QuoteWe comfortably beat both Sweden and Denmark under the guidance of Stan. How this makes them clear cut better than us I do not know. A wandering waffle of bias I do believe your last post was EG.
Originally Posted by EalingGreen
Notwithstanding that it couldn't happen since we share 3rd Seeding, I would remind you of our last 5 competitive home results:
Spain W 3-2
Latvia W 1-0
Liechtenstein W 3-1
Sweden W 2-1
Denmark W 2-1
You might well beat us at Croke, but we'd hammer you at Windsor. That's right, I said "hammer".
I base my speculation on the fact that Spain, Sweden and Denmark are a clear cut-above ROI, plus the fact that your recent away record in competition is v.poor. That and the motivation we'd have...Originally Posted by galwayhoop
The jury is out on NW, but I think Latvia/Iceland can be explained by the fact that NW was still settling in with a team he had inherited - LS was a huge act to follow, plus sheer bad luck (esp v Iceland) e.g. two late own goals cost us points. More importantly, NW's following three games were an outstanding away draw in Sweden (even they accepted we might have won it), a great, fighting home win over Denmark and an honourable 1-0 away defeat to Spain via a deflected goal. In all three games, the spirit looked to be excellent (a huge part of our game)
How often must a team punch above its weight before people come to accept that they were maybe not that lightweight to start with? OK, I have no illusions that we're a good team, but we're not a bad team, either. Moreover, we have only two regulars over 30, Taylor and Gillespie, each of whom have another campaign left in them. As for the rest, they are all either nearing their prime (Healy, Hughes, McCartney, Johnson etc) or young but already hugely experienced in competitive international football (Davis, Evans, Lafferty, Clingan etc)
As for Healy struggling in EPL, who cares? To get 33 goals in 61 internationals is no flash in the pan or lucky streak. Indeed, he's now got 25 in his last 33, so if anything, he's improving! And it's not like as if he's knocking over dummies, either. In eight recent competitive games v England, Spain, Sweden and Denmark, he notched 7 goals, all of them match-winners.
To predict that the 3rd seeds might finish 3rd in one of the easier Groups is hardly sticking your neck out, is it? It would be my realistic expectation, but I also feel that with a bit of luck, we've as much chance of edging into 2nd as we have of slipping to 4th. (Finishing 5th can never be discounted entirely, but it would be a major surprise. Like finishing 1st!)
We comfortably beat both Sweden and Denmark under the guidance of Stan. How this makes them clear cut better than us I do not know. A wandering waffle of bias I do believe your last post was EG.
honestly you have a seriously inflated view of sweden and denmark!!!
our away record has been poor, but i wouldn't go so far as to say very poor. in our last campaign we only lost to the two top seeds by a single goal. granted we got hockyed in cyprus but ye too got hockyed AT HOME by ICELAND. i'm sure we, like yourselves, might be motivated playing when the rest of our country ......
Ye were 'limp' against a spanish side who had wrapped up qualification. they never had to get out of first gear and ye still never got near them. i thought ye played like a team who knew they had a great campaign but knew in their hearts they were never going to beat the spanish.
Ye are a distinctly average side (as you say, not bad and not good). average players who play for very average teams and most in bad leagues. ye do however play with pride which is what has served ye well. hoever as with most minnows this serves well against the top dogs but invariably ye struggle agains poor/average opposition.
I didn't predict ye would finish 3rd, i said ye might manage to. however i reckon it will be more like 4th or 5th. as i said when sanchez was appointed fulham manager i felt it would spell the end of yer current 'glory days'. at the time all the NI fans swore black and blue that he would finish out the campaign but the realist in me told ye there was no chance he would if fulham kept him on full time. perhaps nigel worthington can perform a miracle like sanchez almost did but i don't think so. unfortunately when hwe walked out on ye there was a decent chance of qualifing but that went out the door with him. still a credible 4th place might perserve yer pot 3 status.
