Nigeria Game

[adamcarr]

1-0 to Nigeria at the moment. Ogbeche gave them the lead after 36 mins. Nigeria are all over Ireland!

[adamcarr]

Starting XI
Colgan (Hibernian); Finnan (Liverpool), Cunningham (Birmingham City), Doherty (Tottenham Hotspur), Maybury (Hearts); Miller (Celtic), Holland (Charlton Athletic), Kinsella (West Bromwich Albion), McPhail (Leeds United); Keane (Tottenham Hotspur), Lee (Cardiff City).

[adamcarr]

1-0 to Nigeria at half time! :mad:

[adamcarr]

Rowlands and Clarke on.

[adamcarr]

Martins came very close after only a few seconds! Colgan tipped it out for a corner!

[adamcarr]

2-0 Martins with a great individual goal!

[adamcarr]

Keane had a chance but he put it wide!

[adamcarr]

Ireland supposedly playing with different studs and find it hard to play! :rolleyes:

[adamcarr]

3-0 to Nigeria. Ogbeche tap-in!

[eirebhoy]

I can't bare to watch any more.

[adamcarr]

Douglas on for Holland!

[adamcarr]

Mcphail just hit the post

[adamcarr]

3-0 FT :eek:

[tricky_colour]

Nigeria are a top team on the up, fielding an understrength side
was suicide.

[Declan_Michael]

Stand in players not up to the job. At home we can beat anyone, away we are average.

[eirebhoy]

Worst defeat in 8 years BTW!

[tricky_colour]

Why was this so soon after the Rominia game?
Wasn't it less than 48 hours?
Crazy.

[tricky_colour]

This would never have happened if Kilbane was playing :rolleyes:

[Slash/ED]

Why field the players he did? McPhail, Kinsella, Colgan, Doherty? None of these have an international future. Lee will at best be a reserve striker but I suppose it's worth giving him time than, and unfortunately Maybury is all we have at left back after injuries. No real suprise we lost, Martins is the best youngster in world football bar none atm.

[1MickCollins]

This tournament was a bad idea given the way the games are so close together. For starters Carr, Breen, O'Shea, Harte, Kavanagh, Delap, Duff, Kilbane, McAteer, Connolly, Dunne, Kennedy, S Reid have all been unavailale so far, so options are limited but a good chance to look at fringe players - but against Nigeria you will have to be at your best, they may be inconsistent but on a good day they are a match for anyone.

I'm worried about an embarrassing result against Holland - Kerr probably put out his most experienced side today while needing to rest a few players. Cunningham ( tired ), Holland and Keane were the only recognized first choice players out there really, I think Kinsella is no longer first choice, you can get away with maybe 2 or 3 second line players but with Colgan, Docherty, Maybury, Kinsella, McPhail and Lee it wasn't going to happen away from home.

Miller & Finnan are good but not coming off great seasons with injury etc.

I think Doyle should have played ahead of McPhail he likes to get stuck in, McPhail has only one gear.

It could get real ugly against Holland!

[tricky_colour]

It could get real ugly against Holland!


Didn't we knock them out of the world cup finals?

Could be payback time.

[Declan_Michael]

This tournament was a bad idea

because less than 7,500 turned up. If the FAI had held a few more friendlies in Dublin they would have got 40,000 attendance and made a few euro in the process.

Remember Quinn's charity match getting well over 30,000 on a week night. If they are going to hold friendlies in England again, make it the north.

[1MickCollins]

Didn't we knock them out of the world cup finals?

Could be payback time.

With a first choice team available I would be confident of giving anyone a good game. But without Carr, Breen, Harte, Kavanagh, Delap, Duff, Kilbane, McAteer, Connolly, Dunne, Kennedy, S Reid and Roy Keane...if nothing else the cohesion of the team is affected.

[Slash/ED]

To go back over old ground it's a disgrace Jason Byrne isn't in this squad. Unlike most of our players, he would actually be motivated as it would be a big chance for him and he would be sharper than the rest of them because he's still playing. This was supposed to be about giving people a chance, and he goes and plays has beens like Mark Kinsella ffs, really, what's the point?

[lopez]

because less than 7,500 turned up. If the FAI had held a few more friendlies in Dublin they would have got 40,000 attendance and made a few euro in the process.

Remember Quinn's charity match getting well over 30,000 on a week night. If they are going to hold friendlies in England again, make it the north.The PR of the tournament promoters was a joke. That's why only 7K turned up. Friday's Evening Standard had a report on Keane's return but nothing whatsoever on this tournament. It needed some Don!

Anyway, a sh*te display but Nigeria are no mugs by any standards. In fact they are team the players - mostly second string - will learn a lot from.

[pineapple stu]

With a first choice team available I would be confident of giving anyone a good game. But without Carr, Breen, Harte, Kavanagh, Delap, Duff, Kilbane, McAteer, Connolly, Dunne, Kennedy, S Reid and Roy Keane...if nothing else the cohesion of the team is affected.

