QuoteReport on the game.
http://www.fai.ie/international/unde...-tallaght.html
Ah right, didn't realise Heaney was playing. How did he get on? He's been playing left full when he's featured for Rovers but plays centre half for the B/LSC team.
Report on the game.
http://www.fai.ie/international/unde...-tallaght.html
Beaten 2-0 at Dalymount. We're improving!
Scotland's u17s just won a semifinal place against Holland by following up a 1 nil win over Germany by beating Switzerland 3-1. England are to play Portugal in the second semi, despite losing 2 nil to the Dutch.
Impressive stuff from the Scots. I long for some similar success for our lads again.
The Scottish senior team is well accustomed to getting similar results against teams of that stature. Meanwhile we have become conditioned to accept draws against teams the stature of Slovakia and Sweden as huge successes.Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
This isn't an insurmountable problem in a group where Italy are the only strong team (that Bulgaria team is in a huge decline) or where Russia and Slovakia are the only traditionally strong teams, but we are now in a group where Germany - as evidenced - are a step above Italy and Russia in terms of an obstacle for us and Poland and Scotland are two teams with strong performance records in qualification campaigns.
Thank God for the two automatic qualification places and the possibility of a third.
There is a chance that Scotland could do us a favour and drop points against a smaller team/s and replicate their past performances against Spain, Italy and France and we could get perhaps benefit from that.
I've kind of progressed past the point where I expect us to take the initiative and grasp the nettle.
Since when?
This the same Scotland who have never come out of their group at a major finals ?
This isn't debating the merits of the two teams records in major tournaments, not that Ireland have anything to brag about.
I'm merely saying that Scotland have had over half-a-dozen galvanising performances against teams the caliber of Spain, France, Italy, Croatia and Czech Republic and several wins to reflect that. You can count the number of good Ireland performances - against any team - in the same period of time in a thimble. Surely, I must not be the only person demoralised by how we utterly failed to match our performance in Paris in the subsequent competitive games?
We have plenty to brag about if we're comparing our record at finals to Scotland.....
And if those performances by Scotland were, indeed, "galvanising", why did they never follow them up by qualifying for anything since 1998 or even getting their act together to beat the weaker teams in their group?
Yes. Ireland perform better against smaller nations than Scotland. Scotland perform better against bigger nations than Ireland. I didn't say anything to dispute this. I suggested that this could work out in our favour, if as expected, we lose twice to Germany; as Scotland on past performances and results are more likely to take something from them - Poland too.
We're all guilty of licking our wounds -myself included - over Paris but Scotland have had their misfortune in not qualifying for a major tournament when they had decisions go against them when they played Italy in 2007.
There's no need to be so defensive when I bring up the fact that Scotland and Northern Ireland play better against big teams than we do. I don't like it any more than anyone else but it's indisputable fact backed up by over a dozen matches and results between them. Underperforming against the smaller nations doesn't make those accomplishments any less impressive.
Not being able to beat teams the calibre of Israel, Bulgaria and Slovakia has been a hindrance for us and the length of time it's been a problem is remarkable.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 15/05/2014 at 7:59 PM.
I agree and can't help feel that opposition to your view is framed by some previous strong positions you have taken. But if we had the same run of form that Scotland have in the last 12 months we would already have mentally taken qualification for granted. I'd much rather their form than ours and I think there is huge pressure on the new management to kick our asses into gear and quick.
It is 12 years since we put in a credible performance at a finals. Both Scotland and ourselves have wiped the slate clean since then.
And, btw, I'm not ridiculing our 2012 performance. We were up against 3 top ten teams. The Dutch did just as bad. Scotland would have done too, if not worse.
Are you pair on drugs, because, sorry, I'm confused.
In WC2014 qualifying they were beaten twice by Belgium and Wales, with a loss and a draw against Serbia.
In Euro 2012 qualifying Spain beat them twice and they lost one and drew one with Czech Republic.
In WC2010 qualifying they lost to Holland twice, lost and drew with Norway and lost one to Macedonia
In Euro 2008 qualifying they did beat France twice but lost twice to Italy, once to Ukraine and once to Georgia........so.....is that it? We're supposed to be envious of Scotland beating France 7 and 8 years ago????
They beat Croatia twice a year after they soundly beat us. But overall, I don't see where they've become accustomed to big results against better teams. If anything, our solid record of draws up until recently is far more consistent.
They have also beaten Ukraine, Norway and Slovenia in the years since we have achieved any kind of credible competitive result.
Any way you want to put it, that is 7 more wins against decent teams than we have achieved since 2001. They have also beaten Iceland 4 times and Iceland are probably stronger than any team we have beaten in qualifying since 2001. Their performances against teams the caliber of Spain and Croatia are arguably more impressive than ours too. Contrast our performances in the "Group of Death" with Scotland's Euro 2012 Qualifying performances against Spain and WC 2014 Qualifying performances against Croatia.
We've achieved results equally as credible as those. Unless I've fallen into some parallel universe where Ukraine, Norway and Slovenia are European powerhouses. The Scots had one very good campaign and outside of that they've been rank. We've been fairly awful too but we've been a level above them.
I see you are at the bottom of the barrel already on this one.
We can't even beat "the bottom of the barrel". What does that say?
Apart from Slovakia in the 2008 campaign, we haven't beaten a team on a par with any of those sides.
So you agree your creme de la creme powerhouses used to parade the Scottish revival are now in fact a bit *hit ? Within about three posts. Is that where we are ?
What's your baseline here? Armenia were better in 2011 than Slovakia were. We drew twice with Slovakia and beat Armenia twice. Yet you seem to have decided that only the Slovakia results are worthy of being counted.
Look CD, his base line should be, if Robbie Keane, did, could have, or indeed might have scored against them, they aren't worth counting, surely ?
Hasn't that got to be the way ?
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