Republic of Ireland - v - Georgia (WCQ) Group 8 - 11/02/09 MATCH THREAD

Bongomc

I hope Stephen Ireland comes back coz Whelan is s#it ! Decent game from Andrews tho, no need for the RTE panel to be slating him.

event

Holsten wrote: »

Terrible, totally undeserved win.

Doyle, Andrews and McGeady fantastic.

Kelly, Whelan... well...

ah will ye stop

we were lucky to get it, but we deserved the win

we had something like 14 shots, 10 on target, around 10 corners.
we battered them in the 2nd half and all the contributed was fouls.
they had a couple of chances on the break

how on earth do you say we didnt deserve it.

dreamers75

Rizzla King wrote: »

As for Andrews, I don't know why he is getting slated as he had a pretty good game. A few misplaced passes here and there but the amount of possesion he won for us and the way he commanded the centre of the park surely cancels them out.

yeah in the championship or maybe lower pl. this is international football the highest standard of football. There should be no missed passes, no mistakes. You get 8 or 10 games to qualify you need to win 80% of them doesnt matter how once the players dont make mistakes that they get away with a lower club level.

Wouldnt be shocked if he was dropped, **** all use if you are great at getting the ball but give it back the minute you pass. May as well not tackle in the 1st place and save time.

Rizzla King

dreamers75 wrote: »

yeah in the championship or maybe lower pl. this is international football the highest standard of football. There should be no missed passes, no mistakes. You get 8 or 10 games to qualify you need to win 80% of them doesnt matter how once the players dont make mistakes that they get away with a lower club level.

Wouldnt be shocked if he was dropped, **** all use if you are great at getting the ball but give it back the minute you pass. May as well not tackle in the 1st place and save time.

Either your on the wind up or you seem to miss the fact that this is Ireland we're talking about, not Brazil.

In all fairness, he clearly won more balls then he did lose them.

Mr.Nice Guy

dyl10 wrote: »

Birmingham fans don't seem happy with Carsley at all. On their forums they're looking for him to be dropped in place of Fahey

From the forums I've read that's a big exaggeration. A few have called for him to be moved to centre half to accomodate Fahey but I can't recall any knocking Carsley. Most are delighted with his contribution since joining.

MisterAnarchy

dyl10 wrote: »

I thought Robbie's general play was abysmal tonight, looked worse than Whelan :eek:

Very poor positional movement ,his first touch was poor and whatever pace he had is gone,looked like he had two lead boots on.
To be fair to him in the first half he had hardly any service.

dyl10

dreamers75 wrote: »

yeah in the championship or maybe lower pl. this is international football the highest standard of football. There should be no missed passes, no mistakes. You get 8 or 10 games to qualify you need to win 80% of them doesnt matter how once the players dont make mistakes that they get away with a lower club level.

Wouldnt be shocked if he was dropped, **** all use if you are great at getting the ball but give it back the minute you pass. May as well not tackle in the 1st place and save time.

You're username does you justice :P
I'm watching England and Spain play at the moment and I can guarantee you there are mistakes being made.

No mistakes or missed passes in international football?
Our focus tactic for some of our best years was long ball, you reckon that was 100% accurate?:rolleyes:

dreamers75

Rizzla King wrote: »

Either your on the wind up or you seem to miss the fact that this is Ireland we're talking about, not Brazil.

In all fairness, he clearly won more balls then he did lose them.

Not on a wind up, i dont think we are good enough to grace a WC or EC finals. Too many of our players are of a low standard.

If trap gets us there fair ****ing play.


But we cannot concede any mistakes, regardless of how small at international level you get punished. We got lucky tonight and georgia got robbed. If we scored after 46 seconds vs anyone away we would sit back and do that defending **** and wouldnt give a **** if we won.


Dont go booking your flights to SA.

Aidric

It wasn't a vintage performance but Ireland deserved the win in the end. Georgia are a very average team so a win against them was the minimum required. McGeady, Doyle, Duff & Andrews were the best players on the pitch.

dreamers75

dyl10 wrote: »

You're username does you justice :P
I'm watching England and Spain play at the moment and I can guarantee you there are mistakes being made.

No mistakes or missed passes in international football?
Our focus tactic for some of our best years was long ball, you reckon that was 100% accurate?:rolleyes:

oh jesus christ boards.ie soccer forum at its finest.


Spain vs England a match where both keepers where subbed at half time, genius conclusion there, i tip my hat.

Our focus tactic got us to world cups so yeah effective.

Thanx 4 The Fish

dreamers75 wrote: »

We got lucky tonight

Yeah we got lucky, stonewall penalty turned down and a perfectly good goal disallowed. :rolleyes:

dreamers75 wrote: »

georgia got robbed.

