Republic of Ireland V Poland - Sunday, 29th March 2015 - Euro 2016 Qualifier

[KK77]

Dunphy's comments at half time were ridiculous. Saying Coleman has been non-existent. It may not have been happening for him but you couldn't fault his effort.

Not so long back Coleman was world class according to the lads. Crazy stuff.

[jbyrne]

I don't share much of the optimism, imo we were poor overall, outplayed and out thought on our own turf, by a middlin' internat team, who allowed us the ball in the 2nd half.

so when we "allow" teams to have the ball its poor tactics but when Poland allegedly do so its them outplaying and out thinking us?

If we had scored earlier than we did, Poland would have taken the game up the field and scored as they could have done, look what happened in the few minutes of play after we scored.

the match ended with us on the attack resulting in a corner

[OwlsFan]

have a look at the incident again. the polish defender cuts across long and falls to the ground. a decent ref would have seen through what happened and no free. it was pointed out on the commentary by Ronnie Whelan and his analysis was spot on.

watched the second half again last night and the poles diving and rolling around was pathetic. I stopped counting past 5 times in the 2nd half when they just fell over and were awarded a free. poor poor refereeing

Yes, but we were lucky he didn't give a free kick for a foul against the goalkeeper leading up to the goal. Many refs would.

[DeLorean]

The ref was extremely poor and in general he suited the Poles more than us. I forgive him though as the two really major calls he had to make went in our favour. It's unlikely we would have equalised with ten men and it's even more unlikely we would have equalised had Fabianski been awarded the free kick that goalkeepers, rightly or wrongly, generally get. If it wasn't for those two calls we'd be licking our wounds, practically out of contention and facing into the Scotland game down James McCarthy already.

[jbyrne]

The ref was extremely poor and in general he suited the Poles more than us. I forgive him though as the two really major calls he had to make went in our favour. It's unlikely we would have equalised with ten men and it's even more unlikely we would have equalised had Fabianski been awarded the free kick that goalkeepers, rightly or wrongly, generally get. If it wasn't for those two calls we'd be licking our wounds, practically out of contention and facing into the Scotland game down James McCarthy already.

if McCarthy had to go then so did the pole given his initial stamp (albeit soft) on mccarthys foot. there was no more malice or force in what McCarthy did to the pole.

[OwlsFan]

Now that trap ended the love affair and the heartbreak is over SvD speaks a lot of sense in the clear light of day rather than the blurred skies of love.


"But when you look back on that era, there was a sense that Trap got away with it. How many 'big' teams did we actually beat in a competitive match? None."
-Stephen Reid.

ALways felt this with Trap and always said it too, interestingly it's what everyone has been saying ever since Trap left!.

Great to see CD consistent again, one thing ye have to give him, he is always wrong!

I think everything else has been pretty much covered already so I won't bother repeating it.

Why do we have to go back to the Trap era all the time? It's gone, like Giles', Hand's, Charlton's, McCarthy's, Kerr's and Stan's.. As ever there are two sides to a story. How many away games did Trap's teams go before they lost a game? How many did O'Neill's ? etc etc There are arguments and counter-arguments. Our record against top teams at home goes back beyond Trap and it continues. THAT is the frustrating part of the game. We pretty much had the team most people would have wanted, playing the style of football that has been demanded by many and it still took even a last minute goal to earn a point. Sure we played much better in the 2nd half when we went back to the much maligned 4-4-2 but I still think that had a lot to do with the Poles attitude of what we have, we hold.

So we go to yet another "we must win game" against Scotland and the away game against Poland is regarded as also a must win game. As regards the latter, I go with the theory that it WILL happen someday (an away win over a major rival). If we ignore Trap's 90 minute 0-1 over France, are we going back to 1987 for such a victory ? However, I am not sure even 30 decades of the rosary will work the oracle but we can but hope.

That is all an Irish fan can do. Germans, English, Italians, Dutch expect. We hope. Those who expect and don't hope are fools because history teaches us we have very little on which to base our expectation. Even under Jack's great teams all we could manage was a win in Scotland. It is bizarre, no doubt about that, when you witness Norn Iron winning big games away from home but then they are always subject to the banana skin and have qualified for nothing in two generations. What the previous eras success was built on was, if possible, avoiding defeat against the bigger teams and beating the lesser teams. Hence the furore when we lost to Cyprus and Macedonia. MON is chasing the leaders here because of the loss to Scotland. We needed to beat Poland. We failed yet again. Now we must do what it in the past has proven almost impossible (i.e. beat two higher ranked teams, one at home and one away).

I hope because someday it will happen but the odds are stacked against us.

[OwlsFan]

did Keane nearly score that header? Despite hitting the post I never felt it had a chance of beating the keeper.

Not sure keeper would have got it. He went down like a sack of potatoes.

[DeLorean]

if McCarthy had to go then so did the pole given his initial stamp (albeit soft) on mccarthys foot. there was no more malice or force in what McCarthy did to the pole.

I'll have to see the stamp again. All I know is that nine times out of ten you'll get sent off for raising your hand to somebody's face these days, so McCarthy got very lucky.

[Stuttgart88]

Of those two decisions you'd expect them to go against you based on what referees normally do, not because the referee would have been right.

[DeLorean]

I'd agree with that in relation to the Fabianski one but not the McCarthy one. If he had sent him off he would have been technically correct and we could have had no arguments really. It was extremely silly from McCarthy.

[paul_oshea]

I don't share much of the optimism, imo we were poor overall, outplayed and out thought on our own turf, by a middlin' internat team, who allowed us the ball in the 2nd half.
We had to win this game. Getting a draw like this in any other qual campaign would mean we would be virtually out, end of story,

I agree we needed the win, this draw doesn't do much for us, it keeps us in contention but only just. I also agree somewhat around our style of play, but as I mentioned earlier we were one dimensional, but our tempo, urgency, passion and possession were in abundance and something I have not seen since we started in the Aviva, even probably longer. It's a start, hopefully its not too late a start, and we do press on. If we don't we wont be beating Scotland and I don't think Mon/Keane will have done a good job.

I also agree about the Poles, they really were very poor, hoofing it at every opportunity and couldn't really take it down either, however they always seem to have a man in the middle and winning those breaks, same as the team on top in a gaelic football match, always have the ball landing to one of their men. Poland are very mediocre bar lewandowski, I hope the lads remember this in Poland, they are solid but very limited. They offered nothing.

Everyone talks about us almost being "owed" a win, as though its a God given right or something, or like one spin of the roulette table, eventually it will land on 0. We don't. We do however look more likely after the second half than we have in a long time, so that due one will be down to how we play and not some stroke of luck or some perceived turn.

jb he definitely pushed him in the back, i was right behind the goals, he didn't need to, but how many times do we see Coleman get away with that stuff I think the guilt is always on the Forward rather than the defender so you have to be smarter. I think the Centre back(big lad) had the better of Long twice and that frustrated him, he had earlier tried to get around him but wasn't fast enough and he was shouldered out of the way. But MON should spot this stuff and be telling him to watch it and cut it out. MON has a lot of work to do, individually and collectively as a team.

As regards the latter, I go with the theory that it WILL happen someday (an away win over a major rival). If we ignore Trap's 90 minute 0-1 over France, are we going back to 1987 for such a victory ? However, I am not sure even 30 decades of the rosary will work the oracle but we can but hope.

We could play for 30 years under Traps style away from home and we would never win. It's not something that just happens, it happens because we have played well enough to win, even luck hasn't got us to there yet. I do think that Mon can get us there, unlike in the last 10 years, if he picks the right formation and goes for it. It could also end up that we lose because of this, but Mon over Trap or any other manager i think the way he would set us up and the motivational skills he had we would always have a far greater chance than if it were trap or kerr or stan.

