Ireland V Sweden(A) 22 March & Austria(H) - 26 March 2013 - World Cup 2014 Qualifiers

[brine3]

Hyperbolic tripe. Granted, I'm biased (but would still have started either Hoolahan or Doyle), but off the top of my head, you've got -

6-0 down against Germany
The Euro 2012 let-down
Henry's handball
San Marino's late equaliser
Ireland's late equaliser against Cyprus
5-2 in Cyprus
Sitting back on the 2-0 lead against Israel and blowing it
Saipan
0-0 v Liechtenstein
Chris Woods' rugby tackle somehow not being the penalty to send us to Euro 92
Any time John Delaney opens his mouth.

All far, far more disappointing than a Championship forward starting for Ireland.

You've forgotten the ultimate disappointment of them all.

Goran Stravevski, 1-1, 93rd minute.

I was physically ill for days after that.

edit:

Also not forgetting that the same F.Y. Macedonian side absolutely rolled over when they hosted their F.Y. compatriots Yugoslavia.

I've really enjoyed every time we've beaten Macedonia since then.

[BonnieShels]

You've forgotten the ultimate disappointment of them all.

Goran Stravevski, 1-1, 93rd minute.

I was physically ill for days after that.

Yip!

That's my lowest moment too. I actually lost my mind in the sitting room when that happened. Screaming and shouting at the TV like a crazelord.

I'm still not fully recovered. I feel a little sick now thinking about it.

[brine3]

Worse still, I lived in Holland at the time. Ireland at Euro 2000 would have been brilliant.

[pineapple stu]

You've forgotten the ultimate disappointment of them all.

Goran Stravevski, 1-1, 93rd minute.

Good call. I'm sure there's more too.

[DannyInvincible]

Yip!

That's my lowest moment too. I actually lost my mind in the sitting room when that happened. Screaming and shouting at the TV like a crazelord.

I'm still not fully recovered. I feel a little sick now thinking about it.

That was my 14th birthday. Awful.

[Crosby87]

What's going to happen if some of the lads get wind of Harrys challenge now that Sammon is around?

[Bungle]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/inter...he-opposition/

Have to say reading this article that Austria on paper look to be as good a team man for man in most positions as Sweden (obviously without a world class forward like Sweden). Alot of their players are playing at a high level for big clubs in the Bundesliga.

I'm hoping and predicting that we can nick the 1-0 win. I'm predicting an awfully mediocre first half from us and for Wessi to come on in the 62nd minute and score with a bicycle kick of sublime beauty in the 72nd minute

[shakermaker1982]

I hope our back 4 resist the temptation to lump it forward to the Sammon tonight. Keep trying to play football like Friday night and we can win this.

I only know 3 or 4 of the Austrian starting 11 so cannot judge them really other than look at recent results. An early goal would calm the nerves for everybody within the ground and should rattle their young team.

I'm going to keep my positive hat on and say we'll nick a 1 nil victory. I really hope it's Sammon who gets the winner and the Trap makes us all look like chumps. It's time our home form picked up and LR was turned into a bit of a fortress like the good old days.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I'm weirdly nervous about this game, more than I have been for an Irish game in a while. Not so much about the result (well, relatively speaking), but with how the team will play. It sort of seemed against Sweden that a corner might have been turned in terms of mentality, tactics and putting trust in the players to actually play a bit of football as opposed to watching the other team do it. But the re-inclusion of Whelan (after Green's showing I mean) and choice of Sammon makes me worried that we'll end up back at the hoofball.

Dropped points here would be a total disaster and the Austrians shouldn't be pushovers.

[Sullivinho]

You've forgotten the ultimate disappointment of them all.

Goran Stravevski, 1-1, 93rd minute.

I was physically ill for days after that.

edit:

Also not forgetting that the same F.Y. Macedonian side absolutely rolled over when they hosted their F.Y. compatriots Yugoslavia.

I've really enjoyed every time we've beaten Macedonia since then.

That's the one for me too. Literally haven't been able to watch opposition corner kicks ever since.

[back of the net]

Yip!

That's my lowest moment too. I actually lost my mind in the sitting room when that happened. Screaming and shouting at the TV like a crazelord.

I'm still not fully recovered. I feel a little sick now thinking about it.

Sitting in a pub in dublin city centre when they equalized and been asked to stop my foul mouthed highly vocal rant that followed, by the barman or leave the pub.

Not proud of my rant of course - but the utter heartbreak of being so close and to have it taken away in the dying seconds was too much to handle......gutted

[footballplease]

That's the one for me too. Literally haven't been able to watch opposition corner kicks ever since.

My God i remember that one like it was yesterday. I was in a bar in Sydney at what must have been about 5am watching it. I think once the final whistle went, i just stormed out and marched all the way home in a foul mood with the gf running after me. She was wondering why one goal had turned me from a cheering singing bloke into an absolute grumpy b*stard for days on end afterwards!

[Fergie's Son]

Walters has been doing a job for Stoke on the right hand side of midfield all season long.

And what sort of job would that be? Stoke are dire and Walters hasn't been garnering much in the way of praise. Maybe he's just being brought down by a bad lot but it does seem an insipid choice.

[Fergie's Son]

Why time is kick off?

I was watching that match at a bar in Chicago. Ran into Tom Humphries of all people who was in the city for a year.

