Spot on! I think we should play England. Why let that scum win?! In fairness the signs look like that the EFA have cleaned up their acted. Better policing and taken advice from the British police rather telling them we can host GAH matches without any trouble (which is a lie) would help.
But there will be morons from both side that would be all to happy to ruin it for everyone.
Now without doubt some of the best fans around in LOI are the Bray lot , never a hint of trouble from them where ever they go . Yet last Friday one Scholligan was trying to start something with a couple of young Galway lads , Hey the Stewards picked him out and sent him packing very quickly . So shall we warn all travelling fans to stay away from Bray ??
And before some starts yes what the so called England fans did was way over the top , but that lot were Combat 18 hardcore thugs . We can't paint all fans the same . I have been to the last couple of Irish away games and some of our fans were what you could call colourful if you know what I mean .
Once we get this fixture out of the way we all can move on and start talking about football again and reminding out English friends that the last time they have beaten us was 1987 . You'll never beat the Irish![]()
Well on the scum element, think i saw the most of that element at a recent hurling game involving waterford and tipperary than i have at any football game home or abroad. It was a disgrace and the guards/stewards did very little about it. Hence why I would be concerned at our own police ability to deal with any trouble from UK scum.
Im sure we have our own scum element following Ireland and no doubt a game against England would attract them as it would attract certain "firms" in the UK. Would have no problem with the normal English fan coming across to support their team.
Well hopefully if it was go ahead the FAI don't sit them in the upper section of a stand so they can hurl everything down at people like in '95.
Better arrangements in '91 they were all put in the schoolboy end of the south terrace the large pound coins had just come out and those nice English people were firing them over at us obviously thinking they were 10 pence pieces went home with a pocketfull although saying that they knocked over a hawker's table on the way out and then decided to take on a few locals from O'Connell St. and the surrounding area!
Unfortunately there is always that element that support England who just want to cause trouble.
You're paying too much attention to the English media. They are nobodies on the world stage. Who have they beaten of note lately? Croatia? They were found wanting in the Euros once they came up against any half decent opposition in the knockout stages. Spain slaughtered England a few months ago.
I suppose you thought they'd win the last World Cup also when people were delusionally claiming they were the best team in the finals bar Brazil. As usual they were shockingly bad. On an individual player for player basis their team now is poorer than it has been for years.
Last edited by youngirish; 29/07/2009 at 11:58 AM.
The Panorama programme at the WC06 summed it up pretty well, whilest not engaging in the full blown antics of yesteryear there was a perceptable change in mood/atsmophere whenever england arrived in town. Too many blindlely drunk eejits who think a quarter of the globe is still pink and that the English singlehandlely won WW2 and thus prevented numerous countries from having German as their first language.
No thanks
I don't want a friendly against England and I agree that the only time we should play them is if we're drawn against them.
Don't agree with this. Spain are the reigning European champions, Brazil were strong at the Confederations Cup and appear to be finding form again, Germany have been consistently performing well in the World Cup and Euros (Third in WC06 and Runners up in Euro08 only recent examples) and I believe every one of their youth teams dominated the under-age European competitions and Argentina are always a dangerous team.
These teams are statistically better than England, regardless of how you rate the individual players of each team.
If we want to bring the dreaded stats into it - played 7, won 7 in current qualifying is quite impressive - even in a weak group.
That includes an away win in Croatia.
If we matched that it would have been our best away qualifying result since 1987.
Quoting years at random since 1975
7 wins in 7 is impressive I suppose, but it doesn't really say much in a weak group and it doesn't really matter until you get to the Finals and perform there to be honest.
Spain have won 6 in 6, Holland have won 7 in 7 and they too have relatively easy groups. Serbia have won 6 in 7, Germany have won 5 in 6; does that mean that England are better than Serbia and Germany?
Quoting years at random since 1975
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ra...llranking.html
You can argue the toss about the meaningfullness of these rankings but I would say they are certainly a top 10 side, especially with capello at the helm.
A top 10 side is a far stretch from claiming that only by bottling it will they not win the world cup next year. I would suggest the only chance they have of winning the world cup is if Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, France and Portugal all bottle it instead.
The game was in autumn 90 and the bulk of the English fans were in the same place they were put in 95. Difference was there was a ring of uniformed police around them the entire game rather then the plain clothes approach used in 95. As soon as any of them got lairy the cops were straight onto them in 90. Didn't stop them raining coins onto us on the South Terrace when Cas equalised mind you. Pretty sure the schoolboy section was all Irish fans that day and all, think that was where most of the money landed.
There was mayhem on O'Connell St afterwards alright, got locked into the Daniel O'Connell having nipped in for a quick couple, wound up falling out of the place at closing time!
Not really @rsed about playing them in a friendly, wouldn't mind a competitive game though.....
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...ngs/index.html
Actually, if you look at their recent results and standings (above), you'll see France are struggling (still) under Domenech, whilst Portugal have been pretty dire since Quiroz took over. Unless something drastic changes and quickly, neither is guaranteed even to qualify for the Finals, never mind make an impact when they get there.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/prelimi...ngs/index.html
Meanwhile, Argentina will almost certainly qualify, but the fact that they may need to do so in 5th Place and a Play-off against the 4th placed CONCACAF team, shows just what a joke Maradona is as a manager.
As for England, if the Finals were now, I'd say they get out of their Group, and maybe to the last eight, but no more.
However, with another 12 months under Capello, I wouldn't be too surprised if they made it to the last four. To go any further would, as you say, require some of the leading five or six countries to experience difficulties.
Btw, from what I've seen of the England National team's fans etc in recent years, I'd be confident that there'd be no trouble if they played in Dublin (though the Gardai and English police etc would have to take more precautions than for a normal international).
Once they don't win it!It would be unbearable it's bad enough listening to a English TV commentator mention 1966 every time they tip off at the start of a world cup if they won it with modern media and technology you would never hear the end of it.
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