Less of the Doom and Gloom

[zinedineontour]

Last night i was so depressed after the game thought that was it .. when i look at things today though and watch the game again i realise apart from a brief spell we controlled the game and created more chances than ever before under brian. but for the ref who had fault in both israels goals and the keeper we would have won comfarably ... we will beat the faroes on wed which will put us top of the group over the summer ... beat france which is doable and cyprus should not be difficult we set ourselves up against the swiss to win the group ... it is all there to play for ....

[onenilgameover]

To be honest I think this will hit us hard.....I just hope we can get over it.....

[wallis]

Got home yesterday and also watched the video of the match. I honestly believe we played some of our best football in a long time during the game. I saw the Israel games at France and against Switzerland and neither of those sides came close to the sort of pressure we put on them. Kilbane was excellent and the Harte/Duff combination worked really well. 'All Day' O'Shea needs to learn that kicking a ball into the stands is a better option than overplaying and losing it and our marking was poor from the free kick. We also had several chances to clear before the freekick that led to the first goal and similar chances with the penalty. The decision to change Robbie for Kavanagh was a mistake and once Doherty came on and Duff switched back to the wing we picked it up again.

I came away like most others fuming over the keepers antics but we did play some great football and on another day it would have been 5 or 6. The group is still ours for the winning and Im confident that we can win the remaining four games. If we get past the Faroes on Wednesday and have fully fit squads for the last three matches we still have a team good enough to win this.

[Stuttgart88]

This group is still really really tight.

From what I saw on Saturday both Switzerland and Faroes are poor, but I accept that playing up there must be really tough & the Faroes probably bring teams down to their level.

Swiss vs Israel and Swiss vs France are key games now that aren't easy to call and I think at this stage we don't know yet what we want from Swiss vs France on 8th October.

We may still win the group on 20 points or even 19. A 3 or even 4 way tie on 18 points is still possible & GD will apply.

We can theoretically win the group (on GD) on 18 points, e.g., if we draw in Faroes & Cyprus as long as we win against France & Swiss at home.

My head is hurting working out the combos, even with the benefit of excel!

[eirebhoy]

I have the match on tape but can't make myself watch it. I haven't felt this low after an Ireland game is a long time and its now 2 days after the match. Lets just hope they bounce back with a win against the Faroes.

[wallis]

Eirebhoy - watching that match again is not for the faint-hearted !!

Watching the oscar performances of the Israeli players turns your stomach. But if you concentrate on the football we played you can take heart that we are still the best team in this group and are playing the better football. Its going to be tough in the Faroes, fans seem to have not realised that they came from behind against the swiss and had them at 1-1 with 15 minutes to go. Its not an easy place to go at the best of times , let alone without your top striker and a makeshift defence.

But our passing, movement of Morrison , all round play of Kilbane , Harte and Duff was excellent.

Four wins in four games is very possible

[jbyrne]

We may still win the group on 20 points or even 19. A 3 or even 4 way tie on 18 points is still possible & GD will apply.

We can theoretically win the group (on GD) on 18 points, e.g., if we draw in Faroes & Cyprus as long as we win against France & Swiss at home.

My head is hurting working out the combos, even with the benefit of excel!

will it initially come down to goal difference?? i'm not sure as I heard on sat after the game that it will come down to head to heads between the two, or more, level teams before goal difference comes into play. in that case if we were level on points with Israel they would finish ahead of us as they scored more away goals against us than we did against them. the same would be true if france or swit came here and got a score draw. can anyone confirm how teams on the same points will be decided?

[Stuttgart88]

I've just put my 2p's worth on this on the "Another Bad Aspect...." thread.

[northerncelt]

think we need to look at positives alright. the luck was just not with us on sat. if we win on wed we top the group with all tough games to come at home so lets be realistic here. we can beat switzerland at home if we play and france if we have a bit of luck on our side.
unbelievably depressed after that game tho. if we had them 4 points extra ( isl games) we would be sitting in an unbelievably good position, this is what is annoyin me most. not the fact that are current position is that bad but it could have been so much easier.
kerr has big job to get the heads right for wed.3 points or its curtains completely. robbie is out so lets hope elliot gets a chance. oshea and harte were terrible on sat. really really bad. memories of osheas 1st season at manu are starting to fade but im still hopeful for him. looked like a schollboy on sat and harte was the same.

[zinedineontour]

think we need to look at positives alright. the luck was just not with us on sat. if we win on wed we top the group with all tough games to come at home so lets be realistic here. we can beat switzerland at home if we play and france if we have a bit of luck on our side.
unbelievably depressed after that game tho. if we had them 4 points extra ( isl games) we would be sitting in an unbelievably good position, this is what is annoyin me most. not the fact that are current position is that bad but it could have been so much easier.
kerr has big job to get the heads right for wed.3 points or its curtains completely. robbie is out so lets hope elliot gets a chance. oshea and harte were terrible on sat. really really bad. memories of osheas 1st season at manu are starting to fade but im still hopeful for him. looked like a schollboy on sat and harte was the same.

oshea was terrbile very casual at times . but thought ian harte for his first game back in over a year had a very good game and would much rather from what ive seen of the new slim ian him at right back than oshea... osheas form is really worrying at the moment ..

[Curtains]

kerr has big job to get the heads right for wed.3 points or its curtains completely. robbie is out so lets hope elliot gets a chance. oshea and harte were terrible on sat. really really bad. memories of osheas 1st season at manu are starting to fade but im still hopeful for him. looked like a schollboy on sat and harte was the same.

Harte was bad apart from the obvious freekick. As for O'Shea hes lost all his confidence. Worst thing is that hell be playing centreback on wedensday night with O'Brien being out-And we all know what happened in Basle the last time O'Shea played in that position!! :(

[FarBeag]

O'Shea playing at centre back scares the Boll*x off me to put it mildly.

[Irish Pride]

Yes lets look at the many chances Ireland made. we could of scored 3 in the scored half. It just wasnt meant to be, but we have to get over it. The group is ours for the taking. win are next 4 games and were going to Germany. Easier said then done i know but with the amount of chances we made against Israel we should be confindent against French and the Swiss.

If you listen to the papers, we are dead and buried in the group.

[like a badger]

Israel have Cyprus & Faroes (Handy 6 points) left to play along with Swiss. They will be in the shakeup. We can only afford to drop 2 more points in the group.