2011 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship

[Maroon 7]

1-0 Spain. A cracker. Was just about to type that Ireland were fairly comfortable too.

[Charlie Darwin]

Oof, what a strike.

[tricky_colour]

1:0 Spain.

That winger had too much room, it was a great strike though, as good as anything you seen at top level.

[Noelys Guitar]

That was some goal. Pity as Ireland looked very comfortable.

[Kingdom]

Bad organisation at the back - Egan shouldn't have let O'Connor get dragged in so tight when the play was all in front of them. Still a belter of a gola mind.

[boovidge]

has anyone got a decent stream with the RTE commentary? This American guy is winding me up.

[tetsujin1979]

excellent strike, Spain keeping loads of possession

[Kingdom]

Paul OShea is obviously worn out from all the Loi watching during the week :-)

[tricky_colour]

has anyone got a decent stream with the RTE commentary? This American guy is winding me up.


Not RTE but it's British commentry sky sports, not great commentary but good enough.
http://www.hdstream.org.uk/channel2.html

[Charlie Darwin]

2-0, game over.

[tricky_colour]

Another great strike. Tough job now.

[BonnieShels]

Need to keep it respectable now.

[DannyInvincible]

George has outlined the intricate details of Sarabia's transfer conditions from Real to Getafe three times now.

[BonnieShels]

Thankfully I was in the shops. So I just heard it the once.

[Kingdom]

Is it just me or are the Spanish fellas (the spine of the team - not the wingers) bigger and more athletic than the Irish equivalents? It looks like men against boys in physical stakes (to me anyway).

[liamoo11]

Playing some nice football at times both full backs are really centre halves and dont look comfortble on the ball to bring wide players into play. The5 irish midfield lads are lovely footballers Hendrick will be a premiership footballer he covers the ground well thats the kind of athleticism poor old darron gibson needs!

[CraftyToePoke]

has anyone got a decent stream with the RTE commentary? This American guy is winding me up.

With you there, the description of our side as mostly an English team of Irish descent was the low point, followed closely by Wolves relegation having a silver lining for McCarey due to Hannehman leaving. Hmmmm

Anyway, heres to an early goal from the lads in the second period.

[tricky_colour]

Someone throw the towel in!!

[DannyInvincible]

That was pretty ruthless. That goal was scored 24 seconds after we centred the ball and 13 seconds after Spain first touched it in this half.

[BonnieShels]

Early goal from the Spanish lads!

Terrible defending.

[Paddy Garcia]

Did we not leave some talent behind!

[paul_oshea]

i was here kingdom, but i was down doing my charitable work down at Aisling(st mungos).

[liamoo11]

Did we not leave some talent behind!

In fairness no point talking about what we didnt bring i think these lads have done great that is a scary good spanish side. Wrong to think Brady, Duffy, McGinty and McEleney would have made a difference

[paul_oshea]

didnt see enough of it to say anything about it. But spains conveyor belt is phenomenal

[Charlie Darwin]

Never a penalty but probably sums up the game for us.

[tetsujin1979]

never a penalty, 5-0 was harsh on the Irish players.
Spain are some team, the setup there must be incredible

[DannyInvincible]

Not even bothered to moan about the penalty. God, that was grim viewing. A real master-class from Spain. Still, fair play to the lads for making it this far. Spain are in a different league.

[Brendan 82]

They just could not keep the ball. They will hopefully learn A LOT from that game. Fair play for getting to the Semi lads

[CraftyToePoke]

They will hopefully learn A LOT from that game.

They will have learned to be afraid of Spanish opposition for the rest of their footballing lives. An awful humbling, the kind that hopefully doesnt scar. And well done for what they did manage to achieve up to that encounter.

[Charlie Darwin]

Just nosing around on wikipedia, it seems Hendrick might be in line to fight for a place in Derby's midfield this year with Paul Green out for the next 6 months. He's been allocated #23:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_County_F.C.#Current_squad

[Predator]

Spain are good, but that's never an excuse for a 5-0 whipping.

[Sullivinho]

Some of the passing and movement from the Spaniards was befitting of senior pros. The Spanish system is something else at the moment. Our inability to own the ball for any kind of period and string things together had an all too familiar air.

