Scotland V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 14th November 2014 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

[shakermaker1982]

Which poster on here doesn't believe in luck in football? It might be owlsfan.

I can't see how a wonderful bit of skill from McGeady can be classed as luck vs the Georgians.

What was lucky about the German game? A decent defensive play capped off with a goal in injury game.

We didn't get any dodgy decisions in our favour e.g. Penalties, iffy red cards or chances galore missed by the opposition.

The away game in Moscow where we somehow kept out Russia took a heroic performance from Dunne and a slice of luck. If the opposition strikers miss a hatful of chances is that luck or just poor play from the opposition?

If we did get a result in Glasgow then I don't think it would have been a scandal. Chelsea in their Champions League win were highly fortunate from the Semi Final onwards. They were dominated and held on, the other night was probably 55/45 in Scotland's favour.

[Charlie Darwin]

the biggest bit of luck for either team last Friday was how the scottish ctre back managed to stay on the pitch after his assaults on Long and Forde. wonder how the scots would have survived the 2nd half with ten men?
Hendrick wasn't far off being as lucky for staying on the pitch.

[jbyrne]

Hendrick wasn't far off being as lucky for staying on the pitch.

he was late without malice. a deserved yellow and no more

[Charlie Darwin]

he was late without malice. a deserved yellow and no more
He could have made that tackle a million times and 999,999 times he'd have been sent off.

No, really, it wasn't a malicious tackle but in the context of the game I think many referees would have gone for red.

[jbyrne]

He could have made that tackle a million times and 999,999 times he'd have been sent off.

No, really, it wasn't a malicious tackle but in the context of the game I think many referees would have gone for red.

but the one time he did he wasn't

[Charlie Darwin]

but the one time he did he wasn't
I was only joking about that, by the way. I think he was a bit lucky but not excessively so. Hanley, on the other hand, was blessed.

[Stuttgart88]

It'd appear to me every victory we have had in the last ten years is lucky in some respect, but every defeat is deserved. I don't see how a period of pressure resulting in a late goal for is lucky but a period of pressure resulting in a goal against is the result of asking for it. It's typical of the self loathing prevalent in Irish football coverage.

Was Scotland / Strachan lucky that the MOTM, Mulgrew, wasn't even picked in the starting XI but instead was a late replacement for Morrison who got sick? I'd say that was a stroke of good luck in itself.

But luck really is neither here nor there. Germany didn't do enough to put the game to bed and actually fell apart a bit in the last ten minutes. We were the better team in zgeorgia and shaded a tight contest. We were not the better team in Glasgow where our opponent shaded a tight contest. Football often hinges on key moments. Shay Given at a key moment last night saved us from a draw if not worse. That key moment went our way.

Now, if the point is that we haven't played particularly well yet then I'd support that view 100pc. Lots of teams earn points by not playing at their best though. It doesn't make them lucky. Twice we scored really good goals.

[paul_oshea]

No stutts, yesterday even when we were under the cosh for those few minutes we still looked like scoring again against the US. I am pretty sure regardless of that save we would have scored again, we were breaking at every opportunity creating loads of chances, playing the ball in their 1/3 and always looked like creating an opening.

When we went behind against Scotland, we didnt look like scoring. We had created nothing. And we created to proceed very little if not nothing. OUr closest chance being a header from a scottish defender against his own crossbar!!

[Stuttgart88]

I'm saying that if a key moment goes your way it doesn't necessarily mean its luck. It's a player doing his job well at a key moment. Whether that key moment changed the end result is a moot point. In my opinion an equaliser would have galvanised the US and made life harder for us to score, but clearly neither of us knows for sure, nor is it important to the argument at hand.

[DannyInvincible]

Which poster on here doesn't believe in luck in football? It might be owlsfan.

I don't have much time for talk of luck. When serious commentators/journalists use it, I suspect they're using it slightly poetically, but, even then, I'm not sure what it is supposed to mean exactly. If a commentator says we were lucky, is he really saying we were undeserving? But how could that be if a fair run of the game resulted in a perfectly legal goal? Stutts highlights very well the problem with categorising certain occurrences as lucky and demonstrates the problem with distinguishing between lucky and not lucky. Either everything positive can potentially be deemed lucky and everything negative deemed unlucky or nothing can be deemed lucky/unlucky and you view phenomena to be occurring as a result of cause and effect, in accordance with the constant laws of physics that govern everything around us, including football matches. How do you distinguish between what is and isn't lucky if you believe that some things happen due to cause and effect but other things mysteriously happen out of the blue with no apparent root cause or origin? If our goal against Germany was "lucky", what caused that luck? Some invisible hand or what? Something caused what some might call "luck"; that being, amongst other causal factors, a positive change in play from us, an exertion of greater pressure as Germany receded and a utilisation of our footballing abilities to ensure the ball made it into the back of the German net. It genuinely confuses me to hear it put down to luck. I don't know what it's supposed to mean.


When we went behind against Scotland, we didnt look like scoring. We had created nothing. And we created to proceed very little if not nothing. OUr closest chance being a header from a scottish defender against his own crossbar!!

And it was no surprise that we didn't score, or strike lucky, if you prefer. In other words, we didn't score because we weren't able to create what you might call our own luck. It's simple cause and effect. "Luck" is a meaningless wishy-washy term in this context.

[SwanVsDalton]

For me, we about got what we deserved from our qualifiers so far. The only argument might be Georgia, but as the team trying to win the game, I think we deserved it. There's no luck in that.

[DeLorean]

Bump.

[DeLorean]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMEWpyv-MkE

[DeLorean]

Closed thread.