Robbie Keane

[Stuttgart88]

Ha ha! ;)

I can't remember that Czech Rep miss at all, only Kilbane's goal and McShane playing "cat & mouse" with Koller (in his own words).

That goal against Georgia when we came back to win 2-1 at Croke Park was another Keane header actually, that's four anyway for Ireland at least...off the top of his shoulder!

The Czech miss was at the back post. He failed to anticipate the ball coming to him after the keeper missed the cross and instead of nodding it into an open goal he fluffed it. Can't remember if it was a fresh air or just a bad header. It was a very similar situation to Slovakia where it looked easier to score. Dunne missed a sitter straight after that too, very similar to his late miss in Stuttgart under Stan.

[OwlsFan]

I'm not sure scoring so few headers makes his scoring record better, although I think I know what you mean. Heading is a brilliant attribute in itself, the way Ronaldo and Bale use those neck muscles is unnatural although they have a good few inches on Robbie to be fair. Tim Cahill was the man though, his timing and spring was probably the best I've seen, taking his height into consideration.

Because he didn't score very often with his head, he had to compensate with his feet which makes his scoring record remarkable. I am not sure what the "normal" ratio for a striker would be vis a vis headed goals against the rest of the goals, but his is around 5%. A weakness in his game no doubt but more than compensated by his tremendous finishing ability with his feet.

[Colbert Report]

Is Robbie Keane definitely retiring from international duty? I just read an article in the Independent that makes it seem as though he is.

"Whether or not Robbie Keane is involved for one last time, Ireland's record scorer and caps holders will be at Lansdowne Road for the occasion to say his goodbyes to the Dublin crowd he entertained over an 18-year stretch . The FAI are aiming to entice spectators along by slashing ticket prices to as low as €5."

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/world-cup/oconnell-and-hogan-may-earn-oneill-call-for-oman-friendly-34921681.html

[Charlie Darwin]

Martin O'Neill said at the cup draw earlier that he'd make an announcement on his future soon which seems to suggest he'll retire from internationals.

[Kingdom]

Actually, humour aside, the only really bad headers I can remember were last minute chances against Czech Rep (1-1, days after Cyprus nightmare) and v Slovakia (0-0, home under Trap). Both important late result-changing misses, but also not least beacuase they gave TOWK plenty of "no big goals v decent teams" ammo :)

The Slovak chance is the only time I can remember feeling disappointed with a Robbie Keane effort on goal. That was such a big chance.

[OwlsFan]

Martin O'Neill said at the cup draw earlier that he'd make an announcement on his future soon which seems to suggest he'll retire from internationals.

The trouble is we are very short of decent strikers and he is still knocking them in the USA against teams that wouldn't be any weaker than some of the teams we'll be facing in the World Cup qualifiers. I think it would be premature but I don't think Robbie will listen to me. It's hard enough to get the wife to listen to me let alone one of our greatest players.

[Charlie Darwin]

Nothing on Robbie announcing his retirement?

[SkStu]

Legend. Thanks for all the amazing memories. I was in Lansdowne when Robbie made his home bow against Argentina and you knew even then that this was a quality of striker that we had never had before. Where going up against the worlds best was where he felt comfortable. I was also there when he scored against Yugoslavia and, as well as being one of my favourite qualifier victories, he also scored a goal of great technique and with great confidence. A special player. One of the greats of the Irish game. Love the guy. Thanks for the memories Robbie.

[DeLorean]

Killer on Newstalk speaking about that Argentina game, amongst other things. They played the interview from after the game as well. Kilbane said the same as you Stu, that they knew that this guy was going to easily surpass the Irish goalscorer record. By that they were thinking maybe 25-30 goals, so even they didn't realise how many tap ins and penalties he was going to be handed on a plate at that stage. :p

I wasn't at either of those matches you mentioned, but I was there the night he broke the record against the Faroes, in what was my long overdue first Ireland game and my only time in the old Lansdowne Road (bar a Kings of Leon/Pixies gig!).

