Slovakia V Republic of Ireland - Tuesday, 12th October 2010 - Euro 2012 Qualifier

[OneRedArmy]

You can disagree, but the result is like every other game we've played away from there and what happened? yep we drew. we went 1 - 0 up years ago against switzerland through morrisson, same happened, israel, same happened. the performance are not good enough to win and thats why we haven't won. You can say what you like but the results are there as proof. We had very little possession in the second half, they had plenty and only for poor final passes and shooting they would have won. Plenty of teams can go away to these places and win.

What are the results proof of Paul, that we're not a football superpower?

If you think last night was a terrible performance your expectations are completely unrealistic and unrepresentative of the entire history of results of the Ireland team.

[paul_oshea]

What are the results proof of Paul, that we're not a football superpower?

If you think last night was a terrible performance your expectations are completely unrealistic and unrepresentative of the entire history of results of the Ireland team.

Or maybe I think we are simply a better team than last nights performance showed, against a team who were torn apart by Armenia.

[Jicked]

Are people happy with a point? I don't know but 1 point from these 2 games is not good enough.

Have we still got a chance at topping the group?

Technically we're still in it to top the group, but in reality that would require taking 6 points from Macedonia, beating Slovakia and taking a point from Moscow. That's a big ask, and won't be achieved unless we get guys like Doyle, Duff and Hunt back and improve the situation of Robbie/Given.
In reality, we're in the hunt for second yet again. On the plus side, I think we're looking in a much better position that Slovakia.

Their result in Moscow seems like a freak result, for both those teams, Russia look strong and have gotten 6 points out of tough trips to Dublin and Skopje.
if we beat Slovakia in Dublin we'll be looking very good to finish ahead of them. To be honest I don't think we'll even need to do that, I can see them being more likely to drop points against Macedonia than us, while I think Russia will be targeting a win in Slovakia for revenge and to basically clinch top spot.
That would mean that even if we slip up against Macedonia and only got a draw away, we could lose to Russia in Moscow, and beat Slovakia in Dublin and still come second.


So, we're aiming for second again. This time we're in a very good position to make it, and that's not a bad situation to be in up against a side that reached the knockout stage of the World Cup and a Russian side who can play some fantastic stuff. Just a little dissapointing/frustrating when you think a late equaliser against russia, and Robbie's penalty going in in Zilina and we'd be looking great for first.

[Stuttgart88]

"Plenty of teams go to these places and win".

Yes, and they do so by scoring from the clear cut chances they create. We didn't do this in Switzerland or Israel.

I think we played better last night than, for example, NI did in Slovenia. Look, if Slovakia had missed a penno and 2 clear cut chances, and yet we drew the whole country would be on the "lucky Trap" bandwagon and we'd be berated. We let 2 points slip, no doubt whatsoever, but the general performance was good enough to win a game like this.

We have good players who were unavailable (Duff, Hunt, Doyle, Andrews) and I think most of us agree that we probably have better players in some positions currently being overlooked. The good news is that Fahey & Long have really stepped up. The team / squad needs a bit of refreshing and the cobwebs need to be dusted off defending set-pieces and in front of goal.

Anyway, Indo self-loathing watch: neutral ref gave Slovakia nothing and the penalty was unnecessarily harsh.

[paul_oshea]

It was a clear penalty.

Stutts, i dont really know what yer other point is? Of course the team who scores more goals wins.

[ifk101]

In the context of the Russian game, I thought our first half performance last night was quite good. The inclusion of Fahey in the team certainly made the difference as we had a player in midfield that wasn't afraid to put a foot on the ball and he had a player that was capable of actually doing something on the ball. Indeed our two best players on the night were Fahey and Long, which I think puts pay to the notion that we don't have anybody to bring in.

We certainly died in the second half - whether that was because of the disappointment of missing the penalty or something said at half time I don't know.

I think we could have done with a player like Stokes on the bench last night. I see him as an ideal replacement to have for Robbie when things aren't going Robbie's way like last night.

