Euro 2016 - now we've qualified

Don't much like B games to be honest - interesting for people like us, but ultimately tells us nothing. Guy has a shocker - he's dead in the water. Guy has a stormer - it's just a B game. Players and coaches don't seem to like them either, since they barely exist anymore.

When preparing for a major tournament, my view is the focus should be on a core set of players who will make the squad - 23 plus a handful with a realistic chance of going/chance to develop. Say 28-30 players. Settling our system, partnerships and tactics for group games should take precedence over preparing for the World Cup, albeit having an eye on September is always worth while. There's balence to found there.

There isn't much room in that thinking for proper, true-blue bolters. Not when Arter has only one cap, Judge has none, Shane Duffy can barely get a look in etc. These are the guys I'd focus on before parachuting in extras. It's much, much better to get quality work out of players than a quantity of people exposed to the squad - 25 people coached intensely is preferable to 35 with less focus.

Not ruling out someone who goes on a red-hot streak between now and June of course - if someone responds to the incentive of the Euros with superb performances, we should all take notice. But it's up to the players foremost, not the management.

There'll be at least probably four, maybe even five friendlies before the finals next year. Most likely won't be finalised until after the draw.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Yeah, agree with that.

We were looking highly unlikely to qualify at the mid-way stage, but we did come through the group with (effectively) a game to spare. But that's not incredibly fortunate; that's just football.

Yes, there were some last-minute goals in there, Georgia beating Scotland was a huge lift (neither of which was incredibly fortunate), and we scored goals against Scotland at home, Poland away and Bosnia at home which were either offside/handball or never penalties, which was the only part which was incredibly fortunate.

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Don't forget that Walters should have been penalised for a foul on Flappianski seconds before Long's equaliser.

But why call it a B international? The strongest side is rarely picked by any nation in friendlies these days. Just add as many friendlies as possible, and use one to play a team like above. Simples

Isn't it really great to have something positive to talk about in irish international football again, for possibly the first time since before Euro 2012 kicked off?

Do you chaps think this tourney is better than 80% to go on and not get cancelled for security reasons?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Don't forget that Walters should have been penalised for a foul on Flappianski seconds before Long's equaliser.

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don't forget we hit the crossbar late on in Scotland and that in the same game Scotland should have been down to 10 men for an elbow on one of our defenders (Keogh?)

not convinced walters fouled on that occasion anyway

We deserve to be there - end of. Nothing fortunate about it where we ended up and to dissect games looking for fouls that we committed before scoring is an endless circle-jerk of an argument. The "what if's" and "what about's" don't mean anything. Luck evens itself out over a campaign, luck also evens itself out over 90 minutes.

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Originally Posted by Crosby87

Do you chaps think this tourney is better than 80% to go on and not get cancelled for security reasons?

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It would almost be worth it for the reaction of the NI fans

Last B game I remember (fondly) I think we beat England 4-1 in Cork?

Would love to see McGeady get some playing time. His goal against Georgia was indeed crucial. Randolph too. Any indication that his status might improve at West Ham?

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Originally Posted by SkStu

We deserve to be there - end of. Nothing fortunate about it where we ended up and to dissect games looking for fouls that we committed before scoring is an endless circle-jerk of an argument. The "what if's" and "what about's" don't mean anything. Luck evens itself out over a campaign, luck also evens itself out over 90 minutes.

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we do deserve to be there, but equally it's fair to point out just how fragile football fortunes can be. Fortunes don't even themselves out over 90 minutes, that's a lazy cliche. Luck is important. Any game of football is there to be won or lost regardless of the opposition. It's a capricious game. I think we deserved to qualify for multiple reasons, just as we did in 1987 when we wouldn't have qualified if a ref hadn't made an inspired advantage call in Sofia. It's this knowledge that makes analysing our success that bit more special.

And jbyrne, it was a foul all day long. There's no self loathing in pointing this out. Cheer up. We deserved the point, but got a bit lucky in how it was ultimately secured.