Could get ugly, but then the last time we went there for a friendly was in 1996 - we had the likes of Gary Breen (not long after his debut), Curtis Fleming, Liam O'Brien as captain I think, Shay Given with less than ten caps, Alan Moore, Packie Bonner and Liam Daish on the bench and hadn't won in about ten games, yet we still took the lead before losing 3-1, which was at least respectable.

Trust the sprogs!

[Beavis]

Just back from the game and don't know what to take from it.Only positive performance IMO was Alan Lee.Think he was the only one on our team who could match them physically and put himself about well.

[brine2]

The Dutch lost 1-0 at home to Belgium tonight.

Looked tired, unmotivated and just plain crap.

[tricky_colour]

Anyone know the team who played when we lost 2:1 to Nigeria
in Dublin????
And was that the last friendly we lost?

[Condex]

Was at the Nigeria game today.
Took me 10 hoursto gt home.

But what a pile of crap.
Too many players still hanging around

Kinsella - Should throw himself under a train
McPhail - the most useless player in Irish football history
robbie Kean - Ithink I'm better than I reallyam
Maybury - Am Iat the corret match
Colgan - Taotally useless
Dohrty - Useless

Only decent player Miller

[adamcarr]

Too many players still hanging around

robbie Kean - Ithink I'm better than I reallyam

In all fairness who 8s going to replace Robbie???

[thecorner]

To go back over old ground it's a disgrace Jason Byrne isn't in this squad. Unlike most of our players, he would actually be motivated as it would be a big chance for him and he would be sharper than the rest of them because he's still playing

couldnt agree more
also the like of john o flynn, kevin hunt

see how they got at this level

[Duncan Gardner]

The PR of the tournament promoters was a joke. That's why only 7K turned up. Friday's Evening Standard had a report on Keane's return but nothing whatsoever on this tournament. It needed some Don!

Anyway, a sh*te display but Nigeria are no mugs by any standards. In fact they are team the players - mostly second string - will learn a lot from.

As an ill-informed Northerner I thought I'd keep my gob shut when the teams ran out- I only recognised about six of them. Then I realised nor did many of yer fans :)

Even foot.ie's resident demagogue, Davros, was stunned into near-silence. Perhaps luckily, he and the rest of the London RISSC were still in the bar when Martins ambled past three or four men to toepoke the second.

[Condex]

Why field the players he did? McPhail, Kinsella, Colgan, Doherty? None of these have an international future. Lee will at best be a reserve striker but I suppose it's worth giving him time than, and unfortunately Maybury is all we have at left back after injuries. No real suprise we lost, Martins is the best youngster in world football bar none atm.

Totally agree. Whats the point in playing players who are either past or never likely to make it, could we not have a look at Kelly and Yates from Spurs.

[supasparx]

Was this game 'top secret'? Zero advertising. Think we would have drawn a crowd if only people knew the game was on.

V. poor performance, McPhail useless!! :(

[adamcarr]

couldnt agree more
also the like of john o flynn, kevin hunt

see how they got at this level
I wouldnt put JOF in the squad until he is back to his best!

[eirebhoy]

Was at the Nigeria game today.
Took me 10 hoursto gt home.

But what a pile of crap.
Too many players still hanging around

Kinsella - Should throw himself under a train
McPhail - the most useless player in Irish football history
robbie Kean - Ithink I'm better than I reallyam
Maybury - Am Iat the corret match
Colgan - Taotally useless
Dohrty - Useless

Only decent player Miller
Looks like you had a few drinks. ;)

[1MickCollins]

As an ill-informed Northerner I thought I'd keep my gob shut when the teams ran out- I only recognised about six of them. Then I realised nor did many of yer fans :)

Even foot.ie's resident demagogue, Davros, was stunned into near-silence. Perhaps luckily, he and the rest of the London RISSC were still in the bar when Martins ambled past three or four men to toepoke the second.

Recognizing 6 isn't dad Duncan, well done lad! Sadly though there were no debutants in the starting 11.

I think I could recognize 2 NI players and one of those has retired due to sectarian death threats. Carroll being the other. The rest of the NI team being made up of the dregs of the Nationwide Div2, Scottish Prem and IL. But I wish Lawrie Sanchez all the best, he seems like a nice guy with a very tough job.

[Duncan Gardner]

Cheeky, Mick :)

By English D2 I assume you mean D1. Even so you're forgetting Johnson, Taylor and Hughes who are all Premiership regulars.

[1MickCollins]

Cheeky, Mick :)

By English D2 I assume you mean D1. Even so you're forgetting Johnson, Taylor and Hughes who are all Premiership regulars.

I'm so glad you found 3 Premership players so you could say "who are all Premiership regulars" as opposed to "who are both Premiership regulars" which would have been really sad :D

[Duncan Gardner]

Aye that's right Mick, I had to think for hours before remembering all their names :confused:

[pineapple stu]

To go back over old ground it's a disgrace Jason Byrne isn't in this squad.

