Republic of Ireland V Serbia - Saturday, 24th May 2008 - Friendly

[stojkovic]

Serbia Squad...

Goalkeepers: Vladimir Stojković (Sporting Lisbon), Vladimir Dišljenković (Metalurg Donetsk), Damir Kahriman (Konyasport)

Defence: Antonio Rukavina (Borussia Dortmund), Pavle Ninkov (Crvena zvezda), Marjan Marković (Dinamo Kiev), Gojko Kačar (Herta Berlin), Branislav Ivanović (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidić (Manchester United), Slobodan Rajković (PSV Eindhoven), Ivica Dragutinović (Sevilla), Aleksandar Luković (Udinese)

Midfield: Dejan Stanković (Inter), Nenad Kovačević (Lens), Milan Smiljanić (Espanyol), Dejan Milovanović (Crvena zvezda), Saša Ilić (Salzburg), Zoran Tošić (Partizan), Zdravko Kuzmanović (Fiorentina), Stefan Babović (Nantes), Boško Janković (Palermo)

Strikers: Nikola Žigić (Valencia), Danko Lazović (PSV Eindhoven), Marko Pantelić (Herta Berlin), Milan Jovanović (Standard)

:eek::eek::eek:

[pateen]

I dont think delaney did too well in the portugese tournament acording to one newspaper, indo I think

[pateen]

Kiely

Kelly Dunne O’Shea* O’Dea/Delaney

Duff Garvan McPhail McGeady**

Keane Doyle

*McShane if O’Shea’s not available
**Hunt if McGeady not available

-Kiely picks himself in goal due to the number of withdrawals in that position

-Kelly is also a shoe-in at RB after a consistent season but he has still to look convincing in an Irish shirt. Kevin Foley to get a run out around the 60min mark to see if he can offer anything in this position. Hopefully Finnan will be back to fill this role after the summer.

-Centre-back…..problem area. Dunne O’Shea best option at the moment with McShane filling in if O’Shea doesn’t play. I know it has been a season to forget for McShane but he has international experience and is still very young. Other options…..people touting for Alex Bruce don’t know what there talking about! I’ve watched numerous Ipswich games this season and he is no where near and never will be international class. O’Dea has to get regular 1st team experience before he’s considered and Delaney is never going to amount to anything but an average championship player. Hopefully O’Brien will be back sooner rather than later.

-Left-Back………another big problem position for Ireland. Realistically it will probably the enigmatic kilbane come Sept. Interesting to see how Delaney/O’Dea get on in this position. Please God Stephen O’Halloran will make a full recovery after his cartilage injury…..he looks a classy performer and would look like the long term left back if he can break into Villa’s 1st team.

-Wings……..Duff and McGeady. Hunt as an impact sub only….the man is headless and is totally over-hyped in the Irish media. He has been shown up badly by the more classier Premiership full backs (Evra, Clichy, Cole, etc). Hoolahan deserves a chance around the 60min mark.

-Midfield…….yet another problem position. Will look different come Sept with Carsley, Ireland(hopefully) and the 2 Reids to come back into the reckoning. I can’t believe people are clamouring for Rowlands and Potter. Rowlands is 30 in Feb and will no doubt be shifted at QPR this summer considering the money they now have, Potter has been transfer-listed by Wolves and it’s not as if there is a big queue vying for his signature. These two will not amount to anything. McPhail has had a good season but perhaps he has missed his ship. Im as big a fan as the next man but hes 29 in December and still yearns for the return to premiership football that he is highly unlikely to get. But because I’m an old sentimental at heart I’d throw the big man in there. Liam Miller is never going to amount to anything at this level either. He’s had ample opportunity and has not taken it and hes not getting any younger either. Let’s give Garvan a go. Also I’d like to see Whelan come on in the 2nd half. These two have undoubtedly the most potential out of all the central midfielders in the squad and look likely to be playing premiership football next season. From the evidence of the Portugese trip….it is unlikely that Garvan will get a go though……..what a shame.

-Doyle and Keane pick themselves with Keogh and Scannell hopefully getting in on the action. Long also has potential. But I hope big Daryl will be no more than the water carrier on the nite.

-Here’s to a bright new era of Irish football………..Come on Trap…..bring us out of out doldrums!


Good post Tommy C. I think Liam Lawrence has to be mentioned too although he didn’t get included in the squad, he does have potential and in the premiership next season.

[tommy_c12000]

Yeah Pateen.........agree with that. Lawrence deserves a chance after the season hes had. May lack the natural pace to be a real top quality interational winger but certainly deserves a chance

[Paddy Garcia]

Good post Tommy C. I think Liam Lawrence has to be mentioned too although he didn’t get included in the squad, he does have potential and in the premiership next season.

Agree with you on Tommy Cs post, very good & I'd be much happier withthat team. Also agree with you on Lawrence, who should be in there.

