Cyprus V Republic of Ireland - Saturday, 5th September 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

[Blue Man]

Again the negativity baffles me. Last campaign we were tanked out there. This campaign we won. Why do some jump on the players backs so quick. Its a win and no matter what happens, its all that counts, especially away from home.

Yes it wasnt a great game, yes we didnt perform fantastic but in all honesty what would you prefer? To hammer Cyprus home and away yet valiantly lose to Italy in both games and pick up a scrappy home point to Bulgaria and miss out on a playoff??

Lets be fair here, Andrews and Whelan arent the most gifted players in the world but what are the alternatives? The Andy Reid debate has been done, Darron Gibson? Behave. Only one I can see is gettin Carsley back which wouldnt bring much at this stage. Some posters here are seriously delusional expecting amazing things from limited lads, and the sooner they realise we're now an average team the better. We have workhorses to do a job and I for 1 will celebrate them should they carry us to South Africa which I fully think we can do. Leave off the negativity lads, stop over anylysing things and get excited again

[paul_oshea]

100.4% agree

[SkStu]

Again the negativity baffles me. Last campaign we were tanked out there. This campaign we won. Why do some jump on the players backs so quick. Its a win and no matter what happens, its all that counts, especially away from home.

Yes it wasnt a great game, yes we didnt perform fantastic but in all honesty what would you prefer? To hammer Cyprus home and away yet valiantly lose to Italy in both games and pick up a scrappy home point to Bulgaria and miss out on a playoff??

Lets be fair here, Andrews and Whelan arent the most gifted players in the world but what are the alternatives? The Andy Reid debate has been done, Darron Gibson? Behave. Only one I can see is gettin Carsley back which wouldnt bring much at this stage. Some posters here are seriously delusional expecting amazing things from limited lads, and the sooner they realise we're now an average team the better. We have workhorses to do a job and I for 1 will celebrate them should they carry us to South Africa which I fully think we can do. Leave off the negativity lads, stop over anylysing things and get excited again

dont get me wrong, ill be ole oleing along with the best of em if we get to South Africa. I'd just like to moan and point out the problems before we do.

[cavan_fan]

Im beginning to think you only need to watch the first and last 10 mins of ireland games.

A few random thoughts:

We have a limited squad of players (worse than any squad since the 70's I would say) but we have our best ever manager and they may cancel out.

The only positions I think we can improve are
left back where Kilbane is a problem waiting to happen. Fortunately any return to form for Finnan would allow JOS to play LB.
CM where S Reid would add a lot.

Other than that this is the world cup squad if we qualify.

Up front is a difficult choice. Doyle played much better than Robbe however our most dangerous partnership appear to be Folan and Keane. Trap time to think up a cunning plan which is not Robbie at LM.

Finally, the most likely outcome by far of this group is us coming second and I think this group is unlikely to be the one which doesnt get into the playoffs. (By the way when the story of this group is told how p*ssed off will Bulgaria be about the way they started). So the reality is our chances of being in SA are heavily due to the play off draw. A draw against france, Russia, croatia etc and we are likely out. A draw against Scotland, NI etc and we have a great chance. Fingers crossed everyone.

[Paddy Garcia]

The CM is so very weak - it is worth trying something different against S Africa. From what I could see the CM was over run (again) and Whelan seemed to have another poor game (did someone have him down as potential MOM if he had scored!!) though pulled off a decent shot. So even at this very late stage its probably worth giving a run out to McCann as an alternative/preferred option.

As for the discussion on luck - I have to say I felt we were fortunate last night.

Crosby - Hunt always looks as if he has not played football before. I'm still not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Lots of activity to little effect.

The Keane whingers are unbelievable. 5 goals in the campaign so far - where would we be without him!!!

[seanfhear]

Well it is an away competitive win which is something we do rarely.

Given=did his job

O'shea= at the moment we need him to play full back and centre back.(edit: that may be both full backs and centre back)

Dunne= hopefully Martin o' Neill can get his head and fitness right (I think Dunne is one of those guys that needs a lot of loving from his manager and Hughes has been giving him the cold shoulder for as long as he has been there)

St Ledger= for a very inexperienced player at this level he is doing akay so far.

Kilbane= We love you Kevin and we are asking too much of you to play full back but have we any better options

Whelan/Andrews= the way we play these two have to do a lot of unglamourous work. If our defence was more reliable maybe they would have a lttle more freedom. Andrews usually has a 1 or 2 pot shots and Whelan was only denied a goal by a fantastic save tonight. It would be interesting to see how these lads would perform in a 3 man midfield.(not Traps system for now)

Duff/Hunt/Mcgeady= there is not a lot of difference between them but McGeady has the most ability to improve but his crossing and shooting are not there yet.

Keane/Doyle=we know what we get from these two and they did there job last night.

Folan= does have an impact and hopefully these three strikers can do the job whichever two are on the field.

[Stuttgart88]

As for the discussion on luck - I have to say I felt we were fortunate last night.

