lets hope mcgeady and lawerence can get some balls into the box and hopefully robbie or kevin can pounce on 1 at least. im really nervous about this game now.
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lets hope mcgeady and lawerence can get some balls into the box and hopefully robbie or kevin can pounce on 1 at least. im really nervous about this game now.
I personally lay the blame for Duff's withdrawal on the hands of those here who hooped and hollered when McShane got injured.
+ 1 hopefully Kilbane wont be too exposed. Other than that decent enough team - should come away with the spoils.Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
The following quote from Armenia's former caretaker manager worries me;
"... if they let Armenia dictate the pace of the game, then it could be a long night."
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...t-2321304.html
That's something we're not particularly good at - ie dictating the pace of games. I think we'll be doing well to get a win.
What about those of us who were quietly relieved, albeit with a tinge of guilt?Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Not sure if anyone listens to it, but the below podcast this week has Richard Sadlier on and he basically says that if we don't qualify from this campaign then the whole Trap thing will have been a complete waste of time. Hard to disagree tbh.
http://backpagefootball.com/featured...age-episode-6/
In fairness, if we let the 96th ranked team in the world dictate a game to us...then we may as well not bother turning up in Skopje, never mind Bratislava and Moscow.Quote:
"... if they let Armenia dictate the pace of the game, then it could be a long night."
if i can help it i try not to listen to him, hes a major pain.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShelsNeil
Gotta agree with Mr.Sullivan. We should be handing their asses to them. If we can't comfortably win this game it would be pretty disgraceful
Overall a pretty weak team/squad. McCarthy, Wilson and Ward should be in that squad, all premiership players. Bad sign when people are delighted that McShane is injured(thank god), and Kilbane still hanging around like a bad smell (we thank you kevin,probably a good lad, god knows how you got so many caps but time for you to be let out to pasture)that is not good omen for the future.
In saying that, If we can get something, will be happy days but we really need leadership and new ideas at the top. Trap is an auld man, no way he is going to get around and see prospective players in the near future.
Things I want to see tomorrow (besides a comfortable away victory):
McGeady to announce himself on the international stage. A goal or a couple of nice crosses for Keane/Doyle would do nicely.
Kilbane to have a solid 7 out of 10 performance.
If we go 1 up PLEASE keep playing. Pretend your 1 nil down if you have to. Nothing drives me more insane than when we go 1 goal up after 10 minutes and then play negative football until the opposition get an equalizer in the dying seconds.....
Ireland 2-1. Similiar type of performance when we played Cyprus away last time out.
It'll be a typical Irish performance - storming start, goal, comfortable into the late stages before hare-brained defending and plenty of misplaced passes lead to a bum-clenchingly tight finish. But a 1-0 win. Would take that all day.
No at all, I'd be feeling very disgraced with those 3 points :rolleyes:
i'd take 1-0 in a heartbeat. very nervous about tomorrow-it has banana skin written all over it.
Any type of a win will do tomorrow. Don't care how we play. Not in these type of games away from home. McGeady will be the key player tomorrow. We need him running at their defense and getting decent balls into the box. Better still McGeady scoring. Keep Armenia defending with their full backs staying in their own half.
Could be McGeady's coming out party, I have a good feeling about this.
I'd take any sort of win. Lawrence and McGeady both have something to prove and I think Green will boss the midfield or at least let them know he is there. Kilbane is professional enough to be able to handle most of what will come at it. My worry is that some unknown but skillful Armenian will pull the strings all night and tear us apart.
while i feel this ireland team is very very weak and that trap is underperforming with squad selection we still are better on paper than armenia. obviously like football isnt played on paper and it will be tough but we should have enough to get 3 points, but we aren't that much better than them that its like a formality.
we have weak players thru the team who could get exposed(green, kilbane)
Armenia is a team of footballing never-will-bes. 4-0 Ireland, Kilbane to get on the scoresheet.
Lads how did Armenia do in World Cup qualifying.Did they have any notable wins that might worry us or are we just nervous about this game because its a trip into the unknown?
they beat belgium quite recently i think
just checked: in their last competitive home fixture they lost to spain 2:1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia...otable_matches
Beautiful!!!! and heres me thinking that realistically it should be an easy 3 points.Nerves are gonna kill me tomorrow nowQuote:
Originally Posted by boovidge
Hear bloody hear.Quote:
Originally Posted by shakermaker1982
Of course our alternate party trick is to let the opposition score immediately after we have. None of those shenanigans either, please.
Gotta happen one of these days. Surely..Quote:
Originally Posted by irishfan86
I can picture in my mind what the Irish performance will be like, typically cautious. Good shape, 45-50%. Good for a goal if we take our chances.
What I'm worried about is their formation. 4-2-3-1.
The last time 4-2-3-1 played 4-4-2 was Germany V England in the world cup.