Yeah because the goal that they got was from poor defending granted but apart from the one off the post that was followed up and rightly disallowed for offside they offered very little else.

For a man not on the wind up you certainly do seem to be spouting some fairly silly stuff...

SantryRed

A win against Bulgaria in March and we're almost guaranteed a place in the play offs tbh

However, we have no chance unless we change the midfield. Once again they were very good again. However, you have to look at the opposition they've played against. The likes of Stilian Petrov and then the Italian players would have a field day imo.

dyl10

dreamers75 wrote: »

oh jesus christ boards.ie soccer forum at its finest.

I was thinking the same :rolleyes:

Point being:
Player calibre in Spain V England > Ireland v Georgia
Mistakes made in both. I don't think I've ever seen a football match with flawless passing and no mistakes(I'm willing to stand corrected)

Your point that there should be no mistakes made by a team who expects to qualify for the WC doesn't bear thinking about:rolleyes:

kincsem

Ireland, Ireland.
Together standing tall
Shoulder to shoulder
We'll answer Ireland's call

Steven Ireland, Ireland.
We don't care if you're bald
Shoulder 2 shoulder 1
The ref answered Ireland's call

dyl10

dreamers75 wrote: »

oh jesus christ boards.ie soccer forum at its finest.

I was thinking the same :rolleyes:

Point being:
Player calibre in Spain V England > Ireland v Georgia
Mistakes made in both. I don't think I've ever seen a football match with flawless passing and no mistakes(I'm willing to stand corrected)

Your point that there should be no mistakes made by a team who expects to qualify for the WC doesn't bare thinking about:rolleyes:

Kinetic^

Link to goals, missed the game.

Rizzla King

dreamers75 wrote: »

Not on a wind up, i dont think we are good enough to grace a WC or EC finals. Too many of our players are of a low standard.

If trap gets us there fair ****ing play.


But we cannot concede any mistakes, regardless of how small at international level you get punished. We got lucky tonight and georgia got robbed. If we scored after 46 seconds vs anyone away we would sit back and do that defending **** and wouldnt give a **** if we won.


Dont go booking your flights to SA.

I didn't say we were good enough for finals of anything, I actually nearly said we're far from it!

Every team makes mistakes whether it be Spain or Ireland and you get punished whether it's International or Blue Square Premier.

As for sitting back, what's the point in getting a goal then sitting back and defending that goal if you couldn't give a ****?

SantryRed

Ah now. If you make a mistake in the top level your much more likely to be punished. It's what makes it the better level.

noodler

I tougt Andrews was defo better than Whelan tonight but not by some huge margin. I actually expected more from Glen tonight which I think says alot for his recent performances at club level. McGeady was outstanding, he is a new player under Trap and Doyle/Duff were great once again. I think McShane is a better bet at RB then Kelly in the Green jersey, Kelly looked ill at ease tonight and was the same in Slovakia in what I think was his last competitive international start.

I in no way thought Doyle'a fall was a peno though, nevermind a stonewaller, as it looked extremely exaggerated. Lucky with the Peno we did get but I have to say well done to the lads for their perserverance in difficult circumstances.

All that being said, we need more in the centre and Trap has to end his silly feud with Reid as he wants to play for Ireland and we didn;t create many clear cut chances without him (I also think Reid gets the best out of Keane). People may say unbalanced but if I think Reid wud only add to that team.

A7X

Some household is currently missing a get out of jail free card in their monopoly set.

Latchy

21.00 Latchyco

0-0


keane getting a goal would do him and Ireland a world of good .

Seems My earlier prediction came to fruition ........twice

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Glenn Whelan is an absolutely woeful player - can't tackle, can't pass, not good positionally, no energy - the only thing about him is that he has a good shot and that's his best attribute. How he is a Premier League player is beyond me...

We really really REALLY need Andy Reid - he's probably our most creative player and can actually put a foot on the ball.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Latchy

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Well no, but wising is nearly as good as predicting ,like you feel it's coming .

Every team has their luck and Ireland had a bit of that tonight



Watching Spain v England ,cant understand why Emile Heskey felt the need to goal to ground , loking for the peno ( again) :rolleyes: when he was on to score .Some good skillfull football by wright phillips but overall England 2nd best .

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Mitch Connor

latchyco wrote: »

Well no, but wising is nearly as good as predicting ,like you feel it's coming .

Every team has their luck and Ireland had a bit of that tonight



Watching Spain v England ,cant understand why Emile Heskey felt the need to goal to ground , loking for the peno ( again) :rolleyes: when he was on to score .Some good skillfull football by wright phillips but overall England 2nd best .

