Germany v Ireland - Post match [Archive] - Page 2

Billsthoughts

03/09/2006, 6:00 PM

post match interview seemed totally removed from the reality of the actual game. very worrying.
dont think the reff was against us either, if anything he should have given them a peno.
he possibly could have given a couple of yeallow for german tackles but thats it. we certainly didnt deserve a peno.
No midfield whatsover. and inability to hold onto the ball means we were inviting the germans on to us to attack.
we could have got a result here if we didnt give the ball away so much and if we could do anything creative at all. two big ifs! very poor and for staunton to come on after and say we were brilliant and the reff was against us is shocking. needs to look at alternatives in midfield or we will have big problems come the next qualifying for world cup. cant understand how keane stayed on and doyle was taken off. keane shouldnt be captain and shouldnt be undroppable. very disapointing performance as in we didnt seem to create anything and we coulcnt hold on to the ball. no change from dutch game there. Kilbane not good enough at this level. nobody can question his workrate and commitment but he simply cant hold on to the ball. o shea is the same. stephen reid has been a big disapointment also. fair play to o brien who isnt playing at his club and put in a good performance. how lucky are we to have given? all in all a lot of huff and puff with no end product whatsoever. manager seems to be deluded as well.

Stuttgart88

03/09/2006, 7:46 PM

Maybe I'm deluded too so. We did a lot better than I expected us to do.

During the build up I thought we were lambs to the slaughter. The noise and the sheer wave of nationalism on display was amazing. With those big 20 foot flags being held on the pitch and all the Germans in their colours and singing their songs I wouldn't have been surprised if the Fuhrer himself took to the pitch to address the crowd.

This was a better team than the French 2 years ago & the home crowd effect came into play this time. The pocket of Irish at the diagonally opposite end of the ground to me were drowned out at will.

The game started and we showed intent from the off. Robbie should probably have scored. Of course they had chances, a home team always will. Yes, we rode our luck and I wouldn't have any other keeper in world football than Given. Richard Dunne was sensational and yet again O'Brien defied his club form to look every inch an international defender for Ireland. Kevin Doyle was superb, covering every blade of grass and getting his head to every restart. Carr played one of his better games and Finnan's presence on the left meant that side was simply not the weakness it has been so many times. It's not the long term solution but it was OK on the night.

Yet of course that's not enough. Our central midfield was poor and I can't for the life of me understand why Reid is persistently picked RHM when he's our best central midfieler. I've said dozens of times that the biggest tactical failing of the last campaign was Kilbane in CM. Yes, he's got the physique & running power to upset & get stuck in but has absolutely none of the finesse, vision or passing required for CM. But, Kav would have been eaten alive out there. So too Miller and others. The Germans were huge, every one of them. I agree we created nothing from this part of the pitch but I also think in KK's absence the Germans would have been more dangerous.

The solution is obvious: Steven Reid has all of Kilbane's physical attributes plus a ball player's instincts. I can't believe O'Shea is being slated again. His first 60 mins last night was good. He did everything he should have done. He made errors late on but some of the passes he received were shocking. Alongside a natural central midfielder his contribution would be more appreciated.

A note on Alan O'Brien. Someone said his pace showed how much of a threat he can be. Yes, but he got given the ball 3 times and 3 times he controlled it worse than I would have. Nerves maybe, but suggesting he's ahead of Duff is daft. Duff was fine last night, it's just that we expect so much of him.

Tactically I think we could have been better, but I've no complaints about the attitude out there. Several times during the game we responded to strong periods of theirs with strong retorts of our own. Their crowd was silenced several times. We should have scored twice - Robbie & Dunneand from a Reid free O'Shea hheaded the ball into a German's head. I saw O'Shea's reaction. Lehman's parry could easily have gone to Doyle. If we keep that attitude throughout we'll have a chance.

We lost to a good team away. 1-0. Not a cause to celebrate but hardly a disaster. We'll always need Dunne & Given to play well away from home. That's why they're there.

The Germans will beat everyone at home. I'm sure of it. The Czechs looked vulnerable. Solvakia win easily against Cyprus. Commendable yes, but ultimately it's expected. Staunton picked a team for the night. I hope a lesson is learnt about central mid and Kilbane.