[geysir]

You'd hope that experience would put the last nail in the coffin of how the youngsters play football at club and intl level. Not just well beaten but brutally exposed by Spain. We just seem to ape the English game and its meccano structure. But to end up scrapping for 3rd place in Europe and at the head of the chasing bunch means it isn't all doom and gloom, just a pity we are not showing any signs of technical development.

[tricky_colour]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFt4l5GY2R4
Highlights above if you can stomach them.
I have to say Spain were class, not sure how they lost 3-0 to Turkey but I think they had already won the group by then.
Spain are a good bet for the 2014 world cup, no shortage of players coming through!!

It seems they put 4 goals past every side they needed to beat.

[Stuttgart88]

Spain weren´t just technically superior, they were athletically far superior too. Their change of pace, change of direction and everything was just a different class.

I see my pals at The Indo had to put their usual spin on their backpage yesterday - before the game - with their "Where's Trap?" headline. It was a U19 game that was televised. Doolin's job includes briefing those above him on players' progress. having Trap there would have been pointless imho.

[SwanVsDalton]

I see my pals at The Indo had to put their usual spin on their backpage yesterday - before the game - with their "Where's Trap?" headline. It was a U19 game that was televised. Doolin's job includes briefing those above him on players' progress. having Trap there would have been pointless imho.

Indeed. Was Del Bosque at the match? Will he be at the final? What national managers have been there? Wummy headline and back page splash.

[tetsujin1979]

I saw that yesterday, I'm convinced I read that Trapattoni met the team during their preparations in Rome.
wouldn't having him there completely undermine Doolin's position anyway?

[geysir]

The 2 front players for Spain do the pressing/closing down work of 4. They look to be constantly on the move.
Yet in the milage/km stats, they don't cover any more ground than the opposition.
I can't figure that one out.

[tricky_colour]

I think that would be because Ireland were doing 90% of the chasing.

[mark12345]

You'd hope that experience would put the last nail in the coffin of how the youngsters play football at club and intl level. Not just well beaten but brutally exposed by Spain. We just seem to ape the English game and its meccano structure. But to end up scrapping for 3rd place in Europe and at the head of the chasing bunch means it isn't all doom and gloom, just a pity we are not showing any signs of technical development.

MUSIC TO MY EARS

Good one gesir. You hit the nail on the head here. And like yourself, as much as I want to applaud the lads for coming in the top four in Europe, reality tells us that they are not a million miles away (more like a billion) from the technical level that Spain enjoy. Didn't actually see the game yesterday but some of the earlier rounds, and, like a frined of mine says about the Irish boys: "Who the hell is actually teaching these kids how to play football"

Those 'teachers' are the real culprits. We need to start looking at the technical credentials of every coach in Ireland (and England) and put them up on some sort of Craigslist of coaches.

[liamoo11]

The midfielders were very good technically actually. 3 of them been 17 and physically weak was a big factor. Biggest issue was playing centre halves at full back. It completely reduces your ability to keep possession. McEleney would have had the technical abilty to hold the ball up up top. No point been negative just for the sake of it we had an amazing under 19 season and we have lots of potential future internationals

[DannyInvincible]

The Czechs are beating Spain 2-1 in the final at the minute with a second half of extra-time still to play.

[DannyInvincible]

Sure enough, Spain have just equalised. I was looking for a stream to catch the end but can't seem to find one, strangely.

Edit: Found a few here actually if anyone's interested: http://atdhe.tv/

[DannyInvincible]

Spain 3-2 up now with four minutes to go. Quite a turn-around. Heartbreak for the Czechs unless they can find an equaliser quickly.

Edit: Spain victorious 3-2. Commentator seemed to suggest they probably deserved it and were by far the best team in the whole tournament.

[AlaskaFox]

Epic final tbf. WC could learn a thing or two.

[jbyrne]

Spain weren´t just technically superior, they were athletically far superior too. Their change of pace, change of direction and everything was just a different class.


weren't the spaniards a bit older than our lads on average? would at least partly explain the difference.

really thought our lads looked tired from the start with closing down for some of the goals very lethargic at best

[Kingdom]

Is it just me or are the Spanish fellas (the spine of the team - not the wingers) bigger and more athletic than the Irish equivalents? It looks like men against boys in physical stakes (to me anyway).


Spain weren´t just technically superior, they were athletically far superior too. Their change of pace, change of direction and everything was just a different class.



Glad I wasn't alone in thinking that.