View Full Version : LOI in Europe 2011
holidaysong
26/08/2011, 3:51 PM
Pretty annoying that all of Rovers home games are 6pm kick-offs.
DannyInvincible
26/08/2011, 3:58 PM
Pretty annoying that all of Rovers home games are 6pm kick-offs.
Why is that exactly? Any particular reason?
Acornvilla
26/08/2011, 4:06 PM
Why is that exactly? Any particular reason?
6pm on a weeknight, people have jobs and familys etc, will be a lot harder for the extra loi brigade to travel from around the country to support rovers, like for instance i'm considering doing, but getting to dublin by 6pm from limerick will be a pain in the arse
DannyInvincible
26/08/2011, 4:08 PM
6pm on a weeknight, people have jobs and familys etc, will be a lot harder for the extra loi brigade to travel from around the country to support rovers, like for instance i'm considering doing, but getting to dublin by 6pm from limerick will be a pain in the arse
Apologies, I probably wasn't clear enough. I meant why do UEFA specify 6PM as a kick-off time? I'm in complete agreement that's it's not an optimal kick-off time.
paul_oshea
26/08/2011, 4:10 PM
HAHA i knew what ye meant DI, but i thought someone would take you up literally :)
holidaysong
26/08/2011, 4:10 PM
Why is that exactly? Any particular reason?
It allows for back to back EL games to be shown on Thursday nights on TV. Obviously for most of Europe on CET it's 7pm for them, so not so bad. Bit unfair though not to have one 8.05pm kick off out of the three home games.
Charlie Darwin
26/08/2011, 4:10 PM
I assume they just assign the timeframes in advance so that TV stations can plan ahead.
freewheel30
26/08/2011, 4:31 PM
Medo is some scummer.
Absolutely. Can he be cited / disciplined retrospectively I wonder. Definitely deserves some kind of ban. And the ref . . .
Looking back at Partisan they had no real leaders, didn't play as a team. Rovers, on the other hand, had common cause.
Stuttgart88
26/08/2011, 4:35 PM
Gotta love this comment in response to Barry Glendinning's article in the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/aug/26/shamrock-rovers-hoop-dreams)
The 'right way'? Really? So abandoning your creditors is the right thing to do?
How many of Rovers 'fans' will be in the Aviva waiting to re-enact the disgraceful scenes at Oriel Park witnessed on live national television last season? The same 'fans' did the same at Richmond Park in the cup semi-final replay. The players themselves were no better - Twigg and McCabe in particular were thuggish and triumphalist in their attitudes towards the home support. At the very least steps should have been taken by the FAI over it, but the reports - to the best of my knowledge - have yet to emerge.
This sort of rose-tinted view of Rovers being a great aul side is a bit mawkish for fans of the other clubs in the League of Ireland. Most would like to wish Rovers well in the next round, and there's no denying the quality of Sullivan's strike (unfortunately), but the reality is there's a huge number of us who hope they take an absolute thrashing from the 3 sides in the group.
Charlie Darwin
26/08/2011, 4:38 PM
The bitterness tastes so sweet. All the proper LOI fans I've heard from, including here, have been far more gracious and/or supportive.
Trainee
26/08/2011, 4:42 PM
All rovers will be live on TV3/3e
Has a venue been decided on? (Not arsed going through 7 pages ;) )
paul_oshea
26/08/2011, 5:00 PM
Nope not yet Dunny.
You mean you haven't really enjoyed all these pages.
Nope not yet Dunny.
You mean you haven't really enjoyed all these pages.
Il trawl through them later paul :D Just have a football game to get to!
Acornvilla
26/08/2011, 5:04 PM
Has a venue been decided on? (Not arsed going through 7 pages ;) )
Not yet, rovers are in talks with uefa and the local council to try and expand Tallagh to 10-12k capacity to make it eligible to host group games
Slightly better quality highlights video that includes Rovers' celebrations after O'Donnell scores the peno
That's the stream I had, silence with Sullivan's goal...