And to the **** who said he's glad we lost because Staunton is a coward - go **** off and follow another country then. We don't need your types.

soylent green

03/09/2006, 8:06 PM

Why no friendly on wednesday? We have yet to play an away friendly with Staunton.[/QUOTE]

Next year we cannot play any home friendlies as Croke Park is only available for competative matches. As such, we should see away friendlies make a welcome return (last one was in Poland April 2004)

shakermaker1982

03/09/2006, 8:14 PM

just back from the game and have been trying to read up on how the fans and press thought we played. I thought we did ok - first half we came flying out of the traps and made it uncomfortable for the Germans. I've not seen any replays of how the free kick came about. I've seen the deflection off Robbie when I got back to the hotel on german tv and it looked jammy to say the least. Shay Given was fantastic, his save in the first half looked world class from where I was sitting. Brilliant keeper and he kept the score down for us. Dunne played a blinder as well.

On the negatives:

Kilbane and O'Shea were invisible once again, I only noticed them playing when they gave the ball away. We need to give some of the other young lads a chance, both of these guys have had plenty of opportunities now and don't grasp em. S Reid on the right of midfield? MacGeady should have been starting from the off. I know we are never gonna replace Keano - he was a one in a million but we can surely find someone who can run, tackle and pass a little with a bit more authority??!!

Doyle won a lot of headers and should have stayed on. He was way more effective than Elliott from my position behind the goal. Duff took a lot of crunching tackles and was limping for a while before getting subbed. The atmosphere since Friday was fantastic in Stuttgart - I thought we'd have had half of the tickets by the sheer number of people in the main square.......not to be unfortunately!!!

geysir

03/09/2006, 8:57 PM

Stan was on his feet for most of the game shouting instructions, cajoling and encouraging the players. He reminded me of Chilavert at wc 98. I don't think it has quite sunk in how low in self belief /confidence this team has fallen to or the dearth of talent in the squad for a game at this standard. Is kicking a ball away the best that that fxckwit dunphy can come up with. I was sitting directly behind Stan, I had no problem with him kicking the ball and blowing his top.
I could't give a ****e if Stan talks like he has a poker up his ass in front of the camera, I could see that he can communicate quite fine to the team. I can understand why he would express magnanimous praise for the players. I'd agree with the comment that the game was dissapointing but not downheartening. Some things didn't work some things did. At least Carr was stalwart last night.
Just give me one consistantly good solid midfield player, a leader. Unfortunatly we don't have any, Miller and mc Phail are lightweights, Steven Reid looks quite ordinary in this company. In theory, Carsley could be a stopgap solution. Then I think a lot of the other pieces would fall into place.
As for the rest, the team showed they have the desire and commitment to go forward.

DeNiro

03/09/2006, 9:20 PM

The Germans will beat everyone at home. I'm sure of it. The Czechs looked vulnerable. Solvakia win easily against Cyprus. Commendable yes, but ultimately it's expected. Staunton picked a team for the night. I hope a lesson is learnt about central mid and Kilbane.

That's a fair statement. I think it will come down to who picks up points away between us, Czechs and Slovakia. I don't think Wales will be a problem but could do us favours, like they nearly did last night. We've got to remember we are 4th seeds. We played 1st seeds last night. Maybe it's over optimistic but we've got a chance in this group. We do need the odd friendly though!

highlight100

04/09/2006, 12:26 AM

I think we have a chance to go through.
Although we did not create much in the game,apart from two great chances neither did the German team.

Closed Account 2

04/09/2006, 1:01 AM

Just got back, thought we played fairly well, not outstanding but not poorly.

Given was world class, best keeper in the world.
Carr had a great game and really gave it his all.
Dunne did well, had a couple of headers he might have dispatched on another night (he seemed to be our only player who could win a header in their box, but he could win the headers easily - just couldnt find the target)
An. O'Brien thought he had a great game
Finnan solid game, not spectacular but did the job
Kilbane not great, only really played in fits and starts
Reid, did ok but his lack of experience meant he was caught out of position a few times - free kicks were not too good. Think if he had a more experienced midfielder next to him he would be better
O'Shea - probably his best game for Ireland, but was still fairly average and towards the end gave away possesion a bit too much.
Duff - not at his best, had glimpses of magic but seemed to take a knock in the second half and didnt really get back into the swing of things.
Doyler - good lad, tried hard and had a really good run in the second half where he beat what seemed like the whole German left side.
Keane - tried hard but lacked the support and frequently had to come far back to get the ball, and was also defending a lot more than I would expect.

