Crucial breakthrough deflected free kick from Ronan. Need second now for comfort
Idah on now for injured Elbouzedi, presumably Connolly reverts to wide role
Crucial breakthrough deflected free kick from Ronan. Need second now for comfort
After Idahs two well-taken penalties vs China....Molumby showed balls stepping up as captain taking it, he had to score it. That was bad....can’t understand why Idah didn’t take it
Not sure why Molumby took it when Idah was on the pitch. Ronan and Barrett did very well to win the penalty.
As with pretty much every u21 game for Kenny, Ronan has looked a really bright spark so far today.
With Idah not starting Molumby had probably been put on penalties before kick off. Idah clearly a much better penalty taker though. Barrett should have finished the rebound, he has looked quite slow in general for a guy playing wide left.
Bahrain seemed to be tiring by the end of the half, a lot of lazy tackles and fouls. If we keep the intensity up we should be OK here.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Bahrain controlling things and creating chances since half time. Concerning
Referee has made this difficult for us. Ronan had a perfectly good goal disallowed.
Every time we attack, there’s either a free or penalty not given to us, or a free given out against us...
Hasn’t been a good performance by any means but the officials have certainly played a part
Their keeper almost comically throwing himself on the ground when he bumped Connolly from a corner and then getting a free kick is perfect example of how poor officials have been hereOriginally Posted by elatedscum
The sarcastic cheering from the small Irish crowd when a Bahrain player was finally booked said it all about that half I think. The combination of a terrible pitch, the over physicality of the Bahrain team and some ridiculous referee and linesman decisions turned the whole thing into a bit of a shambles in the end.
Connolly was probably the best Irish player again, Ronan was also very good and Coventry had a strong second half off the bench. Liam Scales performance was probably the best one from a home based player over the three games, I didn't really notice any drop off in standard from Masterson in the last two games to Scales today.
Hopefully only winning by one doesn't cost us the group win, it would be good to avoid Brazil in the semis.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Fantastic achievement.
Ronan and Connolly come out of this tournament so far as surely being on Mick's radar. August and September are interesting months for them at club level that will be the platform for a call-up come October surely.
Agree on Scales, my first time seeing him but was impressive. Distribution and awareness good. Would be great if he got a move abroad this summer to see if he can make it.
For me: Kelleher, Molumby, Connolly and Ronan remain the standouts and most likely to make it at a reasonably high level. Ronan has such a touch of class about him, if he doesn’t play prem this year needs to play on continent, his skills won’t be appreciated in English lower tiers. Idah did better today, some terrible decisions against him when he used his body well. Needs a good loan move next season to continue his development. Coventry and O’Connor also did well. O’Shea exposed badly in second half on one occasion with a simple turn of direction, but other than that did well. Looking forward to semi finals and the preseason ahead for many of these players
I think Mexico would need to win by 3 goals to overtake - we've scored five and conceded 1, think they've scored 2 and conceded none.
If it finished as is, i.e China 0-0 Mexico, I assume it'd be Brazil(1st seed) v Portugal (4th seed), Japan(3rd seed) v Ireland(2nd seed). I can only see a Mexico win by 3 goals resulting in is playing Brazil next, assuming that's how the draw works.
Edit Mexico have scored. Change that to Brazil v Mexico. Ireland v Japan.
Last edited by Closed Account; 09/06/2019 at 5:17 PM.
Nope, don't know how they draw worked. We play Brazil. 2nd in group get easier draw. Strange.
The two highest ranked qualifiers play each other in the semi finals. Makes no sense. Will be virtually impossible against their Under 22s you would think. 14 of their players are 21 or 22 according to Wikipedia.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Yes it will be tough. That’s pretty much their Olympic team barring 3 or 4 players, there were 2 not released by Athletico Paranaense due to the Recopa. Fantastic opportunity for the young Irish players all the same
It's the kind of tournament where you'd imagine our boys would relish the test of such a country.
Looking forward to the Brazil game. Should be a real test. There's been some really promising performances. I only caught the first 25 mins of the Bahrain game but it was a similar pattern to the others. The players will definitely be well up for it although the lads who have played all 3 games might be getting a bit fatigued, it's a high temp game they play, in pretty extreme heat and on fairly bumpy looking pitches. For me the weakest area has been the full backs, they've been OK, but seem to lack that bit of real pace and quality that the top level full backs need.
Tallaght Stadium Regular
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks