Republic of Ireland V Montenegro - Wednesday, 14th October 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

just home after wasting 12 hours of my life that Im never gonna get back, seriously long drive back to Galway after watching a game like that. Simply the worst game of football Ive have been too.

But Im not in the slightest bit bothered by it.It was played for the most part at testamonial pace and none of the Irish players wanted to put in a tackle all night and risk a yellow card. We have bigger fish to fry now and this game will be forgotten very quickly once the playoff come around. Havent read through much of the thread but some of the critisism that I did see is over the top. Anyone who thinks this game is a barometer of how good or poor we are needs to get a grip of themselves.It was a totally meaningless game

I thought it had some meaning before the game, my mistake.
We do approach the meaningless game very seriously though.

Missed the first half because I thought the game was meant to start at 8pm GMT instead of 7pm. Met a few lads who along with me wandered in at half time. Just aswell I suppose.

A completely irrelevant evening due to what happened in the 91st minute last saturday. I'd have loved there to be a great occassion tonight worth going for, but after Italy scored that goal this had 0-0 written all over it. And quite rightly so. Not a night for experimentation or throwing the shackles off, a night for re-inforcing situational positioning and ensuring no one got booked who shouldn't have. Very dull, I've spent better €50's and I do feel sorry for guys like Noel Hunt and Leon Best who would have loved a full blooded competitive game to get actually involved and stake a claim, but at this stage it's all about the next two games. I don't fear anyone but Russia, I'll go in to any other tie thinking we can win, if it's Russia I'll just have a horrible feeling going in to those games, then again stranger things have happened.

And of course a big congratulations to Shay Given, and particularly Kevin Kilbane. Irish heroes, both deserving to go to South Africa and experience a World Cup again. They're one win and one draw away from doing so! 10 games unbeaten in a new manager's first campaign, and desperately unlucky not to have turned a few draws in to wins along the way. I'll take that!

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Originally Posted by youngirish

What a fool, go back to reading the Sun. We also have won less games than anyone else in the play-offs. Stop spouting those useless 1 line statistical pieces of nonsense you read in the tabloids and watch the performances and consider some of our other results. If you think France, Portugal or Russia are fearing drawing Ireland then you are the idiot. Muppet.

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Performances:

We've drawn with the world champions twice and could have beaten them bought times.
We were average against Bulgaria twice and still drew with them.
We did everything we had to do for a playoff. Worst result away was a draw.
Obviously we could have done better with only 4 wins but lets looks at our playoff opponents.

France:
Drew with Romania twice, who have been total muck this campaign.
Only beat the Faroes 1-0! That's as bad as we were under Stan.
Lost 3-1 to Austria
Not exactly setting the world on fire.

Portugal:
Lost 3-2 to Demark.
Followed that with three 0-0 draws with Sweden-Albania-Sweden
Pulled out a 3-0 and 4-0 win last two games so look like a team on a high.

Greece:
Lost to the Swiss twice(sound familiar?)
drew with Israel once(sound familiar?)
drew with Moldova
beat Luxembourg by one goal.
Definetly beatable.

Russia:
Lost to Germany twice
beat Liechtenstein by one goal!
drew with Azerbijan

So you can pick holes in the performances of all of our potential opponents.
Life of an Irish fan now reminds me of the scene in In the Name of the Father when Gerry first meets gareth pierce and berates her for giving his father hope! Well Trap has given us hope and I know it will hurt if we hope too much and get f ucked over again!...but this time I'm starting to believe!!!

Any word on Martin Rowlands injury. I hope it is not as bad as it looked.

When it comes to injuries some fellas have no luck e.g.Martin Rowlands and Stephen Reid.

Just got back in. Grabbed as much sleep as I could at the airport. Feel pretty cheated , tbh. I know the game wasn't as important as it could have been but the players were barely trying. I don't go to Ireland games for "entertainment" but the players should think about people who've given time/money to watch them play and put in a little effort. Still, mustn't grumble, we're in the playoffs.

Now I've got a two hour lecture on political philosophy :eek:

how many times did kilbane give the ball away..every time i think. rowlands was dire, pity he got injured though. i expected more from noel hunt, thought he was poor. all in all im not to worried. were in the play off's so fingers crossed for no injuries leading up to the games.

funny to see traps translator's(Manuela Spinelli) face when tony o donoghue said that italy only drew 2-2 with cyprus. haha awwh she's cute, got used to seeing her round with trap and tardelli. poor baby :o
get your facts right tony anyway..:mad:

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Originally Posted by DotTV

Performances:

We've drawn with the world champions twice and could have beaten them bought times.
We were average against Bulgaria twice and still drew with them.
We did everything we had to do for a playoff. Worst result away was a draw.
Obviously we could have done better with only 4 wins but lets looks at our playoff opponents.

