Cyprus V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 5th September 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

Again the negativity baffles me. Last campaign we were tanked out there. This campaign we won. Why do some jump on the players backs so quick. Its a win and no matter what happens, its all that counts, especially away from home.

Yes it wasnt a great game, yes we didnt perform fantastic but in all honesty what would you prefer? To hammer Cyprus home and away yet valiantly lose to Italy in both games and pick up a scrappy home point to Bulgaria and miss out on a playoff??

Lets be fair here, Andrews and Whelan arent the most gifted players in the world but what are the alternatives? The Andy Reid debate has been done, Darron Gibson? Behave. Only one I can see is gettin Carsley back which wouldnt bring much at this stage. Some posters here are seriously delusional expecting amazing things from limited lads, and the sooner they realise we're now an average team the better. We have workhorses to do a job and I for 1 will celebrate them should they carry us to South Africa which I fully think we can do. Leave off the negativity lads, stop over anylysing things and get excited again

100.4% agree

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Originally Posted by Blue Man

Again the negativity baffles me. Last campaign we were tanked out there. This campaign we won. Why do some jump on the players backs so quick. Its a win and no matter what happens, its all that counts, especially away from home.

Yes it wasnt a great game, yes we didnt perform fantastic but in all honesty what would you prefer? To hammer Cyprus home and away yet valiantly lose to Italy in both games and pick up a scrappy home point to Bulgaria and miss out on a playoff??

Lets be fair here, Andrews and Whelan arent the most gifted players in the world but what are the alternatives? The Andy Reid debate has been done, Darron Gibson? Behave. Only one I can see is gettin Carsley back which wouldnt bring much at this stage. Some posters here are seriously delusional expecting amazing things from limited lads, and the sooner they realise we're now an average team the better. We have workhorses to do a job and I for 1 will celebrate them should they carry us to South Africa which I fully think we can do. Leave off the negativity lads, stop over anylysing things and get excited again

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dont get me wrong, ill be ole oleing along with the best of em if we get to South Africa. I'd just like to moan and point out the problems before we do. :cool:

Im beginning to think you only need to watch the first and last 10 mins of ireland games.

A few random thoughts:

We have a limited squad of players (worse than any squad since the 70's I would say) but we have our best ever manager and they may cancel out.

The only positions I think we can improve are
left back where Kilbane is a problem waiting to happen. Fortunately any return to form for Finnan would allow JOS to play LB.
CM where S Reid would add a lot.

Other than that this is the world cup squad if we qualify.

Up front is a difficult choice. Doyle played much better than Robbe however our most dangerous partnership appear to be Folan and Keane. Trap time to think up a cunning plan which is not Robbie at LM.

Finally, the most likely outcome by far of this group is us coming second and I think this group is unlikely to be the one which doesnt get into the playoffs. (By the way when the story of this group is told how p*ssed off will Bulgaria be about the way they started). So the reality is our chances of being in SA are heavily due to the play off draw. A draw against france, Russia, croatia etc and we are likely out. A draw against Scotland, NI etc and we have a great chance. Fingers crossed everyone.

The CM is so very weak - it is worth trying something different against S Africa. From what I could see the CM was over run (again) and Whelan seemed to have another poor game (did someone have him down as potential MOM if he had scored!!) though pulled off a decent shot. So even at this very late stage its probably worth giving a run out to McCann as an alternative/preferred option.

As for the discussion on luck - I have to say I felt we were fortunate last night.

Crosby - Hunt always looks as if he has not played football before. I'm still not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Lots of activity to little effect.

The Keane whingers are unbelievable. 5 goals in the campaign so far - where would we be without him!!!

Well it is an away competitive win which is something we do rarely.

Given=did his job

O'shea= at the moment we need him to play full back and centre back.(edit: that may be both full backs and centre back)

Dunne= hopefully Martin o' Neill can get his head and fitness right (I think Dunne is one of those guys that needs a lot of loving from his manager and Hughes has been giving him the cold shoulder for as long as he has been there)

St Ledger= for a very inexperienced player at this level he is doing akay so far.

