Not the confidence shattering thrashing I had feared. Still felt Spain could have turned it up another gear if they had to.
Not the confidence shattering thrashing I had feared. Still felt Spain could have turned it up another gear if they had to.
Fiesty for a while after Spain scored, quinn slotted in well.
2 nil isn't too shabby.
Plenty of food for thought for future squads/teams too. Thought Stephen Quinn looked really good on the ball. between him, Meyler and Hendrick, is it a case of Darron who?
Fair play to Sammon. I'm not sure I would start him against Sweden, but he's made a case.
In what sense? That Spain team was a lot closer to full strength than ours. Spain played at the intensity they always do and our second team coped with it quite well. I'm sure they'd have been stronger if it was a World Cup game, but it wasn't. It was what it was, and we negated them well.Quote:
Originally Posted by boovidge
Got picked off for the second but as said at least we were looking to score a goal at the time and you couldn't really say Spain weren't value for that lead. Much to admire in our lads tonight, a lot of grit displayed. Much more so that when it really mattered in the summer but at least we dug in, tried, bit of pride shown, could have even equalized maybe.
Glad to see Meyler get a run out however brief after making the voyage. Hendrick impressed me.
@ Danny - coolsport stream worked a beaut, best yet. Appreciated.
There are a lot of positives we can take from this. Hendrick and McCarthy performed, I think, as good or better as Andrews and Whelan did against Brazil after a long season. We are in much better shape than we were 3 or 4 years ago where we literally had no options in midfield. We're now looking at Meyler, Quinn and Brady playing in the Premier League, and Hendrick will likely be courted by the promoted teams plus Aston Villa etc. Delaney should have been on after 60 minutes but he looks like he can press his case. Coleman can play on the wing in games we know we will be under pressure. I am very happy right now.
Well better than our last effort v Spain and we did score a disallowed goal.
Seemed foolish to be trying to pass it around too much when we had the ball, that short corner really annoyed me right after we scored
from the previous and of course as expected we lost the ball in less than a second!!
Whilst it was not our strongest side it would have been much the same even if it were I expect.
Maybe Hoolahan would have allowed us to keep the ball a little longer and perhaps created something.
Never feel good after a defeat but it was heartening.
Stephen Quinn did look assured when he came on, McClean's aggression on the park good to see too.
Really the team can go on their hols in good spirits after this game with hope in their hearts for the Autumn.
P.S. Forde really had the 40's matinee idol look going with the hair tonight;)
We avoided getting lashed out of it. We shouldn't underestimate the value of that; especially after the scoreline the last time we played those fancy dans from Spain. So, there were low expectations, but it was a heartening team performance with some good individual moments. Not much more to say when it comes to end-of-end-of-end-of-season games. When does pre-season start for these players?
The stand out player for me was Sammon who seems to have has a decent touch alright and holds the ball well too. He looks an awkward height for marking and he's ungainly in an advantageous way. If he worked on his close control and distribution, could be a really, really good player. I hadn't seen much of him before the last two games anyway and was impressed... the Irish Kohler? (Neither one a patch on Niall Quinn in his heyday.)
Game for tourists, suckers and also for people visiting from outside New York. But as an exhibition game, it's hard to draw any conclusions beyond no harm done (if only we could say that after every game!).
Why no Richard Dunne? Did he even make the trip over?
Thought we showed great tenacity and spirit last night. Certainly a more heartwarming performance by the team than in our last against Spain a year ago. We also played better football with the little possession we had.
Felt sorry for St. Ledger to have his goal chalked off but there is no doubt Cox was in an offside position. Thought McClean's directness made things a bit more interesting in the second half after he came on; almost game-changing. Coleman also played very well and Sammon demonstrated himself to be better than for what a lot of critics give him credit. His performance pleasantly surprised me. Forde also did well.
Yeap.Quote:
Originally Posted by texidub
'Only' losing 2-0 to Spain is pretty much a pointless exercise in itself. Though some of the fringe players did enough to stake a claim as regular squad members...
Just pray Whelan is injured in the first week in September too...
Glenn who?Quote:
Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton
International managers get little time with their players. I think this last 2-3 weeks will have been really useful for the likes of Meyler, Hendrick, Quinn, Sammon and even people like McCarthy, Coleman, McClean and Forde. The game itself and its outcome were of little hard consequence but I'd say there are a lot of players in the squad who benefited from it. "No harm done" might be one way of looking at it, but I'd say there are other soft positives to be taken.Quote:
Originally Posted by texidub
Anyway, Cox has now cost us a winner against England and an equaliser against Spain!
