Ireland v Ecuador - RTE, 1am

Bounty Hunter

methinks Potter might be back (in a real squad i mean)

wardie

Better first touch and that was a great chance for long

Bounty Hunter

Joe lapiera a non-pro gets an irish cap

DonJose

Woohoo I had a nice bet on Ireland to draw. Just finised 1-1. Darren Potter had a great game, hes one to watch in the future.

applehunter

Colin Doyle 7 Height is a great advantage
O'Halloran 7 Good going forward in 1st half
Bennett 6 Unsure in 1st half, better in 2nd and threat from set plays
Bruce 7 Defended bravely
Kelly 6 Caught out
Potter 8 nice passing and able to make space well
Kilbane 6 Anonymous
Hunt 6 Not on the ball enough
murphy 7 Put in some good crosses
Doyle 8 Biggest threat, great goal
Keogh 7 Chased lost causes with no returns for his effort

Subs

O'Ciarriul 7
Gamble 7
Gleeson 6
Long 7
Stokes 6

Would like to see Gamble and Potter in midfield for the next game to see how they would get on.

Long was excellent when he came on, chased and was dangerous.

sofireland

Any links to the goals?

BaZmO*

applehunter wrote:

Kilbane 6 Anonymous

Huh? I take it you didn't stay up for the second half then?

LuckyLloyd

applehunter wrote:

Kilbane 6 Anonymous

lolz.

It seems that at this stage some people obviously don't bother paying any attention to his performances // blindly ignore things he does well.

redspider

At least this Benitez did his stuff in this game ....... !!

I saw the Doyle goal, nice finish. Thought the Irish keeper should have done better for the Ecuadorian goal. Mind you they had a few more chances, and Ireland as well with Doyle hitting the post.

I think these type of friendlies are useful as away friendlies take off a lot of pressure of the younger lads as they dont have to perform as they did in Lansdowne. 22k in a 50k or whatever it is stadium also relieves pressure and allows the younger lads to play with more freedom. I think they gve us that last night.

Redspider

Orizio

Benitez certainly looked like a class act.

O'Halloran, Kelly, Potter, Doyle and the Arsenal lad that came on were undoubtedly the standout players.Kilbane was excellent in the second half as well.Some good prospects, sadly none of which were wingers.

GuanYin

I was at the game. First and foremost, really disappointing Irish turn out. Only the lower tier was open and it was oly about 85% full. Of the ~21,000 at the game, I'd say there were abot 3,000 Irish. It was woeful, an almost sea of yellow, we were outshouted every time and noone sang the national anthem.

As for the game, I'm sorry applehunter, Kilbane was the worst Irish player overall. Poor positioning, sloppy passing and generally anonymous. He did one or two good things, including one second half surge forward and a great cross-field pass, but for a player with over twice the caps of the the rest of the team combined, it made no difference when he went off injured in the second half. In fact, we finished stronger.

The shining players were definitely Potter, Doyle and Murphy.

Murphy especially was quick, sharp and strong as an ox. I saw him physically barge through the Ecuadorian defence several times (he muscled through three players to get the ball on one occasion).

Potter looked very assured and had it all to do with Kilbane's performance. He tracked well (in all but one-two occasions) and his positioning was usually strong.

Doyle showed why he did so well in the premiership. He was the real senior player in the team.

Bruce looked the best of the defence, he talked alot, which is good. He also complained and blamed alot for mistakes (and he made two bad ones himself).

I didn't like the look of Stephen Kelly - he seemed tired, but he was lost out of position a couple of times. Keogh worked tirelessly but was ineffective. Gamble didn't look out of place.

All in all, good game to be at, was end to end stuff and alot of goal mouth incidents.

1-1 was a fair result, we had more chances, but they had better ones.

_blank_

Nice to see a guy who plays his football at amateur level in the USA get a game for the national side.

eirebhoy

sean I disagree with it too but what did you think of the game?

The Muppet

Just watched the game on RTE . It was a usefull exercise some of the younger players looked promising.

_blank_

Tbh, I fell asleep before Kick Off, so I didn't see the game.

Doubt if I would have watched it anyway.

No point to games like these, when players who probably won't ever get a call up to a 'proper' game are playing.

Why was this Lapira even considered for a place in the squad anyway. If Stan actually calls him up to a real squad then that will be the worst thing he'll ever do as Ireland manager, including Cyprus and San Marino.

So, if we are to assume that the likes of Lapira, Gamble et al aren't going to be in real squads in future, why were they included in this? Why insult everyones intelligence? What has our manager actually learned from this trip to Ameri-cay?

BaZmO*

seansouth wrote:

What has our manager actually learned from this trip to Ameri-cay?

That New York is 5 hours behind Ireland?

leninbenjamin

it sounds like that Lapira fellah is supposed to be a decent prospect. i've heard he had a few MLS clubs knockin on his door. i'd say it was just a case of Stan locking him in should he ever go pro.

just saw the highlights. didn't look half bad. good goal from Doyle. looked more entertaining than the "other" match on last night.

S.M.B.

seansouth wrote:

What has our manager actually learned from this trip to Ameri-cay?

That Darren Potter could potentially be a key player in our remaining Euro qualifiers. That's enough for me.

eirebhoy

Doyle's goal:
http://www.attachmax.com/Doyle_vs_Ecuador.html

applehunter

psi wrote:

As for the game, I'm sorry applehunter, Kilbane was the worst Irish player overall. Poor positioning, sloppy passing and generally anonymous. He did one or two good things, including one second half surge forward and a great cross-field pass, but for a player with over twice the caps of the the rest of the team combined, it made no difference when he went off injured in the second half. In fact, we finished stronger.

Thats what I said