My recollection is that we had a threadbare bench that night and no substitutions were feasible that wouldn't have weakened us. Harte was asleep at the back post for their first, KK missed a great chance immediately afterwards and from that point on all the momentum was with Holland. They got lucky with the equaliser but the rookie Richard Dunne made the tackle of his career on Kluivert in injury time, to save a certain goal. It was in the context of the last ten mins that people were happy because in that ten mins we escaped a near-certain defeat.
The trick really is maximise the luck when it comes your way and try to minimise the effect of any misfortune when it goes against you. Try to put yourself in a position where one bad stroke of luck won't be too costly. If we had taken our chances in Paris the handball wouldn't have mattered a jot... in fact it wouldn't have happened full stop. Easier said than done obviously.
I'm just back from my sojourn across Eastern europe that started after the sweden game.
I hope we don't ever need to rely on David Forde again. How he got beaten for that goal against sweden ill never know and under his body too. He was very poor in that game, didn't look confident at all. Thats the kinda thing i envisaged from what I had seen of him before.
Ibra is pure class. The ground he covers in two movements is about 6 steps for someone like McCarthy. Same player got a schooling both nights, he is nowhere near a £13million pound player, only time will tell will he ever be near it.
I lay most of the problems, with the last 2 games, on the dropped the points against Austria. Purely Traps mistake. Ill repeat it now as well, had this been the group we faced when we got to the world cup 2010 play-off or that Euro play off, we would have had a similar outcome. Trap got lucky, was found out and it came home to roost. I do feel sorry that certain players didn't perform for him over the last 2 games but perhaps they had grown tired of him also.
What we need for the next campaign is to focus on our positives and shore up and breed confidence among the players. Too fragile and weak-minded, very bad trait for young players. They can do it at their clubs so why not for us?
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
Yes it was a pretty good team, but didn't do much at the 2002 World Cup, therefore I said they didn't have a great team, by Portugal standards.
Didn't they manage to get well beaten by the USA, who are probably ranked as cr'ap by those who think we blundered our way to the 2012 Euros?
Maybe the Dutch should have beaten us, for sure Portugal should have spanked us, maybe we didn't even play decent football in most of the games.
Just in case people think that we played a special brand of champagne football then, or the opposition didn't miss a hatful of chances in the two key games, when we qualified for WC2002. That we never had the worst team in a play off draw before.
There appears to be a relegation of the achievement of getting to euro 2012, to that of a blunder following more blunders, that we sort of stumbled there, experiencing an incredible amount of the luck, the equivalent of one lotto win a month for two years. That we never experienced getting a draw, when we should have been hammered.
I wouldn't mind if we had to blunder our way through the next qualifying group to the finals, not in the same way of course, a different type of blunder will do.
I have enjoyed this trip down memory lane in a thread about Euro 2016. As for Estonia, I noticed they drew 2-2 at home with the Netherlands in a World Cup qualifier this month. I don't think we've ever got the credit that was due for going there and thumping them in what was the biggest game in their history.
Luck ? Strangely most good managers are lucky. Can't quite understand that but it's true. Mind you whatever luck Trap had ran out when we drew 3 of the best teams in the world in our group at Euro 2012 but that seems to be overlooked(lucked).
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Nah, 2010 by a country mile.
'02 was OK, just nobody in the host country had the fecking licence to show the games...
What was the best world cup?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
For controversy, 86 when Maradona single-handedly won the World Cup. Seeing the English whinge and carry on gave me some much pleasure at the time!
Having only been alive for:
1986- Was only 2. Haven't a notion.
1990- Throughly enjoyed it but as a six year old didn't really get the significance of the whole thing. Never knew that we didn't get there all that often.
1994- Bar the brainfart that was the Holland game I loved this World Cup. Partly because it's the first one I really properly remember watching most of the games in but also because of McGrath in Giants Stadium.'Nuff sed!
1998- Brilliant. Absolutely incredible World Cup. That Brazil got a tonking in the Final added to the occasion.
2002- Enjoyable for the most part because we were there. I still feel frustration over the Spain result to this day. And not forgetting the Saipan. Oooh Saipan, Spain, Saipan, Spain... But the hope of the Group stages live on. Getting to go into work in Arnotts at stupid o'clock and having breakfast up in the canteen watching the Cameroon game was class. Mick's eyes when Robbie scored. Pure joy. Then Ian Harte stepped up to take that penalty...
2006- It was because of this world cup that I came home from Australia early. There was no way I was sticking around watching balls cross the midfield stripe. Without doubt the best of the lot. Super. Cannavarro was beyond immense and worth "100 million a week"!
2010- Enjoyed it for the most part. The Final result galled me. The Dutch should have won that. But it reamains something I'll always look back on as "What could have been". I'm sure we all do.
2014- Brazilian stitch-up. Eugh.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
I had 2006 in my head when I read this first for some reason. Damn years are flying by! Yeah 2010 wasn't great by any means, Uruguay Ghana was possibly the stand out game for me. I was delighted with the end result though... Spain beating that pretty ugly Dutch team.
2006 was my favourite World Cup, by a mile. I was a bit young for Italia '90 so I'm comparing it to all that went after. I don't know how it gets so much stick. The group stages weren't much to write home about but the knock out rounds were brilliant. The controversial Italian win against Australia (nothing controversial about it in my opinion but that's for another day).
France finding their long lost form out of nowhere to beat Spain and Brazil (spectacularly with Zidane on another planet, that's really what the WC is about, the greats playing their best football). The England Portugal quarter final with the whole Rooney-Ronaldo excitement and the inevitable penalty shoot-out. Germany v Argentina was a cracking game also in this round with the Argentines blowing it tactically after going ahead.
One of the best games I have seen was the semi final between Italy and Germany... Fabio Grosso's 'Tardelli-like' celebration and Del Piero's insurance goal from Gilardino's ridiculous pass were only secondary compared to Cannavaro's performance at the back. More epic drama and controversy in the final with the whole Materazzi - Zidane incident.
I loved that Italian team anyway so I'm probably a bit biased but it really was a great story. The whole bribes controversy surrounding their domestic club games was after coming to light big time. Nesta got injured in their third group game against the Czechs so it looked pretty unlikely they were going to go on and win the tournament, without the famous Cannavaro-Nesta partnership in operation. Materazzi came on for Nesta and scored the opening goal ten minutes later. He went on to get sent off against Australia, score the equaliser in the final, get Zidane sent off and score a penalty in the shoot-out. Amazing the way things can work out.
The Grosso story is even better - An unintentional hero : Fabio Grosso
Last edited by DeLorean; 17/09/2013 at 10:51 AM.
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