League of Ireland in Europe 2017

[CorribsideSteve]

Nice Stadium, but it doesn't quite have the same charm of the cowshed stand in Drogheda, the temperature of Deacy Park on any occasion bar sunshine or the terrace in Bray in the lashing rain ;) :)

[colonelwest]

UCD v Molde fixture details confirmed - home leg on 27th Sept at 6:30 in the UCD Bowl; tickets a tenner (fiver concession) and available at the gate.

Return game on 18th October at 6:30 in the Aker Stadion in Molde -

http://www.moldefk.no/AkerStadion/_/image/7d197528-b9c6-4f03-9d28-87639c70e851:ee002ef691f8a37a160a1624f3d659c8639fb 0e9/wide-1600-900/Aker%20Stadion%20-%20drone.jpg


Aye with the ground costing €20mil


Jaysis, over here no doubt it'd end up costing €200m! Absolutely fantastic facility for the cost of the build, I know it was built a couple of years ago but we can only dream of a couple of the likes of that over here.

[pineapple stu]

Worth pointing out too that Molde is the size of Bray. And they recently got through the group stages of the Europa League. Really puts in context the potential of the LoI.

[CorribsideSteve]

Worth pointing out too that Molde is the size of Bray. And they recently got through the group stages of the Europa League. Really puts in context the potential of the LoI.
That really boggles the mind....I've always thought that with the right attitude to finances, promotion and capturing the public's interest, not to mention long term planning, we could be on par with the Danish,Norwegian and Belgian Leagues, all given each countries relative size of population alone. That's about 50 years away, if ever, sadly. Having said all that, take away Norway's discovery of Oil ,less than 50 years ago, and it takes all the billionaires (Kjell Inge Rokke,main Molde investor, being one) out of the pool. One can only hope that the Porcupine Bank Oil Prospect enriches us in the same way some day :)

[Charlie Darwin]

The TV pot in Norway is €40m. In Ireland it's €0. Molde get more money without kicking a ball than most LOI sides turn over in a year.

[redobit]

Molde have a lovely wee stadium alright. But as has been said, the ground plus the team, have a billionaire backer. Talking to the their fans when Rovers played them a few years back they were saying that the club & it's ambitions has kind of outgrown the town ... a nice complaint.

Edit: The landing into their airport was sketchy as fuk.

[Real ale Madrid]

Can get very damp in the stadium - hence the name.



I'll get my coat.

[Nesta99]

At a rough guide of €1mil per thousand seats it wasnt that cheap but of course you can see where the additional 10mil have gone as it as a landmark type building and some prime site on the waterfront.

But yup in this country depending on the when, where, place in an economic cycle, who is chancing their arm etc figures look just plucked out of the air. An example of things seeming nuts in this country for me was when Southhampton were building St Marys it was costing 40mil, about the same time Berties Bowl was mooted and there were figures from the budgeted €250mil to north of €1billion in real cost bandied and the difference is about 20,000 seats. Eircom Park was called unrealistic at 40 million for 45k seated ground!!?? €45mil was spent on Stadium Ireland and not a sod was turned so what was spent could have built Eircom Park and have the revamped Landsdowne Road too.
The flipping aquatic centre that did go ahead was to cost 30million and finished at 80million in the end and + remedial works for the 'leak'.

Slightly wrong thread I know but in context of looking at Molde's stadium costs and the bs we have here at times. Now is actually a good time to develop grounds if it is to happen at all over the next 20 years - build costs are not pushed to ridiculous levels as there is still not the development happening to sustain that industry at silly levels. Credit is still cheap and banks are loosening their loan criteria, government coffers are healthier and with that will be an increase of sports capital grants. Councils havent had budgets signiicantly increased yet so levies on any decent development will be grabbed and planners will try to actually iron out issues rather than give a flat 'no chance'.

Some councils are better than others of course ranging from the *cough* North Korea like Wicklow CoCo to the giving on a golden platter type like SDCoCo. So even in their eternal embarressment of the problem child the FAI should see the next couple of years as the window of opportunity to get ground development done. The introduction of the underage LoI leagues are a great chance to tick boxes in the grant application criteria (St Kevins know that too). The chance will pass after the national focus on housing stock levels are in full swing, builders will be back at 2006 building and pricing levels and maybe worse as housing developments will require greater proportions designated as social housing and builders looking to recoup that cost, planning authorities become overwhelmed, the whole risky sell to build thinking from clubs return along with the chancers looking to make a quick buck.
I have always taken an interest in sporting infrastructure development internationally and nationally and we are very much in and about the circumstances of 2002 or so, so look away Bohs fans as all that is missing is the selling of one gaffe(sic) twice...