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/...gland-tactics/
It leaves a lot of players, on both sides, in space. For us, the space will be afforded to McGeady and Lawrence. Do they have the intelligence to exploit it?
The most restricted is Robbie and Doyler. Especially if Robbie starts dropping deep, which he inevitably will. When Robbie is suffering club wise, he tries extra hard, some would say too hard, for Ireland. Wants to be involved in everything.
If we default to our more cautious approach we are going to have to be ruthless in converting the few chances that fall our way in the game.
Obviously, a solid performance right across the back four is imperative.
McGeady's big chance against Montenegro away at the same stage of the last campaign springs to mind. This time we'll need him to put the chance away, if it arises.
Good call there Wolfie, that chance does come to mind, had that effort gone in, and the game won, the group would have taken a much different direction. Hopefully little things like that change for the better this time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boovidge
Quote:
Originally Posted by Razors left peg
Beating Belgium was there only win in the group, add to that a draw at home to Estonia (they also lost away to Estonia), and they lost their other 8 games, finishing bottom of the group
This will be my only post of the day as i'm now going to put in the shift of all shifts before scattering.
I'm starting to think this match and it's highlights would be best viewed in black and white, slightly sped up and with audio replaced with an old theatre-style vaudevillian honky tonk upright piano -and maybe one of those Pathe Newsreel Oxford English speaking chaps giving incidental commentary.
"Here's a tricky customer -he calls this move the arse-over-elbow".
Roll on anyway. C'MON IRELAND!!!
LOL LR.
I'm starting to feel more comfortable the more I think about the game. I think we've actually got a good chance of being comfortable, and I reckon if we were to score early we could get a couple more. I think we are in reasonably good shape in offering a threat from all areas of the pitch. McGeadski can score (albeit not for Ireland yet), the pressure is off him to an extent with duff's injury and maybe that will ease the nerves a bit. Doyle and Keane are always a threat, as is Lawrence to a degree, while Glenn Whelan likes a shot. Add to the two centre halves who have shown themselves to be useful in the opposition box.
Hell I'm looking forward to this.
Irish squad is poorest it has been in a long time. Can't see us getting much from this. Typically tricky away tie. A boring 0-0 or 1-1 draw, or a 1-0 to them.
I seem to hear this every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by Straightstory
Pretty sure we were worse under Staunton, and at various stages under Kerr.
It comes down to the team, not necessarily the squad. Duff out McGeady in is the only key change in my view, and I'm expecting McGeady to deliver today for some reason, despite throwing hefty criticism his way in recent times.
Gotta come good. Come on Ireland.
Other than Duff and Hunt this is our first team. Nervous but expect us to play the Trap way and keep them away from our goal while we take one or two of our chances. C'MON IRELAND!
This is basically the same squad that comfortably beat two WC teams who didn't embarrass themselves at the big show when they came to the RDS, so it's hardly the poorest we've been.
Why do people say stuff like this? We're coming off the back of a campaign where we went through undefeated in a group that could certainly be described as tricky, outplayed France in Paris and hammered two world cup teams in build up friendlies.Quote:
Originally Posted by Straightstory
The team is settled, the lads know their role and the system, we've lost nobody through retirement either.
On paper perhaps a weak squad but the team is one of the strongest we've had in the past decade.
It speaks volume of where the team is now and where they were when at the start of the last Euro campaign Stan spoke about "being a banana skin for the opposition" and "building for the future" and other nonsense, this campaign Killer has come out and said anything less than 6 points from these two fixtures is a failure, Keane has said the past failure will spur them on to qualification, they have belief now, they're far mentally tougher than they used to be.
Does the honey-monster definitely start?
He's been named in the team so I guess so.
They lost 3-1 at home to Iran last month and got 4 points only in last campaign - 3 decent home points against Belgium though and a good show against Spain.
However, Belgium are a shambles at times these days.
In the last Euro campaign they beat Poland and drew with Portugal. Their team has changed and they have changed coach since then, reverting back to a cautious style I believe.
We should take them, but the heat and our players' rustiness and arguable fitness make me a little nervous. There's a lot of pressure on Paul Green but I suspect he'll do OK. He seems a confident type. Time for McGeady to start scoring. I can't believe it was 2004 when he first played for us.
I think in previous campaigns in the back of their minds there was always at least one more to follow. Now a few of them realise that this will be their last Euros and 2014 WC will be a real stretch for some of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Stuttgart,
One of the players made the point that bar McGeady and perhaps Dunne (injuries) the players shouldnt be weary or rusty given the proximity of the game to pre-season where most of the players went through or featured in. We'll be fine on that score. Agreed re: Green, he does seem the confident sort, a trait Trap seems to adore. It's that reason he persists with say McShane over perhaps Darren O'Dea, ability wise O'Dea is far ahead imo, but appears to me to suffer from asserting himself, a confidence issue, whereas McShane is quite limited but is very confident in himself.