[paul_oshea]

7.45 our time. so 1.45 your time.

[Murfinator]

Keep trying to play football like Friday night and we can win this.

England, Chelsea, Man City etc all have realised that the EPL is a poor technical league, they understand that if they try to play a ground passing, possession game against teams from Spain/Germany they'll be destroyed so they do the exact opposite of that and are somewhat successful with anti-football. We need to understand the same, long ball is the way to play this particular game.
Austria are a more talented team than us but they're young, naive and unfamiliar with winning these kind of games. We need to be cute and wily, perhaps cynical. Teams like Austria constantly come a cropper to the mentally strong sides, they constantly embarrass inferior sides who think they can outplay them. It's why the old Italians have been kryptonite to a young Germany in recent years and why I'd seriously worry for Bayern in their champions league quarter.


Personally I think Austria will do us tonight, it's a game for experience and leaders and would have been made for Keane, Dunne and Duff. I'm afraid we might try to play open expansive stuff and they have players who can really hurt us, we don't have a good home record either. Austria 2 -0 on their way to a playoff place.

[paul_oshea]

You said before Sweden that they are far above us on paper and in practice, yet you come out and say after the game that Sweden are a mediocre side. IF they were way above us they would be at the level of Germany, and they are not. As I said before the game sweden on paper are about the same as us. ON paper we are slightly better than Austria. All 3 varying levels of averageness, but we showed against sweden that we can play this passing, short game.

If we lose to Austria it has nothing to do them being the more talented team than us, it will be our own undoing, blended with a mixture of old journey men and young naive Austrain league players, who haven't faired much better than some LOI sides recently enough btw, it has nothing to do with anything else.

We are not as bad as you would like to make out, and we don't have to resort to this football that you speak of all the time. Change the tune, its old and ineffective. Ireland are a decently average team, missing an out and out striker of good calibre. Thats about it. The majority of our players play in a stronger league week in, week out.

I hope we win tonight, and then finally put you in your box. I see us drawing, but this fear-of-god stuff given so much respect and disrespecting Ireland (as much as to defend your horn for Trap )is begining to grate me.

[Murfinator]

Sweden are a mediocre side with a couple of exceptional players. If you nullify those players or they have an off night then they are an entirely mediocre side. With Green man marking Ibra and Keane hassling Kallstrom from deep we managed to disrupt both of them and as expected the rest of their team wasn't up to much. That is what I said and that is why we got a draw.
Austria are different in that they have quality throughout the pitch, you can't stop them all.

blended with a mixture of old journey men and young naive Austrain league players

This is a ridiculous comment. They have 2 players who are starters for sides who were in the Champions league knockouts, their ages are 26 and 20. Only two or three players who'll start will be from the Austrian league, the rest from the Bundesliga, Turkish league or Serie A. Also they have one player who is 30 and nobody else in their thirties in their squad, it's a young squad so you're clearly just flat making up things about a team you don't understand. If you'd care to explain who are these old twenty something journey men I'd love to know.

[paul_oshea]

Sweden are a mediocre side with a couple of exceptional players. If you nullify those players or they have an off night then they are an entirely mediocre side. With Green man marking Ibra and Keane hassling Kallstrom from deep we managed to disrupt both of them and as expected the rest of their team wasn't up to much. That is what I said and that is why we got a draw.
Austria are different in that they have quality throughout the pitch, you can't stop them all.

This is a ridiculous comment. They have 2 players who are starters for sides who were in the Champions league knockouts, their ages are 26 and 20. Only two or three players who'll start will be from the Austrian league, the rest from the Bundesliga, Turkish league or Serie A. Also they have one player who is 30 and nobody else in their thirties in their squad, it's a young squad so you're clearly just flat making up things about a team you don't understand. If you'd care to explain who are these old twenty something journey men I'd love to know.

You didn't obviously watch the game, Green wasn't anywhere near Ibra, and didn't man-mark him. Keane played deep. You are clearly making stuff up not me. Austria's average age is 24.5 ours is 26.5. They have 2 or 3 around 30 and they have 2 from Austria, 1 from swiss league, 1 from bayern the rest from lower/average German teams(2 for bremen lying 4th from bottom in the bundesliga), along with a couple from average Italian sides(bolonga lie 11th in Italy a little like stoke in england). Outside of the top 2 or 3 in Germany the league isn't stronger than the English top tier. Sweden are a stronger team than Austria, with 1 exceptional player and 1 very good player. We played a better game of football, playing barcelonaesque at times in terms of cohesion and pressure when without the ball, now we have gone back to a game that hasn't worked for us, and has us seen us get trounced by good opposition, yet its the game you are suggesting we play because it works against average teams, but you said they are better than us - I see us as average. The system doesn't work for us, or anyone else, we showed what works for us and that's what I am advocating.


Here is a very good article from Stephen Reid http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-29153400.html

We showed on Friday that having a player capable of playing ball and dropping deep like Keane did on link up we are far more effective. Sammon does not give us that, so playing this hoof-ball game is not our key to winning, crowding the midfield and having a decent playmaker is.

[BonnieShels]

Couldnt find a ticket thread so will post here. Have a spare ticket for sale for 17.50. Pm me if interested.

Section BLK116
Row Q
Seats 19
Description ENTER VIA
SOUTH STAND - LOWER
GREEN ROUTE STILE C

Make a thread for it then!