Kazakhstan V Republic of Ireland - Friday, 7th September 2012 - World Cup 2014 Q

[Adrock]

Well at least we've got our luck back but that was dreadful. I dont buy the argument that Kazakhstan are some kind of burgeoning football power, by any measurement their national team and the league in which they all play is third rate.
Having said that away matches in places like that (why are they even in UEFA anyway?) are always potential banana skins when you think weve struggled against the likes of Liechtenstein and there no problem with a 2-1 result.
The performance was **** poor but I have doubts a new manager is going to turn around this shambles any time soon . It looks like Traps days are numbered but theres no point if they dont have any real quality candidate willing to replace him, and give the man credit for at least getting us in to a tournament and being less clueless than his predecessors of this millenium.
Great penalty btw, never had a doubt that was going to be put away.

[backstothewall]

Absolutely terrible performance. So so predictible - long balls up to Walters all the time. I like Walters but even if he was world class, it wouldn't make a difference because the other team will always know what we're going to do. Having said that, I genuinely feared this game and I'm over the moon at the result. Delighted for Doyler and hope it marks an upturn for him, but right now, I'd still have Walters over him (if we could just be less predictible). Very concerned about O'Shea. I like Westwood and I'm pleased with O'Dea's ability to do a job when needed.

From viewing the Oman game as a pile of crap, I know would view it as a game where we can hopefully get Coleman and Wilson involved. I'd also like to start Long. Would be great to see Wes Hoolahan and Clarke involved, but that's being too ambitious of Trap.

Similar in a way to Liverpools problem fitting Andy Carroll in. There is more to him than just a big target man, but it's hard for him to show that if the rest of the team insist on lumping the ball up the field towards him at every opportunity.

[tricky_colour]

I think a lot of people underestimated Kazakhstan, they are a better team than many people think.
Spain for example played them recently and only beat them 13-0.
Germany's 17-0 win was largely down to a goal keeping error, he caught the wrong plane.

[Supreme feet]

I think a lot of people underestimated Kazakhstan, they are a better team than many people think.
Spain for example, played them recently, and only beat them 13-0.

Had to Google that. It was a woman's game!

[jbyrne]

Just watching the German v Faroes game first half and Germany look like a team a little short on confidence although winning 2-0. I thought a few of them choked in the Euros game against Italy. Get a new manager in who will almost certainly pick a completely different Irish team and give it a real go against them. As I mentioned in another thread I would go with
Westwood
Kelly JOS Dunne Wilson
McGeady McCArthy Meyler McClean
Walters/Doyle Long

Take off the straight jacket

at least 8 of that team are regulars under trap.

[tricky_colour]

Had to Google that. It was a woman's game!

Lol, I see, I thought the results I were seeing were different from the ones I say earlier, that would seem to explain it.

Not sure why the women's results comes up first on google, must be a case of positive discrimination.

Anyway the drew with Austria recently who are in our group so they may actually help our campaign now.

[Nugget]

The RTE panel reaction is here

and Trap's interview is here

Anyone else think the questioning in that interview was a bit much. Seemed to just be trying to **** him off

[Stuttgart88]

Looked like an out an out dive to get that free, maybe 5% push / 95% simulation.

Looked like a dumb and needless challenge to me. Like many Duff won for us, legitimately, down the years. Duff made an art out of drawing dumb challenges. This guy was no Duff.

[Charlie Darwin]

I think I've found the reason for Simon Cox's ineffective performance - he had been replaced by an imposter:



via the Daily Mail

[NeverFeltBetter]

Interesting...

[ArdeeBhoy]

Shocking. Dismal. Awful. And we won!


Anyone think we'll scrape a win in the Faroes?

[MeathDrog]

Right, thought I'd give myself a few hours to give my thoughts. Here it goes:

I said before this game that this was a huge game for Trappatoni. After that 90 minutes, what was a minority wanting him out of the job turned into a sizeable majority. The FAI should forget the result a delay the inevitable. Why wait 3 or 4 games down the line.

People will make the point that the FAI cannot afford to sack Trap. That is fairly true, but more what they cannot afford is an empty Aviva. Judging by this, even the Germany game will struggle to sell out, and if it does it's only because people will want to see a fantastic away team in action. Who in their right mind would pay 35/50 Euro to watch that scutter. I have slated stay away fans in the past but now I can't see why anyone would pay their hard earned money to watch that. If there was some sort of direction or long term goal that we were aiming for, fine, but we're not. It's just dour football being played without any cohesion, and 4 years into his reign is not going to change any time soon.

The game itself was probably the worst 90 mins under Trap, and that's saying a lot. Doyle bailed us out tonight. Whelan, JO'S, Keane, Ward and McGeady were all abysmal. Keane should give up his captaincy after tonight. He is not a leader, nor does he merit his place on the team anymore.