The expletives that were shouted at him...Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Does he know what the line is?
Spain is one team where you don't mind our goalie getting plenty of welly behind the kick out.Quote:
Originally Posted by SwanVsDalton
With our style (or lack of), the 2 CM need to be lively and looking to move the ball forward or to the wide players. It's one reason why a modest footballer like Green improves on the likes of our nr 1 slow motion midfielder. The recent additions, Brady, Meyler, Quinn, Hendrick and Hoolahan give us a host of workable options.
I don't wan't our team to be starting with Sammon, we don't need to be hoofing the ball against the likes of Sweden and Austria, anyway he doesn't look like he can get his head on the ball. When he's running one-on-one against the goalie, it's time to turn away. His neat touches would earn him a place on the bench.
If we go with our default hoofing game, we reduce our chances by (a scientifically proven) 50% of getting past teams like Austria and Sweden. It's a handicap.
Could have been worse. Any argument that the fact that the keeper touched the ball before Cox negates the offside? 2nd phase and all that, fair enough if it had come straight off the bar but their player was the last to touch it before him.
Mostly positives for me. There are far better sides than us who relinquish possession to Spain, but at least we responded well to their opener and looked like we could genuinely get back into it. Casillas had to make two world class saves to keep Spain ahead.
Forde was as assured and confident, as he has been since taking over the number one spot. I wouldn't blame Randolph too much for the second goal, probably could have been a bit quicker off his line alright but he got a lot on Mata's finish, sometimes they stay out, sometimes they squirm in.
Sledge and O'Dea probably did as well as could be expected. Sledge got a lot of last ditch blocks and challenges in. O'Dea did okay for the most part but could possibly have been more decisive in dealing with what became the opening goal. One really poor pass to the full back early on as well that ran out of play.
McShane and Kelly were both solid. Kelly even had a couple of pressure relieving runs upfield, before inevitably losing possession with little support.
I thought James McCarthy was outstanding, particularly in the first half. He is growing all the time and was a calming influence on Jeff Hendrick beside him I think. I lost count of the amount of tackles he won and little nicks here and there to slow up the Spanish momentum. Even when he gives away possession with no obvious pass on, he does it it a controlled unflustered way, strange as that may sound!
Andy Keogh gave it everything he had but unfortunately offers nothing of value. Consistently coughed up possession (along with many others to be fair) and was never any sort of a threat, granted he's not a winger. Coleman did what Coleman does, offering a badly needed outlet. He coped excellently with Alba's forward runs and even turned him inside out at one stage in the first half.
Keane was pretty anonymous and of the two front men, I think it's fair to say, he was overshadowed by an excellent performance from Conor Sammon. It was hard not to admire his confident first touch under severe pressure at times. The funny (frustrating) thing about him is that he can have quite a heavy touch in less challenging situations. Couldn't fault the guy though, justified Trap's faith in him.
Quinn was tidy when he came on and McClean looked more dangerous than I have seen him for some time. It was incredibly frustrating when he played the short corner just a couple of minutes after the disallowed goal, as Tricky already mentioned. To be fair to McClean, Sammon did come short to offer himself but he should have been told to take his shiny globe back into the box.
Spain were pretty much at full strength and were definitely taking the game very seriously. I think they are in a place where they take every game seriously anyway, that's what the greatest sides do. They have an invincibility about them that they don't want to lose by taking their eye off the ball. Only Alonso and Puyol could be considered absentees from the starting line-up, but it's even difficult to see how the latter will break up the defence of Arbeloa-Pique-Ramos-Alba at this stage. Maybe they'll move Ramos to right back instead of Arbeloa to accommodate him but I wouldn't be too sure. The indirect replacement of Alonso through Pedro or Silva wasn't exactly too weakening either. Quite useful being able to bring on Fabregas, Soldado and Mata in search of a goal, not to mention Santi and Jesus himself!
Afaiu, Cox was ruled offside because when the ball rebounds off the post or the goalie to him, he was in an offside position.Quote:
Originally Posted by Drumcondra 69er
The one I don't get, is a player being ruled offside when coming from an offside position to challenge for a kick out from his own goalie.
I've often wondered about that myself. Is it a simple interpretation of the 'offside when the ball was kicked and interfering' or is it because the player coming from an offside position helped them get a better run and consequent jump than the other player?Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir