Game on, own goal.
Game on, own goal.
2-1 Iceland. Hard luck. Hope Iceland can qualify now.
Stream died but it seems Iceland have scored in the 93rd minute!
Bitterly disappointing. Average performance, lacked penetration again. Silly silly from Collins, hopefully he will learn from it. Nice to see Parrot back playing
So far Stephen Kenny is not a Lucky General !
Terrible 2nd half. Poorly managed by Crawford.
Parrott left out on wing instead of getting him through the middle. Elbouzedi left on far too long. Looked poorly organized. Very disappointing.
Lot of people on social media and on here hammering Kenny for not picking Obafemi. Hes a poor player. He will slip down the divisions in England I think.
A draw would have been a defeat for both teams chances of getting to the finals. Ireland didn't take the initiative after drawing level. I think Iceland had most the game after that equaliser, never gave up,worked hard and earned their winner.
You make your own luck, at least to some extent. He played his part in what happened today with the senior callups.
He'd want to gets the seniors scoring and winning quickly. I want him to do well but international football is a ruthless game and he is delivering poor results and performances that are getting harder and harder to watch.
molumby, idah and knight are big losses to that team. its a pity how things worked out timing wise. after the home sweden performance i was sure we'd qualify but then covid kicked in, games were postponned, kenny and some of the better players went to the seniors. opportunity missed really.... keeping that team together through the campaign and hopefully onto the finals would have been massive for some of the players development. nothing going right for us at any level at the moment.....
Iceland were missing 2 top players called up to the seniors, that's just normal stuff when the senior team is under pressure.
Lads, maybe we need to discuss definitions a bit more in here. Maybe I'm working in the EU Council too long, But in my world, if you're centre forward is clean through and takes two touches 8 yds out befroe the keeper blocks him, that's a chance.
Felt sorry for Scully a bit - there was no way he was going to be getting much of the ball first half the way the wind was going.
I think the call about Crawford a few posts up is fair. He makes the decision to hook Scully, and then he takes Elbouzedhi and switches him when he was our most dangerous outlet in the first half, in order to put Parrott on the left. Elbouzedhi immediately became ineffective, Obafemi started the second half the same as the first, and Parrott only got into it once he went central.
Anyone, anywhere, that uses Obafemi as an example to attack Kenny, needs to be physically assaulted with a wet fish. The fella has shown NOTHING, to warrant inclusion in the senior squad, and honestly after these two outings, has shown nothing to merit being in the 21s team.
Coventry and Ronan are two lovely footballers. I hope they keep progressing.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
The u21s are there to provide players to the seniors so this crop has done its job. There won't be a huge amount more from players that actually played tonight that'll make the step up I think. Parrott and maybe Nathan Collins would be the only ones I think
They had 7 senior internationals in their side, so swings and roundabouts.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
I disagree. Our turnover into the senior squad is going to get greater and greater.
For starters from this group we've already Kelleher, Travers, OShea, Molumby, Connolly, Idah and someone else?
Parrott is obviously there or thereabouts, and Lee O'Connor has already made his debut.
Based on what I've seen in this campaign, not just today, Conor Coventry would be an asset to the senior squad already. Collins is a beast, is very young, but has some lapses in him - for an almost first choice Chsampinship pro don't forget - that he needs to eradicate, and I'd be sure he's going to be a mainstay very quickly. I really like Connor Ronan. I think he's a very very clever player, and with better attacking players around him, and a good centre forward that pulls attnetion, he could be very useful, and I think he'll progress into the senior squad too.
Then there's Afolabi...he's been injured a lot, but I've seen him a handful of times, and much prefer him to Obafemi, who I think is so overrated it's comical.
Masterson, Scales, Elbouzedhi, Leahy, Mandriou. They're all really nice foorballers to watch, but they won't threathen the top two tiers in England, and in that scenario, I would hope that they could be a force in the LoI. I know that Masterson is at QPR and Elbouzedhi at Lincoln, but masterson for me has too many flaws. maybe he'll iron them out, but I'd be doubtful. However, seeing those players playing in a quality league of Ireland side - a Bohs, a Rovers or a Dundalk, would make a huge difference to the standard here, and also when those sides play in Europe.
Last one for me is Jack Taylor. Today wasn't the day for his type of game, but i've said it on the other thread, I think he's going to explode in the next 18 minths. He's tough, he's aggressive, and he carries the ball well, and isnt afraid to have a crack at goal. I fully expect him to be in the senior squad by the start of the 24 qualifying series.
That's before you even discuss next years 21s. It's one of the reasons why on other threads when we are posed the question "what's more important?", the most important thing, for me, is getting all age groups constantly into final tournaments. That drives these players when they get to the senior squad, where lets face it, qualification has been far from common place. We're constantly working on a top-down appraoch. We need to invert that.
Ask yourselves why this group of players was so anticipated and exciting? because of what they have achieved as a group all the way through. The first structured group of developed players from across the country, and it showed. That needs to be a priority.
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
Don't believe everything an Irish commentator verbalises in order to hype up the massive task facing the Irish lads
5 or so of the Icelandic players were capped at senior level, 15 or 20 minutes mainly against intl teams at a friendly tournament of sorts, easter holiday training camps.
This squad has been playing together through all underage levels and most all know each other since they started playing football seriously.
So it is 5, is it 6 or is it 7? And is it a cap or isn't it? This is the type of **** that has made coming into this forum a chore. Im chuffed to pieces that Hungary knocked your lot out.
And the annoying Irish commentator actually mentioned your last sentence too so there!
Here they come! It’s the charge of the “Thanks” Brigade!
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