The subs didnt really have much time to make an impact, but Alan O'Brien's pace nearly got him in behind the Germans. One for the future perhaps.

All of this was seen after a few beers, so I might have missed one or two things but my thoughts are as follows.

We started really well and put them under a lot of pressure. Defence was fairly solid, Shay was immense. Duff, even playing below his optimal standard, caused them a lot of problems and we won a few free kicks in decent positions. Carr was world class, best I've seen him for years.

And the bad stuff... at times it felt like we didnt have a striker, Doyle and Keane were dropping back so much to try and get posession, and by the end it was like Doyle was playing left winger. Center midfield was about two kicks behind the game, there wasnt too much coordination between O'Shea and Reid at times they both chased the ball and at other times they both sat back. They lack the mutual understanding at this stage and maybe a calmer, older head should be thrown into the fray (Carsley or Kav - if he gets going this season). Yellow cards, Given, Reid and Dunne (I think didn't see it clearly) picked up yellows if they get a few more we could be in trouble in terms of suspensions.

Set plays were poor, if Ian Harte had been on the pitch I think we would have scored from one of the free kicks. Certainly if he was to play I think he would be our most likely goal scorer. If its 50-50 between to players to start I would consider picking a set piece specialist (eg say Kav over O'Shea).

I do worry about us getting goals, we've lots of creative players but we really need a good old fashioned selfish striker, ideally a target man too. I wish we had a young Aldo or Quinney back. A striker who could really get up there and head the ball would be great, all I can think of is Alan Lee but I have doubts as to if he is really good enough at the very highest level... Maybe Clinton's sheer physical presence means he should get a shout (but then it's hard to drop Doyle or Robbie Keane). I think Clinton gives us more options, at this stage, than Elliott.

We are in a tricky spot now, but that was always going to be our hardest game, I still think we have a good chance but we will need to beat the Czechs without question.

mypost

04/09/2006, 3:28 AM

Next year we cannot play any home friendlies as Croke Park is only available for competative matches. As such, we should see away friendlies make a welcome return (last one was in Poland April 2004)

Last v Holland (a) June 2004

Stuttgart88

04/09/2006, 9:21 AM

Is there a divergence of opinion between those who were there and those who watched RTE?

I'm much more in accordance with Geysir, Edmundo & Shakermaker than the others.

There's a post in another thread from a newbie in Tampa questioning the commitment of our "prima donnas". I saw no evidence of that on the night.

Like Geysir, I couldn't care less how Staunton comes across on TV. The players played like they were up for it on Saturday. Any fault in this team's performance is down to lack of quality central midfield - again. Staunton's tactics and selection were his way of trying to get around this. I'd have done it another way, but any selection I'd prefer would also be speculative.

Late on I'd like to have seen a defender sacrificed for another attacking player too.

Aldini98

04/09/2006, 9:42 AM

Staunton did a Sven on Saturday, picked as many big names as he could regardless of where they actually would fit in to the team.

His subs were a joke, leaving Pat Devlin in charge !? That **** couldn't run a bath !

John O'Shea was a disgrace to the Green jersey.

grounded

04/09/2006, 9:47 AM

Don't know what you guys have expected. Germany have finished third in the world cup. Sweden who do have a strong team too went home with a 3-0 defeat just a few weeks ago.

Think the Irish did very well and i must admit that I was releaved when the final whistle was blown as I thought you might pull a 92. goal again like you did in 2002.

I hope you have more luck for the upcoming matches - this one was rather unlucky than undeserved!