France:
Drew with Romania twice, who have been total muck this campaign.
Only beat the Faroes 1-0! That's as bad as we were under Stan.
Lost 3-1 to Austria
Not exactly setting the world on fire.

Portugal:
Lost 3-2 to Demark.
Followed that with three 0-0 draws with Sweden-Albania-Sweden
Pulled out a 3-0 and 4-0 win last two games so look like a team on a high.

Greece:
Lost to the Swiss twice(sound familiar?)
drew with Israel once(sound familiar?)
drew with Moldova
beat Luxembourg by one goal.
Definetly beatable.

Russia:
Lost to Germany twice
beat Liechtenstein by one goal!
drew with Azerbijan

So you can pick holes in the performances of all of our potential opponents.
Life of an Irish fan now reminds me of the scene in In the Name of the Father when Gerry first meets gareth pierce and berates her for giving his father hope! Well Trap has given us hope and I know it will hurt if we hope too much and get f ucked over again!...but this time I'm starting to believe!!!

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We are a poor team punching above our weight due to Trap's system. We have been very lucky so far on numerous occasions :

- Home and away to Bulgaria
- Getting a dodgy penalty at home to Georgia when behind with 15 minutes left
- Away to Italy with the sending off
- Not having to play Georgia in Tibilsi
- Home to Cyprus when we scraped an undeserved 1-0 win

Anyway point is if anyone really believes France, Russia or Portugal are dreading drawing the likes of us, a team who has only won 4 games in the entire qualification process thus far over the likes of Bosnia or Ukraine then they need to cop on.
We can beat Greece and Russia if they have an off day (unlikely) but France and Portugal will beat us when it matters over 2 legs whether they are struggling or not.

You'd expect other coaches to have a lot of confidence to beat any team in pot 2.
If there is some apprehension about meeting Ireland above the others in pot 2, it would be based on that we have some qualification record, Trap's reputation and the illusion that we matched the Italians twice.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

funny to see traps translator's(Manuela Spinelli) face when tony o donoghue said that italy only drew 2-2 with cyprus. haha awwh she's cute, got used to seeing her round with trap and tardelli. poor baby :o
get your facts right tony anyway..:mad:

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I thought that was funny with Manuela alright.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

- Home and away to Bulgaria
- Getting a dodgy penalty at home to Georgia when behind with 15 minutes left
- Away to Italy with the sending off
- Not having to play Georgia in Tbilsi
- Home to Cyprus when we scraped an undeserved 1-0 win

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- don't see how we were lucky in either Bulgarian game, might not have most possession but Bulgaria hardly had a chance in either game, we gave them a goal each time and in Sofia McGeady was inches away from winning it.
- didn't get a stonewall peno in Podgorica
- defend one more counter-attack and we'd have beaten the World Champions
- have been unlucky with injuries to big players in the campaign

Was it just me or was Bill, Eamon and Gilesy sulking last night. They were very quiet altogether.

If the powers that be in RTE are going to give them a dressing down for having an opinion - right or wrong - and not being "upbeat enough" after Saturday night, its hardly worth watching anymore.

Their opinions are what has set them apart from the crowd for the last 20 years and long may it last.

dunphy was sucking up last night.

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Originally Posted by Jicked

- don't see how we were lucky in either Bulgarian game, might not have most possession but Bulgaria hardly had a chance in either game, we gave them a goal each time and in Sofia McGeady was inches away from winning it.
- didn't get a stonewall peno in Podgorica
- defend one more counter-attack and we'd have beaten the World Champions
- have been unlucky with injuries to big players in the campaign

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It doesn't matter anyway and I hope we get all the luck that's going, but I think we've been far more lucky than unlucky in the campaign. You don't always get exactly what you deserve, be it good or bad, but I think the crazy stuff went for us. Not only did we get Georgia at a neutral venue but all of the other teams had to go to Tblisi. The Italian sending off and the penalty against Georgia were decisions beyond belief, not just 50/50 things that happened to go our way. That was the really lucky stuff that went for us, everything else was just normal football stuff that happens I think. Bulgaria were better than us twice probably but two draws wasn't robbery or anything. I think we were pretty fortunate to end up with 6 points from Cyprus but we took our chances and that's what good teams usually get credit for. Outside Stephen Reid, injuries weren't a major issue and I'm sure every team suffered their fair share, Bulgaria missing Berbatov and Martin Petrov at Croke Park for example. Overall we got big breaks but were a far more organised and consistent side than Bulgaria so our second placed finish was very much on merit.

we werent lucky or unlucky in this group. we got what we deserved. you can point to this and that but italy won in montenegro, and beat bulgaria at home, thats why they topped the group and we finished second. we need to forget the group now and concentrate on the play offs. but if u look only

italy
germany
spain
holland
and IRELAND

WERE UNBEATEN. thats a real good achievement if u ask me. well done lads.

what was the official attendance?

