1-1 final result

My thoughts after watching it...

Dissapointing after such a good start (well the first 10 mins), we then did "an England" and sat on the lead instead of trying to kill the game off. Worried about our midfield, it just didnt seem to function for the first half, there wasnt really any fluidity and it was just a bit bad. The defence was dodgy too, in the first half we were defending on the halfway line, the Swiss just seem to kick bulls up and their small but quick striker (Fon Lander ?) had the beating of us. In the second half we seemed to do the opposite and defended inside the box for much of the game. We need a balance betweent the two. Also against players like Hakan Hakin I would like to have seen one of our midfielders picking up his runs and closing him down a bit more. Attack was ok, didnt do much, both players could have tried to charge down the Swiss goalie and defenders a bit more, I remember them doing that in a friendly in Amsterdam 3 months ago, so why not last night ?

(out of 10)

Given - 9 - Simply outstanding we'd have been sunk without him.

Carr - 6 - Generally ok, less error prone than against the Cypriots but getting the yellow early on was dangerous

Finnan - 6 - Average, got forward a fair bit tho.

Cunningham - 5.5 Played ok, but given he was in charge of the defense I would liked to have seen him command its positioning a bit better

O'Brien - 7 Fairly good game

Duff - 6.5 Never really got into it except the cross for the goal and a dribble into the box. Maybe not fully fit ?

Reid - 5 Normally a great player, must have had an off day.

Roy Keane - 6 Average for most of the game, but came into it more to the end

Kilbane - 4.5 Well he does try but in the cold light of day was ineffective and his tomfoolery on the edge of the box cost us their goal. He had a good chance at the edge of the box too (after Rb. Keane's skill).

Morrison - 7 Did well to get into the good positions and his goal was a gem, but he lost his rag, and missed a couple of chances too. Could have closed down more as well. Promising tho.

Robbie - 4.5 - Normally our best player and had one flash of brilliance, but looked off the pace. Not fully recovered.

Subs

Kavanagh - 8 - Ah now that was more like it, fired up niggly and put the boot in (but cleverly). He was what our midfield needed - a terminator. He wasnt on for long, and he's no Zinadine Zidane, but Mr Dependable, always keeps possesion and wins a few tackles. Get bonus point for calling Hakan Hakin a "f**king w**ker" in front of the ref and not getting a yellow.

The Doc - n/a - not on for very long, made a good clearance tho.

This is a bad result.
Switzerland are a crap team internationally. At the Euros, they and our other Euro adversaries, Russia were two of the worst teams. We had excuses before but today we fielded an almost top Irish team.
Today was our chance to pick up points. We failed.
Maybe I'm wrong. Hope so but the performance today was miserable. A bad France, even without Vierra, will not be too worried. Switzerland will be confident of a point (or more) in Dublin.

PS. Kavanagh with Roy in midfield. A bit of f'in steel. Kilbane in the middle didn't work. Although I know and admit B. Kerr knows a hundred times more about football than I'll ever know it's just a suggestion. I'd like to see the man succeed. Think its important as Irish fans to get behind the manager. Hate that Brit game to game attitude.

accept it (our point) and move on.

it was one of those horrible off nights when we could have ended up with nothing.if we beat them here(i did say if),last nights result takes on a new importance.
i'd say france are still kicking themselves about israel.

bag of sh***e. we should have been whipped. gormless performance under inexpert guidance. clueless management learned nothing from last visit to Basle. get real :mad:

The most positive thing I can take from last night is that at least we haven’t given them a 3 point head start on us. In Euro qualification we outperformed both the Swiss & Russians against the other sides. In fact, the Swiss only won two games apart from the two they won against us. And they won the group outright. If we’d only drawn the 4 games against Russia & Swiss we’d have topped the group (jointly with Russia I think) so these draws are quite valuable.

I’m a “glass half full” man but generally I’m disappointed with last night.

