Kerr the Comedian

Just read that Kerr had stated that Switzerland were favourites to win tommorows match. The Swiss have had 3 first choice players retire, 1 suspended and they have a few others out to injury. Then Kerr said they had the pyschological advantage cause they beat us the last two times, the bloody anger we have towards them will count for more, freis morrsison comment, the jeering at the irish bench after the goal, the fact that we were better than them and still lost out to a crap side. Hopefully their high scoring win will lead them into a false sense of security. Ireland to win. Kerr knows full well were favourites and that we should stuff them. You know i dont normally resent a team but we did ourselves such injustice the last time i really hope we tear them to pieces!

Kerr is no comedian, he knows the one constant and true golden rule of Irish football: We're **** when it comes to performing as favourites.

They are. http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action...ategory=SOCCER

your right conor they did outplay us, im not saying we deserved anything from either match, what im saying is we were a better team than them then and are a far better team now! If we lose to them tommorow, id say id feel worse than getting beaten by England! Its just we did ourselves such injustice the last time, and how in gods name are they favourites ahead of us? Because we have better players, are higher in the rankings, have qualified for more major tournaments recently?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eh Weh

have qualified for more major tournaments recently?

---

WC2002.....? You can't go back to '94 as Keane is the only survivor of that pack. I don't care what everyone says but I thought the Swiss did well at Euro 2004. They drew with Croatia, were way better than England for an hour until Haas got sent off, I didn't see the France match but from what I read it wasn't an easy match for the French. We haven't beaten a team of Switzerland's quality away from home in a qualifier since 1987 which means we certainly shouldn't be favourites.

Whether Kerr thinks we are favourites or not he's not going to admit it publicly and put more pressure on the players. He done the right thing in playing down our chances as we are twice as good as the underdogs.

I agree, Kerr is definetly right to say we are the underdogs and take the pressure off. But theres no way he believes it, thats what i found amusing!

All the talk of revenge is one thing, but the swiss are no push overs. We will be doing well to get a 1 or 2 nill win

Switzerland (11/8), Rep of Ireland (21/10), Draw (9/4)
Is what oddschecker tells me.

I am glad we are not favourites, all the better should we win!

Not much value in the betting, 1-0 or 2-1 if you go for a win.

A Reid at 16-1 to be first goal scorer is a good price as he has
his 'shooting boots' on.

2:0 at 14-1 is worth a small bet.

The under 21's lost 4:2 so beware!!

This is a very tricky encounter indeed. Most of the Swiss simply don't rate us and view us as hackers and "boring footballers". I'd gladly take a draw right now. I was at the match in Dublin (2-1) and the diamond has us running ragged. The Swiss will play a 4-1-2-1-2 (a/k/a the Diamond) which seems to confuse the hell out of us. I think we will need Keane to get into the middle of that diamond and break it or he should tail Yakin all match. Our wingers have to keep possession and draw their midfielders out so we have more space through the middle. Our defenders, especially our centre backs have to be careful not to commit too early to the attacking midfielder (Yakin) which is what did us in last time. Would like to see Keane getting a little neutralizer in on Yakin very early. No earthly clue what Kilbane is going to do. Would take a draw right now.

think if we are ever going to beat them away its tonight,and why not ?.
we are on the up and momemtum counts for a lot.
good feeling "in the waters" about tonight :D

I’m glad to see that there’s a sense of reality in this thread.

The Swiss are a decent side and we’ll have to play very well to beat them in Basle. They could easily have been a goal up against England before Rooney’s first (offside) goal. England struggled against their corners & frees. They drew with 10 men against Croatia and were holding France after 75 or 80 mins. FC Basle have beaten some very good teams at home in Europe too.

I’m confident we can beat them though and this is a real test of how far we’ve come and what we can achieve. I’d be nervous if Maybury starts though.

