Ireland v Chile, 24/05/06

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Yeah, I couldn't argue with most of that but it doesn't take away from the fact that he's better than O'Shea, Miller and anyone else that can play in that position atm.


Not really. Most sections of the crowd at least tried to get something going, even the west side of the north terrace. I was over the opposite side of the north terrace and I'd try sing the first line of whatever the rest of the crowd were trying to get going and I was just embarassing myself. Compared to the Sweden match when I sang a line and everyone else would join in. :)

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I don't know mate, but in the South Terrace there was buggar all noise all night!

My mate also watched it on TV and it was one of the first things he noticed about the match - the lack of noise. And he watches nearly every game....

Were there the "IRA/SinnFein" add-ons? If so, bloody disgraceful. Idiots.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Were there the "IRA/SinnFein" add-ons? If so, bloody disgraceful. Idiots.

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Aye mate, I couldn't believe it either.

It was a group of kids, probably none of which were older than 10/11 and the worst thing about it was there was parents/minders singing with them :(

But I'm not one to tar proper fans with the same brush, as a whole the fans were fine :)

Surprised to hear some people booing at the end of the game (not at all surprised to see half the crowd leave before the end, as usual, though - and yeah, the extra 6 minutes was bizarre, any chance of a betting scam? Would anyone ever offer odds on the length of a game:confused: :eek: ).

Don't forget - this is only the first game Staunton has lost in his entire managerial career at all levels. The run had to end some time I suppose.

Kilbane should probably be first choice left back and we now know he can cover center-half if we have an injury crisis. It seems some people just have a mental block and can't see any good in him no matter how he plays. I believe there's a rule that Killer must play in every competitive international so, having gone from winger to central midfielder, we can see that his progression will continue to full back and on to centre-half over the next two or three qualifying campaigns..

McGeady looked sharp and flashy when he came on but for all his nice touches he didn't really get any great results and towards the end the Chilean defence seemed to get more of a handle on him. Hopefully he will continue to progress but at the moment I'd have Andy Reid in ahead of him.

rubbish game

two rubbish teams

anyone got Ian Dowie or Brian Kerr's number?

The atmosphere in Lansdowne is always poor except for the odd qualifier. You cant compare it to the likes of an away game (where you see very few Celtic jerseys in my experience). Its to do with the real fans been spread around the ground and diluted by no-mark fans (like the Celtic fans you described).

You always get sections of idiots putting that into the fields of athenry, its embarrassing alright. I never sing the fields of athenry myself, there is something tacky about it at home games, it doesnt sound right, yet at anfield "the fields of anfield road" is one of the best sung songs and sound great. Personally I would ban celtic jerseys from ireland games. I dont get Celtic fans, why can supporters of every other club avoid wearing their club shirt yet they cant?

[QUOTE=Paddy Garcia]

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

The result ultimately means nothing and it's all about what you learn and take from the match.

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This may be true, but I don't think Roy Keane (or Fr Jack for that matter) would agree & perhaps that is the main problem or rather challenge for Stan.

In the latter qualifiers the will to win was not as evident as in recent years, and the displays characterised by a lack of ambition, creativity and general nervousness.

The winning character we want needs to be displayed in all our games both competitive and friendly if it is to become embedded in our culture again. We may still lose, but not hopefully so meekly.

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That's a good point and not something that I would really disagree with. A winning mentality breeds success, I just think that in the circumstances i.e. end of season friendly with players a little out of sync from not playing and one eye on their summer holidays means I can dilute it a little.

The result IMO in a game of this nature counts for nothing but the nature of the performance always does. In that way it was disappointing but like I said earlier, if it was in a competitive game I'd be more worried.

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Originally Posted by reder

The atmosphere in Lansdowne is always poor except for the odd qualifier. You cant compare it to the likes of an away game (where you see very few Celtic jerseys in my experience). Its to do with the real fans been spread around the ground and diluted by no-mark fans (like the Celtic fans you described).

You always get sections of idiots putting that into the fields of athenry, its embarrassing alright. I never sing the fields of athenry myself, there is something tacky about it at home games, it doesnt sound right, yet at anfield "the fields of anfield road" is one of the best sung songs and sound great. Personally I would ban celtic jerseys from ireland games. I dont get Celtic fans, why can supporters of every other club avoid wearing their club shirt yet they cant?

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I fully agree mate. At N. Ireland matches we have basically eradicated the problem in the last few years and now you really do see the very odd one or two Rangers tops, which is good to see people wearing the national shirt to national games.

I also agree with the true supporters travelling to away matches, as you will always inevitably get hangers-on at home matches, no matter what country is playing.

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Originally Posted by vega007

Just like to mention that I'm not trying to stir up any trouble, I know alot of people here are big fans of the EL and there's nothing wrong with that. I personally feel that even the fourth tier of English football if vastly superior to the EL and players get paid more there than here and hence the better players will move abroad. Good luck to Byrne but I don't think anyone could really put forth a strong argument that the next step in his career is anything except to get on with an English club.

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I can only assume you're on a wind up here, you're factually wrong on the money front and your opinion is pathetically misguided otherwise anyway. Byrne did turn down a half million move to the Swedish champions over christmas you know.

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Originally Posted by Slash/ED

IByrne did turn down a half million move to the Swedish champions over christmas you know.

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Was the offer actually accepted Slash??

