And no WC play off as France beat England 1-0 with a 90th minute penalty.
They’ve grown into it more since Spain scored. One or two struggling a bit. Orazi in particular seems out of sorts. Hopefully get in at 1-0 and regroup. Look capable of scoring when we do get forward.
And no WC play off as France beat England 1-0 with a 90th minute penalty.
England's keeper kept them in the game when they faced Switzerland in the group stage, but the Swiss might be exhausted after penalties against Germany
It seemed like a comfortable 3-0 win for Spain, with the typical ‘the Irish can hold the heads high’ etc.
It’s amazing reflecting back on Brian Kerr’s achievements with the U16/18/20 sides in a minimally diverse time in Ireland with nowhere near the same talent as current day. It really puts things in perspective for me as to how well he did.
From my recollection, Duff was the only player of note in the U20 side, Robbie and Dicky Dunne the only players to play regularly subsequently in the premier league in the U18 side, while John O’Shea the only player to play at a high level for the U16 side. Looking through the rest of the squads, the quality ultimately turned out to be not really there. Kerr did an amazing job. We’ve come nowhere close to emulating his achievements since have we? And always look well below the standard against the top teams. Ireland are a completely different genetic pool now underage (for the better), they just don’t seem to be get it right at the tournaments (when they actually qualify)
That U16 side also produced Liam Miller and Andy Reid; Graham Barrett, Joe Murphy, Jim Goodwin and John Thompson also got capped, and had respectable careers.
The U18s also had Gary Doherty, Barry Quinn, Alan Quinn, Stephen McPhail and Jason Gavin, who all played Premier League at some point. Colin Healy was in that age group too, as was Richard Sadlier, and both played in the 1999 World Youth Cup. All but Gavin were capped. Richie Partridge was another who probably would have been capped, if not for injury (he and Gavin made Irish squads).
That 1997 U20 side was shorter on future pros, in fairness. I remember watching that tournament as a teenager, thinking Colin Hawkins, Neale Fenn and Trevor Molloy were going to be future stars, and we should get them into the senior squad immediately!
Kerr did do an amazing job. But I think there has to be respect for what has been achieved by our underage teams in recent years also. We have qualified for the Under 17 Euros four times out of the last five tournaments. At the finals themselves we have made the knockout stages three times out of four. The one time we didn't make the knockouts we were unbeaten in our group. In that time period we also made the semis at an Under 19s Euros despite being without most of our best players who were withdrawn by their clubs. That's incredible consistency for a small country like Ireland.
Unfortunately underage World Cups aren't really open to us these days because of the way FIFA distribute qualification places (we'd be better off being a remote island in the Pacific Ocean), but we would undoubtedly be competitive in those also, if we could get into them.
To put our achievements into perspective, Poland Under 17s put out their second team earlier this week against Wales, having already won the group after two games. Wales beat their second team. It was Wales' first ever match win at an underage tournament finals.
While we haven't won a tournament like Kerr's teams did in 98, it could be argued that the last five or six years have been our most successful ever at underage level in terms of consistency of high level performance over an extended time period.
That group gave me an early lesson in terms of how difficult it is to make it as a top level footballer. I remember watching them in Malaysia thinking we'd get four or five stars out of that team within a few years. I remember the goalkeeper looking decent and then hearing that he had got a move to Bradford, who were going well back then. But it turned out it was a team called Bradford Park Avenue he had signed for, he was actually nowhere near good enough for top level football.
Last edited by Eirambler; 28/05/2023 at 12:41 PM.
Gabriel gartside kelly who wasn't picked in this squad seems to have left man city for Stoke City.
Josh ireland seems to have played no football at Stoke this season, he has just turned 19 anyone have any info on where his career is at now?
Stephen Ireland is running an agency now, Josh appears on their Instagram - https://instagram.com/sire_7_ - from time to time. Doesn't look like he's playing with anyone at the moment.
Josh now working at a funeral home
Josh and Dara Costelloe are playing with Stephen, Kieran Westwood, Leon Best and a host of others (Omar Niasse, Danny Drinkwater etc etc) in a 7 a side tournament in the US at the moment. Winning team gets $1.25m or something
Stephen's wife Jessica was in the squad too: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsmYp71PGNC/
Stephen Hunt was in the Wolves squad: https://www.instagram.com/p/CsolrrcL6Y3/
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