Not sure if I said it here or on another forum, but I'd be happy with a draw and a good performance, as long as we do beat them next year at Lansdowne. I notice a big revenge factor creeping into the player's talk, and that is reassuring that we're definately up for this game after last year's debacle. A 1-1 would be nice, 2-1 would be really sweet

Well considering 3 first choice players have retired, one is suspended and they have a few out injured, wed better win. Im going to put a fiver on ireland to win by three goals to nil. odds are forty to one. I cant believe what im reading here, Switzeland are ranked about 46th in the world , now im not saying that the rankings are a hundred percent accurate, but they are 30 places behind us for a reason!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eh Weh

Well considering 3 first choice players have retired, one is suspended and they have a few out injured, wed better win. Im going to put a fiver on ireland to win by three goals to nil. odds are forty to one. I cant believe what im reading here, Switzeland are ranked about 46th in the world , now im not saying that the rankings are a hundred percent accurate, but they are 30 places behind us for a reason!

---

and they were probably 30 places behind us when they easily beat us 2-0 not that long ago....wisen up

Dunno what you think of this but I feel theres a English fan mentality creeping into the Irish mindset. "We can beat anyone - who do you think you are to consider yourself favourites against us." Now I'm not talking about settling for a defeatist attitude but arrogance ****es me off no end. I blame this arrogance for the athmosphere decline in Lansdowne. And I'm not confusing arrogance with ambition.

Let us not forget that we have only just been beaten fairly and squarely by this side twice and they were shown for what they are in the competetion proper in Portugal. I put the Swiss as favourites and we have a job to turn that around.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by blobbyblob

Dunno what you think of this but I feel theres a English fan mentality creeping into the Irish mindset. "We can beat anyone - who do you think you are to consider yourself favourites against us." Now I'm not talking about settling for a defeatist attitude but arrogance ****es me off no end. I blame this arrogance for the athmosphere decline in Lansdowne. And I'm not confusing arrogance with ambition.

Let us not forget that we have only just been beaten fairly and squarely by this side twice and they were shown for what they are in the competetion proper in Portugal. I put the Swiss as favourites and we have a job to turn that around.

---

Why not we have a team of premiership allstars and a playing a team beflow us in the rankings we should expect to win.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Junior

and they were probably 30 places behind us when they easily beat us 2-0 not that long ago....wisen up

---

Our own pathetic performance can't be used as an excuse to justify another one. The Swiss are average at best and missing players, anything less than a draw would be absolute failure but we should be going for the win.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by londonred

Why not we have a team of premiership allstars and a playing a team beflow us in the rankings we should expect to win.

---

Missed my point completely. Nothing wrong with being ambitious but taking it to the next level where we assume we are so good that we should be given automatic passage to the world cup is foolish. That arrogance was in the fans and players after the last world cup campaign. Not a moment too soon in most of their young careers me thinks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slash/ED

Our own pathetic performance can't be used as an excuse to justify another one. The Swiss are average at best and missing players, anything less than a draw would be absolute failure but we should be going for the win.

---

fair point, and we were awful in both those games, I agree. However, some of the talk on this thread would have you believe we only have to turn up to win. We still have a fair few deficiencies in our game (goals scored per chances being a big one - your best mate Clint being the key culprit). The Swiss are an ordinary side, however they are organised have just scored 6 whilst keeping a clean sheet and will be up for this as much as we are.

France drew at home to Israel, would you consider this an absolute failure for the the French? because I still see them as being favourites for the group. Likewise if we do lose tonight, we are still in with a great chance of qualifying

nothing will be decided tonight.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by londonred

Why not we have a team of premiership allstars and a playing a team beflow us in the rankings we should expect to win.

---

Yes, if we were playing at home or on neutral ground we would be outside favourites but our away record over the last 20 years is attrocious.

i'd agree with that last point (re: fan arrogance). as for the game, fundamental not to concede early of course and not completely collapse if we do. keep it tight, a boring nil all would be more than handy and meet kerr's expectations of 4 points from the first two games. the difference this time *should be* roy keane. regardless what you think of him, his defiance was missing away from home during the last ec campaign.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eirebhoy

Yes, if we were playing at home or on neutral ground we would be outside favourites but our away record over the last 20 years is attrocious.

---

Now's a good time to change that :)

Ill tell you why i think we should win, our players are far better than theirs ,simple, their best player plays for Stuttgart and cant get his game, but your probably right i mean, robbie keane, damien duff, roy keane, shay given, cunningham, clearly far behind anything the swiss have!