Murray's reaction from behind the goal to the penalty is my favourite. Probably the most experienced European game player in the LOI brought to his knees..
paul_oshea
26/08/2011, 6:20 PM
Rovers pro and secretary are going to have a busy few months ahead...
Lim till i die
27/08/2011, 12:49 AM
The bitterness tastes so sweet. All the proper LOI fans I've heard from, including here, have been far more gracious and/or supportive.
FWIW I hope Rovers lose all their group games 9-0. :)
Don't get the goodwill, genuinely baffled as to how anyone thinks this will be good for "the league."
mypost
27/08/2011, 2:27 AM
Thanks to everyone with the positive comments. There aren't many days where we're admired by most of the LOI community, and they recognise the significance of the result for the league.
Was one of the 50 who showed up, to see history made. The aim of Summer Football was to help our clubs succeed in Europe. It's taken a while since, but the League will be noticed across Europe now for the next 3 months at least. SRFC will be shown on every UEFA-Cup gamenight by up to 50 host nation broadcasters, and other pan-European satellite stations. That's a lot of people to impress and influence. Other apparantly "superior" leagues and clubs are not so lucky this year, and have no such coverage.
On the draw, not happy to play Spurs. The game could be ruined by disinterested barstoolers and event junkies, so I'm happy to play them last at home. Happy with the fixture list, bar Kazan away. The players love playing these games, the fans love the attention they attract, and both have the belief that we can give it a go, and see what happens. And a lot has happened this year. 7 points imo are needed to stand a chance of qualifying. We can get 7 points.
Whether we will or not, is of course a different question. But tonight, Shamrock Rovers are one of the 80 clubs still left in European competition. We have 6 games to compete in and improve rankings. We are the first to make the breakthrough, but it doesn't matter who is first. What matters is we're there to do ourselves justice and the country proud. To the bitter few that still remain, we hope you see the light in time, and see the achievement for what it is. If you don't or can't, well frankly you're on your own.
freewheel30
27/08/2011, 3:36 AM
Would have been nice to avoid the English teams all right (certainly Spurs, who would have a significant "fanbase" here, unlike Birmingham, Stoke or Fulham), and to avoid having the spectre of the English premiership looming over the whole thing. Seems to be the first time Irish and English football will encounter each other since that 1995 friendly.
freewheel30
27/08/2011, 3:38 AM
Just doing a bit of surfing here, looking for a Serbian take on things, anyone able to get a google translate on these, not happening for me for some reason.
http://www.danas.rs/danasrs/sport/fudbal/bruka_parnog_valjka.74.html?news_id=222303
http://www.danas.rs/danasrs/sport/fudbal/krivi_smo_kaznite_nas.74.html?news_id=222357
mypost
27/08/2011, 3:42 AM
Would have been nice to avoid the English teams all right (certainly Spurs, who would have a significant "fanbase" here, unlike Birmingham, Stoke or Fulham), and to avoid having the spectre of the English premiership looming over the whole thing. Seems to be the first time Irish and English football will encounter each other since that 1995 friendly.
Already, their 14-0 win against Drogheda has been brought up. Must happen every time they play Irish opposition so.
bullit
27/08/2011, 4:10 AM
http://www.dundalkfc.com/history/dundalk-fc-in-europe/1981-european-cup-winners-cup-tottenham-hotspur/tottenham-dundalk-812http://www.dundalkfc.com/history/dundalk-fc-in-europe/1981-european-cup-winners-cup-tottenham-hotspur
Dundalk played Spurs in the cup winners cup in 1981.Trouble @ Oriel according to the wise one that is my Da .Just throwing it in like :)
mypost
27/08/2011, 7:40 AM
Cos they need to drag it out as long as physically possible
I don't think so. More to do with not able to play teams from the same countries etc.
CuanaD
27/08/2011, 8:47 AM
That's the stream I had, silence with Sullivan's goal...
Murray's reaction from behind the goal to the penalty is my favourite. Probably the most experienced European game player in the LOI brought to his knees..
Most euro games: Ollie Cahill (second is Stuey Byrne) I'm fairly sure.
