James Corden - Honorary Irishman

[Stuttgart88]

perhaps france aren't that good after all? Perhaps we shoudl really have beaten them easily and not made such a big deal out of the fact we went 1-0 up in paris......I was thinking about that, but:

- We had to play France in Paris, not South Africa, and
- If the problem really is / was Domenech and the associated disharmony & disunity, that's far more likely to play out after a few weeks of training & preparation, and then travel to Sth Africa, than after only a few days together and before what was effectively a cup final.

I thought too many here were doom-mongering before the play-off. In hindsight the whole picture is that over the 2 legs we created more chances than they did. They scored a deflection and a dodgy goal. The only other clear chance that I recall was a late Govou miss in Paris when we were chasing the game, and O'Shea's tackle. We lost 2 good players near the end in Paris and had the disadvantage that McShane came on. They might have been given 1 or 2 penalties and we missed 5 clear chances over the 2 games. In hindsight, we certainly could & should have beaten them, not easily like you say though. A bit more clinical or just lucky and we'd have been there.

[elroy]

In hindsight the whole picture is that over the 2 legs we created more chances than they did. They scored a deflection and a dodgy goal. The only other clear chance that I recall was a late Govou miss in Paris when we were chasing the game, and O'Shea's tackle. We lost 2 good players near the end in Paris and had the disadvantage that McShane came on. They might have been given 1 or 2 penalties and we missed 5 clear chances over the 2 games. In hindsight, we certainly could & should have beaten them, not easily like you say though. A bit more clinical or just lucky and we'd have been there.

Im not sure if we created more chances than them over the two legs. The first half in Dublin was even, but at the start of the second half they upped their game and pinned us in our half, culminating in their goal. Lucky enough as it was. But Evra argubaly shouldve had a pen in Dublin and Gignac missed an absolute sitter to put them two ahead and kill the tie. Imo, we lost the tie in the second half in dublin. Couldnt fault the performance in Paris, with the exception of the misses by Keane and Duff more so. The injuries we suffered that night showed that we did not have the strength in depth in the squad and their goal wouldnt have happened if JOSH was still on the pitch imo.

[Charlie Darwin]

To be fair even McShane is better than the replacement centre halves France brought on.

[yapster]

This is one of the worst French teams ever and Ireland should have beaten them 3-1 'including the handball goal by France'. Ireland failed to take the chances presented to them and THAT is the reason France are in the WC Finals. Ireland have only themselves to blame at the end of the day.

[tricky_colour]

The big lad from Gavin and Stacey.

P.S - really time to get over it now lads :D


Ah I didn't know that as I don't watch it although I have seen him before on things like
awards ceremonies and sports charity stuff and the like and wondered how he got into show
business, he seems quite a good entertainer, I remember my sister raving about Gavin and Tracy
but I never watched it because it sounded crap.

[Stuttgart88]

Im not sure if we created more chances than them over the two legs. The first half in Dublin was even, but at the start of the second half they upped their game and pinned us in our half, culminating in their goal. Lucky enough as it was. But Evra argubaly shouldve had a pen in Dublin and Gignac missed an absolute sitter to put them two ahead and kill the tie. Imo, we lost the tie in the second half in dublin. Couldnt fault the performance in Paris, with the exception of the misses by Keane and Duff more so. The injuries we suffered that night showed that we did not have the strength in depth in the squad and their goal wouldnt have happened if JOSH was still on the pitch imo.I just remembered the Gignac chance alright, had forgotten it.

But:
Keane one-on-one in Dublin, Lloris saves it and lawrnence misses the rebound (off Evra)
Whelan one-on-one late on in Dublin
Doyles's header early in Paris
Duff one-on-one in Paris
Keane one-on-one in Paris
O'Shea unmarked from a corner in both Dublin & Paris - misses two volleyed chances, a chance he took in the CL semi-final in 2009.

That's a lot of chances, more than they had, despite their monopoly of possesion in 2nd half in Dublin

[Drumcondra 69er]

This is one of the worst French teams ever and Ireland should have beaten them 3-1 'including the handball goal by France'. Ireland failed to take the chances presented to them and THAT is the reason France are in the WC Finals. Ireland have only themselves to blame at the end of the day.

