Pat Kenny?
In what sense would either performance have done irreparable damage to Irish football? They're only irreparable if we fail to learn from where we went wrong.
Maybe irreparable is a little over the top, but some comments have been along those lines. Roddy Collins claimed the results have put us back 20 years (meaning we're going to qualify for the next world cup?) and I've read posts saying it would have been better not to have qualified.
I don't think the results put us back 20 years, but they do expose just how far behind we are. We can continue with the current slipshod approach or we can learn our lesson. The wake-up call has to be viewed as beneficial, but I can't see how failing to qualify could have been in any way advantageous. It's just people reacting in over-the-top fashion.
Very different tbf. First time a LOI team got to the group stage of a Euro comp, and at least they were fairly competitive in most of the games (unlike Irelands three games). Now if an Irish team continued to get into group stages and not get any points then you might argue that, but not for a first outing.
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
Anyone who says we've set the game back or done damage is just looking for a Roy Keane-style catchphrase that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. As Danny says, it's a wake up call. We can't compete against Europe's best but we are still serious qualification contenders, just as we were 10 years ago. Maintaining this and cranking it up a notch so that we are group stage contenders is what we have to aim for.
I found this quote from Greg Cunningham (link provided in the Greg Cunningham thread yesterday) quite encouraging:
"We had a good result at home to Italy* and if we beat Turkey in the next qualifier in August we have a great chance of qualifying for the finals. I want to push on to the seniors but I am enjoying the games with the U21s. We have a very strong U21 squad now. A lot of us have been together since we were under-14s"
Last year's U19s were UEFA semi-finalists and got there by beating Italy 3-0. OK, they were utterly outclassed by Spain in the end. (Was there much overlap between that squad and the current U21 squad? What about the U17s that qualified for the Euros a couple of years ago - are they in the U19 or U21 team now? They looked a bit out of their depth in those finals.)
The U17s were a minute away from UEFA qualification last year - thwarted by an injury time Danish winner I think. Denmark went onto the last 16 or last 8 in the U17 World Cup by virtue of their subsequent UEFA performance.
So, amidst all the chaos and gloom, some things are looking up. The underage sides are all playing 4-3-3. The Turkey U21 game might even be a game-changer for Irish football.
* though both our goals were ugly or fortunate. An o.g. from a corner and a penalty from a soft-handball.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 04/07/2012 at 10:00 AM.
21 days of posts missing from this thread? Last post on the previous page was from 9th of June.
Er, no.
People were either in Polska. Or used individual match/player threads. Or discussed how great the LOI was, how sh*t the weather was or how crooked FF were elsewhere.
No, it looks like stuff has been moved.
Davor Suker to take over as head of the Croatian FA with Igor Stimac expected to take over as national team manager: http://fourfourtwo.com/news/restofeu...8/default.aspx
Going back to my photo of the goodbye party from Poznan going slightly viral, I decided to do a reverse-image search* to see where it had ended up
A review of Euro 2012 on an Irish interior design blog: http://www.emeraldinteriordesign.ie/...012-adventure/
The Ireland Euro 2012 thread on RedCafe: http://www.redcafe.net/f7/irelands-e...l#post11823188
A Hungarian sports newspaper: http://sportgeza.hu/futball/2012/eb/...tja_az_ireket/ (click the "Itt a plakat" link)
*this is where you send an image to google, and it tells you what sites it's on
Finally, it all becomes clear as to why exactly we did so badly at the Euros: http://pogmogoal.com/the-blog-reel/s...pressure/7305/
He was the Indonesian psychic who predicted Euro glory for Ireland. He couldn’t see past the colour green for the eventual winners. Now Santos wants to apologise to the Irish fans for adding to the pressure on the team. In the end, not even he could foresee Spain’s football from the future.
“Ireland’s performances in Euro 2012 were quite disappointing for all of us. They did not look so confident with themselves. I think it was all about the players’ mentality. They were so nervous. I could see that clearly. They played defence-orientated but did not apply quick counter attack. Maybe my prediction more or less affected them by adding to their burden in this competition. I am so sorry if that’s really what happened.
Predicting a team to be champions can affect them in two ways. First, the team can become confident to win the cup in reality. On the other hand, they will be pressurised so much that they will not play in a way they should.
In 2004, I predicted Greece to be the Euro champions and it really happened. At that time, my prediction (although it was not published) affected the team, making them more confident to compete against stronger sides. I did not pick Greece randomly without any consideration. I really did see the colour blue that year. It meant that only teams with this shade could win Euro 2004. Greece could, Italy could, other blue teams could. But I picked Greece because I wanted to see a surprise in soccer....
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