Pukki's finished. Ridiculous he's still included. Call up <obscure 21s international with three games in Slovakia> instead!
Pukki's finished. Ridiculous he's still included. Call up <obscure 21s international with three games in Slovakia> instead!
Cue 'Teemu turns back time with terrific treble'.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
You have to go down to the 19s to find the a promising striker. The goal machine that is 18 year old David Ezeh - basically their Mason Melia. 18 years old, tall, powerful and fast - and a finisher. 16 underage goals to his name for Finland. Played 64 games professional games between the 3rd and 1st tier of Finnish football before moving to a Polish team during the summer. Has yet to play in Poland thoughQuote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Hopefully either this window, or the next one with the Finland home game, is the one where we finally start to see some kind of turnaround. I saw a tweet a few minutes ago about Georgian football and how they're now in the Top 20 in Europe in the ELO rankings. But the tweet posted a list of the top 30 - and we weren't even in that. I looked it up and it turns out we're 31st, but when you look at who is below us there's really only one or two more teams we could realistically fall behind before we're down with the out and out minnows. Iceland and Israel are below us, but after that you're pretty much into microstates and teams that aren't even affiliated to FIFA.
So there isn't much further we can fall at this point, because there realistically isn't much left below us. Finland are one place above us, so hopefully we could start by overtaking them.
Now there's an optimist!
It's an unpleasant statistic, but I'd be slightly wary of it. I'm very familiar with elo because it's the primary ranking in another sport I play. It's a very useful tool for comparisons over modest timeframes, but it's not really reliable to compare it across decades. Elo is highly dependent on the pool of teams, so it can have periods of significant inflation or deflation.
I think our current winless streak in competitive games does also go unmatched back to that period, so one thing we can say for sure: the last time we were this **** for this long, Eamonn Dunphy was on the pitch.
Hallgrimsson interview: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024...wnward-spiral/
Jack Taylor hinting he feels this should have happened before now throughout.Quote:
Originally Posted by TaylorJack
By all means demonstrate why Jack, feel free.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2024...but-this-week/
Am I the only love sick fool, who thinks we will win tomorrow?
I've temporarily given up thinking we'll win, but equally I don't think Finland are great shakes and we shouldn't be thinking we can't win.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
We have to be winning this. Players need to take ownership and get the job done. Leaving out doherty hopefully has started a culture of accountability that has been sadly lacking.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I watched a Finnish midfielder smack in a free kick for Sparta Prague last week in the Champions League and it got me kinda worried, not many Irish midfielders doing that recently !Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
You can get 6.75/1 on a W D combo tomorrow and Sunday. For those who remain particularly afflicted to an extent they retain only a commuting relationship with our reality. I stuck a quid on that obviously.Quote:
Originally Posted by Diggs246
Current Greek international George Baldock found dead today, desperately sad news at only 31 years of age......
That's mad; drowned in his pool only a few weeks after signing for Panathanaikos it seems. Poor ****er.
Wasn't in the squad otherwise you'd imagine there'd have been serious doubts over Sunday's game. (Is there a precedent for that? Can't think of one but probably it has happened) Some of the Greek players may still want a postponement but not sure UEFA would go with it?
There's a few players from Panathinaikos in the Greek squad - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece...#Current_squad
Baldock played in their two play off games in March against Kazakhstan and Georgia.
Only 31, RIP.
We know he's finnish, but the question is whether he's any good at football these days or not!Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I would say we will win tonight and lose on Sunday. Greece will be playing for their mate who passed away. They are also better at football, so i just can't see us getting anything out of that gameQuote:
Originally Posted by CraftyToePoke
Any predictions for the lineup?