Kingdom

04/09/2006, 9:55 AM

Only back late last night and I'm fcuking fuming. I wasn;t too optimistic before I travelled over but then with all the German withdrawls and post WC hangover I started getting optimistic. This was enhanced on the Fri and Sat seeing all the Irish fans and flags and colour etc. How wrong could I be? Very.
Our performances are just getting worse. And I'm only taking competitive matches into account. Sat night was about as horrible as it gets. That was a German team there for the taking, I don't give a damn what anyone says. Any German I spoke to before the game was really worried about their back 4. And it says it all that we didn't expose them once.
I don't know where to start with our team. Fcuk opinions at this stage. Shay Given deserves to lead this team out. Is there a keeper out there who is consistently as good. I don't think so. We were discussing the squad on the way to Stuttgart and we came to the conclusion that Carr has been guarenteed a place in the side,otherwise there is no reason he has come back from retirement. I can't see why Finnan should be moved around just to accomodate that fat little cnut.
The two centre halves did fine but were exposed quite a few times which you'd expect with the midfield that was in front of them. Andy O'Brien did fine but he does need to start getting first team football. The Finnan experiment didn't work as he didn't seem to link up well with whoever was in front of him, but thats irrelevant now, he's the best right back in the Premiership and thats where he should play for us.
Why Steven Reid was right mid I'll never know. Everyone to a man on this forum thought he was #1 for centre mid.

As for the substitutions I was pulling my hair out! Doyle being taken off was ridiculous unless he was injured. It was the muppet beside him (who looked back to his best as far as the arm-waving and sulking goes) who should have been subbed.
Anyway there is no point in dissecting the team player by player. Lehmann didn't have to make any decent save, Given was man-of-the-match and they hit the bar twice. Nuff said we were sh!te. The ominous result is the Slovak 6 Cyprus 1 scoreline!

Final thing and the Irish fans could take note. The German fans were brilliant. It was cool to go to a stadium that is supporter friendly. The colour and the pride they displayed was top notch. I especially liked the drummers and the flag-wavers right behinfd the goal. With the dimensions of Croker we will have plenty of space behind either goal so maybe we should look at doing something similar.

eirebhoy

04/09/2006, 10:35 AM

Anyway there is no point in dissecting the team player by player. Lehmann didn't have to make any decent save, Given was man-of-the-match and they hit the bar twice. Nuff said we were sh!te.
Can I ask what Given had to do other than the excellent save from Klose (i think it was)? I think people are going a bit ott by saying Germany should have won by more. Every match is going have a few chances otherwise football would be a pretty boring game. We should have scored 2 with headers from Dunne and Keane. Dunne said after the game: �I know I should have scored really".

Also, Keane reckons he wasn't offside for the goal he scored. He was slightly offside as seen on the replay but it was another chance for us.

nedder

04/09/2006, 10:37 AM

Stan must go?
Kilbane must go?
O'Shea must go?
Keane to be stripped of captaincy?

My god, what next???????????????????????????????

shakermaker1982

04/09/2006, 10:50 AM

I cannot fault our lads committment. I'm gonna have to get a dvd of the game to get a better feel of the game but for me a few points stand out.

1: Steve Finnan is a RB, a very good one and should play there. End of, why should he accomodate Carr?

2: Kilbane and O'Shea are just not good enough. They mean well and try but they haven't got the class to stamp their authority on a game. Keep them out of the centre of MF if you have to play them Stan.......it cost us the game. They didn't provide cover nor any attacking threat.

3: MacGeady needs to start on the right and move S Reid inside.

4: Keep Doyle on!!! When 1 nil down with the fans behind the team we needed a 3 man attack. Clinton's pace and workrate would be my choice over Stephen.

Billsthoughts

04/09/2006, 12:12 PM

Stan must go?
Kilbane must go?
O'Shea must go?
Keane to be stripped of captaincy?

My god, what next???????????????????????????????

staunton should never have been given job in first place. no overreaction there.
Kilbane not good enough at this level and his wastefullness with the ball is going to cost us games. he does work hard and that is admirable but it is not enough therefore he shouldnt be in team.
O shea is just a waste of space. very talented footballer who is suffering from bein a utility player at utd. not good enough to play in midfield and doesnt even have kilbanes workrate as a saving grace.if he is going to find a german with every ball he should go declare for them.
keane shouldnt have been made captain in the first place. he didnt play well on sat and wasnt subbed possibly cause he is captain.in fact when was the last time he had a good game for ireland? doyle was no pele on sat but he did seem to play with a sense of purpose lacking in keane. people arent going mad cause we lost one nil. it was the manner in which we lost. we never ever at any stage in the game looked capable of creating a goal scoring chance.

casso36

04/09/2006, 12:34 PM

To the third best team in the world on their own patch and to a fluke goal and that makes us **** and shambolic?

