Full Videos of Old Irish Matches

[elatedscum]

<Sorry if there's already a thread. Had a look and couldn't find anything>

Does anyone know websites where you can watch old Irish games in full? Was thinking I would like to watch the games from Euro 88, Italia 90 etc.

Only place I've found so far is the youtube channel 'Old Football Matches', which has seems to have 9 qualifiers between 82 and 94, but no tournament games.

[Closed Account 2]

https://footballia.net/competitions/world-cup/tournaments/world-cup-1990

I think that has all the 1990 matches

[elatedscum]

Watched an Ireland v Netherlands game from 1980 to begin. Thinks I felt:

1) David O'Leary was excellent, really ****ing excellent, a Van Dijk lite. His speed, his passing range, his reading of danger, his blocks and his tackles.

2) Frank Stapleton was a much more physically imposing than I would have imagined, faster and stronger and more mobile. Somehow I had imagined him as a Niall Quinn type player from the way he was described to me, but, to pick a 90s striker, was closer to Alan Shearer in make-up from watching that game.

3) Brady particularly in the second half, showed why he's regarding as highly as he is.

4) Chris Hughton was very neat and tidy, not unlike Enda Stevens – and Tony Grealish was better than I would have imagined.

5) Meanwhile, Don Givens was really poor. Gave the ball away nearly every single time he got it and first touch was constantly getting him in trouble.

6) Mark Lawrenson had a fine beard and head of hair in his early 20s. Probably a better centre half than centre midfielder...

7) The pass back rule really changed the game so much. No one pressed defenders, cause there was always such an easy out, back to the keeper, so there was no point, instead dropping deep to fill gaps and crowd the space deep. Acres of space and time for the defenders, a bit of time around the middle and no time for strikers at all. The moment an Irish lad touched the ball, a tackle (generally a foul) came on his first touch.

[geysir]

Givens was near the end then, soon to be replaced by Mick Robinson who interacted well with Frank. The wind was a huge factor in that game and in the 2nd half the Dutch goalie could not adjust, much to crowd’s delight and raucous winding up he kept trying to hit high ball after high ball, even though each one veered 90 degrees over the sideline. The return game is worth a look, the Dutch tried to man mark Brady, one of our best away games, when we could go toe to toe in a crucial away game against a top team.

[John83]

If the method was legal so the forum wouldn't have any trouble, would you mind sharing where you got ahold of the match?

[Kingdom]

If the method was legal so the forum wouldn't have any trouble, would you mind sharing where you got ahold of the match?

Or privately....:-)

[tetsujin1979]

the home game is on YouTube, with Dutch commentary
I-V31c2oiFk

[geysir]

If the method was legal so the forum wouldn't have any trouble, would you mind sharing where you got ahold of the match?

The return game 2-2 is also on YT but I don't remember it being this dark


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA4cj9Mt5Qk

There was Dutch or Belgian guy, probably in the image of our Worm, who loaded up a load of old games onto YT, that he had on vhs.

[DeLorean]

https://footballia.net/competitions/world-cup/tournaments/world-cup-1990

I think that has all the 1990 matches

That looks like a great website but I'm having difficulty registering. When I click on the email link to confirm registration, it just brings me back to the page where I need to provide a email address to register... so round in circles basically. Anybody else having this problem?!

[tetsujin1979]

could be a browser issue? What are you using?

[DeLorean]

could be a browser issue? What are you using?

Chrome originally... tried Microsoft Edge after seeing your suggestion but same problem. Have tried two different email addresses now too. Strange.

[DeLorean]

could be a browser issue? What are you using?

I was able to register on my phone, weird. Thanks.

[geysir]

On that website are matches from the 1980 euros. Although Ireland did not make it to the last 8, little Belgium did and their games are worth a look as they made their way to the final v W Germany. Their manager recalled a player from their dusty archives called Van Moer aged about 55, but turned out to be the player of the tournament, controlled games like Brady did as a normal weekly chore.

[OwlsFan]

I have a tape load of them in the attic on Betamax and VHS.

[Kingdom]

your man Killian the Bohs fan on Twitter converts and uploads.

[TonyD]

There are a couple of away matches against the French (WC qualifiers from 1973 and 76 on YouTube, commentary in French. Watched a little bit of the 76 game. Strange to see an Irish team trying to pass the ball.

