Team as per Dan McDonnell via Twitter:
Ireland team v Croatia: Given, Kelly, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward; Duff, Whelan, Gibson, Hunt; Long, Keane
Expect Doyle and Cox will both get maybe even a half each. The rest largely picked itself.
Team as per Dan McDonnell via Twitter:
Ireland team v Croatia: Given, Kelly, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward; Duff, Whelan, Gibson, Hunt; Long, Keane
Expect Doyle and Cox will both get maybe even a half each. The rest largely picked itself.
It's a very strong Irish side with the usual weakness in centre midfield. I thought Trap had said he was going for a Long Cox partnership?
I'm thrilled to hear about Clifford's call up. I'm a huge fan. Hopefully he will get some game time. It will be great exposure for the lad.
Top news on Chelsea's official website: http://www.chelseafc.com/page/Latest...414914,00.html
Cannot be a bad thing. AVB appears intent on giving youth a chance and has not gone down the route of buying expensive established "superstars" thus far, so you never know.
Best of luck to Conor anyways!
I think Trap has spoken about seeing Long and Cox together (shhh) so Cox on for Keane in the second half with little or no involvement from Doyle perhaps? Predictable enough side given what was available anyway.
Doyle is out with a knee problem
Ditto. Great to see one of these 'one for the future' lads in amongst the senior squad although the circumstances played their part. Despite being an ever presence in the U-21's I doubt Trap will have seen enough of him at close hand to trust him but either Whelan or Gibson not going the 90 and you never know..Quote:
Originally Posted by tommy_c12000
must be the most amount of Irish-born players to start a game in a while? (queue debate on whether or not Gibson is Irish-born - he is)
Tony Pulis is complaining about his players having to travel to Dublin to have their injuries assessed - why are so many club managers in England such complete gob****es?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...Stoke-duo.htmlQuote:
They are only friendly games and we are paying their wages. Our supporters want them to be fit for Sunday and the Irish supporters are not paying for them in a game that's a meaningless fixture.
Meanwhile Slaven Bilic has been revealing some unorthodox coaching techniques - there are more English-born players in the Pogues than in the Irish team.
Quote:
"We have done the homework - we even went to see the Pogues in Zagreb!"
"They were playing in a small open-air arena to about three or four thousand people. They are very popular - they are a world-class band."
Pulis and Allardyce are buddlies.Quote:
Originally Posted by EastTerracer
Well, if we are to rely on the Daily M*il...
well tony, maybe if your players could be trusted to be honest where supposed injury is concerned...Quote:
Originally Posted by EastTerracer
Pulis is right lads....
This IS a meaningless friendly and Stoke DO pay their wages
No one in Ireland outrside of Foot.ie seems to give a toss about this game so if one of the stoke contingent got injured and missed a few months of the premiership as a result of a game even the Irish Public dont care about............
How is he wrong?
15,000 max crowd tonight........says it all
The fact that the Irish public don't care about this game does not make it meaningless. It is the last game we have before we face the vital qualification games. If it is meaningless, why did Stoke have three or four pre season games before the league starts? Why do teams have in house practice games. If Ireland didn't have "meaningless" friendlies, we'd never get a chance to practice before we had competitve games.Quote:
Originally Posted by an_ceannaire
I think Pullis is spot on.
If you don't trust the Stoke club doctor then hire an independent doctor.
It is a bit unnecessary to have to get a plane over to dublin just to have a doctor there, they should have an irish doctor in England or something and go there. It would be cheaper and also less hassle for all concerned.
Oh but wait that would be logical.
If the players could be trusted not to cry off it would make things much easier.
If you don't trust em don't call em up.
If I played for Forest and was asked to report to Dublin I'd have the following pleasant trip to contend with (ok I have to do this every time I travel for a home game but I'm usually half cut so it numbs the pain): an hour to get to the airport, have up to 2 hours to kill at the airport before I board the plane, 50 minute flight, waste another 30 minutes walking the length of Dublin airport to get my luggage & then finally hop in a taxi to the team hotel to report to the doctor (up to an hour). Reverse that for the trip home. Genuine injured players shouldn't have to endure that.
We'd be down about a dozen players at that rate. There's clearly better alternatives if you don't have a bottomless pit of talented players.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
If it's a blanket policy, then yeah I think it's a little extreme. But I don't think it is - Trap's line on it has been (per usual) contradictory and McCarthy didn't have to come over this time. Simply put the pull-out's last time were a joke and if player's had to take an inconvenient couple of hours out then it's difficult for me to sympathise. Moreover it appears to have worked. Nary a word of controversy this time around. If this keeps up maybe management will be happy to cut them some slack but until then it doesn't bother me.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
Lads i give a very simple solution, its far quicker and easier to get down to london for most players or even birmingham. Stop over complicating.
Everyones happy, its a lot cheaper, and a fair compromise.
It's not necessarily about fair solutions though, is it? In this instance it's about drawing a line with some players about do's and don'ts. In the future I'd look at fair solutions.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Any link to a feed for this lads?
just-eat.ieQuote:
Originally Posted by Fergie's Son
Will be on here, reliable and a good streamQuote:
Originally Posted by Fergie's Son
http://tykestv.eu/channel1.php
Why does the new jersey look like a northern Ireland one ? Is that how we're getting all the players to switch?
Looks ugly, imo.Quote:
Originally Posted by KBurke
Should have been a peno - kelly on the wrong side totally
Total peno. Ref should apply for a job in the LOI.
should be two penalties. very sloppy so far.
Nice dribble down the wing by Sledge there
very sloppy stuff in defense and attack. Watching here with my Croatian (soon to be) father in law...
Thanks!
Jayus, Modric is some man.
decent last 5 or 10 mins but poor before that, playing like the away side. at least one of those were pens, probably both.
Shane Long's first touch is fantastic. He's plucked a couple of long balls out of the sky this half.
Unlucky Robbie, shown some nice movement so far.
We started very slowly but we've come into the game in the second quarter. We're creating the better chances despite having less of the play, although Croatia look dangerous despite their lack of a final ball. Apart from being better technically than us, the Croatians players look like they've been back playing a few weeks longer than ours. Duff, likewise, looks the least rusty for us.
i'd probably prefer if one of the pens had been given and scored (or both given and one saved!) to see how we'd respond. first 15 mins of the second half should be interesting before the usual raft of substitutions that these games promise takes place.
wouldn't mind seeing cox, treacy and clark given a run i guess but i've no real desire to see keogh.
elsewhere, norn iron scored early but aren't setting the world alight in leading the faroes 1-0 at HT. russia beat the serbs 1-0, slocakia 2 up away to austria, germany 0-0 v brazil at the break and the swedes a couple of minutes away from a goalless draw in the ukraine.
Watching on ESPN3 here in the US. They are using the Jimmy Magee/Kenny Cunningham commentary (watch out for that on the RTE highlights later).
At half-time they left the microphones on so I was treated to some bizarre conversation about the music being played over the PA - Kenny seems to be a bit of a pop music trivia buff. He seemed very happy with Tears for Fears!
Darron gets in a full value yellow card tackle.
This game really is starting to look like a pre season friendly. A good few notches below competitive standard.
hunt has been poor tonight. busy as ever, and ok defensively but poor delivery and dribbling.