Doyle's looks a bit off form so far this season, needs a goal to get goingOriginally Posted by cavan_fan
"A silent mouth is sweet to hear"
I thought:
McGeady was excellent, as was Reid
Long was calm in front of goal
Gibson did very well
Not much confidence in Henderson - makes me think he will make the hard saves and then miss a cross etc & concede.
Hunt was very poor - though I was really hoping he would prove my worst fears wrong. Hurry back Duffer.
Potter - ok -but we did not dominate the CM area, so not sure yet!
Have to say I'm not convinced by Henderson in goal either. Would prefer to see Doyle in there in Given's absence.
It'll be interesting to see if Carsley is back in the team for the matches in a couple of weeks now. I certainly think he should play but I actually think Stan will stick with Potter.
The biggest question after that is 2 players from Ireland, Hunt and McGeady. After tonight and going by previous team selections I think Hunt will be the player left out. Thankfully I'm not picking the team as I don't know what I'd do.
btw, people said our midfield was too light weight in Cyprus which is why we were destroyed. Tonight's midfield was just as light weight imo. What we did have was a tactical awareness though. Reid is just a bloody genius.
Last edited by eirebhoy; 22/08/2007 at 10:34 PM.
with the forwards we now have competing, I think Ireland could do a tour of Notre dame university, and Joe wou'd'nt be invited to team up with the squad.......
There is good news about Given's recuperation.
There is no option, without Given we are fecked.
You can have a bit of fun rating the players here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ls/6447361.stm
The Danes hardly registered over 4/10
We scored goals! 4 of them! Away from home!
All through this campaign and the last, the two main problems have been the strikers not scoring (so many of our goals coming from midfield) and a general inability to score a couple outside of Dublin. If that particular hurdle is being overcome, we're heading in the right direction.
First half I wasn't impressed with our shape and organisation, the lack of men committed forward was also a concern, but in the second half we really started to take control for a while and finished them off (which we have always failed to do). No question they were poor but they're not THAT poor.
McGeady impressive, very quick feet and after a shaky start began to give us an end product, crossing for Robbie's 2nd. I've been itching to see him get more game time, hopefully he can push on from here.
I thought Hunt did alright, he looked the most willing to get forward and take people on in the first half, I think the lack of support up front (the central midfield players did not get far enough forward and this shortened his options) maybe made him slightly predictable, although his skill level left a bit to be desired.
Gibson, obviously ignored absolutely everything and just got on with it. Confident, assured, a class act. Has to be in the squad for Slovak/Czech games.
I'd bring McShane in and move Finnan to RB and O'Shea to LB, Carr did alright but I just don't trust him defensively.
Henderson...tough to say, lets just hope Shay's fit. Certainly 2nd in line for the keepers jersey but thats not saying much.
Potter looked good, but too early to think about starting him competitively imo. Should be in the squad though.
Doyle looks off the pace and frustrated, it doesn't help him that Robbie keeps dropping so deep looking for the ball, leaving him on his own, which is why the CM players need to take a bit more responsibility and bring the ball higher up the pitch more often (Reid struck me as looking a bit lazy first half although he did improve), Gibson seemed to be dying to take the ball forward which meant we had 2 men to aim for instead of 1 in attack, which is part of the reason we got our two second half goals.
Long proved me all wrong, I didn't rate him but I do now.
All in all, very satisfying, confidence for the side and now I do believe 6 points can be a real possibility.
This is from the Danish Football Associations site (I think), translated by machine into English. The translation is very good compared to the standards of other machine translations I have seen! Probably better than the French and German translations I did when I was at schoolalthough I am not to sure what "juice in" means:-
Weak national team was humiliated
The national football team was dressed off on Wednesday evening to the skin in the friendly match against Ireland on Århus Stadion.
By and large nothing worked, and especially the Danish defence with goalkeeper Jesper Christiansen in the point was staggering and U-fokuseret.
The FCK-goalkeeper looked more or less unlucky at three out of the four Irish scourings.
Neither the building up Danish game or the conclusions was juice in.
Keane put out
The depression started seriously after 29 minutes, when the Tottenham-attacker Robbie Keane got a stitching into left side of the Danish penalty kick field and smart lifted the ball over Jesper Christiansen, when however didn't yield much resistance.
11 minutes later Robbie Keane was again taken down name for a scoring.
A contribution from the Irishes' right-sided was by Jesper Christiansen boxed directly into the rushing on Keane and ended in the Danish goal.
0-2 stood on the scoreboard, and coach for the national team Morten Olsen's boys went till break accompanied by booh-shouts from the dissatisfied århusianic home audience.
The breakdown totally
The same audience went in other half from being boohingly and whistlingly to remain downright gaping and rather shocked.
The Danish fighter spirit was still non-existent, the game worked far from, and the army was open like the gate to a plane-hangar.
Also even though Morten Olsen put four cheerful players at the track immediately after the break.
After nine minutes Jesper Christiansen parried a long shot back middle for his goal, Shane Long activated had lightly by scoring on the riposte.
12 minutes later the same Shane Long secured the Irish firemålsføring, when he passed Christiansen just through the army.
Historically rings
the 0-0-4-defeat to Ireland is the national team's largest home arena humiliation for 48 years.
In August 2007 it's difficult to see how Morten Olsen has to be able to combine an effective crew to the important EM-qualifying match against Sweden in Stockholm on September September.
Nice to read some enthousiasm Shanekerins.