We gave them a ferw chances alright and might have given away a couple of penalties, but at the other end Kilbane was careless with his header, Hunt's miss was dreadful - missing the target from 3 feet is awful no matter how tight the angle - Whelan drew a fantastic save and we came close on a couple of other occasions too, like Andrws' shot. Fora poor performance we did make some decent chances.

I think we shaded it actually, it's just that every time they get near our goal we make a bigger deal of it than a neutral would because we're so anxious.

[Paddy Garcia]

We gave them a ferw chances alright and might have given away a couple of penalties, but at the other end Kilbane was careless with his header, Hunt's miss was dreadful - missing the target from 3 feet is awful no matter how tight the angle - Whelan drew a fantastic save and we came close on a couple of other occasions too, like Andrws' shot. Fora poor performance we did make some decent chances.

I think we shaded it actually, it's just that every time they get near our goal we make a bigger deal of it than a neutral would because we're so anxious.

Also its the change in approach once we score a goal - just not set up to sit back - you can see (& feel) the nerves across the entire team - just been pinned back so many times in recent years you can now smell the fear!

Glad I only had to sit that one out for 10 mins - if we had scored with 30 mins to go I'd have been ill.

[OwlsFan]

McGeady coming on, would like to see Folan too (for I, Keano) if we are going to persist with this long aimless ball.

Hah! Glad you're not the manager

I wish there was Ctrl [X] function on my computer I could just press to save me typing "there's not much wrong with this team that a good central midfield wouldn't rectify".

I vividly recall typing that CM was fully functional away to Norway. That's a long time ago.

Watching the RTE analysis - come on Owls Fan and the rest, tell me it wasn't spot on - I think Souness as manager and Reid and Reid in CM and we'd be much better than we are.

Well for a start S. Reid wasn't available so no point in making that suggestion.

As for the panel, same old same old with the usual digs at an era that's gone over 10 years ago and which qualified us for 3 major championships for the first time and 2 or was it 3 play offs.

Dunphy wanted Lee Carsley. FFs. He always wants whoever isn't in the team. That's how he makes his money. No sure he's aregular even for Birmingham. He showed us a few clips of the ball being given away. "Woof". "Woof". "John O'Shea would never do this at Manchester United". Of course not. Never misplaces a pass - not half. I could take a few random excerpts and show some "woofs!" of him playing for Man U.

Giles says we should go on after scoring a goal and try for some more. I think he was manager of our team which lead 3-1 in Denmark and which then fell back and ended up drawing 3-3. Easy to say these things sitting on his ageing bony ass in Dublin when I remember watching his team was like watching paint dry and the fans were crying for his head.

Souness - you want him as manager. He's now a pundit in a studio. The role of all failed managers.

What I can't defend is the absence of A. Reid from the squad now that he's lost 2 stone But I've seen it all before here. People want so and so in the squad yet when they play, they are unconvincing. Sean St Ledger was poor last night but then so were Dunne and O'Shea. Nothing to do with Trapp.

No one has mentioned the state of the pitch. Terribly bouncy. Deliberately made that way I suspect as it wasn't watered. That is a leveller.

In all my years of supporting Ireland, I can count on the fingers of one hand comfortable away wins (all under Jack) where we didn't have to scrap for the win. The Panel and many here have this vision of free flowing football, lovely one touch stuff, 85% possession for Ireland. They need to get real. I wonder was ital.ie () full of people moaning after Italy got a last minute winner in Cyprus. Probably. They all know better even though they find it hard to manage their bladder let alone have 30+ years of managing at the top level.

The fan and the panel know best - so shall it be. so shall it always be.

Trap's team has a resillience and should be judged at the end of the campaign. I am not sure a Sunderland reserve (with no bids of which we are aware from other teams) is the answer to everyone's prayers.

[shakermaker1982]

So Trapattoni was lucky to beat Cyprus twice
Trapattoni was lucky to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Italy (the World Champions)
Trapattoni was lucky to come from behind to beat Georgia
Trapattoni was lucky to draw with Bulgaria twice (despite never being behind against them)
at what point does Trapattoni stop being lucky and start being good?

(BTW shakermaker1982 this is not an attack on you, more a general observation of the team under Trappatoni)

999 times out of a 1000 that free kick at the death would have flown in against us!! I originally put that in my original post but deleted it because I messed up some my sentence and couldn't be bothered to change it because it was getting late. The Trap is quality. How we are lying second with this squad is a miracle. I don't care if we play dog **** football so long as it is picking up results but last night is an example of how thin the line is between a win and a draw at this level. If we didn't get 3 points last night foot.ie would be a war zone today. .

[Jicked]

Another step closer to South Africa. No it wasn't pretty but I never thought it would be. We'd all like to see two marauding central midfielders, but instead we play practically with four centre halfs. Again, not pretty, but for the first time in a while we've gone to Cyprus and they haven't had us on the ropes. They forced one good save from Given, and then scored a pretty good goal themselves, this time though there were no last gasp clearances, blocks, wonder-saves. Instead we retreat, let them have the ball knowing that we're so well set-up defensively that they're not going to score easily against us, and that we'll have enough talent up front to carve open a chance or two that we must take. We created 5 or so good chances, took two of them and can't remember them having a good effort in the second half. I'll take that.