Great reaction from him alright tho. Can't wait for the group games now - hope they can expand Talaght & keep them at home.
:ball:
Dunny
27/08/2011, 10:42 AM
Big 'arry in todays Star:
Shamrock Rovers? Ah fantastic!
Credit to Shamrock Rovers and we look forward to going there.
Dublin is it? Lovely, we'll have a weekend in Dublin
Spudulika
27/08/2011, 12:26 PM
Just doing a bit of surfing here, looking for a Serbian take on things, anyone able to get a google translate on these, not happening for me for some reason.
http://www.danas.rs/danasrs/sport/fudbal/bruka_parnog_valjka.74.html?news_id=222303
http://www.danas.rs/danasrs/sport/fudbal/krivi_smo_kaznite_nas.74.html?news_id=222357
Mostly positive for Rovers, saying how they were set up well, that they took their chances, that Partizan were outplayed. O'Nil (ironic or what) asked for bravery and got it. Stanojevic believes they made the same mistakes as against Genk and he's ashamed of that. Sullivan's goal was phenomenal - look up "parni valjak".
Comments are mostly taking about getting rid of dead wood. How the Serbian league is crap etc.
DannyInvincible
27/08/2011, 5:02 PM
Pat Sullivan's goal was the Fox™ Soccer Report™ Sylvania™ High Performance™ Moment of the Day™ the other eve:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrhdbkuyeRo
gustavo
28/08/2011, 11:04 AM
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/a-victory-for-love-and-loyalty-2859840.html
What have Celtic, Rangers, Roma, Sevilla, Spartak Moscow and Panathinaikos got in common? They're not as good as Shamrock Rovers.
Or at least they weren't on Thursday night when, as the aforementioned giants exited the Europa League, the Hoops produced one of the gutsiest, most stirring performances you're ever likely to see from an Irish team in any sport to win 2-1 away to Partizan Belgrade and qualify for the competition's group stages.
It was a night when you could feel history being made, paradigms shifting and moulds breaking. There was a genuinely epic feel about the performance. After a 1-1 draw in Tallaght, they were given little chance of progressing and when they fell behind in the 34th minute it looked as though the script was following predictable lines.
But though they frequently bent and buckled under the Belgrade onslaught, Hoops never broke and from the moment that Pat Sullivan equalised in the 58th minute with a volley which would have graced any league in the world, you could see the realisation that the unlikely had become possible flooding through them. There was something moving about the sight of a League of Ireland team giving as good as they got in a big European stadium as the likes of their great Grobbelaarian goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, centre-back colossus Craig Sives, future Irish international left-back Enda Stephens, tireless anchor man Stephen Rice and super sub Steven O'Donnell, who slotted home the winning penalty in the second period of extra-time, reached heights they may not even have suspected they were capable of themselves, miraculously seeming to grow stronger as the game moved into extra-time with the temperature up in the 30s.
Excuse me. I'll be back in a minute. Thanks.
You know what? That humble pie is pretty tasty. Which is just as well considering that a couple of weeks ago I bemoaned the fact that European football was a dead end for the league given that our teams hadn't a hope of qualifying for the grooup stages. In my defence, Hoops manager Michael O'Neill probably felt the same way, as he admitted after the victory that he'd felt the game was a bridge too far for his team. As he pointed out, one player on the Partizan team was earning as much as the combined wage bill of his own side.
This time last year the Serbian champions were knocking Anderlecht out of the Champions League. Two years ago, they beat that year's eventual champions Shakhtar Donetsk in the group stages of the Europa League. Their team on Thursday contained five players who have played at full international level for Serbia. With their 32,000 capacity stadium they seemed to inhabit a different footballing world from Shamrock Rovers. Turns out they didn't.
Thursday was an epochal night not just for Shamrock Rovers but for the League of Ireland. Because while the Hoops are an excellent side, they're not some kind of super team standing head and shoulders above their local rivals. At the moment they're engaged in a thrilling four-way joust for the league title with Derry City, Sligo Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic.
