Watched a review on Euro 88 on TV last night. Jeez, that was some wicked bounce on that ball, right? Poor Packie. So close to qualifying for the Semis.
It surely was, damn the Wim Kieft. I reckon that was our best ever chance of getting to the final (or even winning) a major championship.Originally Posted by Metrostars
Houghton's goal against England and Whelan's goal against Russia are 2 of the best moments in Irish football.
Jack Charlton always reckoned that we had the game to take on the Germans .. beat them before the 94 world cup in a friendly ... and look at Northern Ireland's results against Germany over the years ... if a comparison can be made at all ... and if we had got past them, it would have been the russians again who we totally outplayed in the 1-1 draw .. so its not that far fetched that we could have won it.
Hougthon in New York comes close .. but yep .. those two goals are still the greatest moments for me too ..
Could be argued that Ronnie Whelan was a better player than Roy Keane too ... although a slightly contentious point!
I kept dreaming of that bounce for years after. In the closing, what, nine minutes? And I had tickets for the match in Hamburg. And of course the one game I wanted the scum to win and they f*cking lose (slow swinging of clench right fist).
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Yep, 81st minute. That ball was going wide until it bounced. Was it spin or did it hit a bad patch of dirt? Just image if it had stayed 0-0: no wonder Van Basten goal and possible USSR rematch in the final.I kept dreaming of that bounce for years after. In the closing, what, nine minutes? And I had tickets for the match in Hamburg. And of course the one game I wanted the scum to win and they f*cking lose (slow swinging of clench right fist).
But that's the funny old game. That's why I love it.
Anyone know if there was/is a Euro 88 video around? Have only seen bits (i.e. the goals mainly) since, and have all our World Cup matches on video, so my collection's got a big gap in it!
Now this is a pretty picture:
I think Kieft headed the ball and got a nice (for the Dutch) bit of spin on it. What was worse was that Van Basten was offside although running back. Still offside!BTW, I'm somewhere under the a and n of that picture.
I got one for Italia 90 but I can't remember one for Euro 88. Sure there was one. Maybe try ebay, especially the German one. I got a rare programme for the whole tournament on that site.
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Check here: http://www.excentric.com/soundbyte/goods.htm#sport
probably an old site as it is still in Punts but they have one.
Hard to believe it is 16 years ago. What a week
June 12th should be a national holiday.
Magic moments and also a tournament for the fans - no problems re tickets for any game no hangers on and great chanc efor the real football people to see a major tournament.
I've got a copy of the official FAI Euro 88 video which has fairly extensive highlights from all three matches......I might be able to figure out how to do copies and get one done for you. I did get it on ebay for less than a tener though so it might be worth looking on there first. Email me if you'd like me to try and make a copy for you.
It is incredible looking back at just how good a side we had then. It is often said that it was down to high levels of organisation, fitness etc. but we really did have some class players - McGrath, Whelan, Bonner, Houghton, Aldridge. The Dutch were lucky.....McGrath's header came back off the post, hit a defender on the leg, and then bouced off the post again! Their goal was a mis-hit shot with one of their players so offside it beggers belief how it was ever allowed to stand.
We played both the Soviets and the Dutch - both went on to play each other in the final of course - and we made them both look very ordinary.
Them were the days, eh?!It should definitely be a national day. The Feast of St. Raymond of Stuttgart. A bloke I know spotted him once and said to him: 'Do you know you are responsible for the worst f*cking hangover of my life? I would just like to thank you for every minute of it.'
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
It was spin, I remember it like it was ten minutes ago, McGrath heads clear and Ronald Koeman winds up for one of those trademark piledrivers on the edge of the box, he completely shanks it and sends it into the ground and spinnignto Keift's head, the latter tries to head across goal only to see it turn the corner around Bonner.
An absolute fluke, and it still hurts
Cork City: Making 'Dream Team' seem realistic since 2007.