Kilbane= We love you Kevin and we are asking too much of you to play full back but have we any better options

Whelan/Andrews= the way we play these two have to do a lot of unglamourous work. If our defence was more reliable maybe they would have a lttle more freedom. Andrews usually has a 1 or 2 pot shots and Whelan was only denied a goal by a fantastic save tonight. It would be interesting to see how these lads would perform in a 3 man midfield.(not Traps system for now)

Duff/Hunt/Mcgeady= there is not a lot of difference between them but McGeady has the most ability to improve but his crossing and shooting are not there yet.

Keane/Doyle=we know what we get from these two and they did there job last night.

Folan= does have an impact and hopefully these three strikers can do the job whichever two are on the field.

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Originally Posted by Paddy Garcia

As for the discussion on luck - I have to say I felt we were fortunate last night.

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We gave them a ferw chances alright and might have given away a couple of penalties, but at the other end Kilbane was careless with his header, Hunt's miss was dreadful - missing the target from 3 feet is awful no matter how tight the angle - Whelan drew a fantastic save and we came close on a couple of other occasions too, like Andrws' shot. Fora poor performance we did make some decent chances.

I think we shaded it actually, it's just that every time they get near our goal we make a bigger deal of it than a neutral would because we're so anxious.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

We gave them a ferw chances alright and might have given away a couple of penalties, but at the other end Kilbane was careless with his header, Hunt's miss was dreadful - missing the target from 3 feet is awful no matter how tight the angle - Whelan drew a fantastic save and we came close on a couple of other occasions too, like Andrws' shot. Fora poor performance we did make some decent chances.

I think we shaded it actually, it's just that every time they get near our goal we make a bigger deal of it than a neutral would because we're so anxious.

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Also its the change in approach once we score a goal - just not set up to sit back - you can see (& feel) the nerves across the entire team - just been pinned back so many times in recent years you can now smell the fear!

Glad I only had to sit that one out for 10 mins - if we had scored with 30 mins to go I'd have been ill.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

McGeady coming on, would like to see Folan too (for I, Keano) if we are going to persist with this long aimless ball.

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Hah! Glad you're not the manager :p

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I wish there was Ctrl [X] function on my computer I could just press to save me typing "there's not much wrong with this team that a good central midfield wouldn't rectify".

I vividly recall typing that CM was fully functional away to Norway. That's a long time ago.

Watching the RTE analysis - come on Owls Fan and the rest, tell me it wasn't spot on - I think Souness as manager and Reid and Reid in CM and we'd be much better than we are.

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Well for a start S. Reid wasn't available so no point in making that suggestion.

As for the panel, same old same old with the usual digs at an era that's gone over 10 years ago and which qualified us for 3 major championships for the first time and 2 or was it 3 play offs.

Dunphy wanted Lee Carsley. FFs. He always wants whoever isn't in the team. That's how he makes his money. No sure he's aregular even for Birmingham. He showed us a few clips of the ball being given away. "Woof". "Woof". "John O'Shea would never do this at Manchester United". Of course not. Never misplaces a pass - not half. I could take a few random excerpts and show some "woofs!" of him playing for Man U.

Giles says we should go on after scoring a goal and try for some more. I think he was manager of our team which lead 3-1 in Denmark and which then fell back and ended up drawing 3-3. Easy to say these things sitting on his ageing bony ass in Dublin when I remember watching his team was like watching paint dry and the fans were crying for his head.

Souness - you want him as manager. He's now a pundit in a studio. The role of all failed managers.

What I can't defend is the absence of A. Reid from the squad now that he's lost 2 stone :eek: But I've seen it all before here. People want so and so in the squad yet when they play, they are unconvincing. Sean St Ledger was poor last night but then so were Dunne and O'Shea. Nothing to do with Trapp.

No one has mentioned the state of the pitch. Terribly bouncy. Deliberately made that way I suspect as it wasn't watered. That is a leveller.

In all my years of supporting Ireland, I can count on the fingers of one hand comfortable away wins (all under Jack) where we didn't have to scrap for the win. The Panel and many here have this vision of free flowing football, lovely one touch stuff, 85% possession for Ireland. They need to get real. I wonder was ital.ie (;)) full of people moaning after Italy got a last minute winner in Cyprus. Probably. They all know better even though they find it hard to manage their bladder let alone have 30+ years of managing at the top level.

The fan and the panel know best - so shall it be. so shall it always be.