Let's give him the full ninety against Oman!

He's coming for you
He's coming for you
Miroslav Klose. . . .
He's coming for you

[SwanVsDalton]

Robbie arrived in the post '94 doldrums and became the player that made us believe again. Not just that we could get back to major tournaments, but that we could succeed. He was fearless, full of talent and fight, kind of obnoxious but in a good way.

Those early years were exhilarating with potential thanks to Robbie, Duffer et al. We really didn't have it any better.

Some people treated his sheer need for goals with a bit of disdain (penalties and tap-ins) but I just thought it was another sign of the steely selfishness all great strikers possess. And it wasn't like he was unhappy to help or guide younger players - I had my doubts when he started, but he proved himself a great captain too.

Over 18 years, 67 goals, so many great, great nights. Thanks Robbie. Thanks for goals, the hope, the belief, the great times. Don't think we'll ever see such a singular goalscorer again. Go easy lad.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I knew there would be at least one person taking a daft potshot at me that completely missed the point of any perfectly valid criticisms I may have had of Keane.

Back on topic and away from the childishness, best of luck to Robbie. Not infallible but certainly the best striker Ireland will (likely) ever produce and definitely one of our top 10 players wherever you rank him.

[geysir]

Killer on Newstalk speaking about that Argentina game, amongst other things. They played the interview from after the game as well. Kilbane said the same as you Stu, that they knew that this guy was going to easily surpass the Irish goalscorer record. By that they were thinking maybe 25-30 goals, so even they didn't realise how many tap ins and penalties he was going to be handed on a plate at that stage. :p

What I remember from that game was Niall Quinn extolling Robbie's virtues. ....... the figure I remember was 50 :D.
Niall probably thinks he said at least 70.

It's an excellent way for Robbie to retire v Oman and why not have Shay in goals for at least 45 mins?

[DeLorean]

From Robbie Keane's Facebook page.


Today, I am announcing my decision to retire from International football following the upcoming game with Oman on 31st August in the Aviva Stadium. It has been a wonderful journey for me to have played with the Irish national team for over eighteen years since I made my senior international debut back in 1998. I have enjoyed it all. It has also been a great honour, for both me and my family, to have been given the opportunity to captain my country for over ten years.

As a young boy growing up in Dublin playing football on the street I could never have imagined the path my life would take - it has exceeded my wildest expectations. I have been extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to play for and captain my country - it was my ultimate goal all those years ago and it has been, by far, my greatest achievement. I would never have believed all those years ago that I would get the opportunity to play for my country 145 times and to score 67 goals and through it all, I have never stopped chasing the next one!


I have been on the most incredible journey with the Irish team and fans over the last 18 years and words cannot express how proud I am to be Irish. Each and every time I put on the green jersey it is such an honour.


I have grown up playing for Ireland & look back at the 17 year old kid making his international debut, taken under the wing of Mick McCarthy & the FAI, and think of the person I am today and realise how playing for Ireland has been such a huge influence in my life. My teammates over the years, the backroom staff, managers, FAI and the fans became my second family. I always looked forward to meeting with the team - it became a home away from home no matter what part of the world I was living in. I have so many fantastic memories of days with the Irish team and have made so many friends both on and off the pitch over this time.


I have been very fortunate to play at major tournaments for Ireland over the years and I will cherish all of those memories but one in particular stands out - the 2002 World Cup and scoring the late goal in Ibaraki, Japan against Oliver Kahn. The atmosphere, the adrenaline & the buzz from the fans that night is something I will always remember.


