France (H) match discussion thread

[paul_oshea]

lads all the players were given too much space outside the box, as it seemed the defence didnt want to commit in case they were nut megged. dunne turned his bloody body for gods sake rather than attacking henry. i dont know, i just dont know....

[onenilgameover]

I thought that myself too. He was far too far out and wasn't expecting it. What happened just before that was it a misplaced Dunne clearance. Henry takes it down has some space pushes it forward, did defenders back off??? i know we've seen henry pull off sh!t like that but in fairness it all seemed to easy and a little bit sureal.

[The Stars]

it as one of those moments when you knew it was in the second Henry got the ball.It was like slow motion,everyone stopped and even Henry was so cool in his finish.

[Littlest Hobo]

Plenty of fight and spirit, but lack of class.
After 60 minutes and seeing how the game was unfolding, I had a bet with a couple of guys in the pub, that the french would knick it by one. Earned meself a few quid. It was pretty obvious at this point who was in charge and was looking like winning. They dominated the middle with zidane pulling the strings, we sat back too deep and invited them, to play in front of us.
How many times did I see both Robbie and hog the halfway line, chasing shadows
Roy played well and broke up their momentum, bit slow on the tackle a few occasions.
Kilbane was totally at sea and the gulf of class between him and Viera/Zidane was clearly evident. He will fair better aginst waeker cyprus and the swiss.
I was fuming at the long ball tactics. The back four were launching high balls at every opportunity. Scenes from the charlton era. robbie and clint hadn't a hope. What a waste Reid and Duff didn't get enough opportunites to punish them from the wings.
Pre-match, Gallas was right when he said Ireland are long ball experts, and play old english type football. They never looked thratened by our attacks.
When big Doc came on I almost left the pub
Glad Roy, Duff and Reid didn't resort to those desperate measures. They kept it on the floor all game.

In a nut shell, we were never going to win and should never have expected to. THAT MY FRIENDS IS RELAITY.We got lucky aginst the Dutch Sep '01, and skill/class/and tactics were always going to decide this one.
The French were a class outfit, who deserve to win the group after that performance.
I still we believe we have enough class to beat the cypriots and swiss for a play-off place. That's what we deserve and our abilities merit.

One more thing, did anyone hear Niall Quinn on Skysports. After 50 minutes
he was settling for a 0-0 draw. That and alot of other comments, make this man a pessimist and an extrmely irritating person.

[paul_oshea]

well said hobo.

quinn was trying to dig at keane at every opportunity. i think he is a big time "ireland are great" type commentator to be honest.

[VinnyL]

no chance for given, top corner. he abs buried it

[Dublin12]

One more thing, did anyone hear Niall Quinn on Skysports. After 50 minutes
he was settling for a 0-0 draw. That and alot of other comments, make this man a pessimist and an extrmely irritating person.[/QUOTE]

I would have settled for a 0-0 draw at that stage too,he just saw it for what it was and we never looked like scoring and were beginning to flag in midfield.If Roy wasn't playing it would've been alot worse.

[joeSoap]

no chance for given, top corner. he abs buried it

Given nearly got to it...and was 7 yards off his line...if he was a bit closer to goal....

[OwlsFan]

I'll brace myself for the response but that chant irritated me no end. I posted before that Keane's booking (that's 4 in all this tournament meaning he misses 20% of the games through suspension) in the Faroes for dissent could cost us dear. That chicken may now come home to roost.

Take it as read that Keane was our best player on the night. He loses possession (through his legs) and scurries back to foul a Frenchman who is in a threatening position (fair enough) and the ball breaks to Makalele on the floor (no threat) and he goes in on him with stud showing. Booking.

Our best player has once again put himself out of a vital trip to Cyprus where he carried the team last time we played there. The crowd in response chant "Keano". Muppets. Do those of you who made that chant support his action in getting himself banned for our vital qualifier. I didn't hear any chant of "Reido" or "Morro" when they also got booked - but maybe they haven't got 4 needless bookings in the campaign so they're not worth the chant. They're were plenty other well deserved chants of "Keano" but when someone needlessly put themselves out of a vital game, I certainly won't immediately chant their name.

Time will tell how disasterous his absence will be. 6 pts will pretty much get us a play off place. I would have been reasonably confident of 3 in Cyprus if he had been playing. Now.... Reid and Morrisson we can live without.

[joeSoap]

I think you might find if you watch the booking again that Andy Reid should have got the card, not Keane, as it was Reids challenge that brought the free kick.

