Ireland v Switzerland - Post-match discussion

1. I'll get acussed of trying to deflect blame etc. but if it wasn't for that Israeli keeper we would have taken 3 points from that match and got a play-off place, end of.

2. How are the guys on here who don't support Ireland? Having a good evening?

3. As I mentioned on my other thread-watching a news report on the eartquake straight after and it put it in perspective..

4. The players nearly crying at the end shows how much they care.

5. Other countries fans would have caused trouble after a result like tonight. As yet i've heard no reports of violence in Dublin and I seriously doubt I will wake up to any tommorow. Well done to all our fans throughout this whole campaign you should be proud.

Liam, I love your optimism and your faith, I really do, but you're scraping the barrel here. Time to let go, at least for now.

:ball: PP

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Originally Posted by liam88

1. I'll get acussed of trying to deflect blame etc. but if it wasn't for that Israeli keeper we would have taken 3 points from that match and got a play-off place, end of.

2. How are the guys on here who don't support Ireland? Having a good evening?

3. As I mentioned on my other thread-watching a news report on the eartquake straight after and it put it in perspective..

4. The players nearly crying at the end shows how much they care.

5. Other countries fans would have caused trouble after a result like tonight. As yet i've heard no reports of violence in Dublin and I seriously doubt I will wake up to any tommorow. Well done to all our fans throughout this whole campaign you should be proud.

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1. If the Irish team had been better than Switzerland, France or Israel they would have beaten them and finished above them in the group. They weren't and they didn't.
2. Not particularly. I was looking forward to a good game of football, and ended up dozing off such was the dire spectacle on offer. Having a childish dig like that is fairly poor form to be honest- while I may not support the Irish team (note the distinction) I certainly don't wish them any ill.
3. :rolleyes: Well of course it does, but you can find some incident to compare with any match to make a similar point, albeit on a lesser scale: say the number of people dying of AIDS every day in Africa- not that we want that can of worms opened again.
4. Were they all crying? Every one of them? Not that it matters anyway, they can care as much as they want, they weren't good enough and don't deserve to be at the World Cup.
5. :rolleyes: Talk about saving the best for last! Violence. You really are clutching at straws in fairness. Most civilised countries can manage without that. In fact most civilised countries wouldn't have fallen victim to the sky sports disease and would have set their expectations in line with the team's quality- i.e. a hell of a lot lower.

I just want to congratulate your team for the great battle of tonight. Not a great game, but a dramatic battle. Both teams could have won, we had better chances in the last 15 min. but that because Ireland was just forcing ahead.
And of course, Shay Given is really great and he made a great save against Frei...

I am a bit sorry for you, and Israel too. It was really a dramatic ending. However, Switzerland too could cry at the end: Spain, The Czech Republic and Turkey in the Play-offs are really big hurdles. (F@ck the new rule of seedings!!). I hope we dont get to play to Spain, i really fear them because these teams (like France, too, btw) always manage a way out even when they're playing badly. Turkey could be a bit easier, but they play a game we don't like. And the Czech, well, I don't know what to say...

In the end, even if some of you are a bit angry or enraged against the Swiss team, I wish you good luck for the next campaign for Euro 2008 :) and I will be cheering for you to be there!!

Bye!

Well thanks for your good wishes mate. But as you guys are hosts you are already there !

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Originally Posted by Robitaille

Spain, The Czech Republic and Turkey!

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If ye get Spain or the Czech's then yer not going to Germany. Turkey and ye have a slight chance. Hope ye lose:)

Hopp Schweiz

Good luck to the Swiss but unless they draw the Turks they aren't going anywhere.

thanks, we are devastated, i really did not think the swiss played well at all, but we did not come together as a team and we needed that to sneak a goal.
we basically lost our chances in the israeli games, i think at that point most of us knew things were over, but we always held on to some hope. we had our chance tonight, but we did not take it....:mad:
Good luck for yourselves.

:( :(

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Well thanks for your good wishes mate. But as you guys are hosts you are already there !

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You calling him a german?? :eek: :D ;)

eh.....just copped on there CTID, you talking about 2008? heh heh
whoops!

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

Well thanks for your good wishes mate. But as you guys are hosts you are already there !

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I know !

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Originally Posted by sligoman

... Hope ye lose:)

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Bad boy!:)

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Originally Posted by vega007

Good luck to the Swiss but unless they draw the Turks they aren't going anywhere.

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Well in fairness had we won tonight we'd have been in that very same situation.

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Originally Posted by dancinpants

Well in fairness had we won tonight we'd have been in that very same situation.

