Good to knowQuote:
Originally Posted by youngirish
France & Portugal have been god awful during this campaign, the last thing they want is a well organised team that are hard to break down, (which is all we are at the moment) they dont want to get us in the Play-off.
Emmm, how do I say this? ..Your an idiot. The only teams to have not lost a SINGLE game in qualifying competition are... Germany, Denmark, Spain, Holland, and IrelandQuote:
Originally Posted by youngirish
Actually Denmark did lose 1 game. Plus Italy were also unbeaten.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan 82
I'd only really fear russia..I can see Arshavin laughing in our faces at the thoughts of running our midfield ragged
ok i understand what your sayin and we all want to go to the world cup, its just you cant say anything is wrong at the moment without bein called negative. i didnt say we were muck in general, just thought we were tonight.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaneker
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan 82
Fair play, we certainly weren't at out best tonight, although with a weakened side that's somewhat to be expected. We agree on that to a degree.Quote:
Originally Posted by ronburgundy
However, would you agree the campaign has been a fantastic success, considering the Euro '08 campaign and our lack of top quality players?
2 wins against Cyprus and georgia and 6 draws doesn't really make good reading i agree with Dunphy for one we are very lucky and awful to watch
Quote:
Originally Posted by shaneker
Does anyone know if Dermot FitzMessi will be fit for the playoffs?
I feckin' hope so.
Can I have that 92 mins of my life back please.
It was a result, that's all that matters.
People need to get off the Dunphy Train. We are an average team with average players that have been well organised by a very good manager. Does everyone forget what a ****e capaign we had for the European Champioship, when we were playing with Reid and Ireland in games. Was Dunphy praising staunton then for those choices?? NO!!.
We all looked at this group back at the start and thought we would be doing well to get second place. We have secured that with a game to spare, we are unbeaten, we have drawn with the world champions at home and away............can anyone just give the team and manager credit for what they have achieved so far. We go into the playoffs with the possibility of Steven Reid becoming available and in fairness to Trap.....he hasnt rule'd out Andy Reid but Im happy leaving that decision to him as opposed to some drunk ass negative, publicity seeking muppet who has achieved nothing as a player or manager of any significance and who has slated every manager we have ever had. If Dunphy was manager of this team, would we be where we are, would be unbeaten, would people think its a joke, would the players respect him.........if he is so good why is he not in Mgt.......the guy is a waste of space. END OF STORY!!
PS --- GREECE PLEASE and after that anyone but Russia! Russia is nightmare from a football perspective and a long ass flight from Texas :)
Hope Trap's luck/Mgt Skills/whatever he has continues.
Aaahhh feck it. 200 posts so I'm celebrating (sad I know).
To the fella I'm disagreeing with here - you're obviously deeply involved in Junior Football, making you one of the good guys as far as I'm concerned. Look forward to jumping up and down like a mad thing in the stands next to you in Africa next year. Fingers crossed.
Also to the Montenegrin - classy opposition fans always welcome round here. Buy you a pint in Poland in 2012.
To paraphrase Father Dougal Maguire - we're all going to Africa lads, wahay :)
I think we've done well, the most important thing tonight was keeping the yellow card count down and ideally not getting defeated. Only Rowlands got a yellow and that shouldnt be significant as I doubt he'll start for us in the playoffs. You have to look at like this, we were a pot 3 team going into the qualification and we had probably the hardest pot 1 team. We finished in second so that is a good progression. If at the start of qualification we had been offered a play off we would have taken it.
We were unbeaten throughout the campaign. We also failed to beat Italy, Bulgaria, or Montenegro. We actually only beat Cyprus and Georgia.
We are difficult to break down, but by no means impossible. We had only 3 clean sheets, and even the bottom team, Georgia, scored against us in both their games.
We score goals, but have a tendency to throw away leads.
We will (apparently willingly) give the other team possession of the football for more than we have possession of it.
I honestly don't think any of France, Russia, Portugal will be more worried about us than the other teams. Greece will be worried no matter who they get. They're a lucky side that their rankings are so high because of 2004.
On tonight's game, it was a nothing game where the result was irrelevant, the most important things were for players not to get booked or injured.
Erm, no it wasn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Emmet7
Anybody getting upset at this performance or feeling that it vindicates anything just doesn't get it.
This was probably one of the most meaningless "competitive" games in recent memory.
Awful game, but I was prepared for it by watching Germany playing Finland beforehand. I had money on Germany winning, and believe me, it was more frustrating than any Ireland match in this campaign. I'd say there were a lot of terrible performances across Europe tonight from good teams.
There was nothing to be learned from tonight. Neither Miller and Rowlands will ever start a competitive match for Ireland again. It's impossible to judge how good/bad we are, or how competitive we'll be in the playoffs, from tonight's game. If we'd needed a result, the team would have been significantly different.
It's worth noting that Ireland haven't had a full-strength team out at any time in this campaign. Even when Finnan and Reid were fit, Duff was out and Lawrence/St. Ledger were in the wilderness. I'm worried about the lack of depth in the squad, but we're in a much better position in that regard than this time last year.
When Trap took over, he had to build the team up from scratch. Staunton didn't have a settled squad (used over 50 players in his time in charge), let alone a starting XI or centre-back/midfield partnerships. Trap has had to do 4 years work in less than 2. Things aren't perfect, far from it, but in a way, we're still in transition. Many of our fringe players need more experience, our top men need to stay away from injury, and better players need to come in to replace the remaining dead wood. Maybe the playoffs have come too soon, but given a fully-fit, in form team, I'd just about fancy our chances. Here's hoping.
Why should we care about what other sets of fans think of us, to be honest I think its a good thing if all the first seeds want to draw us. Let them be complacent win they play us!!! With traps organisation and system, we can spring a surprise. There is no satisfing some fans, but we're in a good position and have alot to look forward to.
First things first........there should never be a game at 7pm again. I entered the ground at 18.58 and there were more people outside than inside.
Every player was sh!te with Liam Miller:eek: being the best of a bad bunch(I honestly never thought i'd say that).
Richard Dunne.......whats happened? You've turned into Rio Ferdinand.
I'm hearing Stephen Hunt was Man of the Match....Why? Him and his excuse for a brother were easily the worst things on the pitch. I can't remember S. Hunt or Duff to that matter swinging in a meaningful cross all night.
Speaking of Duff, what a terrible shame he's become the player he is!
A shameful performence!:rolleyes:
Well Done to Zinedine Kilbane and Shay Given on achieving their century of caps............legends!:)