[Fixer82]

Any more recent ones?
Like France 0-0 away under Kerr?
Germany 1-0 under O'Neill

[DeLorean]

Any more recent ones?
Like France 0-0 away from Kerr?
Germany 1-0 under O'Neill

Germany match is on Edmundo's website - https://footballia.net/matches/ireland-germany

[DeLorean]

RTÉ showing some old (and not so old) matches over the next few weeks - https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2020/0414/1130468-rte-sport-to-screen-classic-matches-and-events/


14 May  
Soccer - Qualifiers from 1974 & 2015  
Rep. of Ireland 3-0 USSR ON 30TH Oct 1974 + Rep. of Ireland 1-0 Germany on 8 Oct 2015. A Euro qualifying double-header featuring a famous Don Givens hat-trick plus a win over the reigning world champions 

28 May
Soccer – Qualifiers from 1981 & 2017 . WCQ Ireland 3-2 France and WCQ Wales 0-1 Ireland. 
A World Cup qualifying double - Platini's France beaten at a packed Lansdowne Road plus a winner takes all encounter in Cardiff.  

4 June 
Soccer - Qualifier: Republic of Ireland v Netherlands, 2001 (01/09/2001) 
World Cup Qualifier from 1 September 2001 - Rep. of Ireland 1-0 Netherlands. The most important international match in a generation saw the Republic take a major step towards Korea/Japan 2002

[Fixer82]

Just found this

jnWmWzzbLAM

[tetsujin1979]

TG4 showing Italia '90 games in May
1253224605193506822

[geysir]

But not the game v Egypt.

[John83]

But not the game v Egypt.
I think knowingly rebroadcasting that might contravene the Geneva Conventions.

[Eminence Grise]

A game so ar5e-numbingly dull after five minutes exposure you'd lose the power of walking. Clever way of keeping people from venturing out during the lockdown.

[Fixer82]

In a bid to keep kids from defecting from GAA to soccer, TG4 have opted to show all of Ireland's Italia '90 matches/draws and one loss :)

I'll be watching them all, reliving my youth

[seanfhear]

In a bid to keep kids from defecting from GAA to soccer, TG4 have opted to show all of Ireland's Italia '90 matches/draws and one loss :)

I'll be watching them all, reliving my youth
Bring back the Goalkeeper being allowed to pick up the Back Pass ;);)

[tetsujin1979]

TG4 showing Italia '90 games in May
1253224605193506822

Ahead of the broadcast of the game against England tonight, the Independent have reprinted Kevin Moran's diary from the day before the game: https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/lets-forget-about-stuttgart-as-we-set-out-on-this-great-new-adventure-39172413.html

[Fixer82]

Did anyone watch the England match on Friday?
Sheedy defo should have had a penalty in first half. Barnes ploughed him out of it.
For most of the match, Ireland were the better team but England always looked like they could create a goal out of nothing.
And even though the weather was pretty bad, Ireland didn’t resort to long ball time and again and actually played it out of the back a lot.

England’s goal was better than I remember. A sublime ball by Waddle and Lineker shaped his body brilliantly to evade Bonner, having gotten between McCarthy and Morris.
Chris Morris is a very underrated servant for Ireland

[DeLorean]

Did anyone watch the England match on Friday?
Sheedy defo should have had a penalty in first half. Barnes ploughed him out of it.
For most of the match, Ireland were the better team but England always looked like they could create a goal out of nothing.
And even though the weather was pretty bad, Ireland didn’t resort to long ball time and again and actually played it out of the back a lot.

England’s goal was better than I remember. A sublime ball by Waddle and Lineker shaped his body brilliantly to evade Bonner, having gotten between McCarthy and Morris.
Chris Morris is a very underrated servant for Ireland

I watched it too, my first time seeing it in full as I only jumped on the bandwagon in the aftermath the Romania match!

Most striking was how bad England were, granted they were happy enough protecting their 1-0 lead. Even their flair players were either poor or anonymous, Barnes, Gazza and even Waddle, bar that one pass. They were extremely direct too, maybe not as unapologetically as us but close enough, very aimless and couldn't string three consecutive passes together. A bit rich for the likes of Lineker to talk about our great strength being difficult to play against, it looked like their biggest strength too.

Hard to imagine they went on to have such a decent tournament but then none of their results on their own were worthy of many kudos, bar maybe their eventual 'heroic' exit.