And Thursday's win did not come completely out of the blue. In 2008, a last-minute missed sitter stopped Drogheda United from knocking out Dynamo Kiev who subsequently reached the Europa League semi-finals. The following year only an 87th-minute goal prevented Bohemians from advancing at the expense of a Casino Salzburg team who went on to top their Europa League group, scoring double wins over Lazio and Villarreal in the process. Even this season Sligo Rovers will look back ruefully on the two disallowed goals in their Europa League away first leg against the very strong Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltava, who won 2-0 on aggregate.
But knocking on the door is one thing, breaking it down is another. And while the victory over Partizan was founded on hard work and courage, the difference between gallant defeat and famous victory was two moments of sublime quality. Gary McCabe's superb dribble through the visiting defence in the home leg, and Sullivan's rocket in Belgrade, were the kind of goals which would be shown round the world if they came from one of Europe's elite leagues. And what they did was confirm something which every League of Ireland fan knows -- that there is no shortage of quality in our league and that our faith in the game is repaid every season by transcendent moments of skill. Sullivan's goal was great but it was far from unique. There are plenty of other players in the League who can do, and have done, something similar.
This is worth stressing because one of the great puzzles of Irish sport is the obsession so many people have with pouring scorn on the League of Ireland. You can forgive apathy; if you don't want to watch domestic soccer, fair enough, you're missing out but it's your choice. But it's the antipathy which makes no sense, the constant urge to denigrate a league you don't even watch. The League of Ireland is a bit like Socialism. It mightn't have many supporters these days but for its enemies any number is too much. Perhaps it's something to do with a guilty conscience.
That's why you end up with nonsense notions like the idea, touted as the acme of progressive thinking, a couple of years back that the League's salvation lay in a union with the Irish League. In reality, the Irish League had nothing to offer the League of Ireland because it operates at a much, much lower level. They are ranked 20 places below us in Europe which means the Irish League bears the same relationship to the League of Ireland as our league does to the Portuguese League. This kind of guff comes about because there's an idea that the League of Ireland is terminally ill. But Thursday's triumph follows on the heels of an FAI Cup final which attracted 36,000 fans to the Aviva Stadium. So it's time people stopped condescending to Irish football. Because while Shamrock Rovers will be flying the flag for the League of Ireland in the Europa League group stages, the Scottish
League won't be represented at all. Chances are that Shamrock Rovers might well have beaten either Celtic or Rangers. And that Derry, Sligo and St Pat's would have done better at home to Spurs than the Hearts side which lost 5-0.
Yet the Scottish League is treated with seriousness in the Irish media, as though there are matters of great footballing importance decided there. In reality, it has far more in common with the League of Ireland than it has with the Premier League. The crowds who flock to watch Old Firm games in the nation's pubs would scoff at the idea that they might see better football from Shamrock Rovers and Derry City. But they'd be wrong to do so.
The recession has affected the League of Ireland, but not profoundly because it almost seemed to stand at one remove from the Celtic Tiger era. There was no sport less attuned to the zeitgeist of those money-worshipping days than the League of Ireland, with its lack of corporate boxes, its unashamedly working-class roots, its stubborn refusal to agree that what Irish football really needed was a Premier League franchise which would wipe out Shamrock Rovers and all the other clubs like them, clubs whose traditions are no less valued by their fans than those of the country's GAA or rugby teams. But the League of Ireland abides. And now Shamrock Rovers have taken it on to the big stage.
It is a victory for Michael O'Neill and everyone else at the great club. But it is also a victory for anyone who's soldiered through the years at Terryland Park, St Mel's, Dalymount, The Showgrounds, Turner's Cross and all the other defiant redoubts of the little league that can.
We are no mean people.
born2bwild
28/08/2011, 11:24 AM
Not a bad article. Good point in particular about other clubs being at the same level as Shams.
Conclusion was waffle - Fingal, Shels up til 2007, Bohs, Derry, Cork etc were not at 'one remove from the Celtic Tiger era' in how they threw money at wages rather than investment in facilities, but I get his point - he's talking about the culture.
