Legia 1-2 Dudelange now. And Legia down to ten.
And yet it's Rosenborg who really should have scored.
It's an interesting game; Cork can play a bit, but Rosenborg are way ahead of them when they want to be. Hard to equate that with Rosenborg v Dundalk and Sligo in the past few years.
Legia 1-2 Dudelange now. And Legia down to ten.
It would be nice to see Cork score a goal in Europe this year.
With Sean Maguire, you'd have fancied Cork to do something in Europe. There's just no high quality striker there. Cummins just isn't the kind of player you want in European action.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Cork wouldn't score in a month of Sundays but came close as soon as Sadlier came on. They noticeably wet up a gear. He should have started. Great fans, decent atmosphere, Lovely Stadium, ordinary team.
So assuming Cork don't turn this around in the away leg, that's 3 European wins out of 8 for Caulfield. Linfield, Levadia and Hacken.
We've seen - was it one of the Polish clubs? - sack the manager for European failure, aware of how important European money is.
Is it time for Cork to look beyond Caulfield, league form notwithstanding?
Who are they going to bring in?
There have been some underwhelming performances (away in Iceland in particular), but I don't think tonight was one - a better team just played better football and won fairly comfortably.
Getting anything would be punching above their weight, and I don't think a manager should go for failing to do that.
Caulfield's style of football works well in the league, which is how he's got them competing for the title despite Dundalk being a superior footballing side. European football though is a different ball game, and he seems to lack a Plan B. There was no noticeable difference in their play tonight after going behind. They persisted with the same game plan despite the fact that it was clearly not working. I think Caulfield is out of his depth managing in Europe.
That is the eternal question, for sure. I'm not sure what the answer is.
That said, the Legia result is looking worse and worse now; knocked out by Trnava and beaten by Dudelange, yet comfortably beat Cork in pre-season. (Actually, it was Legia who sacked their manager after going out of the Champions League this year)
Ah go jump off a bridge. Our points per game record this year is our best ever. We're on course to match Bohemians 85 points from their "invincible" 2008 season. Over the past 5 years we have been on our best ever run in the league and also in Europe. We're most likely seeded in the EL first round next year unless we are very unlucky or we win the league. We have never been seeded in Europe in our 34 years of history. Hes been in charge for five seasons. We have finished in the top 2 in each of the last five seasons and we will finish in the top 2 again this year. He has won two FAI cups (out of the four we have win in our history) and one league (out of the three we have won in our history).
We lost tonight to a better team. Better teams often beat less good teams. Which teams that knocked us out (aside from KR) do you think we should have beaten? Genk? Larnaca? Legia? Rosenborg (we're not even out yet)?
If we sacked him, who would come in and do a better job than him? Any change would be a gamble. I can't see a reason to risk that when we have a brilliant manager who has us in Europe every year. We don't lose games to teams we shouldn't lose to. We;ll be seeded next year or the year after, and we'll continue to progress in Europe and if we win the league again this year or any year down the road we'll have another go and maybe we'll get a kind draw and then who knows.
McNulty once again was a liability in Europe. Cork should sort this out this summer.
The way Cork played last ten minutes was awful too, they totally lost it, they didn't deserve to be 0-2 down but when they started those totally hopeless crosses they didn't do themselves justice.
I think this is it.
The league record is very good of course - but the LoI is a poor league. A club the size of Cork should be top two (given Dundalk have Euro millions behind them). And he has them top two; fair dues.
But Cork should be targetting a Euro breakthrough, which could transform the club, but it seems further away than ever.
Which of the teams should he have beaten? Well, to lose all three games this season without scoring a goal is very disappointing. You can say Rosenborg and Legia are big clubs, but look who they've lost to this year - Trnava, Dudelange, Valur. Valur were 30 seconds away from knocking Rosenborg out, and then lost in Andorra the following week. But Cork didn't really put up a challenge in either tie (and yes, I could end up eating my words when they win 4-1 away from home next week). You could say they deserved a goal tonight, but then you'd have to argue Rosenborg deserved a third. I was surprised at the number of basic errors - McNulty for the first, the pass straight to Bendtner in the second half, poor touches, passes into touch, etc. They created a couple of decent chances, but otherwise they weren't at the races.
Same story against Larnaka last year; yeah, decent side, but Cork were nowhere really, and lost home and away without scoring.
I'm sure there's plenty of managers who could have Cork in Europe every year with the resources they have. Surely there's one who could push them along in Europe too?
You are talking out your arse. Caulfield took us from absolutely nowhere with no budget to one of the most dominant domestic teams in recent history. If we have a big budget now, its because he has earned it. Our crowds and sponsors and european money are almost entirely because of his work.
If you rank our seasons by points per game he has five of the first six with the other one being the year we won the first division. If you look at it by goals per game he has most of the top 5 as well. We play very good football, we win most of our games. Maybe we could do more in Europe but there is no evidence that anyone else could achieve what he has done domestically.
I don't see any other Irish teams outperforming us in Europe. No one asks for more from the other teams, but Cualfields achievements are constantly question and other clubs get a pass.
Wait till Ezeikial reads this.
On the rest of your post - points per league game isn't relevant here. What he's achieved domestically isn't even all that relevant. You're putting domestic achievements over European ones, and I'm saying the priority has to be the other way around. If he can't achieve in Europe and unlock the millions that go with it, and is really nowhere closer to doing so after four campaigns, then the question has to be asked if there's someone better. And let's be honest, if the question is "Is there someone better than what's in the LoI?", the answer is probably yes. But sentimentality over what he has achieved or what sponsorship he has generated won't take the club forward.
Its all huff and puff with cork and not much else. They're miles off most irish sides in europe. They can't keeping being excused for switch offs.
Cork could play a full season in Europe and not score.
But he has taken us forward, year after year after year. Progression is rarely linear and yet we are constantly moving forward. Maybe we haven't made the breakthrough in Europe but we have in every other aspect. And in Europe we are at least holding our own. We haven't been seeded in any season and yet we've won three ties. Maybe we got lucky in those draws but we won them. We've won as many ties as any other Irish team in the last two years and the last three years.
Bookmarks