Also think there's an urgency to have something done about our full backs. Foley needs to be given a go and I think St Ledger should be dropped with JOSH moving into the centre to make this happen. I'd actually continue with Kilbane for the time being - half the problem with Kilbane is the lack of help he's getting from McGeady.

[Real ale Madrid]

Last night's result would have been lauded as wonderful if we had beaten or drawn against the Russians on Friday night. On rte, on here and in the papers.

It was Friday night where we had the setback and our weaknesses exposed by a technically superior outfit. Not last night.

Last night was a typical Irish away performance, 100% from everyone, some shaky moments, some good play - generally though I thought we looked very solid, especially in the second half. They are a big strong physical side who will cause anyone a problem from set pieces, and they caused us a few from those positions last night. In open play we looked the better side when we got the ball down, and I thought and only for our top striker being out of form we probably would have won the game.

Its a bit of a scrap now alright but if we win our home games ( Armenia, Slovakia, Macedonia ) , get draws away to Macedonia and Russia and beat Andorra away - that should be good enough for second.

Not sure if topping the group was ever realistic.

[Jicked]

What are the results proof of Paul, that we're not a football superpower?

If you think last night was a terrible performance your expectations are completely unrealistic and unrepresentative of the entire history of results of the Ireland team.

I think it's fair to say at this stage that this team has major problems with winning games, they have absolutely no killer instinct as they've shown time and time again. It's a huge problem, we don't look like winners, ever. Just about the only time we looked a little like a winning team was when we hit late on to draw in Italy, and even then we could have won it even later and fluffed it. To have not one a single big game in so long is ridiculous, you'd think we'd have had one lucky win by now at least.

[twoenz]

Another poor night at the office.

They were there for the taking and we let them off the hook. If Robbie had scored the penalty would we have won? Doubtful.

We're no worse off than we were at the start of the game. Let Russia run away with it now, and gear up for a fight for 2nd. Has to be 6 against Macedonia, then things should look a bit better.

As for the 3 wise men, Giles and Dunphy don't watch any football unless they're sitting in the RTE studio. Their lack of knowledge could fill several libraries.

[SwanVsDalton]

Or maybe I think we are simply a better team than last nights performance showed, against a team who were torn apart by Armenia.

Paul, I can see what you're getting at - I think all of us here would like to see a tangible improvement in turning near-misses into successes. That's what we'll judge Trap on and, based on that, we haven't really progressed in the last year. It's frustrating.

But we're competing and I think playing better, with less options, than under Kerr and Staunton. I think ORA's right - it's unrealistic to suppose we're going to blow these teams off the park. There's absolutely no evidence to support that idea. It is realistic to expect us up our game and really get at teams away from home - and last night we did that.

The performance was a great improvement on Friday. We played some nice stuff, defended better and created far more chances than them, away from home. As far as away performances go, it was one of our better ones. Just unfortunate our main finisher had an off night. Frustrating, yes, but there's plenty of room for optimism based on the performance. As Stutts said, five months to get it right before two big, big games against the Macedonians.

[paul_oshea]

Technically we're still in it to top the group, but in reality that would require taking 6 points from Macedonia, beating Slovakia and taking a point from Moscow. That's a big ask, and won't be achieved unless we get guys like Doyle, Duff and Hunt back and improve the situation of Robbie/Given.
In reality, we're in the hunt for second yet again. On the plus side, I think we're looking in a much better position that Slovakia.

Their result in Moscow seems like a freak result, for both those teams, Russia look strong and have gotten 6 points out of tough trips to Dublin and Skopje.
if we beat Slovakia in Dublin we'll be looking very good to finish ahead of them. To be honest I don't think we'll even need to do that, I can see them being more likely to drop points against Macedonia than us, while I think Russia will be targeting a win in Slovakia for revenge and to basically clinch top spot.
That would mean that even if we slip up against Macedonia and only got a draw away, we could lose to Russia in Moscow, and beat Slovakia in Dublin and still come second.


So, we're aiming for second again. This time we're in a very good position to make it, and that's not a bad situation to be in up against a side that reached the knockout stage of the World Cup and a Russian side who can play some fantastic stuff. Just a little dissapointing/frustrating when you think a late equaliser against russia, and Robbie's penalty going in in Zilina and we'd be looking great for first.