Grobbelaerian paradigm shifts in the zetigeist? Jaysus, has he swallowed a first year Sociology essay?
HulaHoop
28/08/2011, 2:13 PM
First time on here since it happened, so just want to say thanks for all the messages of goodwill and support from fellow League of Ireland fans on here. This victory is for all of us not just Rovers. Still can't get over all that's happened the last few days, unbelievable stuff.
Lim till i die
28/08/2011, 11:00 PM
Jaysus that Eamon Sweeny is AWFUL.
bullit
28/08/2011, 11:08 PM
http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/9575746.jpg
:D
bluemovie
29/08/2011, 3:57 PM
I haven't had a chance to add my congratulations to Rovers. Well done. I'm still buzzing over it especially reading the papers finally praising the League of ireland and its fans and TV and radio all talking about proper Irish football for once. I'll admit I've punched the air a couple of times over the weekend (must be a contagious Rovers thing - I'll be punching innocent grannies next!). I know a lot of Rovers fans from Ringsend that I'm particularly pleased for. I recall giving a donation to Rovers back in 2005. Now that you're getting your millions, can I've me money back please???
Fair play to them. I certainly wouldn't have predicted it at half time in the first leg. Not even the Shels players would've had the foresight to back Rovers at that stage. To get through 120 minutes in intense heat with a dodgy ref and still push on for the winning goal is incredible. I kind of felt once it went to extra time that they had done the league proud, but would come up just short in the end like so many close calls in the past.
Actually, going back to 2005, I remember Roddy doing a piece in whatever rag he was with just after he was sacked saying the 400 Club hadn't a clue what they were doing and would run the club into the ground. And he was on a live match on RTE a couple of years ago saying the league should pull out of European football altogether. What a tool. Well done Rovers for making the breakthrough. Alan Mannus and James Chambers must be regretting taking a step down into Scottish football!
WoodquayBoy
29/08/2011, 5:30 PM
On t'internet for first time since history was made - delighted for Shams, congrats, I'm always proud to be a LOI fan, but events like Thursday night show others exactly why. Loving the clowns like Vincent Hogan in the Indo today suddenly realising there is a domestic league out there.
legendz
29/08/2011, 7:30 PM
All rovers will be live on TV3/3e
Are you sure? I think that is a disgrace. TV3 are the last station who should be showing Rovers. They have no interest in Irish football whatsoever? Why didn't they show the game last week or any other games?
El-Pietro
29/08/2011, 7:32 PM
Tv3 did show the game last week......
plus they have the rights for the UEFA Europa League in Ireland, they have done for years. RTÉ weren't interested in it.
bullit
29/08/2011, 7:39 PM
Tv3 did show the game last week......
plus they have the rights for the UEFA Europa League in Ireland, they have done for years. RTÉ weren't interested in it.
TV3 Should not be confused with 3e which is only available on cable or sattelite.
legendz
29/08/2011, 7:40 PM
Tv3 did show the game last week......
plus they have the rights for the UEFA Europa League in Ireland, they have done for years. RTÉ weren't interested in it.
I was out of the country last week, I thought it was Setanta Ireland that showed the game last Thursday?
holidaysong
29/08/2011, 7:53 PM
Tv3 did show the game last week......
plus they have the rights for the UEFA Europa League in Ireland, they have done for years. RTÉ weren't interested in it.
I was out of the country last week, I thought it was Setanta Ireland that showed the game last Thursday?
It was Setanta who showed the game, not TV3.
TV3 Should not be confused with 3e which is only available on cable or sattelite.
Pretty sure I posted this before but 3e is available on terrestrial TV via a regular TV aerial on Saorview. It is not just a cable/satellite station. As the host broadcaster for the Europa League in Ireland, TV3 are obliged to cover the games in Ireland in order to provide pictures to the rest of Europe for highlights shows, etc. It makes sense for them to show the Shamrock Rovers games therefore. Whether they go with 3e or TV3 for the games is their call really but hopefully they get in some League of Ireland men for the coverage instead of Phil Babb I think it was on their Europa League last year.
mypost
29/08/2011, 7:54 PM
Are you sure? I think that is a disgrace. TV3 are the last station who should be showing Rovers. They have no interest in Irish football whatsoever? Why didn't they show the game last week or any other games?
