As a guy who has watched China play on TV a couple of times (a Chinese co-worker dragged me), they are a well-organized outfit that would be difficult to break down. I'm sure they will be up for it as well, so it should't be another boring, pointless game like the one against Canada (and I live in Canada!). Anyhow, if they are as bad as some seem to think, perhaps Liam Miller should get a start? I'm told he does very well against poor-quality opposition
Don't know who told you that but he plays poor against poor opposition.Originally Posted by McCanada
I'm told he does very well against poor-quality opposition
I just hope the Chinese supporters are left standing on the terraces or they mightnt see much.
[QUOTE=$Leon$]
prob down to the fact that theres bout quater of a million of them in dublin alone.
most of them livin in the general rathmines area soon to be renamed chinatown by the corpo [QUOTE]
__________________
There's somewhere between 35,000 and 45,000 Chinese in Ireland at the moment. That's enough to fill Lansdowne. Hope they dont buy all the tickets like the Nigerians did for the World Cup warm-up game in 2002.
"Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe." Dillo
14th August 2003:
There's more Chinese in Ireland than Nigerian's but the Nigerian's would probably be more into football (could be wrong though).The Chinese population has exploded in
Ireland and it is estimated that the
community is now 60,000-strong. Hong
Kong natives began coming to this country
as far back as the 1960s. By the end of the
1970s, there was a close-knit community of
5,000 centred around the catering business.
By the mid-1990s, this had grown to 20,000
but the last five years have seen
unprecedented growth.
I agree with EB about not facing big nations. I was frustrated with the Croatia game because Kerr treated it like a competitive game whie the Croatia manager made changes left right and centre, it meant the win meant nothing and we learned very little apart from a look at Elliot (Bizzarely played sort of on the wing). McGeady got the Jason Byrne treatment and he was one I was very much looking forward to seing. Against China he'll be more likely to play the likes of McGeady, put Elliot in his proper position and players like that, maybe even an EL player
The last time we played a friendly so soon after a competitive was Turkey in Lansdowne after the 1-1 draw with Russia. The players that started both were:
Breen
Healy
Kilbane
Duff (1st half only)
The only player to play every minute of both games was Kilbane. Given, Cunningham, O'Shea and Carsley didn't make the bench for the friendly so were probably allowed home and the only players that didn't play in either match were Quinn and Crowe. So we can expect a few changes.
That was a little bit of sarcasm, Eirebhoy..I'm sorry if it wasn't clearly labelled as such...It should also be of interest that China sometimes plays the "Denmark" formation that Chelsea plays, for all of you Formation fans out there...
and I added a bit to it.
dont wanna dampen the spirit...if indeed there is any, but its obvious 2 me anyway that this is gona be a cr*p game where ireland will rest the key men and altho many see it as positive to see 'squad' members i personally don't as it just means we play poorer players ourselves, and there playing under the name of IRELAND and therefore i think IRELAND should play the cream of the nation in each game...maybe im wrong, but its my opinion
Please lets not insult the Chinese like this on the day that all 22 EL clubs failed to meet licensing requirements.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Nationalism is an infantile disease, the measles of mankind
Still on the verge! No announcement yet although it is listed as a fixture on the FIFA website.
Honest! I am not a secret Tim nor a closet Sham - I really am a Seagull.
It depends what approach we take to the game. If it's used as a chance to play a few fringeplayers, try variations on our shape etc. then it's quite useful.
Off the top of my head, I'd like to see Delap given a full game in the middle, O'Shea given a run either at right-back or centre-half, McGeady given a meaningful run and Elliott as a conventional forward.
I think China will be a much better side than Canada.
I think the proliferation of home friendlies is due to one thing: cash.
I'd imagine it's to do with making as much money from home games between now and when Lansdowne is closed for upgrading. We'll obviously not be able to play at home while that's going on, so the "return" friendlies will be played in those 2 years.
I presume they only got China as, I think, China had already been planning
a European tour so it is less hassle than having to go getting someone else.
Larry Be Wyse
www.acsportsimages.com
Weird. There was so much debate over playing Yugoslavia during the war in Kosovo but China's human rights record doesn't seem to come into play in here. In my work, I've written about them loads of times from an economic perspective and I'm as much of a culprit, the excesses of communist rule just doesn't come up that much any more.
I think Yugoslavia was such a topical and extreme example of human rights abuse that it was hard not to take a stand.
If we were to refuse to play teams with bad human rights records then there'd be few teams to play. The fact that China is now such a big economic player means that human rights just aren't an issue. C'est la Vie I'm afraid.
We play a lot of home internationals cos the FAI make more money that way. Friendlies often seem to be on home & away basis where say Holand will now probably visit Lansdowne in next few years.
China will be glad for chance to pay in Europe & probably be happy to get paid expenses. Brazil on the otherhand look for a lot of cash which means have to fill Lansdowne to have chance at make some revenue.
Human Rights & China haven't been mentioned in same sentence by a western politician in years - whether thats right is hard to say...
China are listed on the FIFA website as playing Spain in a friendly on Saturday 26 March in Spain, (perhaps Senor Lopez knows more details), so they are over here anyway.
Why does it take so long to announce these games?
Honest! I am not a secret Tim nor a closet Sham - I really am a Seagull.
Well we're going to be playing away friendlies between 2006-2008 so better make as much money as possible now.
Its either a mediocre nation or no friendly at all. We're playing in Tel Aviv a few days before so, as I said, Kerr will want to rest a lot of those players (Kerr seems to rate confidence very highly and a 5-0 trashing against one of the bigger nations won't do us any good).
What will we learn? What did we learn from getting slaughtered against Nigeria? Nothing. We'll be able to give one or two full debut's against China. Reid debuted against Canada and it worked like a treat, his confidence has been sky high ever since. Kavanagh also started that match, his first in years, but we all know what happened then. John Thompson made his debut too.
China aren't actually that bad but goals bring confidence and even a goal for Duff will stop him shooting from long range when he should have passed (Croatia).
Can't see anybody going up to this one from Cork as our opening Setanta Cup game against Shels is on the same night. There should be a full house at that and with it being live on Setanta aswell it might also hit tv ratings for the Ireland game.
Champions!
Posting Permissions
Quote
Bookmarks