On This Day [Archive] - Page 5

TonyD

10/11/2021, 3:20 PM

Wow, I'm no fan of VAR but I just watched both goals in that clip and I can't think of a stronger argument in favour of VAR than those.

I remember watching that game. We were robbed blind by two terrible decisions. So unlucky in that campaign. We deserved to qualify, and I think we would have done quite well. Irish football history could have a whole different look to it.

TonyD

10/11/2021, 3:32 PM

Not that it is possible, but I wouldn’t give todays team a chance against that team !

Ah I don’t know. They’re al in their 60’s at least, and Tony Grealish is no longer with us, so....... I’d give the current team a fighting chance. ;)

Edit - forgot, Michael Robinson is also no longer with us, RIP.

NeverFeltBetter

10/11/2021, 3:37 PM

20 years ago today
MN5idzMtkgI

Oof, those two saves from Given. The second is amazing reaction but I admire the first more, the bravery to come rushing out and then go to the ground, matched with the perfect timing to avoid getting rounded or giving away a penalty.

tetsujin1979

10/11/2021, 4:01 PM

Oof, those two saves from Given. The second is amazing reaction but I admire the first more, the bravery to come rushing out and then go to the ground, matched with the perfect timing to avoid getting rounded or giving away a penalty.
If either of those saves had been goals, we would have lost the play off over the two legs. As crucial to the result as the two goals.

tetsujin1979

11/11/2021, 12:08 PM

Ten years today since the play off win in the first leg against Estonia
xTz86UJ5rs4

pineapple stu

11/11/2021, 12:37 PM

Good Lord.

The day I bought my last (current) Ireland jersey. One of the mankier efforts of recent years.

Made it out there but never got a ticket. Good trip though.

Diggs246

11/11/2021, 12:59 PM

I was there and I had no idea it was just 0-1 until the 65th min. What a weekend btw

tetsujin1979

11/11/2021, 1:04 PM

Friend of mine flew to Latvia, rented a car, and drove to Tallinn for the game!

pineapple stu

11/11/2021, 1:13 PM

Yeah, I flew to Riga too (with Bald Student and Student Mullet, late of this forum) but got the bus up instead. It was way cheaper. Flights to Tallinn went through the roof.

Remember being in the mediaeval bar/restaurant and finding a lost credit card. Picked it up and it said "Stephen McGuinness PFAI". Doubtless legitimate travelling expenses were going on it... :)

NeverFeltBetter

11/11/2021, 1:24 PM

I was at a clubs and socs event in (then) NUIM that day. We had the John Hume building to ourselves, and myself and two others took over their massive JH1 lecture theatre to play that game on the projector, which as I recall involved breaking into the lectern.

I was very apprehensive, but Estonia just fell to pieces.

Diggs246

11/11/2021, 1:56 PM

Seeing all the above posts the FAI simply don't deserve us

we had to fly through Copenhagen and wait for 4 hours in their crap airport paying 14 lids a pint!

tetsujin1979

12/11/2021, 12:20 PM

Five years ago today
First away win against higher ranked opposition in a competitive international since beating Lithuania in 1997
dgO4Occ8y8o

sadloserkid

12/11/2021, 1:23 PM

Five years ago today
First win against higher ranked opposition since beating Lithuania in 1997

How were Lithuania ranked higher than us in 1997? That seems mad to me.

Diggs246

12/11/2021, 1:28 PM

How is that 5 years ago! There goes your life hope u enjoyed it

NeverFeltBetter

12/11/2021, 2:45 PM

How were Lithuania ranked higher than us in 1997? That seems mad to me.

They had a few decent years around that time, finished third in qualification groups twice in a row. Still seems like a fluke in ranking calculation though.

tetsujin1979

12/11/2021, 2:45 PM

How were Lithuania ranked higher than us in 1997? That seems mad to me.

No idea, but they were

pineapple stu

12/11/2021, 2:53 PM

We were second seeds anyway and they were third - which would make sense given we'd made the Euro 96 playoffs and the last 16 of the 1994 World Cup, beating them home and away in qualifying for the latter.

But they had a half-decent 96 campaign (beat Slovenia/Estonia twice, beat Ukraine away, drew with Croatia at home), and had we drawn this match they'd actually have finished ahead of us in the 98 group (assuming the final round results stayed the same)

So I guess it was our trough (draws v Iceland and Lithuania of course) meeting their peak. Still a bit mad though.

SkStu

12/11/2021, 3:50 PM

Five years ago today
First win against higher ranked opposition since beating Lithuania in 1997
dgO4Occ8y8o

I would have questioned it if someone had told me we scored that early in the 2nd half!! For sure, i would have said 74 mins or thereabouts...

sadloserkid

12/11/2021, 6:01 PM

Yeah I went and did a bit of research myself and saw they'd come 3rd in consecutive qualifying groups. My initial confusion was grounded in fairly hazy memories of us handling them fairly easily in WC94 qualifying. Their stock has fallen a long way in the last 15 years.

pineapple stu

12/11/2021, 9:45 PM

Interesting to note that eloratings.net has a rating of 1723 for Ireland and 1498 for Lithuania at that time. So 200+ of an advantage for us - should translate to Lithuania scoring 25% against us (like 1-0-3 or 0-1-1). That's a more accurate rating than the FIFA World Rankings (certainly the old one) in my view, and it's a long way from saying Lithuania were better than us at the time.

tetsujin1979

15/11/2021, 12:44 PM

20 years today since we qualified for the 2002 World Cup
Z4oMfjikUfo

Diggs246

15/11/2021, 1:02 PM

Our last WC! I cant believe its 20 years
After we got knocked out I ended up in a bar in korea with the team and a rack of us i think the bar was called "the loft" anyway else there by any chance ? Shay Given was holding court in a sing song

Stuttgart88

18/11/2021, 9:23 AM

I think I saw a video of that. was he wearing a Donegal GAA jersey?