Get a grip ffs

Simple and straight!!! Staunton has'nt a flucking clue what he's at!!! How about trying to play players in their right positions ffs!!!

You can't expect to win a football match when the manager has'nt a flucking notion how to setup his team. You only had to look at the bench saturday night, losing 1 - 0 not a budge from the bench nobody warming up, nothing ffs!!!.
Can sombody please ask him to play the players he has in their right positions and see how they get on, all this flucking about with players can't give them confidence only uncertainty!!! FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now i would call the management team shambollic!!!! not the players.
Altough only for Given (9), Dunne(8) O'brien (81/2) this would have been a rout!!! I was sitting in the stadium watching as the germans bombarded our gaol and only for above players we would have been a laughing stock!

cavan_fan

04/09/2006, 1:05 PM

Still not sure how I feel about this (and I think quite a few of us are the same). Odd to say that the result was better than the performance and we lost!

Biggest problem was we never looked like scoring. There are many reasons for this, poor midfield = limited chances. Duff had a(nother) off day. We have 2 forwards who are not really pure goalscorers.

Assuming none of this is going to change radically, we need to get back to winning by the odd goal and what is worrying for me is that we are scoring none from our old source, set pieces. Corners, free kicks etc produce nothing despite having big lads in O'Shea, Dunne, O'Brien, Kilbane. Isn�t this something they could work on.

I agree with the poster above who says Harte should be back when fit. That leads to one of a number of selection issues. Finnan is no LB but I thought Carr was good, reminded me of what a good player he used to be. Therefore either play him and Finnan on the Right side and then have no McGeady or drop one (possibly have Finnan for the tougher matches and Carr when we have to win).

If Carsley is coming back (and he's worth a chance) then it would seem obvious to drop O'Shea. I suspect Stan will drop Reid though!

Not downhearted yet though, 2nd place is between us Czechs, Wales and Slovaks. Need to win against Cyprus and San Marino this year and I think the key game for us is the one against Czechs in October. We have to win that, not just for the 3 points but for the momentum. The team seem to think they are weak now. Lose or even draw and we are going to need away wins against good teams (and we dont get a lot of those).

Closed Account 2

04/09/2006, 1:23 PM

Anyone thought about playing Harte in center midfield?

I know he's never really played there before, but his range of passing is very good. My impression is he is good a breaking play up but as a full back is often beaten for pace when tracking back. Hopefully this would be less of an issue as a central midfielder as he in theory shouldnt be up against speedy wingers.

It's a weak position for us so part of me thinks we should play him there as we don't have any world class alternatives.

If we have him in our team, and with the likes of Duff, McGeady and Robbie Keane getting free kicks, we have a great chance of scoring.

I wish we had the chance to try out a combination of say Carsley and Harte in a friendly on Wednesday (I know Harte is currently injured).

I'd like to see Stan organise a full team v under 21s match or something like that on Wednesday.

Schumi

04/09/2006, 1:56 PM

The pocket of Irish at the diagonally opposite end of the ground to me were drowned out at will.

Really? I thought the German fans were practically silent for 90% of the game. I couldn't hear a peep out of them when we weren't singing. All they seemed to do was start Mexican waves and boo us when they died at the start of the Irish area. :D

Stuttgart88

04/09/2006, 2:03 PM

From my end of the ground I could you when they were silent but once the Germans responded with songs of their own that was it. The Irish looked better than they sounded I thought. I was over 100m away though so any German singing near me would have drowned out the sound from that far away. There was a game group of about 25 Irish 15 rows behind me who gave it a good go throughout.

I actually thought at the time that it was the good Irish start to the game and the subsequent defiance of Given & Dunne that silenced the German crowd for long periods.

