1:0

[tricky_colour]

Morrision - magic!!!

[Closed Account 2]

Fantastic goal, for those unable to view it, it was a great strike not very far out but from an angle like Van Basten's vs the Soviet Union in 1988.

Great stuff.

[bitored]

The referee is a total balloon :eek: Otherwise so far so good :D

[Buller]

Yeah, great goal.. but the camera-work is bloody terrible!!! i barely saw it.. :(

[Libero]

I thought RTE were supplying the pictures? They are terrible I agree. Given's save from the free kick was totally missed by the live cameras. How can the cameras miss a free kick from just outside the box????
We are not exactly dominating but there is plenty of space for our good players to play in and I fancy we will go on to win 2-0.

[beautifulrock]

not a good result, hope we do not live to regret those two points we have just squandered

[dynamo kerry]

frankly although we were decent I was always worried they would score in the second half.

I would have taken the draw before hand but ......

[Adrianovic]

Tactics were a bit of a disgrace and where was the closing down?

I'm too disappointed to write something constructive. Maybe later.

********.

Ade

[tricky_colour]

1:1 is OK.
We are still in the driving seat.

[BobbySands]

Bye bye world cup.
Israel are absolute ****e. Of course the media hype has told everyone that Israel are a good team. They're crap. But then again....so are we.

[GalwayFrancis]

f**king joke!!!!!! we had all the play and no shots....morrison's goal, cracker...after that no one took a shot.... if israel had scored earlier in the game... we would have come back and won 2-1 or 3-1...ireland best play was the last three minutes after israel had scored....why dont they take shots???? there able

[tricky_colour]

We weres sitting on the lead, we were unlucky they got a late strike,
going ahead early is a tricky (no pun intended) position.

[Closed Account 2]

Sloppy, very sloppy. On tonights evidence, they were not a good side... the Georgians and Albanians caused us more problems away 2 years ago.

A lot of us probably would have taken a draw before hand, but in September we could have put the Swiss out after taking the lead in Basle and tonight we could have put Israel out of the competition.

As it is were still in a decent position, but we could have had a foot in the door to Germany tonight. The only thing to take from tonight is that they are poor and we should beat them at LR in our next proper match.

I dunno why he took Clinton off, if he had to take a striker off it should have been Robbie, who was off form tonight.

[Stuttgart88]

That was ****ing disgraceful. Macedonia all over again. Israel were garbage. Period. No arguement.

At half time I asked myself if Kerr, of whom I am a big fan, had the nous to do what was required to bag the 3 points. He didn't.

This was an extremely narrow pitch which meant their 3 at the back was enough to cover all the ground. Our natural width was obsolete on such a tight pitch. Kilbane was an irrelevance in the first half and showed his lack of experience in CM. They also had nothing to think about on the RHM. If Reid had played both Duff & he could have switched & switched and kept them on their gaurd. As it was they said "no threat here, thanks very much Brian".

Morrisson & Keane were anonymous because we couldn't get the ball to them through the middle. Why? Because they had the numerical advantage in CM ALWAYS.

At HT Kerr should have taken Morrison off, brought on either Holland or Kav & brought on Reid. We'd have had 5 vs their 5 in midfield PLUS that attacking threat of an interchangable Reid & Duff. It was obvious there were flaws in our first half performance.

I thought Holland did well when he came on (I didn't see a replay of their goal so I don't know who you'd fault) but didn't he come on at the same time in Macedonia way? Not blaming him, just pointing out an irony.

Carr's absence in Dublin will be a blessing on that performance.

Our set pieces were a disgrace too. Who's to blame for that?

Israel 1, Ireland 1. Grant 0, Kerr -1. Absolutely sh1t result. Gilt edged opportunity to take the lead in this group thrown away. Pressure is on to deliver all the home results now. Lost momentum, seeds of self-doubt as well as 2 pints dropped. ****ing livid.

Out for dinner now with the wife. God help her. :)

[sligoman]

Bye bye world cup.
Israel are absolute ****e. Of course the media hype has told everyone that Israel are a good teamThey're crap. But then again....so are we


We're top of the group with the kikes for the time being.Lets not lose heart We topped the group for a while.

Hang on, one minute your saying Bye bye world cup and we're crap and then your saying not to lose heart. Did you change your mind within seven minutes? :D

[carricksmasher]

set fcukin pieces, the one thing you can always pratice in training and we fcuked them all up.
O'Brien got dragged out of position in the build up for the goal and it went tits up from there.