Diggs246

18/11/2021, 10:58 AM

I think I saw a video of that. was he wearing a Donegal GAA jersey?

Cant remember that tbh

Stan was wearing a brazil jersey

Mark Kinsella was topless all night for no explainable reason!

tetsujin1979

13/02/2022, 12:42 PM

20 years since Ireland beat Russia for the first, and so far only, time
Steven Reid scored his first international goal, and Colin Healy and Richard Sadlier made their debuts
2laTkj59zvQ

tetsujin1979

01/03/2022, 11:05 AM

Ten years today since James McClean made his debut, in the only game Ireland have played on February 29th
Never heard any substitute get the welcome from the crowd that he did
4lctoiedOWc
Because it was February 29th, there was a proposal on the pitch at half time. FM104 (I think) had given away tickets in the president's box, so they brought the winner down to pitchside to help with a draw at half time. The presenter said they were a bit delayed, so asked him a few questions, was he enjoying the game, who did he bring, etc. He brought a friend, because his partner had no interest, so the presenter asked where was she, and he said, she's at home. The whole thing was a complete setup, she was standing behind him the whole time, and the entire stadium could see it.

tetsujin1979

01/06/2022, 7:45 AM

20 years ago today
as4_UwNGADM

seanfhear

01/06/2022, 7:55 AM

20 years ago today
as4_UwNGADM
Two good goals. Great hit from Mattie Holland.

jbyrne

01/06/2022, 10:50 AM

Two good goals. Great hit from Mattie Holland.

was right behind the goal and as soon as it left matt hollands boot i knew it was going in. big relief after a very poor first half performance. super moment at the start of a great three week trip!

Stuttgart88

01/06/2022, 11:09 AM

was right behind the goal and as soon as it left matt hollands boot i knew it was going in. Exactly the same. I was right behind that side of the goal.

NeverFeltBetter

01/06/2022, 12:00 PM

It's such a good goal to come from such lucky circumstances: Kilbane's cross is dreadful and really should have been dealt with properly by the Cameroonian defender, and whoever is meant to be tracking Holland is AWOL. But damn if he didn't hit it perfectly.

tetsujin1979

05/06/2022, 1:09 PM

20 years ago today. Consider what's happened to both teams since then
k0xPu-uobjc

pineapple stu

05/06/2022, 1:30 PM

Germany beat Armenia 10-1 on aggregate last year. We lost 0-1. It's just one number in the difference! :)

tetsujin1979

10/06/2022, 12:05 PM

Ten years ago today
uF-lGnaiEaQ

NeverFeltBetter

10/06/2022, 12:12 PM

A truly depressing day, and worse to come. It was, for me anyway, a real "the man behind the curtain" moment regards the people in charge of the team.

Diggs246

10/06/2022, 12:49 PM

On this day today

https://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/billy-bingham-legendary-northern-ireland-manager-dies-aged-90-41740096.html

pineapple stu

10/06/2022, 1:06 PM

Probably be best remembered here for that night in Windsor in 1993, but he had a mad management career all the same -

1965�1968 Southport
1967�1971 Northern Ireland
1968�1970 Plymouth Argyle
1970�1971 Linfield
1971�1973 Greece
1973�1977 Everton
1977 PAOK
1978�1979 Mansfield Town
1980�1993 Northern Ireland
1987�1988 Al-Nassr

passinginterest

10/06/2022, 1:37 PM

My Facebook memory from 10 years ago today was "Utterly depressing. At least it gets easier :( ".

I don't think it is getting any easier!

tetsujin1979

16/06/2022, 10:25 AM

20 years today since our last World Cup game
st8f8W70BO0
To really hammer home how long that has been, Andrew Omobamidele was born a week after this game

John83

16/06/2022, 4:41 PM

To really hammer home how long that has been, Andrew Omobamidele was born a week after this game
Damn your eyes, tets. I was just feeling good about myself. ;)

seanfhear

16/06/2022, 6:00 PM

20 years today since our last World Cup game
st8f8W70BO0
To really hammer home how long that has been, Andrew Omobamidele was born a week after this game
Ok ~ with hindsight ~ Robbie Keane should have taken the Harte penalty ( Harte was having a bad run of form from play and penalties / free-taking ) during the match ~ How did Killer (much as I love him ) miss the rebound ~ And some of our penalties in the shoot-out were poor but that can happen ! !

Eirambler

16/06/2022, 6:09 PM

20 years today since our last World Cup game
st8f8W70BO0
To really hammer home how long that has been, Andrew Omobamidele was born a week after this game

20 years ago today I was old enough to remember four World Cups and Ireland had qualified for and reached the knockout stages of three of them. To someone my age (20 at that point) it was just the norm that we were there and were competitive - I had never seen anything different to that.

TonyD

16/06/2022, 8:23 PM

20 years ago today I was old enough to remember four World Cups and Ireland had qualified for and reached the knockout stages of three of them. To someone my age (20 at that point) it was just the norm that we were there and were competitive - I had never seen anything different to that.

I can remember the 70�s and 80�s where qualifying for anything seemed an impossible dream. We had a lot of good players in those years, and I particularly remember the 82 WC qualifiers under Eoin Hand where we were desperately unlucky, and the victim of some, let�s say, questionable, refereeing away to Belgium. Still think we would have acquitted ourselves well in Espana 82. Brady, Stapleton, Lawrenson, O�Leary, in their prime, Ronnie Whelan just breaking through, and a handful of other solid players, Grealish, McDonagh, Langan, Gerry Daly. I remember thinking we had a better side than the North at the time, didn�t seem fair that they got to the finals out of a much easier group.