Trap's team has a resillience and should be judged at the end of the campaign. I am not sure a Sunderland reserve (with no bids of which we are aware from other teams) is the answer to everyone's prayers.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

So Trapattoni was lucky to beat Cyprus twice
Trapattoni was lucky to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Italy (the World Champions)
Trapattoni was lucky to come from behind to beat Georgia
Trapattoni was lucky to draw with Bulgaria twice (despite never being behind against them)
at what point does Trapattoni stop being lucky and start being good?

(BTW shakermaker1982 this is not an attack on you, more a general observation of the team under Trappatoni)

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999 times out of a 1000 that free kick at the death would have flown in against us!! :D I originally put that in my original post but deleted it because I messed up some my sentence and couldn't be bothered to change it because it was getting late. The Trap is quality. How we are lying second with this squad is a miracle. I don't care if we play dog **** football so long as it is picking up results but last night is an example of how thin the line is between a win and a draw at this level. If we didn't get 3 points last night foot.ie would be a war zone today. .

Another step closer to South Africa. No it wasn't pretty but I never thought it would be. We'd all like to see two marauding central midfielders, but instead we play practically with four centre halfs. Again, not pretty, but for the first time in a while we've gone to Cyprus and they haven't had us on the ropes. They forced one good save from Given, and then scored a pretty good goal themselves, this time though there were no last gasp clearances, blocks, wonder-saves. Instead we retreat, let them have the ball knowing that we're so well set-up defensively that they're not going to score easily against us, and that we'll have enough talent up front to carve open a chance or two that we must take. We created 5 or so good chances, took two of them and can't remember them having a good effort in the second half. I'll take that.

I'm still not sure about St Ledger yet, for me O'Shea and Dunne have to be reunited even if it does mean bringing Kelly back in. Dunne looked a lot more solid with O'Shea beside him earlier in the campaign and St Ledger has looked a little iffy the last two games, I'd be worried he has a McShane style performance in him after his version of McShane's Czech Rep. performance in Sofia.
Kilbane is also clearly a massive weakness it's sad to say, hopefully he can put in two more big performances in the Irish shirt at least to get us there then we can start trying to sort something out.
Given and Dunne's distribution was awful last night which was strange and at odds with how we've been using the ball so far under Trap.

Finally, Robbie Keane. What a man. How our greatest ever striker can be so unrespected by his own fans amazes me. Great player, great attitude and time again he scores the big, big goals for us. Can't believe there's even people in this thread who want Folan in ahead of him !?

So for the man who never scores big goals:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/...59_468x286.jpg



http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...-Keane-001.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multime...85_485539a.jpg


14 goals in 30 World Cup games, & 40 goals and counting, keep up the good work Robbie, you deserve another World Cup.

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Originally Posted by 4tothefloor

Robbie Keane eircom man of the match? :p That just says it all really.

On another note, I wonder are any of the lads banging the Italian translator? Surely :D

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i was thinking that too:D id rattle her anyway

Great pics Jicked.

We were playing on a beach against the biggest divers i've ever seen in football, I thought the Cypriots were a disgrace to football and it made the win that much sweeter.

If you look at some of Cyprus's recent results at home we did really well to come out with 3 points.

Cyprus - Slovakia 3 - 2
Cyprus - Ukraine 1 - 1
Cyprus - Wales 3 - 1
Cyprus - Germany 1 - 1

and Italy scraping an injury time winner.

We created more oppertunities to score and limited Cyprus to 3 goalscoring chances, 1 of which they scored.

With that starting 11 to be where we are at the moment is a remarkable achievement and every player looks like they are giving it all for the jersey.

Woke up this morning and checked the table and it was a beautiful sight!

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Originally Posted by frog-gufc

i was thinking that too:D id rattle her anyway

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isnt she really the manager?:)

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

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Originally Posted by Oink

With that starting 11 to be where we are at the moment is a remarkable achievement and every player looks like they are giving it all for the jersey.

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At the end of the game I thought the pictures of the squad was telling. You could see how big a game that was for them to get through by their reactions and that in doing so they know they can now go out to beat Italy to go to the WC. In Sofia their reaction was very much that the job was still not nearly done, at the final whistle a few players came over to clap us fans but quickly went inside. Last night they knew they're almost in a play-off. I can't wait to see them tear lumps out Italy now :D

(btw, will Italy tickets go on general sale through ticketmaster?)

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Originally Posted by Jicked

(btw, will Italy tickets go on general sale through ticketmaster?)