Because they didn't have to.
They have to show us in the next round, as it's their gig. They're also host broadcaster for our home games.
A N Mouse
29/08/2011, 8:35 PM
http://images.memegenerator.net/instances/500x/9575746.jpg
:d
arrrghh!
LOICATS!
A N Mouse
29/08/2011, 8:39 PM
Because they didn't have to.
They have to show us in the next round, as it's their gig. They're also host broadcaster for our home games.
Yep tv3/setanta will be obligated to show rovers before any other team that might sneak back in on a technicality. It's brilliant
mypost
30/08/2011, 7:43 AM
Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Hope you're that excited for our goals this Saturday. :D
So fcukin' jealous of Rovers fans right now :)
Makes a change from labelling us "scumbags" the rest of the year.
Will all home group games be played in the Aviva or RDS?
Time 9.50pm.
At least give the players time to get off the pitch. You'll find out soon.
Thank you Shamrock Rovers.
:)
RTE's decision not to show it for instance. It's some solace to know they missed one of the biggest moments in Irish football history.
The least they can do is give us "Team Of The Year" at the Sports Awards at Christmas, instead of giving it to someone like the Kilkenny Hurlers for the 17th time.
The win was a win for the optimists, who ignored the doom and gloom merchants, that forecast a walkover before both games. We know that Partizan are a great side, we know most teams we play at this level are, but no longer can they say "it's impossible", because we've shown to the rest of you that it is possible to get this far. All it takes is camaraderie, determination, and the refusal to give in. Sometimes, that's all you need to overcome whatever the opposition with all their abilities and qualities, can throw at you.
I've already read talk that we'll lose all the group games. I doubt that's going to happen, some of these clubs would prefer root canal surgery than play in the UEFA Cup, Spurs and Kazan being 2 of them. We may qualify, we may not, but we'll definitely hold our own.
pineapple stu
30/08/2011, 10:19 AM
Well ****ed off with that result. Trawling Irish bars abroad and couldn't find any showing the game.
"Have you Setanta Sports?" "'Saturday'? What is?"
"Are you showing the game? Shamrock Rovers v Partizan?" "What sport is that?"
"Sorry, we're showing the Celtic game." Though I suppose that does qualify them to be a genuine Irish bar...
Missed out on history because of them shower of *@!#s
Also, surprised no Sligo fan has been on yet to deride Sullivan's goal as typical long-ball stuff. :p
An Irish bar is the last place you'd expect anything Irish...rookie mistake there stu...hate to have missed it...
pineapple stu
30/08/2011, 2:55 PM
I tried a general Sports Bar too - eleven TVs. "Sorry - all TV stations are set now".
The Irish Bar near where I was staying were sound; they didn't have Setanta - would have put it on if they did - rang around to try find another place showing it and gave out a free whiskey when the good news came through. :)
El-Pietro
30/08/2011, 3:19 PM
I was at a play....
Tom Barrys Guerilla Days In Ireland - The play had just ended and the Civil war is about to start, quite a dramatic moment, and theres me looking at my phone saying Shamrock rovers are in the group stages!
I was at a play....
Tom Barrys Guerilla Days In Ireland - The play had just ended and the Civil war is about to start, quite a dramatic moment, and theres me looking at my phone saying Shamrock rovers are in the group stages!
I had no idea they made a stage version! Absolutely cracking book!
legendz
30/08/2011, 7:45 PM
PAOK: 2nd Group D Europa League 2011-12, defeated in the round of 32.
Rubin Kazan: 3rd Group D Champions League 2011-12, defeated in the Europa League round of 32.
Spurs: 1st Group A Champions League 2011-12, defeated in the round of 16.
All three had decent runs in Europe last year making it past Christmas! What's the best Rover can realistically hope for in this Group?
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