I can’t believe I was begging the ref to blow for full time. Between 80 & 85 mins they were booting long balls into touch or over the goal line and had nothing to offer. They had shot their bolt by then but we still insisted on them having the initiative and retreated back into our box for the rest of the game.

Have to say I'm disappointed with only one point.
I mean how headless were we after we scored the goal. The Swiss could have had a hatful. Where were the tackles on that ****** Yakin? Kilbane was guilty of ball watching when he scored.

Too many irish players lacked match fitness and especially sharpness.
This wont be helped unless the majority start getting more first team games. Some of them can be excused coming off injuries but the simple things were not done right.

Carr and Finnan too often failed to move the ball quickly enough and lost possesion from bad control or aimless passes. Our midfield was too far back from the forwards and overall we looked on edge and anxious.

I do think we will beat them though in dublin. The automatic best 2nd place (or even 1st) is there for us with such a handy group.

Someone said yesterday that Ireland have not beaten a decent country away from home in qualifiers since 1987. Therein lies the problem.


Having said all that we are 4 points better off than last time.

They were like school kids kicking around the playground, only with less shape. Absolutely awful perfomance..don't exactly look like World Cup winners do they? :rolleyes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brendy_éire

Crap performance, but it'll do the job. 4 points out of 6 is grand.
Switzerland didn't look great at all, we can beat them at Lansdowne.
Given was our only decent player. Kilbane had a shocker, did nothing. Can't share the praise for RMK. Put in a few good tackles alright, but didn't look anything special. Dare I say, he's past it. Absolutely nothing compared to what he was a few years ago. Wasn't impressed with our defence in the first half at all, they were easily being carved open. Nobody performed, improvement will be needed for the French next.
But ah well, happy enough overall, I suppose.

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I agree with everything ye said there brendy_eire.
We really do need to improve for the French we're too careless the French will demolish us if we're that sloppy against them.

Bottled it again I'm afraid, I have just read a report on the game and Kerr admits that 'we were too cavalier' in the first half! After a shaky spell in the first half I thought we were getting a foothold and began to threaten them. It seems Kerr has then told them to sit deep for the 2nd half, poor judgement in my mind- the best defence is to take the game to them especially when we knew they were a little shaky at the back. These aren't must win games necessarily but when you have an opportunity to take 3 points and eliminate a rival, as the Swiss did in Dublin then this is a missed opportunity.

Did anyone else think that roy GOD keane was trying to get himself sent off in the 1st half? HIS distribution was terrible - i think most of his 'passes' went to Swiss.

Best part of the night was realising that I can lip-read:
Kav (at HakYakin after his yellow card): " You W4nk3r, f00king w4nk3r, your a f00king w4nk3r, w4nk3r" its poetic, isnt it!

Irelands performance was disappointing to say the least. Given the only man to come out of it with any credit.

Fullbacks were pretty poor, both caught in posession too often and distribution akin to an U12's team.

Alot of talk on here recently of our great new centreback partnership. Obrien and Cunningham are shockingly slow. They can deal with stuff in the air and the odd last ditch tackle, but the Swiss, time and time again split the defence with relatively simple passes.

Midlfield was well below par. Keane looked like a man who hasn't played much and was also caught in posession a fair bit, Kilbane just didn't do the basics however worked tirelessly in an attempt to make up for his poor play. The game simply bypassed Reid. Duff showed moments of class, but was not involved enough. Kav looked fired up when he came on - should start next game in Paris.

Up front Clint took his goal exceptionally well, worked hard in the first half - non existent in the second. Robbie worked really hard even in the 88th minute, running across the back four closing things down. Was unlucky to be called offside on a few occasions, however not sure he looked like someone who had his scoring boots on anyhow.

I will take the point, however a more focused and disciplined performance could have seen us take all three.

However, the Swiss I feel are still being given a rough ride on here. They WERE organised and disciplined, and they COULD make a killer pass and create chances. Given made 4 world class saves, the defence did make a number of last ditch tackles also - it was backs to the wall stuff for large parts of the game.

