Republic of Ireland V Georgia - Wednesday, 11th February 2009 - World Cup 2010 Q

[paul_oshea]

Anyone got highlights, I left the pub in disgust after 65 minutes only to return after a few texts, with 6 minutes to go.

[Wolfie]

Job done - just about.

We certainly deserved to win the game on the balance of play but there's no doubt we struggled for much of the first half and some of the 2nd.

I know I'm not in line with the concensus view here but I didn't think McGeady was particularly excellent overall last night. In fact, I thought he had a relatively poor first half overall - despite some flashes of brilliance. That said, he jolted to life during the 2nd half and was a prominant contributor to us clawing back the game.

Whelan had a poor game - he's desperately lacking in pace and his passing was awful last night. I know you're just tormenting yourself talking about Stephen Ireland - But can you imagine the joy we'd have got down the flanks with Duff and McGeady with Ireland's slide-rule passes?

Stephen Kelly - Woefully jittery performance and confirms my view that he's not International class full back. This is based on many matches - not just last night.

All those gripes aside - 3 points. Thanks very much. Roll on Bulgaria.

[paul_oshea]

I'd rather walk barefoot to South Africa before I'd send you the highlights.

haha great post geysir. well said.


Never have i done that in my lifetime, and the day I do Ill never consider myself a fan again or ever watch the national team.

[ChrisRed]

Did anyone hear Dunphy's comments after the match about Irelands 7 or 8 players that would get into any international team.

"Given, Doyle, Dunne, O'Shea, Keane and Ireland..........and they all love to play for thier country which is very rare these days"

Its definitely rare with Stpehen Ireland anyway

[elroy]

one thing which will stay with me forever is when georgia scored the second, everyone just went completely quiet and then SUDDENLY it was disallowed and the celebrations were class.

That was a turning point imo, it was like there was a sudden realisation of both players and fans alike of the situation we were in and from them on we didnt look back. We were battering them for a good ten mins upto the penalty incident so I do think we probably wouldve got the goal anyways. Once we got the first, we were always the favourites to win, Georgia had made all their subs and couldnt adapt.

[Stuttgart88]

I'm watching recording of the second half on SKY. In cold light of day and without the nerves, we did pretty much everything you'd want us to have done. We gave them one cheap shot at goal which was deflected onto the post (the follow up was a mile offside).

We won every 50/50, both Whelan & Andrews got on the ball plenty and the wide guys threatened. Final ball wasn't always great, in fact set pieces yet again were poor, Keane's goal notwithstanding.

McGeady beat his man with ease almost every time - even when double-tagged - and his shooting nearly paid dividends. On 70 mins McGeady sent in a great low ball to Duff who tried to be too clever with a dummy.

Keane's penalty was the definition of composure. The actual award itself was wrong but the guy did definitely deliberately move his shoulder to the ball. It wasn't a case of ball hitting shoulder. Does shoulder count?

Doyle's running was selfless and invaluable.

Since we went 2-1 up O'Shea carelessly mi**** a clearance and right on 90 minutes were none too convincing with some high balls on our 18 yard line.

Whelan won possession back with a few good tackles. I noticed that Whelan & Andrews dovetailed. I thought Whelan was usually sitting deep with Andrews forward but it was often the other way around. Andrews was very aggressive pressing the ball rather than just sitting back allowing them on us. McGeady did the same.

watching live I didn't realise just how dominant we actually were.

[Stuttgart88]

I don't know if it's been said anywhere but this has been our best ever world cup campaign start. And half the people are still miserable!

[Tipp Townie]

I don't know if it's been said anywhere but this has been our best ever world cup campaign start. And half the people are still miserable!

Best ever?! That IS a pretty good stat. And its worth remembering that this qualifying group doesnt have a 'minnow' in it either, unlike previous groups like Andorra/San Marino etc.

I'm always up for being positive- don't want to get carried away either, but luck is important. Jack Charlton had it in spades. As has been mentioned on here a couple of times already, the first half of the Euro 88 qualifiers were pretty patchy to say the least, but we still got there.

One note of caution though, that its worth us remembering- this campaign isnt solely about getting 2nd place. (Yes we want to win the group and i think we have a chance, although the performances do have to improve). WHat i mean is, simply coming above Bulgaria isnt necessarily good enough; we have to make sure that our 'record' is good, else we might even miss out on the play offs. From that point of view a squeaky win like last night's could make double the difference.

Anyone got a link to some highlights yet?

[irishultra]

i think with the way other groups are going if we manage to finish second we won't be the worst second placed team.

[tetsujin1979]

For some reason my DVR only recorded the first half last night, I'll stick that online if anyone wants to watch it?

[irishultra]

aye...please

[mypost]

What makes you think I am crying about it? I am over the moon that we have a chance to qualify. I am just pointing out that we were lucky to beat Georgia twice.Ok you make your own luck but do you think we deserved to win both games on merit? I dont think so!