I would like to thank all those who have supported me throughout my international career and who helped to make it all possible.
There are too many people to thank each personally but a few I must recognise.
- Thanks to my parents and my family for everything they have given me and who have always helped me throughout with their absolute support and advice.
- I would also like to acknowledge the guidance of my uncle, Noel Byrne, for encouraging me to convert into a striker at Fettercairn and to Larry Fox & Jem Loughran who looked after me so well at Crumlin United.
- Thanks to the coaches and managers I have worked with at all stages of my international career and who helped me develop as a player.
- To Mick McCarthy - thanks for taking a chance and giving me my international debut as a 17 year old and to all the International managers I have played for since then right up to the present day with Martin & Roy and the special backroom staff. Euro 2016 was a great experience for the team - we can look forward with a lot of confidence. I wish the team every success in the coming years and I look forward to joining the fans in supporting the boys in green - I will be singing alongside you loud and proud!
- I want to say a special thank you to the Irish fans who have always given me huge support and who rightly deserve all the plaudits they receive. They have been very much part of my international journey and of making it so special with their support & the wonderful memories – and they always pushed me to be my best. They are rightly described as the best fans in the world and a credit to our country. During my 18 years playing, they have always given me strength through the highs and lows in my life, particularly at the time of the death of my father, Robbie Snr., who was one of my biggest supporters and it really helped me through that difficult time - I will never forget this. I am looking forward to playing my final international game in Dublin at the end of August and getting a chance to thank them.
- Finally, I want to thank my biggest fans – my wife Claudine and my two sons Robert & Hudson who are always there for me on the good and bad days, for all their love and support. They play every game and kick every ball alongside me.


I had always hoped this day would never come and I will miss putting on the Ireland jersey and walking out to a sea of green but I am looking forward to the game against Oman & putting on the jersey and singing the national anthem one last time in front of the home crowd at the Aviva. It will be an emotional night for me but I will savour each and every last moment.


While this is the end of my international career, I hope to continue to play for some years yet. I love my time playing with LA Galaxy and intend to focus my energies on continuing my club football for a few more seasons.


Míle buíochas as ucht na hocht mbliana déag iontacha a bhí agam leis an bhfoireann. Bhain
mé sár taitneamh as gach nóiméad de.


Éire abú !
Robbie #coybig 🇮🇪

[SkStu]

As a young boy growing up in Dublin playing football on the street...

:D well played Robbie.

[Eminence Grise]

'I've supported this street since I was a boy...'

Ah, we'll miss the old jokes after he goes. It's like he's been around forever. Truly, one of our greatest players.

[tricky_colour]

Well I though it might be an appropriate time to see what the first post in this thread said:-


Two goals or not, what a god awful dispay from this man, I can't remember the last time he played well in a competetive international.

We need to find an instinctive striker from some where. give the lad at Sunderland a chance..

Not a lot has changed in those 12 years!! ;)

[SwanVsDalton]

I knew there would be at least one person taking a daft potshot at me that completely missed the point of any perfectly valid criticisms I may have had of Keane.

Back on topic and away from the childishness, best of luck to Robbie. Not infallible but certainly the best striker Ireland will (likely) ever produce and definitely one of our top 10 players wherever you rank him.

I shouldn't, but I'll bite - I wasn't talking about you, what I mentioned has been brought up by countless posters, commentators, columnists and onlookers for the last 10 years or so (at least). Just to be clear.

Admittedly it's not often TOWK, but I think we're on mostly the same page here re Keane. :ball:

[Charlie Darwin]

Well I though it might be an appropriate time to see what the first post in this thread said:-



Not a lot has changed in those 12 years!! ;)
Funnily enough, the "lad from Sunderland" earlier said Robbie was the cleverest player he ever played with. I guess you have to be a lad from Sunderland or above to appreciate how good Robbie was.

[Charlie Darwin]

I do rather agree with this post from 2004 though.


Shut up you absolute Knob end!!! :eek:

Come back to us when you know something about international football...
What a F**kin W**k*r!!!

[DeLorean]

You wouldn't get away with that these days!

I've just noticed you're only around since 2010 Charlie, for some reason I always assumed you were one of the founding members.

[DeLorean]

I shouldn't, but I'll bite - I wasn't talking about you, what I mentioned has been brought up by countless posters, commentators, columnists and onlookers for the last 10 years or so (at least). Just to be clear.