Ireland, having endured a couple of years of stans management (an unmitigated disaster with seriously embarrassing results), would be expected to improve performances immesurably while ye, following on from yer best campaign in over 2 decades (and HOPING that yer current manager is as good as yer last one) are in the eyes of UEFA teams of similar standing.
an irish team under Stan wouldn't get hammered by your league 2 select side so what makes you think that a team under a decent management team would?????
Last edited by galwayhoop; 26/11/2007 at 2:10 PM.
You should know better than anyone that partly due to the winter/summer season discrepancy, and almost all of their top players playing abroad, Sweden (esp) and Denmark do not treat friendlies nearly as seriously as competitive matches.
our record over the last few years does not stand up to NI's under any comparison you care to make , never mind the fellas who are comparing friendlies to competitive results ??? They are the better team until we prove different.
Getting back on topic , no one in our group is gutted to get us , in fact I bet cyprus are delighted! We need to start putting these teams to the sword. On paper we are on a par with bulgaria and better than all the others bar the world champions , obviously. Second is viable in the group although bulgaria wil be thinking the exact same thing.
Can we please stop talking about Norn Iron now except for in threads specifically dealing with them???
Last edited by RogerMilla; 26/11/2007 at 2:26 PM.
Was he crazy!! Yeah , in a very special way , an Irishman.
I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
All right, you've persuaded me: The at first gradual and then catastrophic decline of the ROI team over the last four years never happened. Nor did the steady improvement of the NI team over the same period. We're not ranked ahead of you by FIFA, nor did we pick up a rise of 3 Seedings Pots in our most recent campaign. Plus you already have a top class manager in place, ready to take over a team which only has to hear the word "Go" to get back to where they were a few years back when they were respected, even feared, throughout Europe. And NI will suddenly remember that they were always, in fact, crap and immediately start playing like it in every game.
After all, that's how football works...
Fair point, RM. Sorry.
That's a matter of opinion - I don't know where you got it from but I don't share it. Sweden sends a "development team" made up of domestic league players to places like Saudi Arabia and Ecuador every January (I think Denmark do this bi-annually) but other than that they take their friendly matches as seriously as any other nation. Sweden played us as part of their World Cup build-up and they put out their first choice team at the time. They took the match so "seriously" that their first choice right back for the 2006 World Cup qualifying games has since never played for Sweden following the match in Dublin.
But let try to stick to facts.
The main fact is Ireland beat both Denmark and Sweden comfortably. This suggests that these teams are not clear cut better than us.
LOL
Nice to see you are spreading your bullsh*t to threads not connected with NI.
This is the cooooooooooooolest footy forum I've ever seen!
Whatever about Sweden (haven't seen them play in a bit) there is no way Denmark are a class above us. Yes it was a friendly but they had more or less their full team out when we hammered them in Copenhagen. I fancy they are every bit as average as we are let alone a class above us.
Århus not København.
I think Denmark probably has a better pick of players than what we have but we have beaten them comprehensively in our last two meetings - so they're obviously not clear cut better than us. If I remember correctly we beat them 3-0 in Lansdowne a few years back.
Interesting to read in the local Swedish paper this morning that they rated Ireland's group as the easiest. They reckon Englands was the toughest.
Whether that means that they don't rate us is debatable.
I think I should the parachute, because I'm great.
In fact, I think I should get both parachutes, in case one doesn't work.
ahh at last we are on the same page.......
if we played tomorrow, imo neither team would hammer the other, contary to your assertion earlier in the thread.
What paper was that?
in fairness after the last campaign most teams would not rate us. one point from cyprus, draw with welsh, slovakia, one point from czechs and germans. at least 10 points off qualification.
BUT i don't think outsiders would realise how poorly we underperformed in our last few groups. i reckon (hope maybe) that if we get a good manager in we can compete for at the least a play-off from this group.
Last edited by galwayhoop; 26/11/2007 at 3:01 PM.
Metro. I know, I know, its a fairly cack paper but tahtw as their opinion all the same.
I think I should the parachute, because I'm great.
In fact, I think I should get both parachutes, in case one doesn't work.
Agree
Going off the topic here I know but Norn Iron would not put fear of god into anyone and I mean anyone
The way the Sythe played in the recent campaign they(i.e. N.I.) would beat us handily!
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