England did look 2nd best, but then it wasn't their first choice line up by any means.

WoollyRedHat

One thing is for sure, we're going to have to up our game for Bulgaria.

Time between now and time of match is perfect, month and a bit, meaning not too far away to get lazy/complacent and long enough to devise a proper stragegy to give the Bulgarians a run for their money.

While Bulgaria have under-performed significantly, they now have a new coach, so things will be different.

SlickRic

dreamers75 wrote: »

Not on a wind up, i dont think we are good enough to grace a WC or EC finals. Too many of our players are of a low standard.

If trap gets us there fair ****ing play.


But we cannot concede any mistakes, regardless of how small at international level you get punished. We got lucky tonight and georgia got robbed. If we scored after 46 seconds vs anyone away we would sit back and do that defending **** and wouldnt give a **** if we won.


Dont go booking your flights to SA.

ffs, why are you sh***ing on everyone's night? especially with stuff that is nonsense and seems designed only to wind people up.

we were the better team and easily deserved the win, even though we got a lucky break or 2.

don't book our flights to SA? I doubt anyone has, but people have every bloody right to at least feel optimistic. 10 points from 12, including maximum points from both Georgia games. Plus the 2nd half performance tonight was very encouraging.

come on you boys in green!

Het-Field

Where to start !

Under Stan Staunton, this is a game which would have been lost. Tonight, the same applies, only we got the biggest slice of luck, from the worst referee I have ever seen. A truly dire and shambolic performance, which indicates what a poor team we have. Georgia on the road are pathetic, and we almost handed them three precious points on a plate. Passing was appalling, McGeady's crossing was dire until late in the day, Duffer seemed of the pace. This was a shambels, and it is only a stay of execution until Bulgaria come to town.

In My Humble opinion, My Humble ratings

S.Given 5 One appalling call. All he had to do was pick the ball from his net
S.Kelly 3 Dominated throughout
K.Kilbane 4 Lackluster, and ucky not to be caught out for a second goal
J.O Shea 6 Reasonable
R.Dunne 6 Dealt well with corners
A.McGeady 7 Redeemed with his late interventions
G.Whelan 5 Culpable for many a misplaced pass
K.Andrews 7 Continues to prosper. Unlucky not to get another goal
D.Duff 6 Huffed and Puffed, but blew nothing down
R.Keane 6 Two crucial goals, but not much else.
K.Doyle 6 A good hold up man

S.Hunt 5 Not much he could do, as it was all done

CiaranC

I didnt attend the game due to being allergic to giving the GAA money and assorted other reasons, but Im curious as to how the new singing section malarky went. Hard to judge on the television, but the atmosphere seemed a bit livelier than usual. Anyone who went care to comment?

Nalz

CiaranC wrote: »

I didnt attend the game due to being allergic to giving the GAA money and assorted other reasons, but Im curious as to how the new singing section malarky went. Hard to judge on the television, but the atmosphere seemed a bit livelier than usual. Anyone who went care to comment?

rubbish tbh

as was the ref and the Irish team for most of the game

newballsplease

There was nothing wrong with Keith Andrews game tonight. G.Whelan tho, im sorry was a disaster. Must have gave the ball away 7 times i reckon. Thank god for the visually impaired ref.
Felt sorry for kelly at the back..wouldnt do his conidence any good. least it didnt cost us in the end.

anladmór

Mcgeady was amazing. A real delight to watch. Watch out Italy if he can play like that come Bari on April 1st.

BTW some Georgia results
Scotland 2-Georgia 1(last minute scotland goal)
Georgia 2- Scotland 0
France 1-Georgia 0(Paris, Nasri goal)
Georgia 0-Bulgaria 0

No mugs at all, and Kaladze was really great.

We really really really would want to be aiming for top spot now imo, the playoff place is almost assured(there is very little chance of us being the worst placed second placed team atm)

COME ON IRELAND

We need something in midfield come Bulgaria. Ireland would be the dream but personally if Fahey is playing well I want him in the starting 11.

Kevin Foley should be the right back.

CiaranC

anladmór wrote: »

We need something in midfield come Bulgaria. Ireland would be the dream but personally if Fahey is playing well I want him in the starting 11.

Sure if he wont put Reid in the squad what chance has Fahey

entropi

newballsplease wrote: »

There was nothing wrong with Keith Andrews game tonight. G.Whelan tho, im sorry was a disaster. Must have gave the ball away 7 times i reckon. Thank god for the visually impaired ref.
Felt sorry for kelly at the back..wouldnt do his conidence any good. least it didnt cost us in the end.