Just Denmark were possibly the worst team we have ever played in a friendly and we have played some bad teams, mistakes all over the place.
Last edited by geysir; 22/08/2007 at 10:53 PM.
That bit sounds spot on if you take a certain meaning out of it
Don't get me wrong, we've had false dawns before in friendly matches, but we've not hit 4 away from home against a side not ranked in Europe's dustbin for a very long time, and I think that is important.
If we play as well as we did tonight in the two games, we'll probably get 4 points. However, with players to come back (McShane and Carsley will both add something I feel) and maybe a 10% boost in performance, I think we can get 6 points. Slovakia aren't that good, and the Czech team is short on matchwinners (nobody of Nedved's quality anymore; although he's dangerous, Rosicky is overrated).
I'm not expecting 6, I'm expecting 4, but there is certainly hope. Also, Germany B looked ****e tonight against England, and while they have big-game players to come back, we should be looking for a point off them also.
I was so skeptical I didn't buy EURO 2008 tickets as I was so sure we wouldn't qualify, now I'm not so sure. Which is nice!
shanekerins, I watched most of the England v Germany match and I though Ireland will do well to get a draw with them in Dublin in October. Kuranyi looked very good throughout...
I wouldn't get too over excited by the Denmark result its a friendly, we usually do well in friendlies, then crap in the competetive matches!!
All I'm saying is that scoring goals is good. I'm not an idiot and I've seen enough Ireland games to become deeply, deeply cynical about it but the young players seem to finally developing a character and team of their own, and winning friendlies 4-0 away from home is very positive.
Chances are you'll be proved right and we won't qualify (its still more likely that we'll be at home next year watching on the telly) but a result like this can only be of benefit.
Time will tell - I just hope that we don't have to spend another bloody tournament sat on the sidelines.
I saw the post match interview with Kevin McDonald. He was not getting carried away. 'Kept losing the ball, we scored 4, another day we'd score none', as if to say without the goals we were below par.
It won't do us any harm, important playing time for 6 or 7 new players.
They only know about an Ireland that doesn't lose. A good boost for the new players and for Stan.
It clearly was against the run of play. Denmark had hit the bar, had a scramble from a corner which could easily have resulted in a peno and had a couple of other (admittedly wild) chances from good areas before we scored with our first shot.
Excellent result, but it's a friendly, so no point reading much into it. Wouldn't mind being in an Aarhus pub now though! Still, a bit more confident heading off to Bratislava in 16 days' time!
[quote=cavan_fan;752880]Amazing that no-one is acknowledging Keane's performance. I now he is not flavour of the month but 2 goals is what I want from a striker.
Everyone has slated keane for so long, that it'll be a few matches before they can praise him with integrity. Same with Stan. Give them time to get over their embarrasment! After the Welsh game someone behind me in the crowd said and I quote "keane should go and die". I was fuming at the time (see my blog) and now he's coming back, so fair play to him.
It was a great performance, and I'm over the moon. Its just a friendly, and its true that we took our chances and Denmark didnt, but still Staunton continues to progress slowly and I'm delighted for him.
You dont get 100 caps for your country, and not be a survivor you know. I've said it before but I think he'll come through this, and the team is very exciting with all the youth in it....
Last edited by dahamsta; 10/09/2007 at 5:34 PM. Reason: Blogspam
Without wanting to sound too negative we shouldn't get carried away with that performance. Denmark were poor and I thought they made us look better than we actually were. Our first three goals could have been prevented if it wasn't for mistakes by the keeper and the defending was poor for the fourth. We won't have it this easy next month but at least the result will give us confidence going into the upcoming qualifiers.
I think some of the criticism for Henderson is unfair- I thought he had a pretty good game. He didn't let his early fumble affect his confidence and pulled off a couple of good saves. The rest of the defence were pretty solid.
Andy Reid was excellent in midfield- controlled the game and provided us with what we have been missing recently. Superb pass for Keane's first goal (very similar to Gerrard's at the weekend, which left Andy Gray drooling). McGeady had a good game also, as did Potter and Gibson when he came on. Hunt was a bit quiet but I don't think he should be dropped like some people have been saying because of one poor game.
Upfront Keane and Long were clinical, Doyle a bit quiet and Keogh showed promising signs despite being on the right wing.
Also I think Stan deserves a chunck of the credit. He seems to be improving as he is gaining experience, and despite the damage he did earlier in the qualifiers he has a chance to cancel them out in the next few months.
Well said that man!....I concur...lets be happy with what we did last night and use the positive energy to keep smiling ahead of a couple of stressful games.
Blimey, it could be worse, ..........Engerrrland!
Tact is for people who are not witty enough to be sarcastic
Very encouraging team performance with some very strong individual performances from Reid and McGeady particularly.
Just to reiterate, the Danes were poor and the goalkeeper had a poor performance. That said, you need to be doing the right things and committing the opposition in order to force such mistakes and punish the mistakes.
Reid has staked a huge claim for a starting spot against the Slovaks. I was hoping he'd step up and take his chance and he certainly impressed for the 45 he was on the pitch. Precision through ball for the first goal and a another great ball to McGeady to cross for the second.
What's encouraging also is the confidence in their ability that the young players exhibit - Keogh, Long, Potter, Gibson - all of these lads were confident on the ball.
Can't get carried away as it only really matters in September - but that win should boost confidence and bond the team.
Quoting years at random since 1975
Didn't realise Denmark were that rubbish...
Seems Scandinavian football as a whole is in a bit of a decline
Kom Igen, FCK...
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