Just back from injury isn't he? But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh. Victor looked bright in some early season cameos.Originally Posted by Kingdom
Just back from injury isn't he? But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh. Victor looked bright in some early season cameos.
That, I do not know.
Noonan was very impressive until the side got filleted with subs. I'd have zero concerns. Some of his work roving deeper in the first half was exquisite.But kovalevskis and Noonan have looked more dangerous for Rovers too tbh.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
He's been out for Rovers anyway. Think he got injured while with the u17s.
Ah Noonans just great to watch isn't he? So intelligent and hard working. Some really impressive players out there though. Great start to the tournament.
He absolutely is. I know that Crawford gets plenty of (deserved) criticism with the 21s, but I thought how he utilised Noonan (in the context of Melia) was very smart. They tired Andorra and that gave Noonan the scope to attack them when introduced and that's how the goal came about. Melia was the main man, and rightly so.
Here, Noonan is the main man (rightly so) but it didn't appear as any kind of stone around his neck, he clearly thrived on it. And the proof of the pudding is in the eating as an old mentor used to say to us - goals for Rovers in Europe and now goals for Ireland at U21 level and at an U17 world cup. An inch lower and he'd have had a contender for goal of the touranment in the first match.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Knock on effect of not taking another striker (Billy O'Neill first name on the list followed by Shay Reid, Sam Rooney, Cillian Tollett, Charles Akintintayo, Chris Idah and Ben Mahon). If he were to pick up an injury, I'd say either McMahon Browne or Umeh would be pushed up front.
I do think for such a large tournament with potentially 8 games in 22 days, they should allow an extra 2 members of the squad so you can have a full change of players. 21 including 3 keepers is at least one man short of what you'd want.
Highlights of the game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBml2oIeBrg
(embedding is disabled for the video)
Other game highlights. Uzbekistan look handy in these limited highlights, certainly know how to finish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8agAF3S1Qg
Couple of other results of note, Germany as holders (for whatever thats worth in underage football) held 1-1 bu Columbia and England hammered 3-0 by Venezuela. Who knew New Caledonia had a side that could qualify for any world cup level.
similarly i live in the south inner city and work in the north inner city. to me it's mental that there isn't a single 11 a side pitch in Dublin 8 - thank god for the italians: https://www.irishtimes.com/business/...ins-liberties/
i remember when i was a kid, say from age 6, we used to spend all our time playing football, either on the street or in a park or in someone's garden. genuinely 7 days a week. once we became teenagers it was basically the same thing after every school day. there'd be girls and some kids hanging out, smoking or drinking or getting high, but pretty much every day you'd play football for 2 hours in the park, just to socialise and have fun. i think it was either perceived as safer then or more socially acceptable for parents to let their young kids disappear to play ball or whatever for hours on end, which probably doesn't help.
when i think of cages in the inner city, they often have people playing (kids climbing over the walls to play in grangegorman still happens every day) but it's nothing like how it used to be - you do see a multiple of people on scooter, hanging out outside shops and takeaways on phones. i remember playing on an old grit cage when i was a teenager. it was in the flats in digges street and i just couldn't believe the level of talent. it was kids from say 12 to 20 and the quality was so good and so ferocious. it felt like a real hotbed of talent. the only other place i've felt that was in La Boca in Buenos Aires.
comparing apples and oranges here but 13/27 of the ireland rugby team born in the 26 counties are from Dublin. i do think far more kids in dublin than have ever done so before are playing either GAA or rugby instead of football.
when i was a kid, i honestly only knew one person who played GAA, that was it. in the 90s and 00s, it was that era where dublin weren't good, and the only player anyone knew was Jason Sherlock. then the GAA invested €19m across 5 years to increase participation among young kids.
https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2020/12...ear-headstart/
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/...-10058261.html
and when it came to rugby, we weren't much good either, (first six nations win comes in 2009). Besides, people never started to play until secondary school and by that stage, elite footballers had already been identified etc.