[jbyrne]

jb he definitely pushed him in the back, i was right behind the goals, he didn't need to, but how many times do we see Coleman get away with that stuff I think the guilt is always on the Forward rather than the defender so you have to be smarter. I think the Centre back(big lad) had the better of Long twice and that frustrated him, he had earlier tried to get around him but wasn't fast enough and he was shoulder out of the way. But MON should spot this stuff and be telling him to watch it and cut it out. MON has a lot of work to do, individually and collectively as a team.

have another look at it on TV and see what you think. most refs in the LSL wouldn't fall for it.
not looking to get caught up on one smallish incident but there were many similar incidents were they conned the ref. O'Shea on lewandouski just after half time was another among many

[Stuttgart88]

I've seen it again and my reaction is the same as in real time. Don't give the defender any excuse to go down, it's what he's looking for. It was a dumb free to concede. It's not a major quip but he gives away that type of free quite regularly and should know better by now. It was frustrating. We'd have been better off letting him try to clear the ball, unless of course he passed it up the line and hey presto they carved a late goal a la Austria!

[paul_oshea]

I actually think Long would have dispossessed him here, we have seen him do that a few times before, I really do. I felt very confident because that lad was woeful with the ball on the floor, and I thought he would have got in around him after putting him under pressure, that's why it was so frustrating. Refs always give those ones.

[OwlsFan]

We could play for 30 years under Traps style away from home and we would never win. It's not something that just happens, it happens because we have played well enough to win, even luck hasn't got us to there yet. I do think that Mon can get us there, unlike in the last 10 years, if he picks the right formation and goes for it. It could also end up that we lose because of this, but Mon over Trap or any other manager i think the way he would set us up and the motivational skills he had we would always have a far greater chance than if it were trap or kerr or stan.

We have played for over 30 years under 6 managers, not just Trap, and have recorded just 1 away win against a similarly ranked opponent so it's not down to style of play and I am not including the 0-1 in France in 90 minutes or and the injury time goal in Slovakia.

Hedging your bets there: (a) If he picks the right team, (b) goes for it and (c) we could still end up losing. That's an interesting combination.

[paul_oshea]

You don't work in insurance or a betting exchange owlsfan do you? If you do let me know and Ill place some straight away.

its about the more likely outcome, I said under oneill with the way he sets us up and his motivational skills as demonstrated at half time against Poland, we would be more likely to get that result than under trap or Kerr or Staunton. Say 0/10 for Trap, I would suggest 3-4/10 for Mon at least.

[paul_oshea]

Actually another thing I meant to add to the post yesterday evening was how our one dimensional approach wasn't working too well as we had no good jumpers or headers of the ball in there like Doyle or Keane so I don't know why we kept playing in balls from the wing, anytime we tried a neat pull back or low cross it was cut out by the first man cos the poles were very well organised. I thought at that point he might bring on a more aerial threat.

[geysir]

so when we "allow" teams to have the ball its poor tactics but when Poland allegedly do so its them outplaying and out thinking us?

That's a dishonest and ridiculous straw man argument and as well deviously using a few selected snips from my post.

Poland made us look a 5th seeded team in the first half, we were shíite. What are on you on about twisting my opinion to that I stupidly say we "allow" teams to have the ball. One can not debate that type of bull, it's inherently a thick argument. If you disagree with a poster's opinion then just say so, without that childish nonsense.

the match ended with us on the attack resulting in a corner

And before we got that corner, Poland had 2 attacks and had possession. It was only a brief passage of play. We failed to win a crucial qualifier, in any other qual campaign that result would have buried our qual chances.

[Stuttgart88]

I have to say my heart was in my mouth for at least two of the remaining img minutes after we scored. Lewondowski wasn't far off catching the volley perfectly. A free man was picked out at the back post and I think Poland had another good attack too. It's not the same thing as Poland allowing us to have the ball but it suggested to me that Poland had some attacking threat in reserve but they chose not to use it to focus on protecting their lead.

[Stuttgart88]

The tactical analysis here seems to agree with what I said in previous posts.

http://www.the42.ie/analysis-did-pol...68447-Mar2015/

It'd be churlish to say we only improved because Poland let us but I do think it's fair to say Poland almost completely decided to protect their lead and that probably helped us. It's not always easy to get through teams intent on defending though so credit where it's due, we deserved it on the basis of what we did. It's rare to see a team up against a parked bus get to the by-line as often as McClean and Coleman did. That was a really pleasing aspect.