[pineapple stu]

Soft aul day for a match anyway.

I imagine this will ruin any chance of getting a crowd tonight.

[pineapple stu]

1-0 down after 12 minutes. Big gulf in class; could be a long night. Maybe 500 here in the end; decent crowd

[pineapple stu]

1-1! Much better.

2-1!!!

[pineapple stu]

Half time. Two goals in 30 seconds before the break. We've settled nicely since their goal. Decent game of ball now

[ger121]

Be a hell of a result if it stays like this. Who needs a fancy stadium.

[pineapple stu]

Result.

That was unexpected. And deserved. They were surprisingly poor. We could do this yet, though the second leg will be tough. Flying in on the morning of the game

[Dalymountrower]

Excellent result UCD.Ad Astra.

[patrickccfc]

Fantastic result that. Will be tough over there but anything possible now

[Charlie Darwin]

Result.

That was unexpected. And deserved. They were surprisingly poor. We could do this yet, though the second leg will be tough. Flying in on the morning of the game
How did it go from "big gulf in class" to "they were surprisingly poor"?

[pineapple stu]

I don't really know.

I think we were too nervous for the first ten minutes. We believed their ability a bit too much. Once they scored, we settled and started to play. Their shooting in particular was wojus. We played some really nice stuff and grew in confidence as it went on.

[ger121]

How did it go from "big gulf in class" to "they were surprisingly poor"?

Just the range of emotions you experience in a match depending on the score.

[pineapple stu]

I think it's also that partly, I expected us to be in trouble early, and we were under pressure early on before they scored. So the conclusion then is that it's going to be a long night. But we came into the game really very well after.

"Surprisingly poor" is also relative. They weren't as good as I'd expected, particularly based on the first ten minutes

[Charlie Darwin]

I don't really know.

I think we were too nervous for the first ten minutes. We believed their ability a bit too much. Once they scored, we settled and started to play. Their shooting in particular was wojus. We played some really nice stuff and grew in confidence as it went on.
I saw Maciej in the paper saying he knew they'd play long ball and he was confident once UCD could get the ball down and play. Maybe the Norwegian lads are just a bit bigger than your average U19 league player.

[seand]

With UCD's and Cork's excellent performances/results in U19 Europe over the past couple of season are we seeing signs that actually the underage setup might be working quite well?

[pineapple stu]

Probably hard to be sure without a couple more seasons of European results; underage teams can fluctuate a fair bit. But certainly results to date are very positive. Rosenborg reached the last 16 last year for example, which puts beating Molde in perspective.

I've said before that I think the biggest problem the game has here is where this age level goes next. I think they need to move to a professional set-up to progress, but there isn't any here. You wonder what sort of players we're missing out on as a result. If that's the case, the irony is the extra money on the underage setup is harming the same guys' professional development. The FAI really need to actually start funding the league.

Interesting that there was a lot of hammerings at this stage last year, but only Hammarby and Dudelange (who are lower ranked than any team last year) lost by more than two goals this time. Also worth noting a couple of results in the Group Stages - Real 10-0 APOEL and Spurs 4-0 Dortmund on matchday 1, but in matchday 2, it was APOEL 1-0 Spurs and Dortmund 5-3 Real!

[osarusan]

Saw a clip of the goals on Facebook - the UCD goals came from poor defending. The second in particular was terrible from both the defender and keeper.

[pineapple stu]

Where'd you see the goals? Can you post a link here?

Their keeper wasn't great alright - though in fairness to him, the weather meant it really wasn't a night for keepers. (My memory is that he screwed up for the first, but the second was just them giving us the ball almost straight from tip, which wasn't the keeper's fault? But maybe it looked different from the camera angle)

There was plenty of chances in the game; we both had shots off the line and both keepers made decent saves. Some very nice passages of play too. Overall, I think we can go to Molde knowing we can match them again.

[osarusan]

https://www.facebook.com/HeraldStriker/videos/1722308664730797/?hc_ref=ARTMLRaXJJ6ASDjB8V58R8dlNNorpbKgpU4NbEGX9D 8QR75tQzoCa6wzIZmwY3W6q_s

Don't know how to embed a FB video, but that link should work.

