Yeah, Morris could send in a bloody good cross alright. Easy to forget that.
That was Townsend pressurising to win the ball back against England btw. McLoughlin was the one who was offside and who could have got the goal chalked off!
Looking back actually, some of the officiating is awful. Aldridge had what looked like perfectly good goals ruled out against Holland and Romania (granted, Lung had his hand up for the free and wasn't trying to stop the goal), and a probable penalty denied against Holland. There's some ridiculous offside calls. Yet 30 years on, all of that is forgotten (and it was forgotten a lot sooner than that). Just makes me happier that VAR is just ruining the flow of games to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
(To balance out the refereeing stuff, McGrath and Hagi both elbowed each other in the last minute of the Romania game when on yellow cards, and the ref quite sensibly told them to cop on and not ruin things.)
Last edited by pineapple stu; 17/05/2020 at 4:36 PM.
That Brazilian ref had the hairstyle of the tournament, his hair was groomed and permed to perfection.
I see now why Giles puts Houghton in his all time Irish 11.
Watching Romania match and I notice they didn’t have crests on their jerseys.
The goalkeeper didn’t have a crest or an Adidas logo. Was it even an Adidas jersey? Looks totally amateur.
This was surely the last major international tournament where there was a team without a crest
Blame communism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaTlAvn9_EM
I recall Romanian fans at the tournament had cut a hole in the middle of their flags, removing the seal with a communist red star on it.
Just watched the Italy 1990 match. Jeez we were very good alright, a real threat all through but played our better football in the first half. McGrath's performance wasn't far off that of the Giants Stadium. Ref gave a string of fairly soft ones against us for a 10-15 min spell in second half but was okay otherwise.
Couldn't complain too much in that regard as Italy had two perfectly good goals disallowed wrongly for offside. Two poor offside calls against us too but nowhere near as costly, Aldridge (completely ineffective again, poor the whole tournament) had made a mess of one of them anyway. These decisions reminded me of local soccer games where the referee would have to guess himself with no linesman to assist, they really were that bad.
McCarthy slightly lucky to stay on the pitch too given the quantity of fouls against him, most soft but a couple of heavy enough challenges too. Staunton faultless again, had a super tournament, Morris even better on the other side.
Houghton had a quiet first half, but good second half. Our best player of the tournament overall I think, Townsend very busy and effective all through too. Cascarino was a real handful when he came on, probably should've been for Aldo but can obviously understand the reluctance to pair himself and Quinn together.
Great stuff from TG4 showing these games. This was a great little video too - https://twitter.com/SportTG4/status/...177570816?s=20
McCarthy fouled more often than any other player in Italia 90, and yet wasn't booked once.
Amazing how bad the linesmen are alright. As you say, Baggio and Schillaci had good goals chalked off, and the offside call wasn't even close. And Aldridge was onside for that chance too. Not the first time I've noticed it either - as above, Aldo had good goals disallowed against Holland and Romania.
Also interesting that, given the stick that Irish team gets for negative play and so on (making it through to the quarters without winning a game and scoring only twice), it was Italy who were playing it back to the keeper every few minutes throughout the second half.
Atmosphere sounded incredible too; like a club game with a huge away support. FIFA really ruined that part of the World Cup from 1994 on.
I'd forgotten Carlo Ancelotti played tbh; got a surprise when I heard Magee saying he was being brought on!
I remember Aldridge had a perfectly good goal in WC94 qualifier in Seville ruled out for offside also.
Would have won us the game 1-0
Folding my way into the big money!!!
RTE showed the extended highlights of the 1974 game v Soviet Union, when irish football was invented. I think the video quality was restored, it looked cleaner. Though the pitch was muck, yet Brady could glide effortlessly past defenders. I had never seen Don Givens sprint so fast as he did after the ref blew the ft whistle.
It was an afternoon kick off, probably because the Dalymount lights were a few lux candles short of being acceptable. I mitched off school without even trying to hide it. I remember being very excited before this game, even confident. I can't remember if it was a normal excitement with foolish confidence or something extra was in the air. It was Giles' first competitive game as manager, not only was he was a football God but whenever interviewed he talked about football with such an intensity, with intelligence, a clarity of opinion and maturity. From a footballer perspective, possibly only Beckenbauer had that natural aura and the universal respect that went along with it. I hadn't seen any footage of Brady with Arsenal, we only had RTE at home. I'd say most there hadn't seen him play but the word was out. Still, nothing could have prepared the crowd for that Brady performance on his debut and I don't recall a top nation team being so thoroughly outclassed by Ireland as that day.
"Arguably our greatest ever performance", claimed Jimmy McGee in commentary. Judging from the highlights, it would be easy to believe. He also mentioned that we had conceded six against the same opposition three years earlier. We looked on a totally different level to the USSR, footballing wise. Was a pretty feisty affair too.
Brady stood out a mile alright, hard to believe it was his debut. Highway was very lively and Giles still had it. Seems we didn't raise much of a gallop thereafter though? Needless to say we failed to qualify, a tough looking double header doing for us in the second half of the campaign. CCCP, instead, advanced to the (pre-final tournament) two legged quarter finals, where they lost to eventual winners Czechoslovakia.
Ireland had the Soviet Union in the preceding qualifiers, for the Cruyff WC74. The Soviets topped the qual group but had a play off v Chile, they refused to play the away leg in that stadium.
Our Eamon would not have had such qualms being the practically minded protestor, i.e. if you don't get your way, then surrender your principles straight away.
1973 France 1-1 ireland WC qualifier
Footballia.net or You Tube
I have never seen so much hair on an Irish team, complete with impressive bushy sideburns. 1973 (pre mullet) must have been the last golden year of the hair, If you didn’t have hair you were square,
Mulligan, McConville Holmes, Hand could have filled a skip had they shaved off their hair.
France were playing for their WC final spot. Ireland were playing for honour and could only field a weakened team. Paddy Mulligan was immense, leading by example, cajoling etc.
Ireland played very well, tried to play football at all times despite technical limits and deservedly achieved the result.
One passage of intricate play out of defence around the hour mark had the partisan crowd burst into some applause.
The ref gave some ridiculous decisions the way of the French in the 2nd half, played on after a 2 footed studs up lunge on Martin (I think).
Liam Touhy’s last game as Ireland manager, he had dragged Ireland 3 or 4 big steps out of the dark ages and had he not been so occupied with his day job managing a dairy, a large family and being a LOI manager, he would have been fine as team manager going into the next qual campaign.
I'm just after listening to RTE's Tommie Gorman wax lyrical (amazing considering his location deep inside a part of Roy's anatomy) about Roy Keane's performance after he got booked v Juventus, which hypothetically ruled him out of the CL final.
Did Hagi's active role diminished an iota after he picked up that booking? No, what we witnessed was a class player on his way up the ladder doing the right thing as per his suprema role in the team, regardless of personal concern.
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