Same here. Tap-ins and penalties wasn't even a criticism TOWK threw out very often, was it? His line was more that he's offered nothing against decent opposition in years. I know this because he mentioned it once or twice. Still though, everything is about TOWK.

[Stuttgart88]

From Robbie Keane's Facebook page.

So that's it then. He's just walking away.

[BonnieShels]

Typical. As soon as it gets tough for him.

---


As an aside (ish) I was listening to the Last Word last night and so many of the comments were od the type that TOWK used to post back when he started coming on here... Never scores against big teams, always scores tap ins... Etc.

---

Can't wait for arguments in the years going forward where it's even questioned if he was one of our greatest players?

It's a slam dunk.

[BonnieShels]

Two goals or not, what a god awful dispay from this man, I can't remember the last time he played well in a competetive international.

We need to find an instinctive striker from some where. give the lad at Sunderland a chance..

It's always worthwhile to go back to the start of threads sometimes.

Ah Condex, where've ya gone?

[BonnieShels]

The Slovak chance is the only time I can remember feeling disappointed with a Robbie Keane effort on goal. That was such a big chance.

Ya see. We agree sometimes. Now, I'm not gonna be pleasant to you again until Sunday evening. Provided we've won.

[paul_oshea]

The memories that stick out in my mind the most, generally involve Robbie Keane. They are some of the greatest, if not the greatest nights. I actually wish he was staying on for another campaign.

Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís!

[BonnieShels]

The memories that stick out in my mind the most, generally involve Robbie Keane. They are some of the greatest, if not the greatest nights. I actually wish he was staying on for another campaign.

Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís!

You have to go back 18 years to get to pre-Robbie so it's unsurprising. Thankfully the last campaign gave us some.

Goal v France in 2009 is the most forgotten moment I feel.

I think Mark Kennedy v Yugoslavia is the oldest non-tournament non-Robbie Keane memory I have.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Some people treated his sheer need for goals with a bit of disdain (penalties and tap-ins) but I just thought it was another sign of the steely selfishness all great strikers possess.

I thought that part was clearly referring to me. Sorry. My apologies. Maybe you were referring to posts from ten years ago too. Still not quite sure what the point is in bringing it up though. Keane retired. Just a few nice words and leave out the bitterness. There's no need for it whoever/whatever you're referring to.


So that's it then. He's just walking away.

He's not walking away. He's retiring because he's not in O'Neill's plans anymore, which I thought was pretty easy to decipher from O'Neill's statement last month. He got to retire with a few more tournament appearances under his belt anyway so he went out on top figuratively speaking.

[tetsujin1979]

Keane matured from ego into admirable star, ‘Ireland’s best’: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/keane-matured-from-ego-into-admirable-star-irelands-best-xw87l5300
Excellent article from The Times

[DeLorean]

Do you have a subscription? C&P?

[tetsujin1979]

Do you have a subscription? C&P?
didn't need it, seems to be a free article

[DeLorean]

Ah... I just needed to register and you can read two articles a week I think.

[BonnieShels]

Keane matured from ego into admirable star, ‘Ireland’s best’: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/keane-matured-from-ego-into-admirable-star-irelands-best-xw87l5300
Excellent article from The Times

That's a great article. Kinda welled up. Having him around the squad the last 18 months was a great idea.

Anyone else wanna see him as a coach?

[paul_oshea]

I dont want to register....C&P :D

A manager will never make you 100% happy. Its kinda annoying, Robbie has been retired. Doyle is still a decent player. ARGH! I hope I don't get bitter towards the end of the campaign through a lack of goals or any penetration in the final third.

I think there are still games Robbie could do stuff for us(take Moldova home and/or away for example), sure he is ahead of Villa in the scoring charts at La Galaxy and Villa is one of the few who is really trying out there too, not seeing it as a pre-retirement holiday.

[DeLorean]

It's probably the nostalgia and sentimentality talking... but, like Paul, I wouldn't have minded him staying on for another campaign. Especially when I see the alternatives.