2nd was terrible from defender, but keeper shouldn't have been beaten by the shot either, wasn't that close and not too much pace on it.

[pineapple stu]

Wow. I think you're being kind on the keeper for the second one! Funny how it looked different from the other side.

I'd actually defend the keeper for the first one; looks like he was unsighted/distracted by his defender sticking a boot out at the ball right in front of him. Add that to the wind and rain which you can't really see on the video, and it's an understandable error.

[Dalymountrower]

Just saw this on the Bohs site, cheered me up anyway

http://bohemianfc.com/?p=11580

[bennocelt]

Molde V UCD, one nil down at half time, 2-2 on aggregate so far

[JC_GUFC]

Couple of quick goals after HT - 2-0 Molde followed by 2-1 UCD.

3-3 on aggregate so far.

Come on College! :)

[bennocelt]

excellent, come on UCD

[bennocelt]

no extra time, straight to penos

[pineapple stu]

Lost 5-4; first round of sudden death did us again in the penos.

Great performance over the two legs though.

[nigel-harps1954]

no extra time, straight to penos

FAI report sent out said "Jack Ryan's 51st-minute strike levelled the tie on aggregate to force extra-time and after a goalless 30 minutes, the game was decided on penalties. ".

Fact check FAI. Smart folks in Abbotstown.

[Charlie Darwin]

Was the game streamed anywhere?

[pineapple stu]

Not that I'm aware. Highlights may find their way online, as they did for the first half. But competition rules were no extra time, so no excuse for the FAI getting that wrong.

Alf Inge "you c***" Haaland's son was playing for Molde. He was one of a couple of fully-pro first-teamers they had. Makes the result more impressive. Losing on penalties is always a pain in the arse though.

[pineapple stu]

Highlights -

kAqsjVt3nLQ

Crowd of maybe 500 at it; similar to the home leg.

The goals are in reasonably quick succession from 3:00 to 5:00. The clearance off the line from 7:10 is pretty spectacular (albeit that the defending leading up to it is, well, equally spectacular). Penalty shoot-out then from 7:30

[Dalymountrower]

Mad game in Richmond Park this afternoon. Pat's went 5-1 up on UCD, who came back to 5-4 5 minutes from the end, only to lose 7-4.

So I think it's Pat's v Bohs in the final; winners almost certainly in the UEFA Youth League as the LoI has improved on last year (because of Dundalk's Europa League campaign)

Bohs beat Pats 1 - 0 in the final last night, not a classic, but exciting last ten minutes when Pats pressed for an equalizer.

Any further info Stu on the possibility of UEFA Youth League qualification

[pineapple stu]

Keep an eye on this page - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_UEFA_Youth_League

Not perfect, but very good. Soccerway.com has live league tables for most leagues. Note most will have some form of play-off, so the picture won't start to clarify until April or so.

Ye need 5 teams to both win their underage league and qualify for the main Champions League, and then yere in. (Liechtenstein on the wiki is an error I think; unless something's changed, they've no domestic league and so can't qualify for the Youth League) It's not a gimme, but it is very good odds. We needed 8 and got 11, for example.

Likely destination if ye do qualify is the Nordics or Benelux.

[Dalymountrower]

Keep an eye on this page - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_UEFA_Youth_League

Not perfect, but very good. Soccerway.com has live league tables for most leagues. Note most will have some form of play-off, so the picture won't start to clarify until April or so.

Ye need 5 teams to both win their underage league and qualify for the main Champions League, and then yere in. (Liechtenstein on the wiki is an error I think; unless something's changed, they've no domestic league and so can't qualify for the Youth League) It's not a gimme, but it is very good odds. We needed 8 and got 11, for example.

Likely destination if ye do qualify is the Nordics or Benelux.


Cheers Stu.

[pineapple stu]

A last postscript to this - after beating us on penalties, Molde beat Zimbru Chisinau 2-0 and then lost on penalties to Monaco after a 2-2 draw. Monaco are now away to Spurs in the last 16 (one leg only).

I think there's a chance an Irish team could make a decent impact in this some year - just needs a bit of a luck of the draw. Be interesting to see how Bohs get on this year if they qualify.

[Burnsie]

Could you remind us what, in broad terms, Bohs need to happen in order to qualify?

[pineapple stu]

Five teams need to qualify for both the Champions League group stages and the UEFA Youth League.

You can follow it here - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018–19_UEFA_Youth_League Though not necessarily 100% accurate as we found out last year.