[zinedineontour]

Keane did make a rash challenge to get booked though .. still gets on my tits though when keane touches the ball 30,000 people nearly have an orgasm and cant stop applauding the man .. when he fouls someone the stadium erupts with keano if he gives the ball away its hard luck roy great effort son ... if anyone else gives the ball away its moans and groans and you ****ing eejit your **** .....

The lad played well last night prob our best player after richie dunne but ffs people need to support the team not just roy keane ...

[VinnyL]

rather he be out fot the cyprus game than the swiss game to be honest... he was bound to pick up a yellow in Nicosia if he didnt pick up one last night - its just the type of player he is

[thejollyrodger]

Cyprus are only playing for pride remember

[youngirish]

Have to say we were the better team for the majority of the game last night. Anyone watching it could realise this. We had most of the possession, created the best chances and never looked like conceeding until one moment of magic from Mr Henry.

That my friends was the only difference. Keane and Morrison need s**tloads of chances to be created for them before banging in a goal while Henry can conjure up one from nothing.

I agree that bringing Doherty on was all but admitting defeat and I seriously think Kerr's future has to be looked at. After all who has he beaten of any note in two and a half years? No one.

Also was I the only one who thought it was disgraceful that our fans were booing every touch from the French players throughout the match? This is real English behaviour as far as I'm concerned. No one boos us at away games (well possibly the Turks but we are generally well liked by everyone). It didn't do us any good in the end anyway.

[liam88]

Anyone else think he played really well last night?
He made a stunning save in the first half (think from Zidane), he couldn't have done much about what was admitidally a quality goal from Henry, he played with his heart pushing the team up towards to end and making some quality goal kicks.

[Stuttgart88]

Paul, it's not a bleedin' science. And Terry's most gloomy predictions hardly came to reality did they? So France won but I still think my prediction was about right - we'll get chances & it's down to whether we'd take them. We didn't.

They actually got FEWER chances than I expected & I was delighted to see all THEIR long balls sailing out over the goal line & touchline all through the first half. In the end their overall quality told but only just. The pessimists are hardly vindicated. And it's totally churlish to say " I told you so". Maybe if we'd been comprehensively thumped...

[LFC in Exile]

Take it as read that Keane was our best player on the night. He loses possession (through his legs) and scurries back to foul a Frenchman who is in a threatening position (fair enough) and the ball breaks to Makalele on the floor (no threat) and he goes in on him with stud showing. Booking.

Have you ever played football? He didn't go in studs showing to kick Makelele on the gound. He got caught in possession and Reid fouled Makelele - he fell in Keanes path. Jaysus, I know he has previous but give him a break. In any event he is a central midfielder - central midfielders get booked (a lot) - especially when there is a ref as fussy as last night's. He booked Zidane for nothing. If Keane is walking around trying not to get booked and pulling out of challenges because he is afraid of missing a game he will not be as effective as he was last night when he effectively had to hold midfield on his own.

Maybe you remember a night when Man United played Juve and Keane got booked for a challenge on Zidane - the booking put him out of the Champions League final. Did he pull back? No. It is not his style.

[zinedineontour]

wow arent you the clever clogs .... look we were not outclassed outplayed and france had two shots on goal all game ... The result on the balance of play was unfair so your no mystic meg really ... I think the reason a lot of people were positive was shown last night ... We dominated the first half and were unlucky not to go in up at half time ....

[Littlest Hobo]

Have to say we were the better team for the majority of the game last night. Anyone watching it could realise this. We had most of the possession, created the best chances and never looked like conceeding until one moment of magic from Mr Henry.

That my friends was the only difference. Keane and Morrison need s**tloads of chances to be created for them before banging in a goal while Henry can conjure up one from nothing.

I agree that bringing Doherty on was all but admitting defeat and I seriously think Kerr's future has to be looked at. After all who has he beaten of any note in two and a half years? No one.

Also was I the only one who thought it was disgraceful that our fans were booing every touch from the French players throughout the match? This is real English behaviour as far as I'm concerned. No one boos us at away games (well possibly the Turks but we are generally well liked by everyone). It didn't do us any good in the end anyway.

Have to disagree. They had most of the possession. Zidane was rolling it around for fun and Viera was surging forward non-stop.
They could string a few passes together alright . We sat back too often and gave them too much respect. The difference between both sides is a very large gulf of class and experience. Yes we do have some very good players, i.e. Duff/Reid/Roy and Robbie, but nothing else to compete with them. They upped a couple of gears from their previous shoddy performances and are now on course to win. That's something we could never do.

[Seano]

Given's lack of a couple of extra inches are his only down fall, he's technically one of the best ,he doesn't make mistakes, but doesn't have the height at 6', to be the best
in the world.