All not lost though, still in our own hands :mad:

[sligoman]

To put it simply. We played terrible! :mad: , Come on the Swiss, beat the French. It's 0-0 at half time there

[thecorner]

waiting for davros to come on and say keane meant to get booked

[Slash/ED]

If the result goes our way in the France match, and at half time it is, we'll have lost nothing and will have gotten past our last tough away match. It's not the massive blow people would have you believe even if that result doesn't go our way. This is still very doable, the hardest fixtures are behind us.

Kerr is too negative, who didn't see the goal coming? Reid should have started and to not play him was daft, when Morrison finally came on bringing on Holland simply invited them onto us even more. They were a poor side we gave too much respect to, we shouldn't have fallen back we should have looked for more espically considering how early we scored, but Kerr is too negative for that, it's very frustrating.

[Slash/ED]

I think playing Israel away should be viewed as a much easier fixture than playing a team like France at home. It is precisely because we have such a negative attitude to playing away that we always fail to win.


I agree really and was saying the same thing. At home Reid would have started and had we needed to change Morrison, it would not have been Holland coming in. We went into the game with a full back as a winger, and then brought Holland on for Morrison, inviting them on to us. We would simply never have done that at home, that's one of the reasons our home record is so different to our away one, it's in our own attitude to the matches.

[tetsujin1979]

I reckon the plan before the game was to score at some point in the game and defend that lead, unfortunately because we scored so early, we decided to defend it for the rest of the game.

Despite playing the majority of the game in possession and in their half, we still struggled to make chances, mainly becasue they were massed behind the ball, Robbie in particular was anonymous for large parts of the hame. When we had the ball in the second half ,we were content to play at a walking pace into their half, whereas the Israelis ran right at us, could heat have been a factor?

With the French somehow managing to not score (watched highlights on Eurosport) we're still in a good position to qualify. But when the Swiss beat the Faroes, there will be four teams tied at the top of the table, we can't afford any more slip ups

[tricky_colour]

The result didn't matter much today, as long as we didn't lose.
Win our home games and we top the group, might be a blessing in disguise,
We were the better team we played better football, we just sat on the lead.
Even if we had lost it would not have been a disaster.


Mind you I think it has been mentioned that the pitch was very narrow, I could not believe how small the pitch looked, it looked like an indoor 5-a-side pitch.

We went to defensive in the last few minutes but that is understandable,
we were unlucky, but if we has been more positive after the early lead
we might have killed off the game, but then again.....

Anyway its a good result.

[Closed Account 2]

We still seem to be suffering from McCarthyism, we go away against a team we should beat (and Israel looked a poor side tonight), start of playing well but then sit back. Near the end our players get the jitters, and we get a draw (or defeat) when victory was well within our grasp. Its all been the same, Skojpe, Croatia, Amsterdam (2000), even Basle last Sept, we go ahead and then muck up. I knew it was going to happen so switched off on the 86th min as I didnt want another Skojpe moment in my memory (I can still see that Macedonian corner floating in as tho it were yesterday).

It really is starting to cost us. Take Euro 2004 qualification, it should have been easy, Russia and Switzerland were poor but coz we couldnt put them away we slipped in the seedings and now face a more difficult group (with France in it). Irrespective of Germany '06, we cant afford to be slipping again or Euro 2008 wont happen.

Its been years since we beat a decent (or even half decent) team away in a proper game and it really does cost us. The big matches, France, Holland we do ok in and get draws, but against moderate teams (on a par or just above/below us) we underperform. We need to voodoo this hoodoo we've developed away from home or we never be in real contention.

[green army]

its as you where. i would much rather be in our position with the home games to come. i thought it was a lifeless performance. no penetration.nothing. yer man Casey (spelling??) should have scored. it looked like we didnt want to score another goal.now as "the best fans in the world" we have got to get right behind the team and make lansdowne road a fortress.thought cunningham was rightly mom with given just behind him. was ipressed with finnan(excepth his set pieces). thought that carr had a nightmere.all in all we are still top of the table.

does anyone know of a place in dublin that will show isreal - france on wednesday.

[onenilgameover]

Do you reckon Eurosport will have that on too? I was impressed with their coverage of the France v Switzerland game last night. Great camera work.

In comparisom to the camera work in The Ire v Israel game it was oscar bound. What was the story in Israel it was certainly art-house experimental stuff. Totally missed the Israeli free kick which they nearly scored from in the first half. The match on Wen is on setanta sports here in Ireland not sure bout eurosport. Anyone thnk thers's any chance the Swiss will mess up at home to Cyrus on Wen 3/4 nil I reckon and with a win for France or a draw leaves us third or even fourth in the group however with a game in hand over France and Israel.........Balls!