I do think we deserved to win both games, and it's about time we got luck, not wondering what might have been. Unlike the Cyprus backs-to-the-wall job, we held out fairly comfortably after going in front.

We're 4 games into a long campaign, and it's still a work-in-progress. But we are winning, and like with Charlton, the longer we're successful, the more confident the players are, and the better we'll get. We've come far in the past year, and we can go further the longer the campaign goes on.

[the doc]

I'm watching recording of the second half on SKY. In cold light of day and without the nerves, we did pretty much everything you'd want us to have done. We gave them one cheap shot at goal which was deflected onto the post (the follow up was a mile offside).

We won every 50/50, both Whelan & Andrews got on the ball plenty and the wide guys threatened. Final ball wasn't always great, in fact set pieces yet again were poor, Keane's goal notwithstanding.

McGeady beat his man with ease almost every time - even when double-tagged - and his shooting nearly paid dividends. On 70 mins McGeady sent in a great low ball to Duff who tried to be too clever with a dummy.

Keane's penalty was the definition of composure. The actual award itself was wrong but the guy did definitely deliberately move his shoulder to the ball. It wasn't a case of ball hitting shoulder. Does shoulder count?

Doyle's running was selfless and invaluable.

Since we went 2-1 up O'Shea carelessly mi**** a clearance and right on 90 minutes were none too convincing with some high balls on our 18 yard line.

Whelan won possession back with a few good tackles. I noticed that Whelan & Andrews dovetailed. I thought Whelan was usually sitting deep with Andrews forward but it was often the other way around. Andrews was very aggressive pressing the ball rather than just sitting back allowing them on us. McGeady did the same.

watching live I didn't realise just how dominant we actually were.

Well it's 3 points won so we'll take that!

Performance wise I thought we were poor, we were too loose, and wide open to attack, we seemed to lack any real game plan, better teams would of scored a hatful.

Thats a concern! Thank God we are in poor group!

[irishultra]

tbh its not that poor, i would have picked other groups i would have liked to be in.

[Blue Man]

Lets be honest, bar a nervy opening 15 or 20 mins, I thought we battered them. Take Andrews' (wrongly) disallowed goal, the penalty not given in the 1st half and the 2 goals we did score and we're looking at winning 4-0 taking away the freak goal we conceded.

Yes I think our centre of midfield is our weak link but until Stephen Reid is fit and playing and Stephen Ireland decides to get his head out of his hoop, Andrews and Whelan are the best we have (bar A.Reid who doesnt seem to fit in the system). Apart from that I thought we done OK. There was a good tempo about us, we were tough in the tackle and had the final ball been a bit better, we could've had more.

All in all Im happy to be top of the group (albeit joint) and I can see see us winning all our home games, yes even against Italy because as already posted, we do have at least 1 historic performance in us. Cmon lads have a bit of faith, the negativity on this forum baffles me sometimes. We're starting to sound like the English press here. Roll on Bulgaria!!

[Stuttgart88]

Great post from St. Louis.

[paul_oshea]

Job done - just about.

We certainly deserved to win the game on the balance of play but there's no doubt we struggled for much of the first half and some of the 2nd.

I know I'm not in line with the concensus view here but I didn't think McGeady was particularly excellent overall last night. In fact, I thought he had a relatively poor first half overall - despite some flashes of brilliance. That said, he jolted to life during the 2nd half and was a prominant contributor to us clawing back the game.

Whelan had a poor game - he's desperately lacking in pace and his passing was awful last night. I know you're just tormenting yourself talking about Stephen Ireland - But can you imagine the joy we'd have got down the flanks with Duff and McGeady with Ireland's slide-rule passes?

Stephen Kelly - Woefully jittery performance and confirms my view that he's not International class full back. This is based on many matches - not just last night.

All those gripes aside - 3 points. Thanks very much. Roll on Bulgaria.

I would agree re: mcgeady, very poor first half didnt do a great deal in the second, HOWEVER he kept us attacking, kept up the momentum and had he not done this he woudln't have inspired the others to up their tempo and get about the pitch and look for ball. It was this that was his major contribution, when ireland were doing very he little he offered hope and kept things going. Very important in the overall scheme of things.

[Docboy]

http://www.livesoccertv.com/match/68...nd-vs-georgia/

Only very short highlights if you happened to miss the goals...

[Razors left peg]

Just watched the 2nd half on Sky again there. At one stage we had 68% possession.We were totally dominant in 2nd half.Best start EVER to a world cup qualifying campaign, maybe this Trappatoni fella knows what he is doing after all

[NeilMcD]

http://www.examiner.ie/sport/ideymhcwau/

I tend to agree with Liam Mackey a lot when it comes to football and this report hits the nail on the head with regards to most issues.