Stuttgart88

04/09/2006, 2:08 PM

I'd like to see Stan organise a full team v under 21s match or something like that on Wednesday.A friendly would definitely have been useful alright but not to look at Harte as a midfielder! We're weak in some positions and we've got to look at how to address the problems. I worry that Staunton may not realise what can be improved upon.

Staunton complained after the Dutch game (SKY TV interview) that he only had the players for a few days.

pineapple stu

04/09/2006, 2:13 PM

From my end of the ground I could you when they were silent but once the Germans responded with songs of their own that was it.
Have to admit I didn't hear a single German song the entire match. Every sound out of them was co-ordinated and pre-organised - they were told what to do and they did it. Even then, it only amounted to calling the players' names or answering the drums.

Final thing and the Irish fans could take note. The German fans were brilliant. It was cool to go to a stadium that is supporter friendly. The colour and the pride they displayed was top notch. I especially liked the drummers and the flag-wavers right behinfd the goal. With the dimensions of Croker we will have plenty of space behind either goal so maybe we should look at doing something similar.
Note elsewhere in this very forum that the Germans copied us!

Overall - better performance than I was expecting, although we still didn't really look like scoring. Tells us nothing about the Cyprus game though - no idea yet how we'll do when we're expected to chase a game. But Saturday was a game we could afford to lose - were expected to lose really - and the fact that we did a lot better than we could have is a positive in itself. The Czechs at home is a far more important match than Germany away.

shakermaker1982

04/09/2006, 2:21 PM

I thought that as well Stu - the Germans around me needed a prompting to chant and fly the fags. "Deutschland, Deutschland etc etc" was ringing in my ears for an hour afterwards and I was desperate to sing "you've only got one song" if we scored !!! To be fair when they did jump up and start waving the flags it was brilliant but we made a good bit of noise as well.

Stuttgart88

04/09/2006, 2:26 PM

Schumi

04/09/2006, 2:43 PM

Molly Malone had a few renditions down our end. Yours too? Is this making a return?

Didn't happen down our end unfortunately.

eirebhoy

04/09/2006, 2:53 PM

Problem from where I was was that "Deutschland, Deutschland..." was enough to negate our singing. My mate said that on telly the Irish came across brilliantly so hats off, I think it's just that where I was our attempts to sing were futile.
The Irish were definitely the louder from the TV. If the ref blew the whistle you'd no which way the call was based on the crowds reaction. A big cheer and it was an Irish free. :) The Irish sounded like the home team tbh and it really seemed to pump up the players at the start.

Marked Man

04/09/2006, 3:37 PM

Gerry McDermott on Keane from Today's Indo. Jesus Christ.

Staunton's decision to hand him the captain's armband last March was instantly rewarded with two goals against Sweden. However, against Chile, Holland and again on Saturday, the skipper was peripheral.

pineapple stu

04/09/2006, 3:37 PM

Problem from where I was was that "Deutschland, Deutschland..." was enough to negate our singing. My mate said that on telly the Irish came across brilliantly so hats off, I think it's just that where I was our attempts to sing were futile.
I'd say so. I couldn't hear the 12,000 fans singing "The referee's a w@nker" over my own singing of it. Doesn't mean I was louder than the 12,000 others!

Tipp Townie

04/09/2006, 4:58 PM

I was watching the game on BBC3 in a pub, and our fans were coming across loud and clear! I often think thats because the tv station puts loads of microphones near the fans they want to hear, but seem as though the feed was from German tv, it must be that we outsung em! Well done all the lads that travelled over.

I had written a fairly long repsonse with my own thoughts on saturdays game, but by the time i'd finished, the site had logged me off and i lost the whole thing:mad:

So, i shall try again. On a very basic level, i figure Stan had two major tactical choices:
a) go with the well known albeit underperforming names (O'Shea, Kilbane, Carr), and some out of position, and try to play it tight and relatively defensive; Pro's- attempts to counter the very strong German midfield, maybe sneak a draw or a 1-0 win, or worst case scenario keeps the score down in the event of a defeat bearing in mind this is our toughest game and morale; Cons- no creativity in the middle, not attacking the german weakspot. or...
b) go mad at Germany from the off, with McGeady on the right, Finnan in his correct position, a passer like Stephen Ireland in the middle with Steven Reid; Pro's- we might aswell try something new coz the old stuff aint working, attack german weakspot in defence; Cons- its possible the strong german midfield ouverruns us and we get another 4-0 tonking, the morale destroyed further, not to mention our goal difference at start of campaign.