Wasn't there talk that the reason Kerr didn't call up Byrne or Crowe (who were on the reserve list) was because it would cause Shels' and Bohs' games to be postponed, which would cause more disruption to the teams than it was worth, especially after the Semi-pro tournament? Think there was also talk of having a gap week for international games (like in the English Premiership) because of the possibility of players in the senior squad and the probability of players in the U-21 squad.

On the friendly thing, I think it is our first defeat since Nigeria. Since then, we've played -

Hiroshima (2-1?)
Finland (3-0)
Scotland (2-0)
Norway (1-0)
Canada (3-0)
Brazil (0-0)
Czechs (2-1)
Poland (0-0)
Romania (1-0)

Don't remember the team though...

[Slash/ED]

He's put Byrne, and Crowe, on 'standby' so that can't be it. It would be an absolute farce if he didn't call them up because it would disrupt fixtures and instead we get this semi pro tournament rubbish disrupting fixtures instead.

[lopez]

The Dutch lost 1-0 at home to Belgium tonight.

Looked tired, unmotivated and just plain crap.Sounds like us then. :D

[1MickCollins]

Anyone know the team who played when we lost 2:1 to Nigeria
in Dublin????
And was that the last friendly we lost?


Ireland Shay Given, Steve Finnan, Kenny Cunningham, Steve Staunton, Ian Harte, Jason McAteer (Stephen Reid, 46), Matt Holland, Roy Keane (Mark Kinsella, 63), Kevin Kilbane (Gary Kelly, 61), Damien Duff (David Connolly, 61), Robbie Keane (Clinton Morrison, 61).

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/worldcup/05/17/ireland.nigeria/

[tetsujin1979]

My 2 cents on the game (copied from another board):

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin, with a load of Nigerians! To be fair, there wasn't much publicity about the game, and most of the pubs I asked about it didn't even know it was on, but still it was pretty embarassing to be outnumbered by the "away" team if you follow.

Anyway, the game was dire. Kerr has blamed tired legs (it was less than 48 hours since the Romania game) and rightly so. What I did notice was that as the second half wore on, the Irish were showing better conditioning, no offence to the Nigerians, but I'd imagine this is a result of playing in more professional club surroundings.

Positives were few and far between - thought Alan Lee did very well to feed off the scraps he was given, and the previously mentioned fitness/conditioning/endurance or whatever you want to call it was a little heartening.

Negatives: Pretty much everything else!
Maybury isn't up to international standard, he was to blame for the first goal for being closer to the half way line than the box when the ball was released and never got to close down the runner
Ditto Doherty. Well in partnership with Cunningham anyway. The lack of pace between the 2 of them was repeatedly exposed by the Nigerians.
Midfield pairing was non-existent - it took me about half an hour to realise Kinsella was on the pitch! Both him and Holland were massively out-muscled by the opposition.
I thought after the Czech game, Kerr had stopped Robbie Keane's desire to come deep and beat every defender before scoring. It was back in evidence against Romania, and here it was worse. To be fair there was no passes coming from midfield, so he had to go and collect it, but I can't recall many occasions when he made the simple pass in favour of beating 3 men.
Subs didn't do much, but at 2-0 what can you do? I did expect a little more from Rowlands, after knee-capping his opposite number against Romania I thought he had a bit of fight in him.

Kerr has stated it'll take 3 years to see the benefits of games like these (experience for squad members, etc) and fair enough it probably will.
First Lesson - NEVER PLAY 2 GAMES IN LESS THAN 48 HOURS!!

[Lionel Ritchie]

My 2 cents on the game (copied from another board):

I watched the game in Frazer's on O'Connell Street in Dublin

Does anyone out there know a pub in Limerick showing the Jamaica match?
What channel was the nigeria game on? I'd to listen to it on the friggin radio.
Tough going. We were bloody hopeless.

[tiktok]

Does anyone out there know a pub in Limerick showing the Jamaica match?
What channel was the nigeria game on? I'd to listen to it on the friggin radio.
Tough going. We were bloody hopeless.

The game will be on Setanta, so any pub with Sky Digital should have access, I'd ring around beforehand though, because not too many seem that bothered with it.

[only1kilbane]

yeah just back from game this morning . What a load of ******. The players were strolling around the park like it was a sunday morning run out and the only player who seemed to give a toss was martin rowlands who at least put in a little but of fight.

Terrible attendance at game which surprised me considering the amount of irish over there .

Nothing gained from game really hopefully wed he will play mc geady and at least we can get a look at him !

[tiktok]

yeah just back from game this morning . What a load of ******. The players were strolling around the park like it was a sunday morning run out and the only player who seemed to give a toss was martin rowlands who at least put in a little but of fight.

Terrible attendance at game which surprised me considering the amount of irish over there .

Nothing gained from game really hopefully wed he will play mc geady and at least we can get a look at him !

if you substitute the word 'support' for 'attendance' that pretty much summed up last thursday night for me :(