BTW, England were awful in that whole tournament. In the review I saw last night, they interviewed some of the players involved in the whole Euro 88, Protosov said they didnt even try that hard against England and they still won easily.
Did anybody tape this review, what was it on, I am just back from Holland so missed it.
neil
No surprise. England are generally poor in euro champioships. Granted, they qualify more than us.
Great party afterwards with the Dutch (and many subsequently) but I often wonder how things would have gone if we'd gone through. We were high up in a corner at the opposite end to where Helmut Kohl took down his offside flag and with 10 minutes to go were getting a bit cocnerned re safety etc.
We were well outnumbered that day as 40,000 Dutch had popped over the border on a saturday afternoon and there was an element that would not have taken elimination very well. We were well outnumbered before the game and felt a little uncomfortable for a while. furthermore amate had a spare ticket and went back out to sell it on his own and got absolutely mobbed (loads of Irish tickets but thousands of Dutch locked out that day) he ended up with somebody pressing £50 into his hand and taking the ticket (he as forever ribbed about being a tout afterwards) but got joistled a bit then and got a bit of a fright before getting back into the ground - security was much more lax in those days.
I also recall the total disdain and indifference with which the Germans treated us on arrival in Stuttgart. We were England B and our cousins were wearing T shirts with "2 world wars and one world cup - England invasion of Germany 40 years on". After we won and the subsequent total outpouring of joy and emotion not to mention the massive media coverage we got then did they understand. The Germans were almost as happy.
It was that week that the legend of the Irish football fan was born and especially the way we took defeat v the Dutch.
It was a great team too. We had 3 of the Liverpool team that were dominant in England and 3 of the Celtic side that won the double in Scotland. We also had Paul McGrath who was immense.
BTW there is a myth that grew up around the England game that we scored after 6 minutes and held on for dear life with 84 minutes of pounding us in our own penalty box and Lineker missing 50 open goals. Actually we were the better team in a poor first half and well deserved our half time lead. We should have been further ahead in the early stages of the 2nd half as Ronnie Whelan was the only man to hit the woodwork that day when he hit the bar. Glenn Hoddle came off the bench with half an hour to go and he transformed England and then we were forced back and Packie was magnificent and yes we rode our luck.
We murdered the Soviets, should have had a stonewall penalty at 1-0 and gabe Protassov a soft goal.
We did ride our luck more against the Dutch and should have been behind at the break but Michels had lost the plot (just like Van Gaal at Lansdowne did in 2001 when he took off the wingers that were killing us) and had taken off a midfield player and put on a striker and the Dutch had shot their bolt at that stage when they got the freak goal and that austrian B&**()* took down his offside flag.
We had the game for the Germans ok but whether we could have raised the level again 3 days later is debatable as our game plan required a huge workrate.
I think the best team we ever had was the one that should have gone to Sweden in 92. We couldn't put england away at WQembley though and threw away the 3-1 lead in Poland and still lost out thanks to a terrible refereeing decision in Poland that would have put them 2-0 up and England out. With a bit of luck we could well have won Euro92.
there was a brilliant photo in one of the papers on sunday.it was taken just after the houghton goal and the contrast in faces/body language of the opposing players is unbelievable.the english defenders are just standing there shellshocked and the boys are going fcucking haywire
amazing what you see in just 1 photo
Which paper, Father? I'd quite like to change my PC wallpaper, you see...there was a brilliant photo in one of the papers on sunday.it was taken just after the houghton goal and the contrast in faces/body language of the opposing players is unbelievable.the english defenders are just standing there shellshocked and the boys are going fcucking haywire
amazing what you see in just 1 photo
Semper in faecibus sole profundum variat
Which paper, Father? I'd quite like to change my PC wallpaper, you see...
twas the "vatican news" special euro 88 issue
btw,the page 3 s arnt up to much this edition
Last edited by the 12 th man; 09/06/2004 at 12:39 PM.
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