Stan went with Plan A. And i think we were very unlucky to not come away with 0-0. No doubt that their goal was flukeyness of the highest order. But half-chance headers aside, we never really looked like scoring at all. Lehman had to do next to nothing.

But when are we going to get a chance to try out new things? Although Cyprus are weak(ish), we all know how much we struggled there last time. Can we afford to experiment with the midfield even there? (for the record i havent seen much of Stephen Ireland, but yous lads that have say good things bout him).

So yes i am disappointed, but i'm nowhere near as suicidal as some of the other posters on here! We're still in it (how the hell could we be out of it after an opening fixture 1-0 defeat to germany away?!?!) but we have lots of work to do.

German_Tim

05/09/2006, 12:06 AM

Any fault in this team's performance is down to lack of quality central midfield - again.

That was my impression, too. We Germans played with the expected "worst defence" in our history and with a Michael Ballack out of shape after his injury...nevertheless you couldn't create much pressure on us (except for the beginning). I think you need a creative player behind the strikers for the next games!

During the build up I thought we were lambs to the slaughter. The noise and the sheer wave of nationalism on display was amazing. With those big 20 foot flags being held on the pitch and all the Germans in their colours and singing their songs I wouldn't have been surprised if the Fuhrer himself took to the pitch to address the crowd.

Thankfully we Germans don't yearn for that "F�hrer" idiot anymore...

I wouldn't call that a "wave of nationalism" but a real enthusiasm about a young team which won the Germans' hearts by playing an offensive football style! This team is totally different to many other German national teams in the past...and that's what makes us Germans to be proud of these guys and giving them such a great support!

This was a better team than the French 2 years ago & the home crowd effect came into play this time. The pocket of Irish at the diagonally opposite end of the ground to me were drowned out at will.

I don't think so as I could hear them very well during many parts of the game, especially in the first 25 minutes, when the German fans were slightly silent. IMO that was the expected good support of those 12,000-15,000 Eire fans at the stadium!

I hope you enjoyed your time in Stuttgart and please don't forget: it's no shame to lose to Germany away! :-)

Slainte.

PS: Here a few pics & small video-clips from the game (please klick on the "Germany vs Ireland" links):

http://www.deutschlandfans.de/fans/html/fans_unterwegs.html

craigdublin

05/09/2006, 7:35 AM

Some of you need your heads examined. You dont have to actually take Dunphy seriously you know. He's a joke. He tries to shock. You should be seriously worried if you agree with him. Of course there are positives and negatives from Sat, but you have to be balanced. His comments are polemic. "Eamon - any positives from tonight?" "NO" Thats just a joke.

At the end of the day, our team has played Germany who are on a high and could easily win the whole tournament. We played with passion. No footy fan can ask for more. OUr midfield isnt good enough in the middle. We need all our players to perform to the highest which they didnt... but it was Germany. Stan shouldnt get sent off like that. But he's under pressure and needs time. He hasnt had the start McLaren got at England.

Bobby Robsons comments on FAI.ie are really welcome... He answers Dunphy's comments on the set up of the team. Who would you believe on team structure - Dunphy or Robson..?Its Cyprus next then home against Czech. Who knows how things can begin to look up with one great result somewhere...

Stuttgart88

05/09/2006, 7:46 AM

Thankfully we Germans don't yearn for that "F�hrer" idiot anymore...

I wouldn't call that a "wave of nationalism" but a real enthusiasm about a young team which won the Germans' hearts by playing an offensive football style! Agrred. By the way I hope you didn't take it as an insult, but I kind of think you know what I was getting at. It was a very strong display of enthusiastic patriotism, in the most benign way possible.

