We Draw France, Russia or Portugal

[Den Perry]

His squad/team selection is bit bizzare. Benzema has only started both Austria matches and the home match vs Serbia, apart from that he's just been a sub, coming on in the last 15 mins home to Romania, (Gignac started that match), sub in both games with Lithuana (Luyindula was starting). Ribery was benched for the Faeroes (away) and Romania (away) matches. I would guess most coaches would play these players if they were in charge of France. He doesnt seem to have the ability to change things if France are struggling, I know they came back from 2 down in Bucharest to draw with Romania and 1 down to draw wither Serbia in Belgrade, I didnt see the former but watched the latter and France never really changed their rythm and were very lucky to get a 1-1 draw, by all accounts it was the same in Romania.

There are also reports of problems with the players (http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...h-1783437.html) also the French press was saying there are problems between him and Diarra / Real Madrid over releasing players. I think he is poor coach who makes bizzare decisions, and only the strength of the squad has saved hime so far, France have enough quality to put in a good performance despite being hamstrung by Domenech, but I would argue that Italy are significantly stronger and we matched them so there is no reason why we should be too fearful of the French.

thanks for that Edmundo.

[paul_oshea]

whatever about swine flu, if we draw russia and we get chestikov we could be in a seriouslly bad way.

[tetsujin1979]

Beat them as the USSR 1-0 at Lansdowne in 84. Mickey Walsh scored a cracker.

The 1974 3-0 win was a competitive match. And while it's a long time ago, hopefully it will inspire the current crop of players.

sorry guys, I was going on this page on soccerscene:
Results VS Russia: http://www.soccerscene.ie/sssenior/opponent.php?opp=42

but I should have included this page as well
Results VS USSR: http://www.soccerscene.ie/sssenior/opponent.php?opp=44

Overall our record vs Russia/Soviet Union/USSR/Glorious Communist Paradise Under The Benevolent Rule Of Beloved Leader Lenin reads
Played 13
Won 4
Drawn 3
Lost 6

[paul_oshea]

Press Review: France
08:21, 16 Oct 2009
Mark Rodden


The French press have been focusing on their possible play-off opponents ever since the country’s slim hopes of catching Serbia were ended last Saturday.

In reality though, France will have been thinking about November’s matches after their 1-1 draw in Serbia in September, a result which left them four points off the group leaders with two games to play.

However, that scoreline doesn’t tell the full story. According to both the players and the media, the week of their double-header against Romania and Serbia represented a massive turning point for the team.

Shortly before their game in Serbia, Le Parisien newspaper reported that during a team meeting before the 1-1 draw with Romania at the Stade de France, Thierry Henry had strongly criticized the French manager Raymond Domenech.

Just a few days later, Henry turned out to be France’s saviour in Belgrade. After watching his side go a goal and a man down within 10 minutes, the Barcelona striker scored his 50th goal for his country to drag France level. That weekend’s L’Equipe Magazine told how “the captain saved his coach” and said that “the real boss” was Henry, not Domenech.

By salvaging a point with a stirring, backs-to-the-wall performance, France had more or less assured themselves of a place in the play-offs – something that would have been far from certain had they lost. It was a game that saw a fragile but undoubtedly talented French side rediscover their confidence, self-belief and swagger. A team-defining moment similar to… their 1-0 defeat of Ireland in 2005.

All that serves to give an idea of why France are suddenly confident of qualifying for the World Cup, despite a largely uninspiring campaign that saw them lose in Austria early on and barely scrape past Lithuania on two occasions.

“Les Bleus are good to go” read the headline in French sports daily L’Equipe on Thursday, after France’s comfortable 3-1 win over Austria in Paris. “The fine win against Austria yesterday confirms the revival of a French team that will be big favourites in the play-offs,” it continued.

In Monday’s edition, Vincent Duluc had already been busy running the rule over France’s possible rivals. “The worst draw would probably be to meet Ireland, with the second leg in Dublin,” he wrote. “Without doubt the best draw would be Slovakia or Slovenia, with the second leg taking place in the Stade de France.”

Further on in his more detailed analysis of each of opponent, Duluc had this to say about Giovanni Trapattoni’s side: “Not everything is rational when it comes to Ireland. There’s the imagery of a night at Croke Park, some intense moments forecast, the prospect of seeing the Stade de France taken over by Irish supporters, and there is a little bit of superstition linked to the curse that comes when anything Italian faces Raymond Domenech. And the Irish manager is “Trap”, Michel Platini’s former coach.”

Aside from the external influences, Duluc also had praise for the current crop of Irish players.“The Irish are all the more difficult to play against because, as well as their extra athletic power, their passing ability is better than they may have shown in the 20th century. (Excuse me, Liam Brady)”


He obviouslly hasn't seen us play. We cant pass the ball at all!!

[Duggie]

nice to see the french worrying about us. everyone is in the same boat for the play offs.

[finbarrk]

whatever about swine flu, if we draw russia and we get chestikov we could be in a seriouslly bad way.

Whats chestikov?

[Duggie]

Whats chestikov?

it kinda like arshavincoughvvvvv

[irishfan86]

I've been reading some articles on Queiroz, and it seems that he's been mixing and matching throughout the campaign, and never really settled on his best team (over 40 players called up in all). In addition, it seems that he has been playing players in positions that are unfamiliar for them (defenders in midfield, wingers as forwards, centre-mids as wingers, etc.).

Now, despite this, they may have the quality to beat us, but looking at the teams so far, it seems to me:

Portugal: Poor manager, good individuals, poor team.
Russia: Top manager, decent individuals, good team.
France: Poor manager, good individuals, poor team.
Greece: Top manager, poor individuals, average team.

I think each team has its weak points, and even if we go up against Portugal or France, we'll have a chance with Trap at the helm. We've seen he can go toe to toe with Lippi with a much weaker pool of players to choose from, so I think this playoff situation is really where having a manager like Trap is going to be very important.

[seanfhear]

Would'nt it be nice to knock out one of those big names that Sepp Blatter is trying so hard to keep in.

[Duggie]

Would'nt it be nice to knock out one of those big names that Sepp Blatter is trying so hard to keep in.

ya all the top seeds id love to see knocked out. sicken them.

[EalingGreen]

what exactly has Domenech done to be labelled a c*** manager?

Wasn't he in charge when they got to the last World Cup Final?. I'm not saying he's not s hite but what's gone on?

Edmundo has already comprehensively outlined his, er, idiosyncratic team selections. However, these are just the symptoms of his condition.

As I said before, the man is barking - if you Google "Domenech" and "Astrology", you'll get plenty of insight into his state of mind, of which the following is just one example:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...the-stars.html

[Razors left peg]

Starting to get really excited about the playoffs already. We always play to the standard of the opposition whether it be Italy or Faroe Islands. We have an annoying habit of just doing enough against poor teams but we always raise our game to the better teams and we are very rarely outclassed completely. No matter who we get we will give them a game and the tension and atmostphere is going to be unbelieveable

[Wolfie]

It could be argued that the sequence of the home and away fixture could be of equal, if not more importance, than who we actually draw.

Would love to get Greece, though.

[paul_oshea]

We always raise our game but we never win(albeit holland), we end up drawing. So the crucial thing is away goals for me. we have to have to score at least one away goal.

Some people are making it sound like we raise our game to the level of a win, but that never, very rarely even, happens. The big guns always do enough to get what they want/need against us ( again bar holland and that was over 8 years ago now! YOu would probably have to go back another 8 for the next one, possibly italy at wc 94, wouldn't include yugoslavia)