I'm ecstatic we got beaten because after a meaningless result against Sweden it seemed O'Shea's (numerous) sins in an Ireland jersey had all been forgiven (even though he was average against Sweden) and the 5 minute memory brigade were calling for him to be a mainstay of our midfield for our upcoming qualifiers. Now finally we might get him out before the important games begin and he does real damage though I fear Stan is too much of a gobs**te to drop him if he's getting his game for united.

And please no silly we have no-one better comments - Kavanagh, S Reid, A Reid, J O'Brien, Ireland and even Owen Garvan should all be given the go ahead in central midfield before that donkey again surely none of them could be as consistently s**t no matter how inexperienced they are.

Question:
Name one good O'Shea performance in an Ireland shirt I can't think of a single one in 5 years since his debut.

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Originally Posted by Paddy Garcia

Just realised that Doyle was given man of the match!

Apart from being embarrased that we awarded it to ourselves, he never got the opportunity!

Between Duff, Dunne & Kilbane for me.

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Yes I wondered that. Not that Doyle didn’t play well, but he was on the losing side. For me it had to be Given, if it hadn’t been for him it would have been a lot worse.

I guess it’s only right that Staunton precides over one of our best performances in a while followed by one of our worst. Didn't mean anything though, best time to lose and if they needed bringing down to earth.....

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Originally Posted by ifk101

Whats disappointing for me is that we are still no wiser on what our best team is. If Stan chooses a 4-4-2 formation for the qualifiers, there are, in my opinion, four positions up for grabs:

Given

Finnan-O'Brien-Dunne-?????
?????-Reid-?????-Duff
Keane-?????

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Couldn’t agree more and yesterday did nothing to answer those questions. I’m normally a defender of friendlies but with the exception of a couple of good individual performances that was largely meaningless. Thought the biggest problems was the centre of midfield, we lost our shape too often and it makes it difficult to judge the rest of the performance.

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Originally Posted by drinkfeckarse

Was the offer actually accepted Slash??

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Initially no but it ultimately was and the player himself turned the move down

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Originally Posted by vega007

...Breen didn't play terribly but why the hell is he in there?
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Kilbane was far and away our worst player today.

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Who would you have played? With so many options injured, it was him or O'Shea.

Kilbane did quite well. Frankly, there was far too much competition for our worst player on the pitch. Kelly was very poor, and Harte hasn't improved at all (shock :rolleyes:). Miller and O'Shea were anonymous at best, and I thought Reid gave away a lot of the ball. Kavanagh did well enough when he came on. I've been an O'Shea apologist, but I think I'd rather see Kavanagh start against Holland now.

McGeady looks promising, but he seems to be a poor passer and not much at crossing the ball. Still, he's young yet, and it's nice to have a player with a little penetration.

Doyle did fine, but was starved of service, ditto Robbie, while Byrne played well enough to justify his callup.

Henderson looked suspect. I though he was beaten on any number of narrow wides.

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Originally Posted by vega007

One more thing - where did the ref come up with six extra minutes at the end? Was it just because we were playing at home and were down a goal? I thought there would have been two or at the very most three minutes added on.

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You really are clueless, aren't you? 30 seconds a sub. Given there'd been 11 subs made at that point (and another during it)...

Yeah suprised people were suprised at the 6 mins of injury time. The subs on the Ireland team add up to 3 mins on their own.

I thought it was a poor game and Miller and O Shea were lost in midfield and never got a hold of the ball. Reid is not a right winger also and we cannot play 3 at the back. If Staunton takes all those points from the game I will be happy. He should also take that Kilbane is better far away from the opposition goal and as close to our goal.

Kilbane is an honest hard working play who is physical pacey strong and knows how to win a tackle. I think left back is the spot for him.

Team V Germany will be


Given


Finnan O Brien Dunne Kilbane

Carr Kavanagh Reid Duff


Keane Doyle/Morrison

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Originally Posted by NeilMcD

Yeah suprised people were suprised at the 6 mins of injury time. The subs on the Ireland team add up to 3 mins on their own.

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Yeah, but surely this shouldn't be the case? Most of the subs were made in one go and hardly took up 3 minutes to make.

But that is the rule and hence the injury time.

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Originally Posted by John83

You really are clueless, aren't you? 30 seconds a sub. Given there'd been 11 subs made at that point (and another during it)...

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Don't be foolish. Many friendly internationals have more subs than that and refs don't add on ridiculous amounts of time. In some games an entirely different team comes out for the second half on both sides yet I never remember watching a game with 11 extra mins. It's a friendly these rules are (and should be) let slide.

Why do people give a damn how many minutes there were at the end it was a friendly and 6 minutes suited us.

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Originally Posted by Hither green

yesterday did nothing to answer those questions. I’m normally a defender of friendlies but with the exception of a couple of good individual performances that was largely meaningless.

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I don't know about that.

I thought we learnt for sure that Kelly is way down the pecking order, Miller isn't strong enough, O'Shea just hasn't got it as a CM, that KK is an option at left back, Steven Reid is best suited to a central job, McGeady has promise...

At least Staunton now knows (at least I hope he does) that certain options are eliminated to fill the spaces in that XI detailed above.

It's a pity we still haven't had a chance to look at Lawrence. A further look at Joey O'Brien and a first look at Owen Garvan & Paddy McCarthy would be useful but I suspect the qualifying campaign will be well underway before this happens.

There is NO RULE that says 30 seconds per substitution. FACT!