I'm still not sure about St Ledger yet, for me O'Shea and Dunne have to be reunited even if it does mean bringing Kelly back in. Dunne looked a lot more solid with O'Shea beside him earlier in the campaign and St Ledger has looked a little iffy the last two games, I'd be worried he has a McShane style performance in him after his version of McShane's Czech Rep. performance in Sofia.
Kilbane is also clearly a massive weakness it's sad to say, hopefully he can put in two more big performances in the Irish shirt at least to get us there then we can start trying to sort something out.
Given and Dunne's distribution was awful last night which was strange and at odds with how we've been using the ball so far under Trap.

Finally, Robbie Keane. What a man. How our greatest ever striker can be so unrespected by his own fans amazes me. Great player, great attitude and time again he scores the big, big goals for us. Can't believe there's even people in this thread who want Folan in ahead of him !?

So for the man who never scores big goals:










14 goals in 30 World Cup games, & 40 goals and counting, keep up the good work Robbie, you deserve another World Cup.

[frog-gufc]

Robbie Keane eircom man of the match? That just says it all really.

On another note, I wonder are any of the lads banging the Italian translator? Surely

i was thinking that too id rattle her anyway

[Oink]

Great pics Jicked.

We were playing on a beach against the biggest divers i've ever seen in football, I thought the Cypriots were a disgrace to football and it made the win that much sweeter.

If you look at some of Cyprus's recent results at home we did really well to come out with 3 points.

Cyprus - Slovakia 3 - 2
Cyprus - Ukraine 1 - 1
Cyprus - Wales 3 - 1
Cyprus - Germany 1 - 1

and Italy scraping an injury time winner.

We created more oppertunities to score and limited Cyprus to 3 goalscoring chances, 1 of which they scored.

With that starting 11 to be where we are at the moment is a remarkable achievement and every player looks like they are giving it all for the jersey.

Woke up this morning and checked the table and it was a beautiful sight!

[bennocelt]

i was thinking that too id rattle her anyway

isnt she really the manager?

[shakermaker1982]

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

[Jicked]

With that starting 11 to be where we are at the moment is a remarkable achievement and every player looks like they are giving it all for the jersey.

At the end of the game I thought the pictures of the squad was telling. You could see how big a game that was for them to get through by their reactions and that in doing so they know they can now go out to beat Italy to go to the WC. In Sofia their reaction was very much that the job was still not nearly done, at the final whistle a few players came over to clap us fans but quickly went inside. Last night they knew they're almost in a play-off. I can't wait to see them tear lumps out Italy now

(btw, will Italy tickets go on general sale through ticketmaster?)

[shakermaker1982]

(btw, will Italy tickets go on general sale through ticketmaster?)

I'd be very surprised if tickets are available via general sale. I'd get your name down on ticket waiting list over in fans forum section.

[Jicked]

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

You really have to start just turning off RTÉ after the game, it's not good for you.
Dunphy simply doesn't watch a lot of football. He said Duff has been in great form for Newcastle, when in fact Duff doesn't play for Newcastle and when he did he was one of their most dissapointing players and their fans couldn't stand him.

Against Bulgaria at home he said that Ireland should be destroying their full back because Dunphy watches him every week for Charlton and he's rubbish. At the time Charlton were in the Championship and had been for years, so unless Dunphy's a season ticket holder he doesn't watch him every week. Then there's the small fact that he hadn't played for Charlton since leaving for Leicester City two years previously, and since then the lad had even returned home to play in Bulgaria...Dunphy must have a great highlights package to include Bulgarian football every week.
Didn't he also say something about how we should easily beat Italy away because they often lose to weaker teams and only barely qualify, when in fact they hadn't lost at home since 1994.

He simply shows up to RTÉ on match day, skims through the opposition line-up, checks does he recognise any of the names from his Premeirship or
Champions League duty and if he doesn't they're a rubbish team. He then breezes through the Irish team, picks two players who aren't in the line-up an hey-presto Lee Carsley goes from being a geriatric journeyman nothing player to the fulcrum of a side that should be challenging for the World Cup.

[Jicked]

I'd be very surprised if tickets are available via general sale. I'd get your name down on ticket waiting list over in fans forum section.

List is already too long to be any use joining now I'd guess. Hopefully I'll find a ticket somewhere but its a bit annoying having travelled away three times this campaign I'm going to miss out because since I've ever been able to afford it (im 22) the block bookers been closed, yet tens of thousands of GAA fans will be yahoo-ing up from every clubhouse in the country which got x amount of tickets! Argh, oh well, another argument for another day...

[tricky_colour]

Just watching the RTE post match broadcast now (Sky Sports had a quick 1 minute summary from Matt Holland) and Dunphy is a walking contradiction. Dunphy doesn't watch Man Utd if he thinks O'Shea is flawless when in a red shirt.

Is Carsley better than Andrews and Whelan?

Are the panel aware of Catenaccio? The Trap isn't going to start taking risks when 1 nil up. Unfortunately for us the Trap doesn't have a team full of Italian defenders to ensure we keep clean sheets.

Fortunately for us neither does Italy.