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I'd be very surprised if tickets are available via general sale. I'd get your name down on ticket waiting list over in fans forum section.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

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You really have to start just turning off RTÉ after the game, it's not good for you.
Dunphy simply doesn't watch a lot of football. He said Duff has been in great form for Newcastle, when in fact Duff doesn't play for Newcastle and when he did he was one of their most dissapointing players and their fans couldn't stand him.

Against Bulgaria at home he said that Ireland should be destroying their full back because Dunphy watches him every week for Charlton and he's rubbish. At the time Charlton were in the Championship and had been for years, so unless Dunphy's a season ticket holder he doesn't watch him every week. Then there's the small fact that he hadn't played for Charlton since leaving for Leicester City two years previously, and since then the lad had even returned home to play in Bulgaria...Dunphy must have a great highlights package to include Bulgarian football every week.
Didn't he also say something about how we should easily beat Italy away because they often lose to weaker teams and only barely qualify, when in fact they hadn't lost at home since 1994.

He simply shows up to RTÉ on match day, skims through the opposition line-up, checks does he recognise any of the names from his Premeirship or
Champions League duty and if he doesn't they're a rubbish team. He then breezes through the Irish team, picks two players who aren't in the line-up an hey-presto Lee Carsley goes from being a geriatric journeyman nothing player to the fulcrum of a side that should be challenging for the World Cup.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

I'd be very surprised if tickets are available via general sale. I'd get your name down on ticket waiting list over in fans forum section.

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List is already too long to be any use joining now I'd guess. Hopefully I'll find a ticket somewhere but its a bit annoying having travelled away three times this campaign I'm going to miss out because since I've ever been able to afford it (im 22) the block bookers been closed, yet tens of thousands of GAA fans will be yahoo-ing up from every clubhouse in the country which got x amount of tickets! Argh, oh well, another argument for another day...

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

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Fortunately for us neither does Italy.

Delighted with three points. I didn't think we were "lucky". Cyprus are a poor side who were unable to exploit a mal-functioning Irish midfield and shaky defence.The fact that we were so poor, and still won, doesn't mean they were unlucky to lose. It just means they were a poor side.

Unfortunately, so were we. There are different ways to pick up three points, and we chose the least impressive route. I don't see the result as vindication of the manager's tactics. And I didn't see much that would give me a lot of confidence going into the Italy game.

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Originally Posted by osarusan

Delighted with three points. I didn't think we were "lucky". Cyprus are a poor side who were unable to exploit a mal-functioning Irish midfield and shaky defence.The fact that we were so poor, and still won, doesn't mean they were unlucky to lose. It just means they were a poor side.

Unfortunately, so were we. There are different ways to pick up three points, and we chose the least impressive route. I don't see the result as vindication of the manager's tactics. And I didn't see much that would give me a lot of confidence going into the Italy game.

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i'd agree with you there, 1 poor side (ireland) vs an even poorer side in Cyprus. thank god for that one bit of quality from Duff, great cross and in fairness to Robbie Keane it was a good header although the keeper messed up. if we do qualify for the world cup we will have to improve immensely or we will be humiliated

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Geysir alluded to a Trapp quote suggesting that CM's poor showing was not down to tactics.

RTE at least asked the questins, Bill corretl;y asking was ita loack of confidence in the CM that caused the hoofing, Giles querying the moral couarge in showing for the ball etc.

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I can't agree with that Stutts. Dunne doesn't lump the ball up the pitch at club level. He has something like a 80-90% pass success rate. There was definitely times last night the defenders could have passed to midfield but they lumped it. It's tactics. Dreadful tactics imo. If it isn't tactics then Trap must have done nothing on the training ground after the Australia match which he obviously has.

Thanfully our football was very good when Steven Reid was around so we're relying on him. Please stay fit.

Any win will do at the moment if it gets us to the world cup but the football must change after the Montenegro match or I couldn't bare it.

Doyle was brilliant btw. My motm.

Great to see the lads sing the national anthem before the game with such passion!

hopefully Wednesday's game finishes all square, I really feel we have a chance of getting a win against Italy at this stage.

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Originally Posted by stiffler

Great to see the lads sing the national anthem before the game with such passion!

hopefully Wednesday's game finishes all square, I really feel we have a chance of getting a win against Italy at this stage.

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Wouldn't be a disaster if Bulgaria won either.

has noone pointed out we won in the white jersey??

