Republic of Ireland V Croatia - Wednesday, 10th August 2011 - Friendly

[DannyInvincible]

He has retired, although, if I remember correctly, he left it somewhat open-ended and said he'd consider returning if ever needed in an emergency. What exactly might amount to an emergency, I'm not sure, but I assume he meant an injury crisis rather than a desperate need for points to pull us through a group.

[SkStu]

Change what? The August International friendly has always been there.

It doesnt mean it cant or shouldnt be changed! Bizarre!

[BonnieShels]

Oh that phraseology does my nut in. Face it everyday in work; "sure, that's the way we always have done it."

Also, about Reid, he tore a calf muscle so he's out now for a bit.

[mypost]

We have an international calendar in operation since 1996. There has always been a game in August for us since 2001 against Croatia. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, and the FAI need the money, clubs don't like international friendlies, but that's always the case. Anyway, they've played enough of them in the past 6 weeks, another one won't hurt them. International bosses need friendlies too.

[BonnieShels]

Mp you're right. I was merely stating that just because something is and has been in place doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't change.

I have no problems with the August Friendly and I think it is quite useful for bringing in or checking out a few stragglers for the qualifiers in September.

[mypost]

International friendlies at this time, are more important in even-number years, when some countries have to find a new coach after the tournament, and before the next qualifiers. It's not fair to expect a team's coach to launch into qualifiers on the back of one friendly, but that's how restrictive the calendar is. Also applies to Macedonia atm.

Last night was the first time since 2004 that we had not lost the August game at home, and the first since 2008 that we got a result in.

[an_ceannaire]

We have an international calendar in operation since 1996. There has always been a game in August for us since 2001 against Croatia. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, and the FAI need the money, clubs don't like international friendlies, but that's always the case. Anyway, they've played enough of them in the past 6 weeks, another one won't hurt them. International bosses need friendlies too.

MP, the FAI would have made a loss last night with only 15k at it so that blows that out of the water
Waste of time, the players didnt want to be there as they were watching themselves all night
the fans didnt care
it was utterly pointless

[shep]

August and pre-season time always seem to throw up bad games.Anyone remember a horrible home defeat to Austria in Jacks era around this time of year(think Tony Polster bagged a few)

[Straightstory]

Possibly the most boring game I have ever attended. Utterly pointless. The players getting together for a few pints in town would probably be of more long term benefit. (Highlight of the evening was getting home to see Paddy McCourt's goals for Norn Iron. Breathtaking stuff).

[mypost]

August and pre-season time always seem to throw bad games.Anyone remember a horrible home defeat to Austria in Jacks era around this time of year(think Tony Polster bagged a few)

Yes we do remember. A qualifier in June 1995, and our second loss at Lansdowne in 10 years.

[paul_oshea]

One thing of note last night was when whelan got the ball he looked and turned in a few angles to actually see about passing forwad instead of his usual passing backwards.

Ward didn't do anything for me.

Interesting Ilic on sky sports couldn't understand what robbie was doing half the time, coming so deep, said he should never be doing this as that is not the type of player he is and for a forward he should never be looking for the ball that deep and effectively nullifying himself. He also said he felt long had the look of a good strong mobile centre forward.

I really think we are begining to get a bit of luck though - which will help us no end in the next few months.

[SwanVsDalton]

MP, the FAI would have made a loss last night with only 15k at it so that blows that out of the water
Waste of time, the players didnt want to be there as they were watching themselves all night
the fans didnt care
it was utterly pointless

Utterly pointless to watch. But I don't think these are ever pointless for squad and management.

[TiocfaidhArmani]

Worst game of football ever. Hurry back McGeady, put some life in this team - if Trap will let you.

[OwlsFan]

MP, the FAI would have made a loss last night with only 15k at it so that blows that out of the water
Waste of time, the players didnt want to be there as they were watching themselves all night
the fans didnt care
it was utterly pointless

The game was broadcast live on Sky so that blows you out of the water. It's tv money which makes these game profitable plus gate money of around €600,000 wouldn't show a loss.

The game was not "utterly pointless". How many times do I have to say that friendlies are all about practice, getting the team together, trying things out, testing players like Ward, looking at Long and how he gels with Keane (plus game time for the latter!!), trying starting with Hunt out etc etc. Otherwise we would have gone a number of months without a game straight in to a vital competitive game. I was sitting right behind the team and Trappatoni and judging by the number of discussions he had with Tardelli throughout the game, much to the annoyance of the 4th official, they obviously found there were things of interest about the game. Given had an ice pack immediately applied to his thigh when he sat down.

A draw with the 8th highest ranked team in the world wasn't bad. I wasn't bored. In fact I quite enjoyed the game. Yet another game unbeaten since the Russian debacle.

[jbyrne]

far from pointless exercise in fact.
having not been together as a squad in about 10 weeks the 3 days together and match against decent opposition will actually be invaluable come 3 weeks time. the other "pointless" friendlies we played in May culminated in a very valuable 2 nil win in macedonia.
should we just turn up cold to our early september qualifiers? far better having the match than not

maybe an omen..... the last time we qualified for a finals we also played croatia in the august friendly in the month before

[SwanVsDalton]

Also the Croats play similarly to Russia. Even if they were half-baked and in pre-season mode, it's a useful run-out.

[paul_oshea]

Does no one care as well as my season ticket, I paid out #20 for this yesterday?

[Lionel Ritchie]

August and pre-season time always seem to throw up bad games.Anyone remember a horrible home defeat to Austria in Jacks era around this time of year(think Tony Polster bagged a few)


Yes we do remember. A qualifier in June 1995, and our second loss at Lansdowne in 10 years.

Back to back 3-1 losses to a poor Austria side (NI dicked them home and away in the same group). Dublin in June and Vienna in September. Even by standards of the day there was very serious unprofessionalism and derogation of duty involved -from the players and especially the managment.

[mypost]

The game was broadcast live on Sky so that blows you out of the water. It's tv money which makes these game profitable plus gate money of around €600,000 wouldn't show a loss.

The game was not "utterly pointless".

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

[shakermaker1982]

easily makes my top 10 worst games of all time.

Quick summary from me:

Shane Long looked lively. Great first touch at times.

Robbie also looked sharp. Hope he gets a new club soon.

The defence on the whole was solid.

Central midfield was muck. Gibson was mr invisibile.

[tommy_c12000]

Does no one care as well as my season ticket, I paid out #20 for this yesterday?

Sorry Paul you're on your own on this one. No one can condone that level of stupidity . . . .

[an_ceannaire]

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

15,600 was the appx crowd given by Sky & RTE
They are not making it up...........

[paul_oshea]

I'm no great judge of crowds, but I would have guessed there to be 20-25k there at the game. The South Upper tier was sparse, but the rest of the ground had reasonable numbers.

The game was very poor, with barely a shot on target. At times it was played at walking pace. The Croat fans are good for atmosphere but I think they just gave up singing after half time, so poor was the fare offered. We need to win these games to improve the coefficient. It does tend to be forgotten amidst the poor atmospheres and the multi-substitutions killing the games, but then when we get stuck in average pots for draws, people complain why we're not higher up. Can't have it every way.

We have now identified, one thing, that you are no good at judging crowds.

THere will be quite a few like myself who are tied up with Season tickets/block booking who just cant/dont go. That would be an extra 1k max id say though.

[DannyInvincible]

Interesting Ilic on sky sports couldn't understand what robbie was doing half the time, coming so deep, said he should never be doing this as that is not the type of player he is and for a forward he should never be looking for the ball that deep and effectively nullifying himself.

What do you make of that? I wouldn't agree with it at all actually.

[BonnieShels]

Right I watched the highlights tonight knowing full well by their very nature the chaff was weeded out but, I can't really see what all the "most boring match ever" talk was about. I judge all games of a boring nature by the Norway 94 Scale and this was not next to near it.

There was a lot to talk about and debate however.

It's clear that Long needs to be played in the right position to get the best out of him and that position is not with Robbie.
Long is class but last night wasn't a good example of what he is capable of.
If he's allowed to be the main man we can get the best out of him.
By no stretch of the imagination would I suggest to dropping Robbie but we do need to start considering utilizing Long properly and maybe start considering our strike forces as pairs rather than individuals and last night would have been ideal but for Doyle's injury and Robbie needs the game time.
Long harried well but a lot of the time it was too far away from the Croatian goal to be his normally effective self.

I thought Ward played well and sprayed a couple of decent balls about. Definitely should be a strong consideration for LB now.
Duff was imperious as ever and we're really really going to miss him when that horrible day arrives.

The Honey Monster and Kelly did well and Sledge was very good. Leicester don't a great piece of business there.
All in all we had little to do in defence bar couple of lapses but they can easily be put down to early-season rustiness.

In the middle of the park though is where the problems are showing.
Whelan had a stormer and had one of his best games for us; made all the better by the nature of his partner.
Gibson was anonymous and he should've easily been sent-off for that challenge. The problem here is where does he fit in because its not in a 442 with us and I shudder to think what the Russians would do faced with him.
One always felt that if he was played behind a proper front 2 then maybe we could utilise his passing ability and get the odd shot here and there but that option isn't available to him with Ireland due to the dearth of CMs and Whelan couldn't do that job on his own and no one would expect him to.
And there's Andrews and Lawrence available when needed.
Maybe Josh? Hmmmmm...

Anyway all in all it was a useful exercise and will hold us in good stead come next month.
Thankfully the Slovakia game is next up.