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Originally Posted by SkStu

We deserve to be there - end of. Nothing fortunate about it where we ended up and to dissect games looking for fouls that we committed before scoring is an endless circle-jerk of an argument. The "what if's" and "what about's" don't mean anything. Luck evens itself out over a campaign, luck also evens itself out over 90 minutes.

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It's not luck, it's just life.

It was tight group in the end, even for Germany who were looking at the possibility of ending up in the play-offs as Georgia went looking for a winner after drawing level. It could have gone another way in the group for us, but the proof of our qualifying worthiness was in the dominant way we took to the play-off against what was reckoned to be a team who had performed better than us over the past 5 years.

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Isn't it really great to have something positive to talk about in irish international football again, for possibly the first time since before Euro 2012 kicked off?

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Absolutely. Have a feeling we'll do well enough at this tournament..a feeling I never had with Trapattoni

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Kingdom, isn't Wales also a communist state? That bird with the lovely accent REALLY hates the Tories. I suppose you could be a moderate fascist and hate the Tories though.

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Who, Charlotte Church? If hating the Tories is the criteria for being a communist, then hand me my bloody Daily Worker and hammer and sickle right now.

I was thinking the Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne whatever-her-name is! I could listen to her all day.

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Originally Posted by Fergie's Son

Last B game I remember (fondly) I think we beat England 4-1 in Cork?

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We've had quite a few since then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republ...m#Recent_Years

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...psmzrdyxxx.png

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Originally Posted by TrapAPony

Absolutely. Have a feeling we'll do well enough at this tournament..a feeling I never had with Trapattoni

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When we drew Spain, Italy and Croatia, I am not surprised you didn't have a good feeling although you did say this :)

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Originally Posted by TrapAPony

We are capable of getting results off of Italy and Croatia. The group looks difficult on paper but it's definitely not impossible to get out of.

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As ever much will depend on the draw and our key players (Coleman, McCarthy, Brady and Walters) avoiding injury. We have been most unfortunate over the years with injuries to key players just before tournaments - I remember Lawrenson before Euro 88 (Brady as well I think). On rankings, we are second last so we shouldn't have huge expectations but because we have done relatively well at 4 of the 5 tournaments, there will be high hopes. With 3rd place up for grabs in some of the 6 groups, I will be disappointed though if we don't make the last 16. I would imagine one win might be enough for that.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

we do deserve to be there, but equally it's fair to point out just how fragile football fortunes can be. Fortunes don't even themselves out over 90 minutes, that's a lazy cliche. Luck is important.

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What's even more important is capitalising on the luck you get. Scotland were the beneficiaries of three crucial own goals but it was all for nothing when they couldn't register a shot on target in Tblisi.

Luck can be sighted, and there's no doubt it exists, but ultimately I think the biggest differences between us and them were:


1) We were a lot better at defending. They conceded 1.2 goals per game, we conceded 0.7. That's a significant difference and has very little to do with luck.

2) Individual moments of brilliance: Both our victories over Georgia were decided by a player doing something completely unexpected and out of tune with the rest of the game. Our two goals against Germany were pure magic. That's seven points you can attribute to this. Maloney earned Scotland two with his class finish against us and they got two brilliant goals against Poland at Hampden. We win this round seven points to three!

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

don't forget we hit the crossbar late on in Scotland and that in the same game Scotland should have been down to 10 men for an elbow on one of our defenders (Keogh?)

not convinced walters fouled on that occasion anyway

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They should have been down to ten men after 15 minutes when a Scottish defender (Hanly?) was the last man and upended Shane long when he was sprinting away

On the B game front I think I'd prefer as many friendlies as possible to blood in the fringe players like Judge, Arter, Duffy, Hoban, Cunningham, Rooney etc. I remember Richard Keogh scoring in a friendly V Georgia. Who'd have thought then that he'd be possibly our No.1 CB going into the Euros??

I think TOWK called it.

The problem with using senior friendlies to experiment is ranking points though, no?