You have to try and play football, and we're not doing that. Hoofing it long from the defence and using Walters as a battering ram isn't football. And none of this **** from Trap about not having the players to do otherwise. Kazakhstan are ranked 142nd in the world and they passed the ball better than we did tonight.

What needs to happen is for players to play in positions that they are suited for (Walters, Cox, Long) and an encouragement to at least try and play a passing game. For 85 minutes tonight we didn't look like scoring against a ****e team. Not good enough.

And Sadlier made a show of Brady tonight. Stubborn clown.

And finally, McClean needs to cop himself on.

[Crosby87]

Holy Sh*t, was swamped at work all day, thought this one was in the bag anyway. Just reading back...must have been a hell of a game to watch in the pubs.
But a win is a win right?

[mark12345]

In fairness I thought it was a good goal. The defender was the right side of the goalscorer but it was a well delivered free and well met by the attacker before a defender could put pressure on him, and a well directed header. It was an utterly stupid free to concede though, junior league stuff.

Allow me to finish that point for you.

And the cause of the Kazak goal, from an Irish point of view was? Wait for it.......you guessed it - Stephen Ward.

And if you also remember, we tipped off the ball was played to Ward, barely five seconds had elapsed and what does he do - hoof the first long ball on a day of a million long balls.

For my money, we should say goodbye to the following players now and start afresh

O'Shea (one of the worst players we have ever produced)
Ward (is not a Premier League, international or maybe even Championship level defender)
O'Dea (I actually think he played pretty well today - won every aerial ball - but against better quality opponents you know the rest)

Whelan (Bloody awful again today and slow as molasses - if Trap saw him as the pass master then his position has now been taken by the better James McCarthy)
Robbie (dare I say it but it might be time for him to go? It might not but he's getting mighty close. He doesn't have the legs anymore and I saw serious signs of resignation tonight before the goal)

Trap (as someone pointed out he's had a stay of execution) one more performance like this and hes gone

[Crosby87]

How can you honestly say JOSH is one of the worst players we ever produced Mark?

And since i cant go back and read all of this, how would everyone grade Westwood?

[NeverFeltBetter]

Weird question: Does anyone know what the song RTE are using for their football coverage intro is now?

[johnnyc]

Man, there was something about Trap in the O'Donoghue interview that I found genuinely hard to watch. It was like seeing someone berate their dear old grandad in public.

[BonnieShels]

I also had €50 at 8-1 for a 2-1 win!
Plenty of gargle tonight! 😜

You're not allowed to bet on games you play in... Tut tut tut.

Italy and Bulgaria just fecked up my 90/1 accumulator.

[geysir]

Looked like a dumb and needless challenge to me. Like many Duff won for us, legitimately, down the years. Duff made an art out of drawing dumb challenges. This guy was no Duff.

The only possible contact was with Ward's hands, nothing that Ward did could have caused such a momentum with the fall.
After that, it was cráp defending for a run of the mill free kick.
Ward did everything right until the player dived, no one came close to assisting him out there, like every other team seem to manage when their full back is one on one.

It should also be mentioned that Ward got the assist for Doyle, laid it on a plate for him.

[backstothewall]

It's all well and good saying this or that player should be out of the team, but unless people have a plan for who would come and how we should play in it's just hot air. I think Trap needs to go away and come up with a new system, but the with the injuries/retirements there was always a chance it would look disjointed tonight. That's not to say it shouldn't have been a lot lot better by the way.

If everyone was available I think there is a strong chance Keane and Whelan might not have played, with McClean and Gibson taking their places. Trap seemed to be talking about McClean playing in the centre of the 3 AMs, which personally I would disagree with. I would love to see us give Coleman a game at right-back With McClean playing on the left of a 3. He seems to be dangerous in the air and would pose a real danger if Coleman could advance up the lone and play a cross to the back post.

For me what Trap might have been planning for this campaign is something like this

------------- Westwood ---------------
- O'Shea --- Sledge -- Dunne --- Ward -
---------- Gibson -- McCarthy ---------
-------Duff - McClean - McGeady ------
-------------- Walters ----------------

I'm still not entirely sure what formation we were playing tonight. The versions of 4-2-3-1 we are seeing more and more of rely on the 3 playing in central areas between the defence and midfield, with the 1 leading the line. Kazakhstan defended deep and en mass so whether it was supposed to be 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1, it turned into a de facto 4-2-4, and the supposed attacking midfielders ended up on the touchline to get space and time on the ball, which further encouraged the defenders to hit them with the long ball and it turned into a vicious cycle.

One example of where it didn't work for me was the full backs. In a 4-2-3-1 the full backs are generally supposed to provide the width and at least the threat of a dangerous cross or dribble up the wing. But neither Ward and O'Shea are capable of offering that. We have other options to replace O'Shea who perhaps could bring that, but at Left back Marc Wilson can't really bring that either, and after Ward who else is there?

The Oman friendly couldn't be more important. If the team above was Traps plan, it is probably time go back to the clean sheet of paper.