True, Andrews played it well tonight, as did O'Shea which surprised me really...

Kelly had a disaster of a game, almost lost it and should probably have been replaced at half time. Was glad to see Stephen Hunt on again, played well and won some nice challenges. Duff and Keano did a decent job up front, and nice one Robbie for those two goals, one disputeable i couldnt see it fully from lower Hogan side almost forgot to add fair play to man of the match Mc Geady, played a stormer of a game, v nice to watch!!

Also myself managed to be seated a few rows infront of Gerry Ryan, Pat Kenny and was RIGHT infront of John Delaney and his mates haha!!!:D

newballsplease

im sure we could lose both home and away to bulgaria and italy........ where would that put us in the table....
anyone who thinks 2nd place is ours atleast is crazy.

anladmór

the next game is massive. bulgaria need to win to stay in contention imo

newballsplease

Master of Nothing wrote: »

Keano did a decent job up front, and nice one Robbie for those two goals, one disputeable i couldnt see it fully from lower Hogan side

Keane was horrendous up front tonight. 1 goal was a penalty. the other came off his shoulder...ok you can argue that he still had to get into the position for it...but this is Georgia....
the amount of times i see robbie keane getting frustrated and not playing to the whistle is ridiculous...he should take a leaf out of doyles book who was far far better then keane tonight. never stops battling.

entropi

newballsplease wrote: »

Keane was horrendous up front tonight. 1 goal was a penalty. the other came off his shoulder...ok you can argue that he still had to get into the position for it...but this is Georgia....
the amount of times i see robbie keane getting frustrated and not playing to the whistle is ridiculous...he should take a leaf out of doyles book who was far far better then keane tonight. never stops battling.

Ok i'll agree to that, he didnt do as well as he could but Doyle did play his heart out and gave it his all, sure if it wasnt for him we might not have attacked half as much.

Loomis

From Cusack Stand Upper



Abysmal start. Schoolboy defending and we're already gonna struggle.
From then on it was just frustrating watching them give the Georgians so much time and space. It made them look very impressive. And for added frustration, the couple of times we did close them down and rush them we easily dispossessed them and looked like a proper team.

The disallowed goal should have stood. Interfering with play means either making an attempt for the ball or obscuring the view of the keeper. How else can it interfere with anything? Doyle didn't go for the ball and the deflection came from the Georgian player. Legitimate goal.

The refereeing was mind blowing all match. In the first half he gave a foul throw against Georgia which was great because you very rarely see them given despite the offense being committed so often. But then they repeated it several times in the second half and the ref did nothing. How Georgia still had 11 players on the pitch at the final whistle is beyond me. We could have played until Christmas and he would have been handing out his 12th yellow to the same player. It got to a stage where they weren't making an attempt at all for the ball at times. No one had a clue what was going on with the penalty. I saw the linesman flag for offside and then everything went crazy. Seeing the replay on TV just confirmed it for me; the ref was a moron.

A word for Kevin Doyle. He was immense tonight. As he has been for the past few matches for us. He covered a ridiculous amount of ground and held things up well and generally worked his arse off fighting for everything; be it challenging in the air, running down lost causes or biting in while on the ground. How no one came in for him during the transfer window is beyond me. 17 goals in The Championship; if he were English there'd be campaigns against how cruel it was that a top team hadn't bought him yet.

As poor as we were at times you have to give it to them; they never gave up. They didn't feel sorry for themselves and kept plugging away. Playing some decent stuff at times too. Whatever he's done since taking over you have to admit Trappatoni definitely has them believing in themselves a lot more. Could you ever have imagined them come back in such determined fashion while under Staunton?

GLaDOS

Excellent result. Say what you want about opposition/luck/performance, but with this Irish team, I'm very happy with any competitive win

ArmaniJeanss

Regarding our dubious penalty.

Heard a theory that the referee gave it for a different incident than the ball-to-shoulder flick which RTE concentrated on.

Linesman put flag up, Georgia player saw flag and picked up ball, and thats what the ref gave the penalty for.

Prob wrong, but can't find a video highlight to check.

anladmór

BTW was great craic in singing section. so the tv people couldnt hear us? meh was epic. although some people were slightly confused about the purpose of such a singing section.

eirebhoy

I have to say well done to everyone in the singing section tonight. Non-stop from start to finish. Maybe 20 seconds was the most it went without a song. Fair enough a lot of it was the usual songs but it was still singing.

I hear it couldn't be heard at all on TV but what do you expect from 700 people in that big a stadium.