Only change I'd make is St Ledger over McShane. Where possible we should select players who are playing football.

[tommy_c12000]

St Ledger has come along way from his "Big Ron Manager" days agreed. But I'm still not fully convinced by him. He's quick, decisive in the tackle, got a great positional sense, okay in the air and generally punches above his weight (a bit like McShane) but I still don't know if he has what it takes to make it in the premiership and ultimately at international level. At 23 he needs to move to a bigger club than Preston before he truly deserves a chance at international level. McShane is still only 22 and still has a lot to learn. But he does have international and premiership experience. Granted it has been a season to forget for the player.....I still see enough in him to give him another chance at this level.....his confidence is at an all time low and back-to-back international games allied with a solid pre-season could work wonders for him....u never know. I think Traps got this selection right but i'm disappointed with Miller in midfield. Gotta be Garvan/McPhail.

My ranking of current Irish centre halves
1.Dunne 2.O'Shea 3. O'Brien (fingers crossed) 4.McShane 5.St. Ledger 6.O'Dea 7.Paddy McCarthy 8. Delaney 9.Bruce 10.Kilbane????

Let's contrast this list with: 1.McGrath 2.O'Leary 3.Moran 4 Lawrenson 5.Mick McCarthy 6.Staunton

Really shows how exposed we are if a couple of our centre backs pick up an injury

[tetsujin1979]

How do you have McCarthy (who was in the running for Charlton's player of the season) ahead of O'Dea?
Granted, O'Dea may finish a better player, but warming the bench for Celtic, is no comparison for actual competitive football

[tommy_c12000]

How do you have McCarthy (who was in the running for Charlton's player of the season) ahead of O'Dea?
Granted, O'Dea may finish a better player, but warming the bench for Celtic, is no comparison for actual competitive football

Point taken about O'Dea. To be honest I dint know where to place him on the list........trying to get the balance right between potential and those playing regular 1st team football is a difficult job. Ultimately O'Dea has more potential than McCarthy but if was going to throw sumone in at the deep end in a competitive match it would probably be McCarthy at the present time. Although we've seen how well O'Dea has done when thrown in at the deep end in the Champions League against Milan a couple of times with minimal 1st team experience

[gustavo]

Some good players in there, forgot that they had a few decent players. Zigic and Vidic really the only ones that would have sprung to mind.

Stankovic aswell is one of the finest midfielders in Serie A

[theworm2345]

Anyone got a stream? The RealPlayer ones from MyP2P seem to all be full. I realize its early but you've got to get on early to get a spot sometimes

[livehead1]

Anyone got a stream? The RealPlayer ones from MyP2P seem to all be full. I realize its early but you've got to get on early to get a spot sometimes

Its probably too early and they aren't online yet...

[tricky_colour]

It is supposed to be on sopcast channel 48606 (atdhe 1)?
I was watching the play off final on it earlier but it is off the air now but
I presume it will be back on for the Serb match, the play off match kept freezing at the end though.

[tricky_colour]

Can't get any streams to work (as ususal) will have to make to with RTE radio broadcast

[czarner]

Is anyone having any joy watching this on sopcast? I'm trying to watch it on that program via http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com (because I can't work out how to ask for channels manually...) but it's telling me the channel is offline when I try to connect. Very annoying after waiting up til 3am here in China... should be used to it at this stage tho, free internet football is great when it works, but it usually doesn't :(

[theworm2345]

Dont get excited, but

sop://broker1.sopcast.com:3912/49215

Its a piece of **** stream, you'll be lucky to get it to buffer past 20

[SkStu]

Duff sounds like he is doing very well out there.... and our full backs. Keane has had a shot cleared off the line but Serbia "sound" dangerous... lol.

[the doc]

St Ledger has come along way from his "Big Ron Manager" days agreed. But I'm still not fully convinced by him. He's quick, decisive in the tackle, got a great positional sense, okay in the air and generally punches above his weight (a bit like McShane) but I still don't know if he has what it takes to make it in the premiership and ultimately at international level. At 23 he needs to move to a bigger club than Preston before he truly deserves a chance at international level. McShane is still only 22 and still has a lot to learn. But he does have international and premiership experience. Granted it has been a season to forget for the player.....I still see enough in him to give him another chance at this level.....his confidence is at an all time low and back-to-back international games allied with a solid pre-season could work wonders for him....u never know. I think Traps got this selection right but i'm disappointed with Miller in midfield. Gotta be Garvan/McPhail.

My ranking of current Irish centre halves
1.Dunne 2.O'Shea 3. O'Brien (fingers crossed) 4.McShane 5.St. Ledger 6.O'Dea 7.Paddy McCarthy 8. Delaney 9.Bruce 10.Kilbane????

Let's contrast this list with: 1.McGrath 2.O'Leary 3.Moran 4 Lawrenson 5.Mick McCarthy 6.Staunton

Really shows how exposed we are if a couple of our centre backs pick up an injury

Good Post, I'd go with 1.Dunne 2.O'Shea 3.St Ledger 4.O'Brien 5.McCarthy 6. O'Dea 7.McShane 8.Bruce.

I feel that when St Ledger does make the step up to the Premiership, which he clearly has the ability to do so, he will go on and do well.

He's maturing into a top class player and the key to that is playing regular 1st team games, better to do that in the Championship at the moment than being on the bench for a Premiership team.

Preston fans are calling him the new "Mark Lawrenson" so they must be impressed by him.

I think his style of play would suit Trapps as he is very quick, reads the game well and brings the ball out like Italian defenders do, this is why he would be an ideal CB partner for Dunne.

[tricky_colour]

Try this!!
http://www.justin.tv/mwb67

[tricky_colour]

Its english commentary too

[SkStu]

SS3 feed - great work worm for finding that

[SkStu]

what was Dunne doing with that pass? serbs nearly scored///

[Hibs4Ever]

Try this!!
http://www.justin.tv/mwb67




Brilliant. Thanks

[czarner]

Thank you tricky_colour!! Watching now. Thanks for the link worm, but I've never been able to get anything from sopcast except via livefooty, my own ignorance at fault I'm sure. Wait, wtf, justin.tv just skipped to a scottish league game! No, back now. That was odd. Half-time, going to try + get the other to compare. Except I've just heard my half-time analysis is going to come from Babb - can't miss this!

[czarner]

Apologies for the incoherence but I've had several hours to kill waiting for the game...

[SkStu]

Delaney looks very, very good - first time ive seen him.

[Noelys Guitar]

Great feed Tricky. Fair play.

[Paddy Garcia]

Whelan just wellied the ball out - from an attacking position!!!!!

[GavinZac]

Delaney looks very, very good - first time ive seen him.

Typical, another Cork City player that had to get magically better in England before he gets a cap! :mad: :D

[tricky_colour]

Dam looks to have switched channels.
Back now lol.

[SkStu]

Typical, another Cork City player that had to get magically better in England before he gets a cap! :mad: :D

yeah he was ****e for cork... :p

[theworm2345]

Gotta get some ****ing subs on

[SkStu]

yeah this has gone stale - the ref isnt helping.

[Paddy Garcia]

Jeez - McShane is useless

[SkStu]

brutal. absolute fckin clown.

[theworm2345]

Scannell for Duff and Keogh for Doyle...PLEASE

[Paddy Garcia]

Hunt has been pretty anonymous.

Still can't understand how anyone could even have McShane in the squad - looks like he will always cost us a goal.

[micls]

Great control by Keogh there. Unlucky not to get the shot off

[tricky_colour]

Bring back Stan :p

[Paddy Garcia]

Bring back Stan :p

Good idea - & keep McShane & Hunt in the team

[tricky_colour]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees !!!!!!!!!!!
Trap is the best :p

[micls]

Very well taken by Keogh. Should start Thursday imo, looks very lively.

[Hibs4Ever]

Tardelli was WELL happy with that :D

[theworm2345]

Great goal, nice flick my Murphy

[micls]

Tardelli was WELL happy with that :D

What a psycho!! Thought he was gonna give Trap a heart attack

[beepbeep]

What was everyones thoughts on the game?
I wasnt very impressed, nearly fell asleep at one stage! I know its early days, and i suppose a draw is better then defeat. See trap and Tardeli celebrating after the keogh goal!LOL

[Hibs4Ever]

Was very impressed with Delaney

[eekers]

trap needs to tie his back 4 together in a line for a few training sessions so they will get used to playing offside together. its the old fashioned way and it works. ramos had to resort to this at tottenham when he took over.

[czarner]

From what I saw of it (massive cheers for the stream links by the way), dull, dull game, but that was an at least 50% reserve side, so not a bad result. Well taken by Keogh, but it fell nicely for him. Still, 3 goals in 3 games, with so little time on the pitch, surely entitles him to a start against Colombia. Doyle can get over his slump (and fingers crossed he will) on his own time.

[sligofan4ever]

Paul McShane was very dissapointing leading up to the Serbia goal. Glenn Whelan was impressive for his debut and as soon as Andy Keogh got on he scored no wonder Trap has alot of faith in him.

[Noelys Guitar]

Lets see how we play on Thursday. I thought a few of our established players like Hunt looked knackered. Duff played well as did Delaney. Kiely looks like he never left and is a confident goalkeeper. Kelly played well. McShane's confidence is shot. His backpass to Kiely before the mistake for the goal was just horrible. Miller not good enough for international football. Keogh took his goal brilliantly and Long played well when he came on.