The Swiss are being accused of Arrogance, being obnoxious, crap at international football etc........ It sounds like some of the Irish fans are setting the trend in this regard......... :( :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CuanaD

Best part of the night was realising that I can lip-read:
Kav (at HakYakin after his yellow card): " You W4nk3r, f00king w4nk3r, your a f00king w4nk3r, w4nk3r" its poetic, isnt it!

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You didn't have to lipread when Kavanagh, still in his tracksuit & standing beside Haas(?) taking a throw in, was calling him "a fcuking arse-hole" right into is ear. Hilarious stuff. Best moment of the second half for me.

I usually stick up for Kilbane but Kavanagh is streets ahead of him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

You didn't have to lipread when Kavanagh, still in his tracksuit & standing beside Haas(?) taking a throw in, was calling him "a fcuking arse-hole" right into is ear. Hilarious stuff. Best moment of the second half for me.

I usually stick up for Kilbane but Kavanagh is streets ahead of him.

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He certainly has a lovely turn of phrase! :D

A very frustrating and annoying game. We were a bag of crap again, in a tough away game. No point in saying that the Swiss are sh1te and that we'll stuff them in Lansdowne, cos if this is how we play against them we won't.
I know a point is a good away result, but we should have be looking for a win, seeing as they are so bad.

The bigger picture must be looked at, I mean we are trying to qualify for a major championship..and the way they played was far below what will be required..is Kerr really good enough to not only get us there, and compete on the world stage with the big boys?

OK we didn't play well but it's the sign of a good side that gets a result while playing poorly.
You could say that we were lucky at times but so were the Swiss. I think a draw was a fair result and reflection of the game.

I think the problem last night was that we were too Cavalier in the 1st half.
How many times was Roy Keane isolated in midfield looking for support.
I think that part of the reason he played poorly in the 1st half was down to lack of support.

Kilbane was like a headless chicken. Rarely if ever did he take up the right position. I was calling out for Kavanagh after the 1st 20 mins of the first half.

Robbie Keane was brutal. He's becoming a bit of a prima-donna. Did you see him complaining to Reid while the ball was still in play and Morrisson was about to score. He didn't try one iota throughout the game. Morrisson ran he legs off. I think Kerr should have a serious talk with him

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fergie's Son

A good point because we were desperately poor. How Kilbane gets his game is far beyond me. Kerr removes Reid and then puts Duff on the right and Kilbane on the left! That's $(*@#$ criminal.

Roy Keane had a great game as did Duff and Given.

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Roy Keane did not have a good game, he was average and sloppy with his passing, sad to see when you remember how good he was 2/3 years ago

Long time advocate of KK but was woeful last night. Shay was amazing but very few others were above ordinary last night. However, let's get things in perspective. The Swiss rarely lose in Basle and are not nearly as good on their travels. We were the only team they beat away in the last qualifiers if I'm not mistaken. Take the point and finish the job at home.
Hopefully catch the French on the hop in Paris next month. They are re-building and vulnerable right now but mark my words will be formidable when they sort themselves out. Would put money on Kerr going with the team below against France if all fit.

Given
Carr O'Brien Cunningham O'shea
Finnan RMK Holland Duff
Keane Morrisson

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bowsy

Long time advocate of KK but was woeful last night. Shay was amazing but very few others were above ordinary last night. However, let's get things in perspective. The Swiss rarely lose in Basle and are not nearly as good on their travels. We were the only team they beat away in the last qualifiers if I'm not mistaken. Take the point and finish the job at home.
Hopefully catch the French on the hop in Paris next month. They are re-building and vulnerable right now but mark my words will be formidable when they sort themselves out. Would put money on Kerr going with the team below against France if all fit.

Given
Carr O'Brien Cunningham O'shea
Finnan RMK Holland Duff
Keane Morrisson

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Just because Reid had a bad game last night doesn't mean you put Finnan in, anyway Miller is a better option than Finnan who probably will not play much for Liverpool between now and the game, I think Kavanagh deserves to play because he has a fighting mentality and we'll need to be tough in Paris