But the timing probably is right to go. I'm sure he'll be back in some capacity.

[DeLorean]

I dont want to register....C&P :D

Okay, but the hamster fella gave out to me for posting full articles before! :D I presume this will be treated as an exception.




Keane matured from ego into admirable star, ‘Ireland’s best’

In any other country or any other sport, Robbie Keane would be a national treasure. However Ireland, the land of 100,000 begrudgers, is a hard sell. Even 67 goals from 145 internationals was sneeringly dismissed as a statistical joke by some of the brighter sparks on Twitter yesterday.

Then again, criticising the 36-year-old from Tallaght has, for some considerable time, been something of a national pastime. Often picked upon, either for his questionable decision-making on the pitch, or his career choices off it, the public perception of the Ireland captain contrasts wildly with the regal and religious terminology used to define the marquee players from other sports: Henry Shefflin remains King Henry while Brian O’Driscoll was frequently told, “In Bod we trust”.

Whereas they could do no wrong, Keane, for so much of his career, could do little right. “Don’t care about them,” Keane said of his critics. “As you get older, you care less about what people say about you, good or bad.”

Others were not as relaxed about the issue, though. “Personally, it wrecks my head,” his friend and former Ireland team-mate, Richard Dunne, said in 2013. “Robbie is always getting it in the neck. People saying, ‘Robbie should be dropped, he doesn’t do it for his country’. Look at his CV. Who else has done what he has for us?”

The answer is nobody. His tally of international goals is not just a British and Irish record but also places him 15th in the game’s all-time list, clear of Sir Bobby Charlton, Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Cristiano Ronaldo and Johan Cruyff. “The truth is that Robbie was our Luis Suárez, our [Lionel] Messi, our [Cristiano] Ronaldo,” Niall Quinn, who Ireland’s previous record scorer with 21 goals, said.

Yet the uncomfortable truth is he spent much of his Ireland career held in fairly low regard. Remember the clamour for him to be stripped of the captaincy during Steve Staunton’s reign? “The ego has landed” headlines which followed his move to the Los Angeles Galaxy? Or the repeated observations that the bulk of his goals were scored either in friendlies or against the whipping boys of the world game?

That was often the perception. Now let us examine the facts.

Only 23 of his 67 Ireland goals came via friendlies, with 44 from competitive games, 15 of which coming against Europe’s lower ranked sides — Malta, San Marino, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar and Andorra. However, the remainder were scored against respectable opposition in either qualification games, or the finals of leading tournaments, with only two in games Ireland lost. Remember the last-minute equalisers against Germany in Ibaraki or Spain in Suwon? “I’ll never forget them,” Keane said yesterday.

Nor should his club career be forgotten. The 13th highest scorer in Premier League history — Keane’s 123 goals from a decade in England’s top flight places him above Didier Drogba, Ronaldo and Suárez in the pecking order.

With this in mind, the criticism of the Dubliner seems not only excessive but unduly harsh. Quinn never suffered similar scrutiny. Nor Frank Stapleton, Ireland’s third most prolific goalscorer with 21. Yet the aggregate sum of their international goals tally — plus the 14 of another crowd favourite, Kevin Doyle — is still inferior to Keane’s.

“It’s absolutely crazy,” Quinn said. “Robbie was outstanding for his country. By a country mile he is the best striker we have ever produced and for me, he is possibly the best player we have produced, too.”

Yet Keane is largely unloved. Why? “Money,” Kevin Kilbane said. “Whenever we weren’t doing well, whenever people criticised us, the amount of money we were earning was a stick that was used to beat us with.”

Born into an era when players’ wages multiplied dramatically, Keane’s soaring income separated him from the society he came from. Tellingly, particularly in the early years of his career, his sometimes dour public persona did not help. Nor did a tetchy relationship with the press, which mellowed as the years went by. And, let us be blunt here too, some old-fashioned jealousy was the cause of much of the resentment, too.