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Originally Posted by Duggie

we werent lucky or unlucky in this group

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If memory serves you don't believe in luck in any capacity anyway. I agree with you this time in the main though, we finished where we deserved to finish.

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Originally Posted by bonovox

what was the official attendance?

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50,212

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Originally Posted by Duggie

we werent lucky or unlucky in this group

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

If memory serves you don't believe in luck in any capacity anyway

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Sorry Duggie, wrong man, twas actually Dodge that rules luck out completely.

Delorean id agree with all that.

Id also point to the fact we are good defensively however, i think the game against australia showed up some frailities, where a couple of silly mistakes which we always make or long shots that end up in the net, we get punished for, and given the way we play/set up to play i dont think we would be able to come back from a 3/2 - 0 down. We dont create enough chances, and more importantly we dont try or go about trying to create chances. I just hope we dont get shown up in the qualifiers for this where 2 or 3 lucky things/long distance shots go in.

I also hope if we qualify that this doesn't happen that we get hockeyed in one of the games. But i fear the australia game is a sign of what would happen if we conceded a couple of goals.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

What a fool, go back to reading the Sun. We also have won less games than anyone else in the play-offs. Stop spouting those useless 1 line statistical pieces of nonsense you read in the tabloids and watch the performances and consider some of our other results. If you think France, Portugal or Russia are fearing drawing Ireland then you are the idiot. Muppet.

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They do fear us. That is a fact.

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Originally Posted by youngirish

We are a poor team punching above our weight due to Trap's system. We have been very lucky so far on numerous occasions :

- Home and away to Bulgaria
- Getting a dodgy penalty at home to Georgia when behind with 15 minutes left
- Away to Italy with the sending off
- Not having to play Georgia in Tibilsi
- Home to Cyprus when we scraped an undeserved 1-0 win

Anyway point is if anyone really believes France, Russia or Portugal are dreading drawing the likes of us, a team who has only won 4 games in the entire qualification process thus far over the likes of Bosnia or Ukraine then they need to cop on.
We can beat Greece and Russia if they have an off day (unlikely) but France and Portugal will beat us when it matters over 2 legs whether they are struggling or not.

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So whats your point? That we are shyte and we should all cry about it like little bitches like you.

Fair play to the lads!

The lads:cool:

You:(

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Originally Posted by Brendan 82

They do fear us. That is a fact. I won't resort to insulting you any more, its a waste of my time

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Fear can't be established as "Fact".

France, Portugal and Russia are just happy they won't have to face each other.

I doubt they give a flying one as to any of the 4 they will face, certainly in comparison as to who they could have faced in an open draw.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

Sorry Duggie, wrong man, twas actually Dodge that rules luck out completely.

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well i do and i dont. luck to me is the ball hitting both posts and bouncing in off the keepers head!! we all say ah we were lucky or unlucky but it really does balance itself out during the campaign. we could have had a peno in montenegro but they had a clear peno last night aswell. you could go through each match and point to certain incidents.

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Originally Posted by Brendan 82

They do fear us. That is a fact.

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If I was French or Portuguese I'd be thinking along the lines of....

1st choice - Slovenia
2nd choice - Bosnia
3rd choice - Rep of Ireland
4th choice - Ukraine

They'd probably prefer to avoid us alright but I don't think they'll be dreading us too much. In Portugal's case they'll be just delighted to be there.

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

If I was French or Portugese I'd be thinking along the lines of....

1st choice - Bosnia
2nd choice - Slovenia
3rd choice - Rep of Ireland
4th choice - Ukraine

They'd probably prefer to avoid us alright but I don't think they'll be dreading us too much. In Portugal's case they'll be just delighted to be there.

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I'd go for that. I would imagine most teams would much rather play Bosnia or Slovenia. Toss up between ourselves and Ukraine I guess. I think all of the teams in the second pot are good though. Would LOVE it if all four from the second won their ties

id say slovenia are probably the worst of our pot. id say the top teams wont want us or ukraine.

'We played in a beautiful stadium with a great atmosphere in front of the best fans in Europe, and the only shame is that there were no goals for them.'

I wonder does he say that in front of other nations too....


Either way 50,112 for a nothing game was a brilliant attendance.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

id say slovenia are probably the worst of our pot. id say the top teams wont want us or ukraine.

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slovenia just went to slovakia and won 2-0.... remind me how we got on there?

It would make for a less entertaining world cup without france and portugal though.

Its bad enough with the amount already that dont get to qualify from Europe given the strength of the nations compared to other federations but what can you do!!