So manage expectations, setting in again. We are happy now for second. Come june we will be happy to fight it out for second and then september, just happy that we have a chance of still coming second if results go our way....

[Stuttgart88]

Stutts, i dont really know what yer other point is? Of course the team who scores more goals wins.

My point is simple: the general performance was good enough to win a game like that, we just wasted the chances we created. You were saying the general performance was awful.

[tetsujin1979]

Slovakia's next two games are Andorra home and away, so they will expect to pick up 6 points there, meaning we will have to match their results against Macedonia to still be in contention for second when the return game comes around next September.

[boovidge]

guys, don't forget about Armenia who look like a useful outfit. They certainly look like contenders for 2nd atm.

[SwanVsDalton]

Six points would put us in pole position with Slovakia and Armenia at home as well as Andorra. Looks like away to Macedonia is going to be the crucial game of the campaign. Nervous already.

[paul_oshea]

My point is simple: the general performance was good enough to win a game like that, we just wasted the chances we created. You were saying the general performance was awful.

It wasn't though. Bar a penalty, a fair one albeit and robbies miss thats all we created(the one over the bar was good build up play and ball in, but robbie made the play for himself). In the second half had we even 1 shot on target. that is not good enough to win a game.

Its funny had we maybe played armenia last night we might well have only got a draw and people would have said a good result too. Its all psychological with the fans and players it seems. Its as though we put teams on a pedestal and give them too much respect, if we think they are a good side then they are a good side.

[tetsujin1979]

away from the game for a minute, I was reading through the articles on soccerrepublic. Is it just me or have they become slightly more critical of the side since the sponsorship with eircom expired? Probably not too surprising.

[tetsujin1979]

By the way, i don't know if ye watched the webcast, but Brady was under the impression that McCarthy is tied to us from the Brazil friendly. That's actually quite scary and a damning advertisemtn for the FAI. Fair deuce to Bill for making the comment about him being the assistant manager. There's a phone call that's needed to James asap.

To be fair to Brady, he did admit his mistake and that Trapattoni needed to be informed about this

Also Bill brought up Barry Maguire and the panel didn't have a clue who he was talking about. I love Eamonn and Johnny normally, but there lack of knowledge is depressing. We're all a bunch of Ireland lovers with no involvement with the FAI (I think!) and i think anyone on this forum could list out more players available to the irish squad than the staff of the FAI combined. That's very very sad in my opinion.

Bill mentioned Maguire and O'Hara as having declared for Ireland, and Brady said that he was sure O'Hara hadn't declared yet. They didn't say they didn't know anything about Maguire, they just didn't discuss him. Bill said he scored a hat trick against Celtic, but he only scored one.

[geysir]

So manage expectations, setting in again. We are happy now for second. Come june we will be happy to fight it out for second and then september, just happy that we have a chance of still coming second if results go our way....

The target was to get the results to top the group, we are not yet good enough for that - unless Russia collapse - now we accept 2nd place if it's going.
Happy doesn't come into it.
Last night was a performance to put us slightly ahead for 2nd place spot and it was far from a performance needed by a team challenging for 1st spot.

In the short term - to the next batch of qualifiers in Spring - we need a total overhaul at centre midfield -
by next June we need 2 full backs, - a flat back 4 wont get us through a play off, if we make it that far.
I think we have good enough players elsewhere.

[Fixer82]

Another poor night at the office.

They were there for the taking and we let them off the hook. If Robbie had scored the penalty would we have won? Doubtful.

We're no worse off than we were at the start of the game. Let Russia run away with it now, and gear up for a fight for 2nd. Has to be 6 against Macedonia, then things should look a bit better.

As for the 3 wise men, Giles and Dunphy don't watch any football unless they're sitting in the RTE studio. Their lack of knowledge could fill several libraries.

Yeah I think if Robbie had scored there's every chance we would have let them back into it. Possible in injury time.

Incidentally what was the story with the ref Stopping the game on 91 minutes cos of injury and instead of dropping the ball just blowing the game up? Annoyed me

meh