The 'foul' by Barnes was actually on Houghton but yes, a stonewall penalty. Funny though that neither George Hamilton nor the English match commentators even mentioned a possibility of a penalty, and our own players protests were pretty tame, a sign of the times I suppose. (It's here (https://footballia.net/matches/england-ireland-world-cup) at around 18:40 for anybody interested).

We had a close escape straight away after equalising, Butcher heading just wide. That'd have been a serious kick in the liathróidí.

I can't think of too much else, Robson probably best for them, just in a workhorse sense, McMahon had a nightmare after being introduced for Beardsley to 'see out the result'. McGrath broke Barnes up at every opportunity, rarely legally. For a long ball side we weren't very accurate with our hoofs to Cascarino, felt sorry for him.

Was nice to hear the English rendition of 'wun nil.. wun nil... wun nil... wun nil', safe in the knowledge it wouldn't stay that way. A huge amount of empty seats, large sections even. Also funny on the same video I linked above, from round 1:20:40, the English commentary team of Lawrie McMenemy & Peter Brackley started talking patronisingly about how the Irish fans were expecting too much, that we had got too carried away with the success of Euro 88... then bang... SHEEDY... 1-1.


I just watched the Egypt match (https://footballia.net/matches/ireland-egypt) there as well, seeing as it's not being shown over the next few weeks. I was expecting more gamesmanship and negative tactics by Egyptians to be honest, in the mold of Israel and Dudu Aouate some years later. They were happy to play their football, just very limited, not too unlike ourselves in the same game! They did engage in a bit of time wasting in the last 10/15 minutes, which resulted in their goalkeeper being booked, but nothing overly controversial.

Interesting to hear the American commentators say that they were the most prepared side heading into the World Cup, having spent the previous four months together at a number of training camps. They had some good results pre-tournament also, winning in Scotland and Prague.

We never got going in the match, a lot of huff and puff, a corner here and a free kick there, no flow at all. Staunton looked very accomplished for a 21 year old playing on such a big stage. McGrath must have have his quietest game in an Irish shirt, forgot he was even playing until he won a corner in the second half. Aldridge had two exceptionally poor outings, even allowing for the lack of service. Our best quality really was our ability to win the ball back quickly, just a shame we weren't a bit more inventive/dynamic once we did!

Anyway, back to Palermo on Friday evening for the Dutch. All to play for. :D

[geysir]

The ref was decent. That was some dive by Waddle, the complete performance, writhing in agony for a minute. And this was in the pre Johnny Foreigner era.

[DeLorean]

Looked a blatant dive alright. In the interest of balance, Kevin Sheedy went down in a similar vein against Egypt, albeit without the histrionics.

[geysir]

Looked a blatant dive alright. In the interest of balance, Kevin Sheedy went down in a similar vein against Egypt, albeit without the histrionics.
Balance? I'm not interested in a questionable attempt to introduce the theory of balance, especially when it's done in order to reduce the glory of the moral victory and competitive result gained against England. :)
On the day, it wouldn't have mattered to me in the least if Sheedy had first castrated McMahon with a deft flick of the boot in order to win that ball.
It's the first time I have watched that game since, it's strange watching it with the all the tension absent, a WC debut, against England, their ***** fans, desperately needing a result and waiting an eternity for that equaliser.

[Fixer82]

With a name like McMahon, I’m not sure it was a mistake him giving the ball away like that

[seanfhear]

With a name like McMahon, I’m not sure it was a mistake him giving the ball away like that
His first touch was a One;Two alright !

[Metrostars]

Found a bunch under the Old Football Matches user on youtube:

Ireland vs France 1982 World Cup Qualifier 14.10.1981
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=torYVIkV2vY

1984 UEFA Euro Qualifiers - Ireland v. Spain 17.11.1982
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWEDvc8Lqw

1988 UEFA Euro Qualifiers - Belgium v. Ireland 10.09.1986
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcj3EW4QnVw

1990 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers - Ireland v. Northern Ireland 11.10.1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYqs8llLV24

1994 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers - Ireland v. Spain 13.10.1993
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kknBSZlL0aE

He also has the 1986 qualifier against Denmark, Hand's last game in charge but no need to see that again even 34 years later....

Some others:

1980 Friendly Ireland v Argentina 16.5.1980 (I don't think I've ever seen this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy1tD9jcfxY

1988 Euro Qualifiers - Ireland v Bulgaria 14.10.1987
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVCHLzYSCY8

1988 Euro Qualifiers - Bulgaria v Ireland 1.4.1987 in 3 parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4U85CQxtrI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBqmOAs8CqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7Y-EJIKzs

1990 European Qualifiers Ireland v England
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxrHZHEm8cE

1994 World Cup - Ireland v Italy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtZnyCDljE

2002 World Cup Qualifiers Ireland v Portugal 2.6.2001 in 4 parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lENsj1Emkvs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFS1V_o09P8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBFqGQI_Q0I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFdfy7mtZt8

2002 World Cup Qualifiers Ireland vs. Netherlands 1.9.2001 in 4 parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK-l-Akred4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4AK8_dFMo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8WXaTD6hck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD907JFHCFQ

[Fixer82]

Fantastic stuff

[geysir]

On Irl v Romania, again this was my first time watching the whole game since that day. George was quite confident that we would go through, probably that was after we survived his danger here moment early on in the game. The team played with great confidence. Romania dropped back and allowed us to play the ball to the half way line, at least we were not hoofing the ball willy nilly. There wasn't a dud player on our team.
Outside of the first 12 was there much? An ageing O'Leary was on the bench, obviously oozed class being a top defender, John Sheridan and Ronnie Whelan were the stand outs. Who would Ronnie have replaced if fit and chosen? Townsend?
O'Leary when he came up to take the nr 5 pressure kick, at the time I thought he must be really good at this sort of thing.

[pineapple stu]

Watched it there on TG4 - thought it was a better game than I remember it being. Romania were a bit unlucky, but really Hagi was almost their only threat. Might have been a different game if Lacatus hadn't been suspended. Hard to think that some of those players - like Balint, who was anonymous - had won the European Cup just four years previously.

You'd imagine Whelan probably would have replaced Townsend just going on squad numbers (6 v 13). But I thought Townsend was younger than he was (26), so not like he was an untried youngster in there, and when Whelan did come on against Holland, it was for Sheedy.

Outside those who played though (plus Sheridan and Whelan), the others in the squad were Peyton, Hughton, Slaven, Stapleton, Kelly, Byrne and McLoughlin. McLoughlin had replaced Waddock at late notice of course. A mix between excellent players at the end of their careers (Hughton, Stapleton) and ok club players who would maybe do a job, but were definitely back-up players. Only McLoughlin got gametime - maybe that was to justify his call up; Hughton made the bench the first two games.

Ireland v Holland was a very watchable game too, except for the last 10 minutes of course. Has Italia 90 got a slightly worse rep than it deserves? I must see if I can find the full Egypt game somewhere to balance things out!

[DeLorean]

I must see if I can find the full Egypt game somewhere to balance things out!

Look no further - https://footballia.net/matches/ireland-egypt

The American commentary is surprisingly bearable. I watched it in between TG4's replaying of the England and Holland games, for completion sake. :)

[Fixer82]

Only McLoughlin got gametime - maybe that was to justify his call up;

Mcloughlin pressuring McMahon to make a mistake in the England game justified his inclusion for me.

I’m surprised how little people talk about Chris Morris when discussing great Irish players, who (I’ve only watched back England and Holland games so far) looks to have had a very solid tournament

[pineapple stu]

Yeah, Morris could send in a bloody good cross alright. Easy to forget that.

That was Townsend pressurising to win the ball back against England btw. McLoughlin was the one who was offside and who could have got the goal chalked off!

Looking back actually, some of the officiating is awful. Aldridge had what looked like perfectly good goals ruled out against Holland and Romania (granted, Lung had his hand up for the free and wasn't trying to stop the goal), and a probable penalty denied against Holland. There's some ridiculous offside calls. Yet 30 years on, all of that is forgotten (and it was forgotten a lot sooner than that). Just makes me happier that VAR is just ruining the flow of games to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

(To balance out the refereeing stuff, McGrath and Hagi both elbowed each other in the last minute of the Romania game when on yellow cards, and the ref quite sensibly told them to cop on and not ruin things.)

[seanfhear]

Yeah, Morris could send in a bloody good cross alright. Easy to forget that.

That was Townsend pressurising to win the ball back against England btw. McLoughlin was the one who was offside and who could have got the goal chalked off!

Looking back actually, some of the officiating is awful. Aldridge had what looked like perfectly good goals ruled out against Holland and Romania (granted, Lung had his hand up for the free and wasn't trying to stop the goal), and a probable penalty denied against Holland. There's some ridiculous offside calls. Yet 30 years on, all of that is forgotten (and it was forgotten a lot sooner than that). Just makes me happier that VAR is just ruining the flow of games to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

(To balance out the refereeing stuff, McGrath and Hagi both elbowed each other in the last minute of the Romania game when on yellow cards, and the ref quite sensibly told them to cop on and not ruin things.)
Sensible refereeing. Everybody would want to see either player in the next game if their team got through.

[geysir]

That Brazilian ref had the hairstyle of the tournament, his hair was groomed and permed to perfection.

I see now why Giles puts Houghton in his all time Irish 11.

[DeLorean]

Sensible refereeing. Everybody would want to see either player in the next game if their team got through.

Hagi was suspended for the quarter final anyway after picking up his earlier yellow, according to George in commentary.

[Fixer82]

Watching Romania match and I notice they didn’t have crests on their jerseys.
The goalkeeper didn’t have a crest or an Adidas logo. Was it even an Adidas jersey? Looks totally amateur.
This was surely the last major international tournament where there was a team without a crest

[Fixer82]

Watching Romania match and I notice they didn’t have crests on their jerseys.
The goalkeeper didn’t have a crest or an Adidas logo. Was it even an Adidas jersey? Looks totally amateur.
This was surely the last major international tournament where there was a team without a crest

Just spotted during shootout, the tiniest Adidas logo of all time on Romanian keeper jersey

[Snoop Drog]

Watching Romania match and I notice they didn’t have crests on their jerseys.
The goalkeeper didn’t have a crest or an Adidas logo. Was it even an Adidas jersey? Looks totally amateur.
This was surely the last major international tournament where there was a team without a crest

Blame communism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaTlAvn9_EM

I recall Romanian fans at the tournament had cut a hole in the middle of their flags, removing the seal with a communist red star on it.

[seanfhear]

Just spotted during shootout, the tiniest Adidas logo of all time on Romanian keeper jersey

At least our players could not be distracted and inadvertently aim at it ! ! !

[DeLorean]

Just watched the Italy 1990 match. Jeez we were very good alright, a real threat all through but played our better football in the first half. McGrath's performance wasn't far off that of the Giants Stadium. Ref gave a string of fairly soft ones against us for a 10-15 min spell in second half but was okay otherwise.

Couldn't complain too much in that regard as Italy had two perfectly good goals disallowed wrongly for offside. Two poor offside calls against us too but nowhere near as costly, Aldridge (completely ineffective again, poor the whole tournament) had made a mess of one of them (https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1263919518776201217?s=20) anyway. These decisions reminded me of local soccer games where the referee would have to guess himself with no linesman to assist, they really were that bad.

McCarthy slightly lucky to stay on the pitch too given the quantity of fouls against him, most soft but a couple of heavy enough challenges too. Staunton faultless again, had a super tournament, Morris even better on the other side.

Houghton had a quiet first half, but good second half. Our best player of the tournament overall I think, Townsend very busy and effective all through too. Cascarino was a real handful when he came on, probably should've been for Aldo but can obviously understand the reluctance to pair himself and Quinn together.

Great stuff from TG4 showing these games. This was a great little video too :) - https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/1263771918177570816?s=20

[pineapple stu]

McCarthy fouled more often than any other player in Italia 90, and yet wasn't booked once. :)

Amazing how bad the linesmen are alright. As you say, Baggio and Schillaci had good goals chalked off, and the offside call wasn't even close. And Aldridge was onside for that chance too. Not the first time I've noticed it either - as above, Aldo had good goals disallowed against Holland and Romania.

Also interesting that, given the stick that Irish team gets for negative play and so on (making it through to the quarters without winning a game and scoring only twice), it was Italy who were playing it back to the keeper every few minutes throughout the second half.

Atmosphere sounded incredible too; like a club game with a huge away support. FIFA really ruined that part of the World Cup from 1994 on.

I'd forgotten Carlo Ancelotti played tbh; got a surprise when I heard Magee saying he was being brought on!