Quotejust checked: in their last competitive home fixture they lost to spain 2:1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia...otable_matches
they beat belgium quite recently i think
just checked: in their last competitive home fixture they lost to spain 2:1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia...otable_matches
Beautiful!!!! and heres me thinking that realistically it should be an easy 3 points.Nerves are gonna kill me tomorrow nowOriginally Posted by boovidge
Its really not that complicated!!!
Hear bloody hear.
Of course our alternate party trick is to let the opposition score immediately after we have. None of those shenanigans either, please.
Gotta happen one of these days. Surely..
I can picture in my mind what the Irish performance will be like, typically cautious. Good shape, 45-50%. Good for a goal if we take our chances.
What I'm worried about is their formation. 4-2-3-1.
The last time 4-2-3-1 played 4-4-2 was Germany V England in the world cup.
http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/...gland-tactics/
It leaves a lot of players, on both sides, in space. For us, the space will be afforded to McGeady and Lawrence. Do they have the intelligence to exploit it?
The most restricted is Robbie and Doyler. Especially if Robbie starts dropping deep, which he inevitably will. When Robbie is suffering club wise, he tries extra hard, some would say too hard, for Ireland. Wants to be involved in everything.
If we default to our more cautious approach we are going to have to be ruthless in converting the few chances that fall our way in the game.
Obviously, a solid performance right across the back four is imperative.
McGeady's big chance against Montenegro away at the same stage of the last campaign springs to mind. This time we'll need him to put the chance away, if it arises.
Quoting years at random since 1975
Good call there Wolfie, that chance does come to mind, had that effort gone in, and the game won, the group would have taken a much different direction. Hopefully little things like that change for the better this time.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Beating Belgium was there only win in the group, add to that a draw at home to Estonia (they also lost away to Estonia), and they lost their other 8 games, finishing bottom of the group
This will be my only post of the day as i'm now going to put in the shift of all shifts before scattering.
I'm starting to think this match and it's highlights would be best viewed in black and white, slightly sped up and with audio replaced with an old theatre-style vaudevillian honky tonk upright piano -and maybe one of those Pathe Newsreel Oxford English speaking chaps giving incidental commentary.
"Here's a tricky customer -he calls this move the arse-over-elbow".
Roll on anyway. C'MON IRELAND!!!
" I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again: "Why do they come to me to die?"
LOL LR.
I'm starting to feel more comfortable the more I think about the game. I think we've actually got a good chance of being comfortable, and I reckon if we were to score early we could get a couple more. I think we are in reasonably good shape in offering a threat from all areas of the pitch. McGeadski can score (albeit not for Ireland yet), the pressure is off him to an extent with duff's injury and maybe that will ease the nerves a bit. Doyle and Keane are always a threat, as is Lawrence to a degree, while Glenn Whelan likes a shot. Add to the two centre halves who have shown themselves to be useful in the opposition box.
Hell I'm looking forward to this.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Irish squad is poorest it has been in a long time. Can't see us getting much from this. Typically tricky away tie. A boring 0-0 or 1-1 draw, or a 1-0 to them.
I seem to hear this every year.
Pretty sure we were worse under Staunton, and at various stages under Kerr.
It comes down to the team, not necessarily the squad. Duff out McGeady in is the only key change in my view, and I'm expecting McGeady to deliver today for some reason, despite throwing hefty criticism his way in recent times.
Gotta come good. Come on Ireland.
Other than Duff and Hunt this is our first team. Nervous but expect us to play the Trap way and keep them away from our goal while we take one or two of our chances. C'MON IRELAND!
This is basically the same squad that comfortably beat two WC teams who didn't embarrass themselves at the big show when they came to the RDS, so it's hardly the poorest we've been.
Why do people say stuff like this? We're coming off the back of a campaign where we went through undefeated in a group that could certainly be described as tricky, outplayed France in Paris and hammered two world cup teams in build up friendlies.
The team is settled, the lads know their role and the system, we've lost nobody through retirement either.
On paper perhaps a weak squad but the team is one of the strongest we've had in the past decade.
It speaks volume of where the team is now and where they were when at the start of the last Euro campaign Stan spoke about "being a banana skin for the opposition" and "building for the future" and other nonsense, this campaign Killer has come out and said anything less than 6 points from these two fixtures is a failure, Keane has said the past failure will spur them on to qualification, they have belief now, they're far mentally tougher than they used to be.
Does the honey-monster definitely start?
He's been named in the team so I guess so.
They lost 3-1 at home to Iran last month and got 4 points only in last campaign - 3 decent home points against Belgium though and a good show against Spain.
However, Belgium are a shambles at times these days.
In the last Euro campaign they beat Poland and drew with Portugal. Their team has changed and they have changed coach since then, reverting back to a cautious style I believe.
We should take them, but the heat and our players' rustiness and arguable fitness make me a little nervous. There's a lot of pressure on Paul Green but I suspect he'll do OK. He seems a confident type. Time for McGeady to start scoring. I can't believe it was 2004 when he first played for us.
I think in previous campaigns in the back of their minds there was always at least one more to follow. Now a few of them realise that this will be their last Euros and 2014 WC will be a real stretch for some of them.
Stuttgart,
One of the players made the point that bar McGeady and perhaps Dunne (injuries) the players shouldnt be weary or rusty given the proximity of the game to pre-season where most of the players went through or featured in. We'll be fine on that score. Agreed re: Green, he does seem the confident sort, a trait Trap seems to adore. It's that reason he persists with say McShane over perhaps Darren O'Dea, ability wise O'Dea is far ahead imo, but appears to me to suffer from asserting himself, a confidence issue, whereas McShane is quite limited but is very confident in himself.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
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