That's bull****, we were certainly wasteful and have to take some of the blame but when you get done by as scandalous a decision as we were to say we only had ourselves to blame is frankly nonsense.

[newrynyuk]

If we had scored a second goal, we would have been at the World Cup. End of. Even with that handball goal, we would have won the tie on away goals. But the fact is we didn't score a second, and even if that handball goal was chalked off, the tie would have ended 1-1 and gone to penalties at best.

[Stuttgart88]

Looking at the performances of both Italy and France I think the correct assessment of the Irish campaign is that we are becoming a better side but we were not clinical enough either at the front or at the back. Almost everything we conceded was simply careless and we left too many chances out there. Tighten up and sharpen up and we'll do well, otherwide it'll be another near miss at best.

[tetsujin1979]

if we'd lost on penalties, there's honour in that. You can even point to it and say "well, we weren't as good as them at taking penalties, so that's why we didn't qualify"
But instead we're saying "we went out because they cheated"

[OwlsFan]

If my Aunt had balls she'd..... etc etc"

Basically we were denied a 50/50 chance at penos and we have a 50% record at those so the lack of video technology denied us a 50% chance of getting to the WC Finals. Knowing Ireland, were we to have taken (note the subtle avoidance of the use of the word "if") one of our other chances, France would have come back to 2-2. Looking at the ratio of chances on offer to goals scored in the World Cup, we did ok to take our one chance out of the proportion on offer.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Is this thread still going?

A higher power willing, Karma should come to pass tomorrow.
The only other issue is that we'd like to think FIFA would learn from their numerous errors regarding the whole affair. But being the morons they are, they won't.

[Charlie Darwin]

The annoying part for me is that the French don't seem to care. It hurts that we're not there, but at least if the French played some great football we could agree that the best side won out. Hopefully they don't squeeze into the next round and we can all put this chapter of history behind us.

[John83]

The annoying part for me is that the French don't seem to care. It hurts that we're not there, but at least if the French played some great football we could agree that the best side won out. Hopefully they don't squeeze into the next round and we can all put this chapter of history behind us.
Er, they're already out. Bottom of the group even.

[carloz]

We could have a new honourary Irish man to adore now, South African manager Carlos Alberto Parreira

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1WS9Ofbd98&feature=player_embedded

Allegedly, the reason that Domenesch would not shake his hand is because they had a touchline squabble after Gourcouff was sent off, and Parreira said 'Shut up, you don't even deserve to be here'

[Sullivinho]

http://media.syracuse.com/sports/photo/charlize-theron-world-cupjpg-9b5547099c47750a_medium.jpg

The original and best ;)

[Drumcondra 69er]

Er, they're already out. Bottom of the group even.

He psoed that at 7.24 this morning! :)

Good riddance to them, they were a disgrace to the tournament, hope that fat **** Blatter is satisfied.

[John83]

He psoed that at 7.24 this morning! :)

Good riddance to them, they were a disgrace to the tournament, hope that fat **** Blatter is satisfied.
Ah! My computer and clocks on the forum and gmail and the like are a bit French about working together. I don't trust any timestamps any more. Thought he was more recent than that.

[Closed Account]

Noel Hunts view of things

http://twitter.com/boyhunt/status/16776406114


http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c54102/x2_1b3798a
Bye Bye

[Riddickcule]

The funny thing is if the tables were turned and one of our lads done that no-one would be complaining.

Hypocrites. And it's because of this I let it go long ago. It's the officials fault, not Henrys.

[KK77]

The funny thing is if the tables were turned and one of our lads done that no-one would be complaining.

Hypocrites. And it's because of this I let it go long ago. It's the officials fault, not Henrys.

Exactly. As for the lads with the banner at the first French game they should have had a banner asking Duff and Doyle how they missed their chances when we were winning 1-0!

[Supreme feet]

The European qualifiers really can't come quickly enough.