The intelligence of some of our players baffles me at times. I mean how many long aimless passes down the line to Robbie and Hunt does it take before Kilbane realises this tactic is a waste of time?

These guys are professional footballers..... they were even mi****ting 10 yard passes. Shocking stuff. I know there was nothing riding on the match but with the pressure off you'd think they'd try and play a little football. If we're just going to lump it long then start Folan and Best. Keano must be ripping his hair out. No service just balls pumped up to him as if he was Jan Koller.

I was happy enough with the Italian performance because we got stuck in but if we're only going to raise our game for the bigger nations then we don't want Greece.

The other four top seeds won't fancy coming to Dublin but they know that they'll have 60% of the ball, will dominate for long spells and if they make sure they mark tight at set pieces then then they are as good as through.

We are also so PREDICTABLE. No plan B,C,D or E it's just 4-4-2 with two holiding midfielders and long punts to Keane and Doyle.

I know it's a long shot but I hope the Trap recalls Andy Reid to the squad and Steven Reid is fit for both games.

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Originally Posted by SuperDave

slovenia just went to slovakia and won 2-0.... remind me how we got on there?

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slovakia were no great outfit when we played them if you remember.

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Originally Posted by Duggie

slovakia were no great outfit when we played them if you remember.

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yeah, and now they've just qualified for the world cup (therefore are better) and Slovenia just went there and won 2-0.... kind of backs up what I was saying that Slovenia are certainly there to be feared by the top four teams!

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

The intelligence of some of our players baffles me at times. I mean how many long aimless passes down the line to Robbie and Hunt does it take before Kilbane realises this tactic is a waste of time?

These guys are professional footballers..... they were even mi****ting 10 yard passes. Shocking stuff. I know there was nothing riding on the match but with the pressure off you'd think they'd try and play a little football. If we're just going to lump it long then start Folan and Best. Keano must be ripping his hair out. No service just balls pumped up to him as if he was Jan Koller.

I was happy enough with the Italian performance because we got stuck in but if we're only going to raise our game for the bigger nations then we don't want Greece.

The other four top seeds won't fancy coming to Dublin but they know that they'll have 60% of the ball, will dominate for long spells and if they make sure they mark tight at set pieces then then they are as good as through.

We are also so PREDICTABLE. No plan B,C,D or E it's just 4-4-2 with two holiding midfielders and long punts to Keane and Doyle.

I know it's a long shot but I hope the Trap recalls Andy Reid to the squad and Steven Reid is fit for both games.

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I was surprised at just how easy it was for Montenegro to completely shut us down.

Once the supply and options down the wings was closed down - we were going nowhere fast.

Our system does not allow runners from midfield and without that option we were stopped in our tracks.

Its painfully obvious that any coach worth his salt will put plans in place stifle the life out of our wingers - certainly at home.

From an offensive perspective - Our "sitting midfield" can be rendered completely inactive if our wingers are marked out of the game.

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Originally Posted by SuperDave

yeah, and now they've just qualified for the world cup (therefore are better) and Slovenia just went there and won 2-0.... kind of backs up what I was saying that Slovenia are certainly there to be feared by the top four teams!

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well if u look at that group slovakia lost 2 and still went through.

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Originally Posted by theworm2345

:D

Haha they showed Paul McGrath, Curtis Fleming, Don Givens and another fella with John Delaney sitting below them and they didn't mention only Delaney :)



Are Italy playing any of their first team?

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ANother fella = Joey Malone former Dundalk captain and legend, think also Athlone Town as well.

As an aside, did I hear that George Hamilton made some reference to us having a good history of going into major tournaments undefeated in the group stages? Or maybe I misheard him, hopefully so anyway!

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Originally Posted by SuperDave

yeah, and now they've just qualified for the world cup (therefore are better) and Slovenia just went there and won 2-0.... kind of backs up what I was saying that Slovenia are certainly there to be feared by the top four teams!

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Portugal and France will be hoping to win the World Cup. The certainly won't be fearing any of us non-seeds but they would probably prefer one of us over the other, that's all it is I think. Plus, like ourselves, I'm sure opinions would vary hugely with regard to who they would prefer to get.

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Originally Posted by Duffman

did I hear that George Hamilton made some reference to us having a good history of going into major tournaments undefeated in the group stages?

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He said something along those lines alright but he wasn't basing it on much. Basically we qualified in 2002 via the playoff having not lost a group game.

Euro88 Lost to Bulgaria (a) 1-2

WC90 Lost to Spain (a) 0-1

WC94 Lost to Spain (h) 1-3

WC02 Undefeated in Group

Like I say, he was basing it on little or nothing so I wouldn't take it as too much of an omen, especially seeing as we were undefeated in our Euro92 campaign and didn't qualify!!