I lost the plot after a couple of minutes because people telling us to sit down. I stormed from where I was sitting to an open area and a chap decided to give me abuse, telling me to sit down. I just kept looking at the pitch and the stewards kindly told him which section he was in. The stewards in our section were brilliant and I congratulate the FAI on this.

The crowd booed at half time, we all sang for the team. I know which one of them would make the team want to come out and give their all for their country.

Just one thing - McGeady probably wasn't great tonight until the last half hour. But boy god to the Irish really dislike him. It honestly is a case of McGeady has to do something brilliant or else it's a mistake that gets abuse from many. Hunt and Duff are allowed float a cross into nobody without the abuse. It really angered me tonight and for the first time I actually wished McGeady wasn't playing for Ireland. And I hope people know by now I'm certainly an country before club.

shane86

shane86 wrote: »

tbh I dont enjoy Ireland qualifiers on reflection ....... before that it is just 90 minutes of nerves

Jesus h Christ how right was I. My German housemate upstairs must have wondered how many goals were being scored from my shouts. An aaaahhhh for the 1st goal, a very brief celebration for Andrews, another aaaaahhhhh for the Georgian goal ruled out followed by cheering, more cheering cut out upon realising McGeady hit the side net, two more celebrations, wtf like :pac: Easily the biggest rollercoaster of viewing in my Ireland memory.

Very lucky but our penalty gave justice to that joke of a call re the Andrews goal. Do the Georgians still have to play Italy at home? IIRC Italy also only beat them 2-1 in Udinese, they are a tough little team to get past and fair play to them.

McGeady had some decent crosses, and his run from our half to goal was stunning (though really he sould have passed rather than trying to take the glory), but MOTM? His awful corners put him out of the running for me. MOTM was a tie of Duff or Doyle, Doyle played a blinder and it was unfortunate he didnt score. And wtf, Hunt for Duff? Hunt for Whelan more like, he was ok but Duff was doing the business, poor subbing IMO. Hunt and Duff on field, could have got a third.

Personally didnt think Keane was that bad, just didnt get much service.


Also, pains me to say it as IMO he is a legend, but Given was caught sleeping for the Georgian goal that was ruled offside, very unlike him. Even if he knew it was offside you cant be caught protesting in case the ref doesnt agree.

Typical world class save from that shot from the edge of the box mind. Also didnt think the Georgian keeper was as awful as the panel made him out to be.

anladmór

btw completely OT, but dublin was actually really nice tonight. the walk through the sidestreets were cool and it was a nice mild night and a good upbeat atmosphere around the city

newballsplease

Master of Nothing wrote: »

Ok i'll agree to that, he didnt do as well as he could but Doyle did play his heart out and gave it his all, sure if it wasnt for him we might not have attacked half as much.

eh...im saying doyle was excellent tonight.

eagle eye

eagle eye wrote: »

I first saw Keith Andrews play for Blackburn back in September and he was horrific. I seen him again in January and he was a different player.

I think a lot of you are in for a pleasant surprise tonight.

I admit that I wrote him off after seeing him last year, but to come from not making it at Championship level and end up playing in League two and take your chance in the Premier League and now starting for your country at 27 years of age, well all you can say is what an inspirational story. He will put belief back into footballers who have not had a great career that they can still make it to the top regardless of age.

Congratulations Keith Andrews and best of luck today on your first International start. You deserve every plaudit that comes your way.

Well I seen Pighead bragging back a bit in the thread for getting the score right. I got this bit right.

shane86

Also, despite the obvious I still rate Kelly above McShane. He got his act together in the 2nd half, even doing the business up the top end. I havent seen McShane hold improved consistency through a game......ever, since the Czechs. Hope he gets first pref in future if Finnan is unavailable tbh.

And Andrews, well played Work to do but reasonably consistent.

riflehunter77

Just back home after the match tonight what a poor start to the game and poor first half altogether. Andrews had a solid performance at midfield can not say the same for whelan. Mc Geady was lively the second half not afraid to take a few shots thought he had scored as most did around me when he hit the side netting.
Duff drew plenty of freekicks etc but a poor performance overall, should keep it simple defenders are to wise to him, round one player give it and go stop trying to take on two or three and then lose it and our defenders are caught out of position who were trying to get up in support. He kept getting draged into the center of the pitch at times. I think his best days are well and truly behind him IMHO, I hope duffer you prove me wrong.
Kevin Doyle had another great performance the work load that this lad puts in is fantastic he shows great heart and drive to win every ball that is played in his direction. Was unlucky not to have scored from his header great save from the keeper.

Not the best of games tonight but we dont have the best of squads, but three points is still three points