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Originally Posted by MeathDrog

Wouldn't be a disaster if Bulgaria won either.

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i've said it here and elsewhere.... it would be an absolute, unmitigated disaster.... do some maths, dammit!

Trap pretty much confirmed that the long ball out was tactics, dictated by the threat presented.
He also said that stuff done on training pitch wasn't done on the field of play though I can't think of one coach who doesn't moan about that one.

3 points, job done, end of story. I dont think we were lucky at all, we played shocking stuff for the most part but I dont remember Shay having a save to make in the second half. The way some lads are going on ya would swear we were under pressure the whole game with them having chance after chance the 2nd half.
The long ball tactics were awful, they worked for Jack because he had runners coming from midfield too to get on to the breaking ball but if you are just hoofing it up to the 2 front men the whole time and expect them to do something its not gonna work. The winner came from the best bit of football we played in the 2nd half so I hope that will show thats the way forward for us... although listening to Trap saying afterwards that they were playing 2 touch football all week in training the tactics last night dont seem to make much sense.
I didnt think O Shea was exceptionally bad last night either as some are saying,his distribution was poor but he was far from the only one. I actually thought Kilbane was beyond horrendus, he looked like a guy that was taken from a GAA pitch and told to try play soccer.He really didnt look like any sort of a professional footballer at all, could pass, couldnt tackle, positional sense was terrible.I think he should have closed the man down quicker for their goal too, he seem to hesitate at the start of his run towards the ball.

But with 2 games to go and being in such a great position Im full of optimism.People are saying that we are gonna get found out, but people said we hadnt a hope of getting anything out of the games in Italy and Bulgaria and we came through those games ok.We gotten ourselfs into this positon on merit now, luck cannot account for every game we have played.Still unbeaten in qualifying....not bad for a team that are as bad as some people are making out!!:ball:

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Originally Posted by Razors left peg

Listening to Trap saying afterwards that they were playing 2 touch football all week in training the tactics last night dont seem to make much sense.

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I suppose it depends what the two touches were. One might have been to control it and the other to hoof it ninety yards up the pitch...

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

I suppose it depends what the two touches were. One might have been to control it and the other to hoof it ninety yards up the pitch...

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haha fair point :D

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

I suppose it depends what the two touches were. One might have been to control it and the other to hoof it ninety yards up the pitch...

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ha ha ha excellent!!!

great to get the 3 pts, but foockin hell we were awful...trapattoni me arse, he aint worth two million..long ball v cyprus!!,,,,shocking stuff...absolutely blessed to get 3pts

Shocking but we're always shocking away to Cyprus. Those pesky technically superior minnows. I guess you have to compare apples to apples so compared to previous performances away to Cyprus it wasn't the worst.

We created 2 chances in the second half and took one. Cyprus didn't have a clear cut chance but had a few half-chances.

But what I cannot understand is why Irish teams going back as far as I cna remember seem to play to the level of the opposition. If we had to play away to the top teams in Europe I would be confident of a spirited performance and getting a draw. But for the life of me I know that if we play away to no hopers we will struggle.

Anyhow we got our revenge I suppose.

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Originally Posted by Qwerty

Shocking but we're always shocking away to Cyprus. Those pesky technically superior minnows. I guess you have to compare apples to apples so compared to previous performances away to Cyprus it wasn't the worst.

We created 2 chances in the second half and took one. Cyprus didn't have a clear cut chance but had a few half-chances.

But what I cannot understand is why Irish teams going back as far as I cna remember seem to play to the level of the opposition. If we had to play away to the top teams in Europe I would be confident of a spirited performance and getting a draw. But for the life of me I know that if we play away to no hopers we will struggle.

Anyhow we got our revenge I suppose.

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so true, is absurd when you think about it

I can't believe the people on here saying as Bulgaria win on wednesday would be good.... If Bulgaria win on wednesday, we'd be snookered. Italy win in Dublin and a Bulgaria win away to Cyprus and they leap us. Personally a draw on wednesday is what i'd love to see. If we then beat Italy we go top. But also a draw on wednesday means we can afford to lose to Italy, and beat Montenegro and still be guaranteed 2nd!

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Originally Posted by drummerboy

Have to say I'm a happy man now, but I never cursed at an Irish team so much in my life before. They were very poor tonight.