"Our own pathetic performance can't be used as an excuse to justify another one. The Swiss are average at best and missing players, anything less than a draw would be absolute failure but we should be going for the win."

Bang on!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eh Weh

Ill tell you why i think we should win, our players are far better than theirs ,simple, their best player plays for Stuttgart and cant get his game, but your probably right i mean, robbie keane, damien duff, roy keane, shay given, cunningham, clearly far behind anything the swiss have!

---

Jaysus, you're starting to annoy me now. We had better players than a lot of teams we've played against away from home but still struggle to get a draw.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Eh Weh

Ill tell you why i think we should win, our players are far better than theirs ,simple, their best player plays for Stuttgart and cant get his game, but your probably right i mean, robbie keane, damien duff, roy keane, shay given, cunningham, clearly far behind anything the swiss have!

---

And Greece won Euro '04. :rolleyes:

Dunno where all this wild optimism is coming from. I reckon we'll get a draw, and I'd be happy with that.

The Swiss are great at looking after money , making watches , cheese and chocolates , apart from qualifying for Euro2004 football is not one of their strong points. We should beat them tonight but then again we never seem to put away the weaker teams . I am going for a win but expect it will be backs to the wall for the last half hour instead of going and getting more goals.

Ok folks over the last twenty years (Qualifying for Mexico 86) here is our away record

Played 48
Won 17
Drawn 15
Lost 16
For 63
Against 52
G Diff 11


Not exactly much to write home about is it.

Id gladly take a point cosidering last year etc. That said 3 is possible

KOH

JUZ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by londonred

The Swiss are great at looking after money , making watches , cheese and chocolates , apart from qualifying for Euro2004 football is not one of their strong points. We should beat them tonight but then again we never seem to put away the weaker teams . I am going for a win but expect it will be backs to the wall for the last half hour instead of going and getting more goals.

---

I thought the Swiss played quite well in both games against us last time round. We didn't help ourselves but they were pretty well organised. Better than the Russians who did bugger all in either game and came away with much more than they deserved. Plus I thought they were unlucky against the english, they had someone sent off didn't they? Tonight could be tough, never thought I'd be pleased to see Roy Keane back in an Ireland top....

I'm going for a win tonight. I think we have enough quality on our side up front to score. The presense of roy keane alone is really going to help calm things down and dominate midfield. The defence are well aware of whatever formation the swiss can throw at us so there will be no surprises. Kerr has planned well and everyone in the squad (including clint) seems very motivated.

Plus they are missing players and the match against the faores islands isnt exactly a great warm up.

Quote:

---

his is a very tricky encounter indeed. Most of the Swiss simply don't rate us and view us as hackers and "boring footballers"

---

now thats arrogant!! Were not 16th in the world for nothing. Us boring ?? At least our ENTIRE NATION isnt boring. I find the swiss team very arrogant typical german infulence to be honest

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

Us boring ?? At least our ENTIRE NATION isnt boring. I find the swiss team very arrogant typical german infulence to be honest

---

Neither Switzerland nor the Swiss are boring, there are cantons that have a germanic influence (which are grand), but there are also french and italian speaking regions which have a completely different character and are fantastic. I've visited the country a number of times and worked there for a while, and I was always well treated and never bored.

Anyway, in fairness, why wouldn't they have been confident?
Kav, O'Brien and Reid had never played a competitive game before these qualifiers. They beat us in landsdowne and comfortably in Basle (where we were sh!te) in the last qual campaign. Granted they were poor in Euro2004, but not that bad, they weren't thrashed, and in any event, we weren't even there.

I agree with the comment that there's an 'English Tabloid' mentality about some of us, I was dissappointed with the result too, but what are we basing our own arrogance on? Qualifying for 4 out of the last 9 major championships and getting to the last eight once?

Grow up ffs :rolleyes:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by davros

Apparantly some of the lads met him @ 0530 this am.& he said "I never wanted the job anyway!" ;) ......... :rolleyes: .......though suspect we shouldnt take this too literally......as he was 'tired & emotional' :o

---

another purler from "the greener"
:"i love this job but it has one serious drawback","everybody interested in football in this country knows more about the game than me" :rolleyes: