Best Ireland XI based outside of England/Scotland
Inspired by this thread on reddit asking people to pick their best national XI from players based outside their country, how about an Irish team made exclusively of players not based on the mainland?
Thinking about it, most countries outside the top 4 would be mostly made up of foreign-based players, but we're one of the few whose home-based players have not a hope of international involvement. Scotland could possibly be included, though seeing as it's the #2 destination for Irish players it makes sense to leave it out.
The rules are that the player has to be Irish-eligible and to have expressed some interest in lining out for us. Feel free to pitch in your own suggestions.
Possible XI:
Ryan Meara (NY Red Bulls)
Seamus Conneely (Sligo Rovers) Darren O'Dea (Toronto FC) Andy O'Brien (Vancouver Whitecaps) Patrick Kohlmann (Union Berlin)
Barry Maguire (VV Venlo) Liam Miller (Perth Glory) Ronan Finn (Shamrock Rovers)
Liam Lawrence (PAOK) Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy) Aiden McGeady (Spartak Moscow)
Goalkeeper: The hardest area to pick from. Randolph would be the natural option if I'd included Scotland, but otherwise it's between Meara and Sean McDermott, with the former getting the nod for some first-team experience. Nobody in the Airtricity League is good enough.
Defence: Right-back goes to an Airtricity League player by default as apparently there are none based anywhere other than England. O'Dea and O'Brien are obvious, and Kohlmann is more to do with a lack of outstanding options in Ireland.
Midfield: McGeady and Lawrence pick themselves, as does Miller. Maguire could be argued either way and Finn is the best player in Ireland. Maguire could be left out for a second striker.
Attack: There should be no debate over Keane, although some people will try to argue that Billy Mehmet is better. Other options include Rhys Murphy in Holland and Eamon Zayed in Iran, although I'm not sure if his Libya caps in the Pan-Arab Games count as competitive fixtures.