I'd worry now that GAA has probably triple or quadruple the participation rate and kids are playing rugby as young as they start playing football - Damien Duff might be playing rugby and Robbie Keane might be playing GAA. meanwhile the conditions don't exist for street footballers any more, so Wes Hoolahan ends up on a playstation or whatever. put it all into a pot and it's a pretty bad recipe.
not that i want to sound so negative on a day that was so positive.
Noonan, Umeh and Finneran clearly stand out as guys who could be fast tracked. I'd expect to see Umeh and Finneran play for the 19s in March if they qualify for the elites before moving up to the 21s in the not too distant future, possibly in June. Overall a great performance, Victor and Solanke didn't seem 100% and the fact that Finn Sherlock didn't replace Solanke would make me wonder if he's right as well.
I do think Colin was very slow to make changes. 4-0 up was the perfect opportunity to rest the stars and give game time to other players who you will need down the line. Dissapointed not to see Goodness Ogbonna at all.
Yeah most of the subs were quite late, especially given the heat.
I thought most of our team looked physically bigger and stronger - older, even - than a lot of the Panama team.
Noonan was very sharp. His movement is impressive and he caused them a lot of problems. I was thinking that Umeh was a bit wasted at LWB. I'd nearly want to see what he was like up top, given his size (especially at that level), but I guess that would probably mean Noonan dropping out, which isn't ideal.
Vinnie Leonard looked quality - his reading of the game was exceptional and he got his blocks in.
Rory Finneran was really good too. A great start for them, but obviously there are bigger challenges ahead.
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
Three spaces for teams from Oceania, and Australia no longer being part of Oceania, leads to some very weak teams qualifying. New Caledonia scraped in on penalties over Tahiti. I'm sure Old Caledonia's Under 17s would beat New Caledonia's easily, but the way the qualification spaces are handed out means that New Caledonia get to qualify and they don't
In the first round of games New Caledonia lost 6-1, Fiji lost 6-0 and even the one potentially competent Oceania team, New Zealand, lost 3-0 to Mali.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday where they were saying that Man Utd are monitoring 10 players at this u17 World Cup. They have already signed the Columbian Captain Cristian Orozco. I wonder if any Irish lads are on the radar?
Last edited by Razors left peg; 06/11/2025 at 5:59 PM.
Its really not that complicated!!!
God I hope not. That club's been a slow-moving disaster since Ferguson retired. But yeah, I expect many big clubs have scouts watching it. The Irish lads have a chance to catch someone's eye.
You can't spell failure without FAI
For me, these are the ones who caught the eye against Panama, who haven't already signed for relatively big European clubs:
Alex Noonan - didn't have much to do but looks very calm and assured. Dealt with one bad back pass really calmly.
Michael Noonan - nuff said
Vinny Leonard - has a real eye for a pass from the back and carried the ball well too
Max Kovalevskis - whenever he's on the ball you think something could happen. Probably didn't get involved enough with Umeh the main outlet but got his goal obviously and looked dangerous.
At least they caught my eye, but I was obviously particularly keen on seeing how the 3 Rovers lads did (and all the ex-Rovers lads who have either moved up or down since being with us e.g. Solanke, Victor, Brody Lee, Ogbonna, and McDonagh). I know Sean Spaight is highly regarded at Dundalk but he didn't stand out for me the other night.
I know the curren Rovers 3 have all attracted interest already although I've heard much less about Max than the two Noonan's.
Michael has been over to City a bit but, as I said above, I haven't heard much lately. Alex has been scouted but I'm not sure by who. Of our 3 I'd say Max has the biggest chance to up his reputation (just because the others are well known). He's been very bright in his few cameos for us.
22 leagues and 25 cups and....well....none of you will ever catch up if we're being honest.
Looking already at Round 2 a few big countries are underperforming and there could be a stinker of a draw in the last 32 but only way to do it so go out and win every game. We are lucky we are in the second last batch of group games which will be very useful for knowing what to do.
Fair play to New Caledonia getting a 0-0 with Japan yesterday. Population 271k v 123 Million
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