EDIT: fixed spelling and grammar along with the expansion of a point or two.

[paul_oshea]

I'd agree re:whelan as i mentioned earlier, but i put that down to pre-season and being given a lot more space, plus it was a friendly.

[ken foree]

I judge all games of a boring nature by the Norway 94 Scale and this was not next to near it.


egypt in italy '90 for me, good lord. these friendlies should never be scoffed at - if we'd lost heavily to italy in belgium i'm sure a few more would be saying less meaningless friendlies please! if we'd throttled croatia with slick one-touch football the friendly would all of a sudden be as valuable as the u.s. fed's hoard of gold sitting under wall street.

but surely you learn more from difficult/tight games, or the management does at least. which players listened, which hid from the ball/play, which players were dogged even if limited by the lack of 'occasion'? wasn't it albert camus who said he learned everything about the morality of man from the game of football??

[jbyrne]

Gibson was anonymous

this just beggars belief.
the lad is being slowly but surely frozen out at utd and needed a big performance to either impress his current club or help find him a new one. his down right apparent lack of interest on tues baffled me. lost count of how many times he gave the ball away in very dangerous positions and contributed zero overall.
if andrews is out of slovakia and russia games o'shea (his own fitness permitting) has to start in ctre mid. russia especially will murder us if gibson starts in the middle.

[BonnieShels]

I'd have josh at RB tbh.
Lawrence starting in the middle.
Unless Andrews is back.

Is there something up with Gibson, family problems etc?

[jbyrne]

Lawrence starting in the middle.


lawrence looked really sluggish the last few games he played for us

[BonnieShels]

True dat. But he would settle us in a way Gibson can't. LL us great as an option. His move to Portsmouth hasn't worked out for us at all.

[jbyrne]

True dat. But he would settle us in a way Gibson can't. LL us great as an option. His move to Portsmouth hasn't worked out for us at all.

i like lawrences attitude since he started with us. however, the speed of the russian ctre mid in particular last october was unreal and we just couldnt live with them. would therefore be concerned if a sluggish lawrence started there against them.

[SwanVsDalton]

Lawrence has had a very good season for Portsmouth by all accounts. Don't think Sept is the time to give him a run at centre mid though.

In fairness to Gibson, he's better competitively and I think he can do a job IF required. But he was pretty dire on Tuesday. The guy only ever looks for the ball in front of the defence, at quarterback, or just behind the strikers. He just doesn't seem to get into the game in a flat four midfield.

[BonnieShels]

Lawrence's attitude is second to none. And he did well for Portsmouth last year but that move has clearly affected him for us. No question. Depending on the squad situation come October it would be worth trying him out against Andorra.

[Charlie Darwin]

I think playing regularly has been good for him football-wise but he's picked up a lot of small injuries that have affected his form.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Next time, play it in a smaller stadium, or behind closed doors...

As a spectacle home friendlies are invariably awful....

[Fixer82]

Anyone got a link to this? Couldnt watch it in France

[ArdeeBhoy]

Not unless you're suffering from Insomnia....

[Fixer82]

Was it proper sh1te?

[SkStu]

yes, a big steaming pile of sloppy sh!te too.

[jbyrne]

Next time, play it in a smaller stadium, or behind closed doors...

As a spectacle home friendlies are invariably awful....

no one is forced to attand

[ArdeeBhoy]

So they don't.

Have you not noticed the crowds dwindling? Either make the charge a nominal amount like €10 & €5 or play at a smaller stadium like the RDS, Thomond or Tolka.

[jbyrne]

So they don't.

Have you not noticed the crowds dwindling? Either make the charge a nominal amount like €10 & €5 or play at a smaller stadium like the RDS, homond or Tolka.

id say those that shelled out thousands for vantage seats would be delighted to sit in tolka instead.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Well at least there might be an atmosphere then...

We get those seats from the FAI now, nice view, good access to bars and a free programme. But that's it.

[BonnieShels]

Like when we played games in Thomond?

[Lionel Ritchie]

Like when we played games in Thomond?

I could argue that those games showed dubs won't travel in any numbers for home games outside dublin -but I'll just point to the ridiculous ticket prices instead. I went to both with my family. Could've had a nice weekend away somewhere for the cost of it.

[BonnieShels]

It was a combination of many factors. Midweek games in limerick aren't likely to attract many Dubs or Langers.

[punkrocket]

When the new Finn Park is done 'twould be good.
Bit cheeky playing at the Branywell.

[ArdeeBhoy]

Like when we played games in Thomond?

Try Thurles?

[EastTerracer]

I could argue that those games showed dubs won't travel in any numbers for home games outside dublin -but I'll just point to the ridiculous ticket prices instead. I went to both with my family. Could've had a nice weekend away somewhere for the cost of it.

I traveled from Dublin to Limerick for the games and plenty of others did as well judging by the traffic.