“You are telling me Robbie Keane is not highly thought of here?” Martin O’Neill, the manager, asked members of the press earlier this year. “Are you serious? I always thought he was widely respected - seen as an iconic figure. Certainly in England [where O’Neill lives], he’s viewed in a good light.”

Time, however, has served to erode much of the sourness his critics felt towards him. When Keane was first handed the Ireland captaincy, in 2006, it coincided not only with Staunton’s appointment as manager but a time when the FAI wanted a rebuild. “De Gaffer” read the fine print of his portfolio and interpreted the appointment of a young captain as a necessary call.

Instead, handing Keane the armband proved to be one of Staunton’s many bad ones. At 26, the striker did not yet possess the necessary wisdom for the role and all his shortcomings were exposed on a terrible night in October 2006 when Cyprus outfought, outthought and outscored Ireland to win their Euro 2008 qualifier 5-2 in Nicosia. Guilty by association, the junior member of the coalition had to fight to save his reputation.

But he struggled to do so with his only competitive goals under Staunton coming against San Marino at Lansdowne Road. With morale abysmally low throughout the Staunton reign and a crisis always around the corner, tales were told out of school. “It became a bit of a bore to be around that squad,” one player said. “I got fed up hearing the same jokes from the same group of lads.”

So by the time Giovanni Trapattoni arrived in 2008, Keane had sensed the need to change. Players were encouraged and cajoled by their captain to visit sick children in hospitals. By 2010, Keane was also persuading his team-mates to sign away their image rights to the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland (PFAI), allowing the players union to fund their educational and back-to-work programmes.

Around the same time he became the quiet financial backer of a schoolboy club in Tallaght, Fettercairn FC, because he remembered what it was like to “have to get a bus up to Crumlin to develop as a footballer”.

“I want young lads having a club on their doorstep,” he said.

Then, before a key qualifier against Macedonia in June 2011, he rounded on three Ireland players, Jon Walters, James McCarthy and Anthony Stokes, who had withdrawn from the squad. “It’s not good enough and not fair on those players who are here,” Keane said. A risky strategy that could so easily have backfired, but the ploy worked. McCarthy and Walters’ attitudes towards Ireland improved from thereon in, while Keane scored twice in Skopje in the subsequent 2-0 win. “Robbie got the squad to gel again and forget about all the distractions,” Trapattoni said.

“Then, before the match in Skopje, when he was carrying an injury, I asked him: ‘Robbie, this is not the match to get it half-right. You have a responsibility. Are you able to play or not?’

“And he said: ‘yes, boss I am ready to go’. He played for the entire game, taking a pain-killing injection to get through. That shows character.”

From that moment on, fewer and fewer doubted his character, and were able to see how a once petulant player who had been so wayward in his passing, and his thinking, was maturing into a leader. By the time he lost his place in the side under O’Neill, he could easily have traded in the trans-Atlantic journeys for the easier life in the MLS. “Yet I love representing my country,” he said, even though his role now was an unofficial cheerleader.

Daryl Murphy, the Ireland striker, added: “Before the Bosnian match [the play-off last November] he got us all together and delivered a big speech. It was all about sticking together no matter what. They were the right words at the right time. He got us going. He was great to me. It didn’t matter to him that I was the player who was starting up front [instead of him]. His support was brilliant.”

As was his Ireland career. “A national treasure,” Quinn said.

Plenty disagree. Yet no one can argue that the striker whose cartwheels once appeared to be an extension of his ego matured into a much more admirable player and person. “He will be missed,” Quinn said.

Hugely.

[tetsujin1979]

Try this link: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/keane-matured-from-ego-into-admirable-star-irelands-best-xw87l5300?shareToken=f9271fb116c1b479b89f352dd1452 e9d

[geysir]

That ET article was nicely strung together with a timely use of quotes. Though I think way too much is made of the begrudgers, as they say, empty vessels make the most noise.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Not a single comment begrudging him in any way since he announced his retirement.

It seems certain comments from months, years ago even, still touch a nerve with one or two people.

Which is odd if they don't have any merit.