Over the post

05/09/2006, 5:58 PM

Now the priority must be to get things right for October. I think the vast majority of people agree that the major problem is central midfield. There are several players on the edge of the squad who will hopefully be getting a lot more first team action in the coming month: I'm thinking of Miller and Kavanagh at Sunderland, possibly Quinn at Sheffield United, A. Reid at Charlton, Ireland at Man City, Douglas at Leeds and McPhail has already started well at Cardiff.
With the exception of Reid, most of these lads play in the Championship or are on the fringes of Premiership teams so we won't be expecting miracles, but the important thing is for them to get a run in the first team, get fully fit and get a bit of confidence.
Hopefully in a month's time we'll have more candidates for a central midfield berth either forcing their way into the first eleven or forcing the incumbents to raise their game.

German_Tim

06/09/2006, 1:05 AM

Agrred. By the way I hope you didn't take it as an insult, but I kind of think you know what I was getting at. It was a very strong display of enthusiastic patriotism, in the most benign way possible.

Don't worry, I don't take it serious and understand what you mean.

Waving the flags is quite normal in Germany, that's part of a good home support and quite usual in nearly any stadium before, during & after the Bundesliga games. The BL clubs have got a strong Ultras scene and the national team gets supported by diverse DFB fan clubs, who organise such things. Nevertheless the national team support is totally different from the Bundesliga support! In BL you have hughe standing curves with great atmosphere & lots of diverse singings...whereas the national team support is based on more "show" and fewer singings.

As you seem to be so impressed by the "wave of flags" and PA "action", I wonder if & why you don't have that at Landsdowne Road, too. :confused: I don't think it would be wrong to sway thousands of Ireland flags (especially the hughe ones on the pitch) and make a good PA "noise" before, during & after the game. :) However you shouldn't need such an "organised" support as I know that you have got a different support tradition without that much of choreo effects but great singings instead! ;)

And don't forget that you normally should be better patriots than we Germans who still have got severe doubts due to our dark Nazi history.

Good night.

Dallasirish

06/09/2006, 12:50 PM

NeilMcD

06/09/2006, 1:25 PM

I agree we need to be positive like Scotland were at home on Sat. They played 3 forwards and 3 attacking midfielders bascially, only really Hartley was sitting back and he is hardly a negative player.

Block G Raptor

06/09/2006, 3:08 PM

We were hardly helped tonight by a real "homer" of a ref... :rolleyes:

and I'm yet to be convinced that Schweinsteiger is anything other than German for "pig f*cker". :eek:

:ball: PP

Its actually Pig Farmer beleive it or not

German_Tim

08/09/2006, 12:32 AM

Here 3 pics from Stuttgart, a Celtic friend sent to me last night:

http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild020sd4.jpg

http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild035db0.jpg

http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bild030ny9.jpg

cheifo

08/09/2006, 1:46 AM

Thanks German Tim, great pics.

mypost

08/09/2006, 1:56 AM

Only back late last night and I'm fcuking fuming. I wasn;t too optimistic before I travelled over.

You have to feel sorry for those who paid up to €700 to go and watch that rubbish from our side/boss last weekend.

There are better ways of blowing €700.

NeilMcD

08/09/2006, 10:24 AM

Great trip and well worth the money I paid for the trip about €300 not including spending money for 4 days.

Packie88

08/09/2006, 3:22 PM

Just got back last night and am a little shocked reading some of the posts. The teams commitment on Saturday was 100%. We do not have a central midfield --- (they were giving 100% but there just not quality midfielders!) How can Keane be slated when we dont have a midfield? A striker cannot make a mark on a game when there is no support or supply from midfield. People need to remember that we just got bear 1-0 by a german team who came third in the world and we played them at home!! We need to change our tactics and i think against these weaker teams we need to play Robbie just in front of midfield and Doyle and Morrison up front. Goal difference is going to be a factor at the end of all this and Im afraid if we settle for 1-0 against Cyprus or 2-0 against the faroes it will come back to haunt us!

I personally agree on your comment about commitment: the Irish gave it loads in Stuttgart and there are a lot of people being very harsh on the team after the German game. There are a lot giving Duff and Keane a hard time, but what is Duff going to do when he has three Germans smothering him up front without the midfield? He is not a magician!! We have very good players, but it is obvious that the team tactics let us down once again and too many times in the past. I also think that goal difference will be a factor in this group and it will not be easy to match the goal tally of the Germans so far.