. Even the best sides don't win in Paris, so what hope us, with our limited players? I'm hoping, not expecting the tie to still be alive come half time on Wednesday night. But I am prepared for the worst.

Just hope the lads enjoy the trip, come what may.

[FarBeag]

It's not optimism, it's delusion.

At times, they ran rings round us on Saturday, they had nearly 70% posession. :eek: And that was when they were only half-arsed. They would have been thrilled with 0-0, to take home and finish the job there in full flow.

0-0 wouldn't have been a great result for us, because if we were going to win the tie, it had to be won in Dublin. We had to take something to Paris. Instead, we took nothing, and our workload has now doubled in half the time.

There's no hope in this world or the next, of us holding them scoreless in Paris for up to 2 hours. Even the best sides don't win in Paris, so what hope us, with our limited players? I'm hoping, not expecting the tie to still be alive come half time on Wednesday night. But I am prepared for the worst.

Just hope the lads enjoy the trip, come what may.

Unfortunately I agree with you 100%. The Irish players ran themselves into the ground in the first half on Saturday forgetting there was another 45 minutes to go. The French let the ball do the talking something we just are not able to do. It will be a miracle if we get anything out of this on Wednesday.

[jo84]

Even the best sides don't win in Paris, so what hope us, with our limited players?

Scotland did it in the last campaign. There's always hope.

[tricky_colour]

Unfortunately I agree with you 100%. The Irish players ran themselves into the ground in the first half on Saturday forgetting there was another 45 minutes to go. The French let the ball do the talking something we just are not able to do. It will be a miracle if we get anything out of this on Wednesday.


They will have to pace themselves better on Wednesday.
I think the Irish rugby team used to do that but now they pace themselves better. If you are going to run yourselves into the ground best to do it in the last half hour, that way you can recover when the game is over, not during it.

[Tipp Townie]

Lads, is there any news on the TV rights for Paris? I'll be trying to watch it in a pub in Brighton, so long as it isnt on a weird tv channel

(sorry, wasn't sure where else to ask and couldnt see a thread about it; feel free to pint me in the right direction)

[Scram]

Lads, is there any news on the TV rights for Paris? I'll be trying to watch it in a pub in Brighton, so long as it isnt on a weird tv channel

(sorry, wasn't sure where else to ask and couldnt see a thread about it; feel free to pint me in the right direction)

Discussed below link but NO, nothing sorted yet, Radio or TV !! RTE offered €600k i.e. Pat Kenny's salary, negotiations continue.

http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?p=1274533#post1274533

[elroy]

Discussed below link but NO, nothing sorted yet, Radio or TV !! RTE offered €600k i.e. Pat Kenny's salary, negotiations continue.

http://foot.ie/forums/showthread.php?p=1274533#post1274533

The game HAS to be on TV, it is likely to be the biggest Irish game on TV for the best part of two years. I have a sense that the negotiations are getting there.

[ChrisRed]

Sky sports 1 has Internation Football TBC in its schedule at 7.30 on Wednesday so surely they must still be in negotiation.

What ever the difference between the asking price and RTE's/Sky's offer the FAI should stump up, i'm sure it'll be no where near the 5 million that they recieved for television rights on Saturday.

[Emmet7]

Once more the clowns in the FAI have sold out the Irish people for a quick buck.

They should give money to RTE to help out with the negotiations.

It's a disgraceful situation created by the FAI just like when they sold the rights to Sky Sports. Will these bunch of idiots ever learn?

[richieos]

I was gutted on sat, but now iv'e come up with the most positive thing i can take from the game. At 0-1, Ireland WONT be as cautious as in the home leg, even if trap says so, it wont be gung ho, but we'll go for it a lot more. If we equalized in the first leg, we'd still need an away goal, only this time we have more of a reason and more of a motivation to really go for it, because we have no choice, whereas at 1-1 we'd probably sit back. Thats the main positive i can take from the loss, hopefully we'll go for it and as time passes the french get more and more nervous and we have a night to remember.

[Paddy Garcia]

I think Stan should pay the difference

Quick everyone email him.

[old git]

The scuffle at the final whistle may do us the world of good.

Realistically we're probably toast but as the Slovenian(?) coach said today: better to be wounded than dead.

If we score first in Paris then game on.