O’Shea had a dreadful first half, settled a bit in second.
Dunne could have given away 3 penos with a different ref, looked clumbsy.
SSL struggled in my opinion, even under the high ball never looked assured.
Kilbane didn't do much wrong, they never managed to expose him and he could have scored a goal from the header in first half.

Duff done ok, won a lot of free kicks, some obvious dives
Whelan anonymous for a lot of the game, although in his defence he worked hard defensively
Andrews read Whelan
Hunt: what ever chance he has of making an impact was negated when he was placed on the right wing (in his case the wrong wing)

Keane was dreadful in first half improved in second. Wonderful finish, brave not his usual type of goal.
Doyle was one of the few who had a good first half, faded in second. Good finish for goal.

McGeady didn't really do much, I thought he could have done better when he made that run from his own half.
Folan made a nuicence of himself without doing much.


All in all a great result. Hard to watch. The big test comes next month. How good are Italy? Are they worthy world champions or are they finished like they showed in the confederate cup. Time will tell. I will kneel down and pray that Stephen Reid is fully fit for the game in October. I think he will improve our chances of beating them by 25% if he plays.

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I really cant understand how it was 4 pages before anyone questioned St Ledger, Injury aside he was awful, his positional sense is horrible. He was constantly forcing dunne into terrible postions to cover for him. He doesnt attack the ball in the air with any aggression whatsoever and never looked to find one of our own men with a clearance.

O Shea had a stinker also, him and dunne is a far better partnership and leave someone else play right back.

People saying earlier in thread that Hughes didnt show confidence in Dunne,
I watched dunne weekly last year and he had all the confidence/opportunities to cement his place but last night was his typical performance for city for 90% of last year. I still think he is a very good defender but do question his attitude and hope he regains old form For Ireland, Villa and himself.

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Originally Posted by KR's Post

I can't believe the people on here saying as Bulgaria win on wednesday would be good.... If Bulgaria win on wednesday, we'd be snookered. Italy win in Dublin and a Bulgaria win away to Cyprus and they leap us. Personally a draw on wednesday is what i'd love to see. If we then beat Italy we go top. But also a draw on wednesday means we can afford to lose to Italy, and beat Montenegro and still be guaranteed 2nd!

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at last people are seeing sense! now go forward and dispel the misapprehension that a bulgarian win is good. even the times are at it:

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Originally Posted by The Irish Times

Irish eyes will be fully focused on Turin on Wednesday evening - Trapattoni’s men play a friendly against South Africa in Limerick 24 hours earlier – and opinion may be divided on the best result.

Victory for Italy would make winning the group intensely difficult for Ireland, but would virtually guarantee them the runners-up spot.

A Bulgaria win would blow the race wide open, although that would drag Dimitar Berbatov and company back into striking distance.

Keane said: “It will be a tough game on Wednesday now, Bulgaria against Italy, and that will hopefully open up the group a little bit, you never know.

Link

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No you fools! Opinion is not divided! A draw is the best result and a Bulgarian win is the worst, with an Italian win significantly better. Grrr. Learn maths, people!

Anyone care about the Australia result now?
thought not

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Originally Posted by Qwerty

But what I cannot understand is why Irish teams going back as far as I cna remember seem to play to the level of the opposition.

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As far as I can tell, this is a general human conundrum, one that confounds many a great intellect - "Why do We tend to only exert so much effort as seems strictly necessary?"
It really is pervasive across society, not just peculiar to the Irish football team. If you've a handy exam coming up, you're not going to break your balls studying for it. If you've a bird slobbering all over you, clearly gagging for you, you're not going to bother pulling out some magical lines. If you're playing a mediocre team, chances are you won't be as fired up and determined as you would against a great team. I think that's natural enough.

Obviously it'd be better if we could always operate at optimum and I'm not trying to defend the performance - just saying that in the absence of a challenge that seems (whether subconscious or otherwise) worthy of our utmost efforts and highest level of performance, it is quite natural not to play fantastic.
I think it was noteworthy that as we entered the closing stages, the team did begin to play a bit better. As the challenge increased, so too did our performance. There was a bit more urgency, and in the minutes before the goal, it felt like a goal was coming.

Yeah it'd be great to hammer these teams into submission, but thanks to the evident strength of character the team has, it's not a great surprise that we 'luckily' start to play when we really have to.