[DeLorean]

That ET article was nicely strung together with a timely use of quotes. Though I think way too much is made of the begrudgers, as they say, empty vessels make the most noise.

True. For me though it's not the begrudgery a such, you're always going to get a certain amount of muppets. It's more the fact that he's not celebrated to the extent that he should be, compared to some of those mentioned in the article. It no big deal though, his records and legacy will stand the test of time.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I don't think anyone in their right mind would argue the fact he is our best ever striker and/or one of our best ever players.

But I think it's unfortunate that if you critique or analyse him in a way that isn't resounding in its praise you are automatically labelled a "begrudger", a "hater" or a "muppet". It cheapens the debate and closes down dialogue.

And unfortunately this has been the case, largely, since 2012.

You can criticize one player and make a case for other players while remaining tacitly aware of his accomplishments and contributions. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

A list of his 67 goals is on Wikipedia, and a list of his 145 appearances is on Soccer Ireland. 67 goals. Nothing more needs to be said..

[DeLorean]

Liam Mackey: So long Robbie, and thank you for the memories (http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/so-long-robbie-and-thank-you-for-the-memories-417665.html)

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

I always liked the unique finish @ 2:46 in to make it 3-1 to Coventry. The goal by Davor Suker to make it 3-2 is probably even better though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4fAGZLjVDU

Ken Early was on Second Captains recently talking about the weird ways Keane could contort his body to finish. This goal is a great example of that.

[KrisLetang]

I wonder if he will settle in California permanently.

W

[pineapple stu]

24 hours after Robbie announces retirement, and finally TOWK is a fan.

Who'da thunk it, eh?

[DeLorean]

Stephen Hunt: When Robbie Keane scored a goal, he almost turned into Cristiano Ronaldo (http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/stephen-hunt-when-robbie-keane-scored-a-goal-he-almost-turned-into-cristiano-ronaldo-35000931.html)

Family values gets the better of Hunt here but an interesting read all the same. As if anybody would just give away a crucial equaliser away to the world champions, especially knowing that he'd scored. I'm doubt Keane could have given him the goal even if he wanted to.

[jbyrne]

Stephen Hunt: When Robbie Keane scored a goal, he almost turned into Cristiano Ronaldo (http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/stephen-hunt-when-robbie-keane-scored-a-goal-he-almost-turned-into-cristiano-ronaldo-35000931.html)

Family values gets the better of Hunt here but an interesting read all the same. As if anybody would just give away a crucial equaliser away to the world champions, especially knowing that he'd scored. I'm doubt Keane could have given him the goal even if he wanted to.

tv pictures clearly showed keane getting the final touch for that Italy goal. hunt usually talks a fair bit of sense but that comment about noel hunt is a bit stupid really.

[DeLorean]

Yeah that's what I mean, I don't think you can just give your goal to somebody if the evidence proves otherwise. I thought Keane stayed pretty tight lipped about the whole thing anyway while Noel Hunt was making a bit of a fool of himself.

[jbyrne]

Yeah that's what I mean, I don't think you can just give your goal to somebody if the evidence proves otherwise. I thought Keane stayed pretty tight lipped about the whole thing anyway while Noel Hunt was making a bit of a fool of himself.

yes, Noel Hunt was initially heading off towards our supporters as if he had scored but quickly thought the better of it and instead went to celebrate with Robbie like all the other players.

[Fixer82]

I met Noel Hunt a couple of years ago and he said 'I knew I scored that goal'. I didn't mention the video evidence.
But he basically was saying Robbie was the golden boy and it wasn't easy to go up against him. That said, he wasn't really giving out about Keane and spoke highly of him too.
I understand what Stephen is saying about Robbie when he scores. I remember him trying to claim Jon Walters' goal against Faroe Islands when he clearly never got a touch. That type of stuff coupled with the arms in the air (which he did more in his early career) meant Robbie would never be as liked as the more humble likes of Brian O'Driscoll or Damien Duff.

https://youtu.be/0m5PZcBoyXg