It’s really good
Seconding the second captains call. The bit about Michael Noonan is hilarious.
Still buzzing the day after
Not sure whether it is bias, whether it was alcohol, or a combination of both, but I felt that Molumby got on a lot of ball yesterday - that he was the primary distributor, and as a consequence so too did Josh Cullen.
I still don't know what happened. In my head that game finished 2-2.
The more often you watch that winner the more you appreciated how badly Parrot wanted it. The distance he covered just to get to where he was and then literally stretching every muscle fibre to get a stud to the ball and score. That's the leadership and pure will to win that's not really coachable. Magic.
It was truely a night to remember, my kids both adults now have never experienced a World cup or even a big win before on the scale of the last two matches, a whole generation of people that just think we are **** at National level.
IF we could some how follow this up by getting through the playoffs it could as Kevin Doyle said on the rte post game podcast stop some kids from picking up a rugby ball and he also mentioned his kids wearing Ronaldo jerseys.
Could this be the start of something big for us with some good kids coming through as well or am i just getting carried away.
Someone pointed out on Twitter about Darragh Maloney forgetting his RTE accent momentarily after the goal and screaming 'THAT'S TROY PARREH!'
Upon reflection, the day after in the cold light of day....there is no cold light of day, its still all warm fuzzy sunshine!!
Big props too to Johnny Kenny who put serious pressure not the Hungarian defender clearing the ball straight back to us.
Parrott was only a few yards away too.
Watching the match back and one very frustrating thing is the TV replays of silly things after a goal, like the Marco Rossi celebrating in slow motion. Well after goal was scored.
We missed most of Parrott's effort directly after Hungary's second goal and Szoboslai's chip effort (only know cos Maloney mentioned it) directly after Parrott's second goal.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...ation-stopped/
Enjoyed reading this. Most of the posters here grew up on the glory days. Five year old me in 1988 fell in love with football and that Irish team. Obviously Ronnie Whelan scored that volley and was automatically my favourite player. He played for Liverpool so they had to be my team. And then there was 1990 and I was in Wexford general for a small operation, I'll never forget the nurses being annoyed with me and my mother for being too loud and waking up the other patients when O'Leary scored. And then there was 94, I was only 11 but I cycled to the local pub to watch Ray Houghton score against Italy. I came home from the same pub after the Netherlands game thinking Paul McGrath had scored a brilliant goal, even if only a consolation, only to discover later that it was disallowed. 2002 I accidentally punched the ceiling light when Robbie scored against the Germans. All those memories and I was still a teenager. In a way it made us all believe we could achieve anything. It's nice to have that unifying light in the world to some degree again, that genuine pride and love for the flag that's been hijacked. Anyway, it's been emotional.
what a ball from Dara O'Shea to Ogbene too for the penalty. I think it got missed in a lot of the commentary around the game but it was exquisite.
Was talking to a mate about the game this morning and he made a great point about Troys work ethic in the last few years leading to that goal. I dont want to be negative about other players because its still celebration time, but there was a time a couple of years ago where it looked like Troy was hanging out with the wrong crowd and he was struggling in L1. His career could have gone the way of Aaron Connolly, but instead the move to Holland has led to him being ultra professional. He has worked his b0llix off to become a really good player in the last couple of seasons and you could even see when he took of the shirt that he is in brilliant shape. All that led to him having the work ethic and fitness to make that run in the 95th minute and be able to stretch out every last fiber to get on the end of that ball.
That goal just does not happen if he didnt put the work in, and I hope that is inspirational for the players around him, but also the young lads coming behind
One thing about the strike itself is that he doesn't actually kick the ball, that would have put it straight into the keeper's hands, he rolled his studs down the ball to divert it under the goalkeeper, and he had about 0.1 seconds to realise that was the correct shot to take
Was watching back the Portugal goals there and his second is great too - he had a huge amount of work to do just to get a shot away, let alone find the bottom corner.
Actually, I think all give of our goals were great in a direct football kind of way. Scales' header back into the six-yard box on a plate for Parrott; O'Shea's ball to free Parrott down the wing and him making the space for the shot; O'Shea's ball into Ogbene, and the control to take it down before being kicked; Azaz's lovely dink over the defence to send Parrott in; and then Scales' knock-down and Parrott caressing the ball in with his studs. All different, all great, all of them pretty much out of nowhere.
https://www.sportsfile.com/id/3294395
He'll let you buy it