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Indeed, I am happy we made it to the Play-offs at least, but true happiness is different :(

Nice gesture fair play to you.Best of luck.

^ agree

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Originally Posted by Robitaille

In the end, even if some of you are a bit angry or enraged against the Swiss team, I wish you good luck for the next campaign for Euro 2008 :) and I will be cheering for you to be there!!

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Fair play fella ... best of luck to ye in the play-offs now !!

would have loved nothing better than to beat yous tonight!

Fair play though and I have to say hats off to your fans - you travel well and make some noise!

I think both out teams are similar level and neither of us would have been fancied to get through play-offs!

best of luck though.

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Originally Posted by Robitaille

I just want to congratulate your team for the great battle of tonight. Not a great game, but a dramatic battle. Both teams could have won, we had better chances in the last 15 min. but that because Ireland was just forcing ahead.

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From our point of view too many hopeful long balls and considering the prize no serious pressure to call it a battle.
What happened when the final whistle was blown? It looked like your supporters were in shock and did not know how to respond to the result.

The Swiss looked a neat enough team, did not give an inch and the defense rarely looked like getting bothered. They were better organized in all areas. If you had gone a goal behind then the odds were that you would have got a goal back but the game plan was firstly don't loose a goal, with a bit more adventure you could have won that match. You had thought that we were better than we actually are. Too much caution.

I don't think that you have that much to fear in the play offs. you deserve to be there much more so than our bunch.

at the end of the day we were simply not good enough. We dont have enough world class players to compete at the highest level. We cant even beat ordinary sides like ISrael and Switzerland

Bah, Humbug!

I'm glad that's over!
If we'd scraped through last night, many thousands of gullible fools like me would have shelled out to attend both legs of the play-off. The agony would simply have been prolonged because we simply aren't good enough. We would have been eliminated in the play-off.

A blind man could see last night that Andy Reid and Robbie Keane were simply not up to the job. This has been evident for some time and the fact that neither of them can get their game at an average mid table club like Spurs says it all. Steven Reid got more crosses in during his brief spell on the pitch than Andy Reid did in the entire game.
Stephen Elliot was more dangerous during his brief spell on the pitch than Robbie Keane was in the entire game.

For all the people who struggled to get tickets last night, you won’t have the same problem for a long time to come. There is very little in that squad to attract the masses.

Farewell Mr. Kerr, you gave it a shot but managing an International team with a limited squad of average players is never easy.

As I've said before, there are only 3 world class players available to Ireland. Only one of them was on the pitch last night.

John O'Shea, do us all a favour and get Alex Ferguson to keep you at Old Trafford for international games in future.

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Originally Posted by thejollyrodger

at the end of the day we were simply not good enough. We dont have enough world class players to compete at the highest level. We cant even beat ordinary sides like ISrael and Switzerland

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Too True but normally a bit of fight from the platers goes long way. just don't know if there was any fight out there last night:mad:

WTF was a German ref doing reffing a Swiss match? If it was a Derryman there'd be uproar.

5 second half substitutions, at least 2 injury stoppages one for blood and one for when Steven Reid got yer man a dinger of an elbow in the chest.

The ref then calls 2 minutes and blows up 10 seconds early.

While we may not have scored til Christmas I would still have liked the chance to try.

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Originally Posted by eirebhoy

WTF was a German ref doing reffing a Swiss match? If it was a Derryman there'd be uproar.

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Absolute nonsense.

Liam, if Dudu Awat didn't get injured or perform an act (whatever if it was real or not) Ireland-Israel would be 2-2 as well. It's not like a penalty was not given or like a goal was disapproved without reason. The goalie won a few minutes, the chances that Ireland would have scored if they had 4 minutes more was hardly 10% or so.
Awat did keep Ireland out of the WC, not by his "antics" but with his superb save in the end of the game on that header.

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Originally Posted by Gerrit

Liam, if Dudu Awat didn't get injured or perform an act (whatever if it was real or not) Ireland-Israel would be 2-2 as well.

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If Awat had've been sent off and a penalty given to us when he punched O'Brien in the nose (same with Barthez), we'd've gotten to the play-offs.

The Israel games screwed us over. But I blame us more than them.

You can debate about if Awat did comedy or not, agreed. But penalty?? Looks out of perspective.

Ireland lost it in Tel Aviv by not going for the 0-2 instead of defending the 0-1 (with the well-known result).

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Originally Posted by Gerrit

But penalty?? Looks out of perspective.

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For a punch/elbow (depending on whether you're Israeli or French) in the face? What more do you want?