Foot.ie decides - Ireland's best goal!

[elatedscum]

Whelan
Wes

McAteer
Brady

[Fixer82]

Whelan
Hoolahan

McAteer
Brady

[SwanVsDalton]

Whelan
Hoolahan

McAteer
McLoughlin

[Real ale Madrid]

McAteer
McLoughlin

[tetsujin1979]

McAteer
McLoughlin

[DeLorean]

McAteer/McLoughlin.

[pineapple stu]

OK - can call a halt to the opening day routs I think!

Glenn Whelan v Italy 13-0 Paul McGrath v Luxembourg
Wes Hoolahan v Sweden 12-1 Liam Lawrence v South Africa

Glenn and Wes through to the last 16.

Currently McAteer is 10-0 up on McClean, and McLoughlin is 7-3 up on Brady. Votes accepted until the evening on those two.

Two finals goals entering the fray now. First up is our last group winner against a goal which sneaked in on tie-break. Matt Holland N v Cameroon, 2002 v Ashley Grimes H v Spain, 1982


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9pYT3KCYOc

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBR3tnMXrg0

[pineapple stu]

The second tie then is one of the tournament favourites against one of the first nominations I got, so this mayn't be straightforward. It's Ronnie Whelan N v USSR, 1988 v Kevin Doyle H v Andorra, 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3l5zUw8vGM

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPIY1DAokEI&t=1m10s
Time is 1:10; time-stamped link is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPIY1DAokEI&t=1m10s).

[DeLorean]

Holland/Whelan

The context of the goals is having a huge influence, for me anyway. There isn't as much between them as the voting suggests perhaps. That's an incredible strike by Grimes really, the way he digs it out with so much power, same with Doyle, but Holland's is an important goal at a World Cup, hard to compete with that if it's any way decent.

[jbyrne]

holland / whelan

forgot that the doyle goal was so good though.

[tetsujin1979]

Holland/Whelan
Although if either of the alternative options were at a finals, and those were in qualifiers, I'd have selected them (if you follow)

[osarusan]

Holland
Whelan

[NeverFeltBetter]

McAteer
McLoughlin

Holland
Whelan

[Eirambler]

Comes down to the definition of "best goal" I suppose. The Grimes and Doyle goals were better goals to look at. But the Holland and Whelan ones were excellent goals and far more important. And in fairness Whelan's was an unbelievable hit.

I'm going to split it and go for Grimes and Whelan.

[Real ale Madrid]

Holland
Whelan

Some strike by Christian Martinez of Andorra in that 2010 game. He's surely wrapped up the Andorran version of this.

[passinginterest]

McAteer, McLoughlin
Grimes, Whelan

[geysir]

McAteer
Brady

[Fixer82]

Holland
Whelan

[geysir]

I'll go for Ashley Grimes & Whelan.

In that game v Spain (late Euro finalists) Grimes' goal could do with a bit more context, it was of its time, the quintessential Irish goal. (https://youtu.be/pQWEDvc8Lqw?t=139)

[pineapple stu]

So full-time on the second batch of knock-outs, and again, two quite clear results. Jason McAteer H v Holland 2001 beats James McClean A v Wales 2017 by a score of 13-0, while Alan McLoughlin (A v Northern Ireland 1993) accounts for Liam Brady (H v France 1977) on a vaguely competitive 9-4 scoreline.

Matt Holland v Ashley Grimes (currently 7-3) and Ronnie Whelan v Kevin Doyle (currently 10-0) will remain open for votes until the morning, but in the meantime, we now have -

Matt Holland A v Portugal, 2000 v Robbie Keane A v France, 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_9f5-6Bvc0

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Akd7YlDLpo

[pineapple stu]

The other match then sees two arguably lesser lights in terms of goals - Darron Gibson H v Wales 2011 v Denis Irwin H v Belgium 1997


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOKax_8dELY

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=4m7KHhmv_l4

[SkStu]

Holland/Whelan

[SkStu]

Holland/Irwin

[DeLorean]

Holland/Irwin

[geysir]

Holland/Gibson

[geysir]

I think this knock out stage could be designed to trap us into contradicting our group votes.

[Eirambler]

Holland and Gibson

[Real ale Madrid]

Robbie Keane
Denis Iwirn

[Fixer82]

Holland
Gibson

[NeverFeltBetter]

Keane
Gibson

[elatedscum]

Holland + Whelan

[elatedscum]

Holland + Gibson (just about)

[jbyrne]

keane
irwin

[pineapple stu]

Probably a bad draw to have Matt Holland twice in the same pairings! I think I have all the votes in correctly anyway, and that won't happen again.

Except it will, because Holland's up again now... :rolleyes:

Ah well. Results are Matt Holland (N v Cameroon, 2002) 9-3 Ashley Grimes (H v Spain, 1983), and Ronnie Whelan (N v USSR, 1988) 12-0 Kevin Doyle (H v Andorra, 2010)

It's 6-3 in both the open matches - Matt Holland and Darron Gibson leading Robbie Keane and Denis Irwin respectively. Still time for that to change - though they are at least the first competitive ties we've had!

The next two matches are up as well, and include our two most-nominated players - Matt Holland and Robbie Keane account for a quarter of all the goals at this stage. First off, we have Andy Reid H v Cyprus 2004 v Robbie Keane H v Yugoslavia 1999


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsE2v_z3rvA&t=0m24s
Time is 0:24; time-stamped link is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsE2v_z3rvA&t=0m24s).

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=HTERrBF2gRs

[pineapple stu]

And the second tie then is Aiden McGeady A v Georgia 2014 v Matt Holland A v Estonia, 2001


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHjf0nWN0_0

[pineapple stu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKA9NzM7Yc&t=0m53s
Time is 0:53; time-stamped link is here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNKA9NzM7Yc&t=0m53s).

[DeLorean]

Keane/McGeady

[tetsujin1979]

Reid/McGeady

[Eirambler]

Reid and McGeady

[osarusan]

Holand
Gibson

Keane
McGeady

Hard to separate the occasion/importance from the quality of the goal itself (some may think it's an integral part of it, and fair enough).

[passinginterest]

Holland/Gibson

Reid/McGeady

[NeverFeltBetter]

Keane
McGeady

[pineapple stu]

3-3 now between Keane and Reid - the first properly close tie so far!

[Real ale Madrid]

Reid
McGeady

[Fixer82]

Reid
McGeady