As underdog you've got to take your chances. We had 3 clear cut chances (Lawrence, Andrews from 18 yards and Whelan at the end) and took none. I think it's that simple. The better team won but their goal was lucky. C'est la vie.

Trap had better have something special up his sleeve for Weds. I think we need more aggression & bite than finesse - that means Hunt starting I think, with Duff on the right.
Did we beat ourselves by retreating though, or did they genuinely find another gear? They dominated the first 8 minutes but then Andrews won a crunching tackle and from then on we were in the game. There was no such moment in the second half.

History may be on our side: Bulgaria & Israel in Paris in 93?

why has nobody mentioned great chance keane missed one on one with keeper and then rebound fell to lawrence who should have scored.. think that is our main problem as keane not a world class finisher in tight matches and you may only get 1 chance .. would henry / anelka missed this chance :ball:

[tetsujin1979]

Lawrence didn't miss it, Evra deflected it out for a corner, but the ref gave a goal kick

[Emmet7]

I don't think Anelka would have missed it for the reason he is able to outmuscle defenders.

Robbie Keane just falls in a heap any time a defender breathes on him.

I agree Keane is not a world class finisher in tight situations.

[Closed Account 2]

Put the youtube id, i.e i7dxno9_ixg, in [.yt] [./yt] tags (remove . )
i7dxno9_ixg

Oh, I would give all the money in the world to have Bernard Lama in goal for the French on Wednesday!!!

[Noelys Guitar]

Oh, I would give all the money in the world to have Bernard Lama in goal for the French on Wednesday!!!

Look at the number of Bulgarian's in the box. 5 in total and only 3 French in the last minute. Amazing. And it shows it can be done against this opposition on their home turf.

[tricky_colour]

The game HAS to be on TV, it is likely to be the biggest Irish game on TV for the best part of two years. I have a sense that the negotiations are getting there.


I would not be too sure of that, because it is a big game they know they can charge the earth for it, I think recently a nig English match was not on TV, it was sold to an internet company which charged £12 to watch it online so I would not be surprised if something similar happened.
As it happened I watched the England match online for free :D or at least could have had I bothered.

[Closed Account 2]

It was England v Ukraine and people were spitting feathers over here about it, I think Setanta had the rights but they went bust so it went on general sale. Also England v Croatia in Zagreb last year was only on Setanta and again people were up in arms over it.

[DotTV]

why has nobody mentioned great chance keane missed one on one with keeper and then rebound fell to lawrence who should have scored.. think that is our main problem as keane not a world class finisher in tight matches and you may only get 1 chance .. would henry / anelka missed this chance :ball:

Gignac probably would. He put the ball out for a throw at one point...but does that mean he's ****? Of course not

[tetsujin1979]

I don't think Anelka would have missed it for the reason he is able to outmuscle defenders.

Robbie Keane just falls in a heap any time a defender breathes on him.

I agree Keane is not a world class finisher in tight situations.

Apart from Germany in 2002
And Italy in March

[elroy]

why has nobody mentioned great chance keane missed one on one with keeper and then rebound fell to lawrence who should have scored.. think that is our main problem as keane not a world class finisher in tight matches and you may only get 1 chance .. would henry / anelka missed this chance :ball:

Good chance but not a great one, he came quite awkwardly at him and he did well to get an effort away. By the time he could strike the keeper was right on top of him. Quite similar to Germany 2002 in a way except the french keeper was alot closer to Keano. Our best chances were Lawrence, the Andrews shot and Whelans effort at the end. And none of them came from set pieces, the area we need most improvement from on Wed night.

[Murfinator]

I had a dream last night. We won 5-2 in France, was so disappointed to wake up and realise it wasn't real.

oh and Clinton Morrison scored twice in that game. :cool:

[bennocelt]

Lawrence didn't miss it, Evra deflected it out for a corner, but the ref gave a goal kick

He did miss it, he should have scored that - he hit it onto Evra's leg!

[DeLorean]

He did miss it, he should have scored that - he hit it onto Evra's leg!

I know it's easy talk but he could have slotted it into the other corner without much fuss.

[tetsujin1979]

i don't think anelka would have missed it for the reason he is able to outmuscle defenders.

Robbie keane just falls in a heap any time a defender breathes on him.

I agree keane is not a world class finisher in tight situations.

apart from germany in 2002
and italy in marchand.....