Republic of Ireland vs. France WC Playoff Sat/Wed 14/18 November **K/Os 8 PM/9 PM**

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Xavi6 wrote: »

I would also rather Morrison than Best.

Clinton has looked really good any time I've seen him this season and Best has failed to inspire any confidence.

At this moment in time, yes, but Best is young, a physical presence which we've sorely lacked since Quinn and has a lot of potential. He has been scoring regularly in the Championship and has linked with Premier League moves.

deisedevil

Have the rights to show the 2nd leg been bought up at all yet?

kenon

deisedevil wrote: »

Have the rights to show the 2nd leg been bought up at all yet?

RTE just said they are still in negotiation with the French football federation over rights.

Xavi6

IRISHSPORTSGUY wrote: »

At this moment in time, yes, but Best is young, a physical presence which we've sorely lacked since Quinn and has a lot of potential. He has been scoring regularly in the Championship and has linked with Premier League moves.

Isn't that what should be the deciding factor?

Best clearing isn't good enough for international football yet (and I'll be surprised if he ever is) so surely someone who knows where the back of the net is on that stage should be in the squad first.

36 games, 9 goals. Not a bad international strike rate for Clin-ton.

johnp

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Taking off Doyle for him was ridiculous, Doyle looked fit and up for it.

I thought Doyle looked knackered. Not surprised, he ran his socks off on Saturday.

Paulw wrote: »

I was wondering the same.



Plenty of pushing and shoving, etc.

I read that Diarra told him "it was over" as a contest. Andrews took exception, thinking it was disrespectful, and had a go.

kenon

Caoimhín wrote: »

What was said after the match that led to the handbags?

Apparently diarra said, "1-0 to France", at the final whistle.

Nothing gets by that guy.

IRISHSPORTSGUY

Xavi6 wrote: »

Isn't that what should be the deciding factor?

Best clearing isn't good enough for international football yet (and I'll be surprised if he ever is) so surely someone who knows where the back of the net is on that stage should be in the squad first.

36 games, 9 goals. Not a bad international strike rate for Clin-ton.

I agree but I can see why Trap is persevering - Best provides a physical presence.

BaZmO*

Looks like tempers may get a bit frayed on Wednesday.

Lassana Diarra has stoked the flames of his feud with Keith Andrews, telling the Irish player that wants trouble “we will ll meet again on Wednesday”. And the Real Madrid midfielder insists he did not insult the Irish side to spark Saturday’s melee at the final whistle.

The pair clashed at the end of Saturday’s match, which France won 1-0, with Andrews explaining to reporters that his opposite number had made “a disrespectful comment”. Trapattoni described the barb afterwards as an insult aimed at the Irish people.

But Diarra today played down his role in the incident, claiming the Irish players were “looking for trouble” after seeing their chances of reaching the World Cup fade.

"I don't know exactly what happened, even if it happens quite often," Diarra told reporters. "If Andrews asks for trouble, we will meet again on Wednesday.

"Andrews walked on my ankle during the second half. But it was nothing. It happens quite often at the end of a match. The Irishmen have been frustrated. They lost 1-0. They are looking for trouble. Maybe they wanted me to get a card.

"I didn't say anything. I have absolutely nothing against Irish people. I played for five years in England and I never had any trouble. They are talking to the press. We can talk to the press too."

Diarra's team-mate Patrice Evra, meanwhile, hopes the frustration will not be carried into the return leg at Stade de France.

"I came when it was almost over. I just asked John O'Shea to calm down his players," said the Manchester United left-back. "We don't have to make any controversy out of that, the return leg will be heated enough.

"They lost and we woke up Irish pride. I don't think Irish players needed that to be motivated."

Link

deisedevil

It's a pity Caleb Folan is out. He usually gives a boost when he comes in and he would have been a much better option to Best on sat night.

ArmaniJeanss

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

johnp

deisedevil wrote: »

It's a pity Caleb Folan is out. He usually gives a boost when he comes in and he would have been a much better option to Best on sat night.

Absolutely. He definitely shakes things up.

johnp

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

:eek:

helimachoptor

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

johnp wrote: »

:eek:

He better not have f**king said that if he did what a ****ing c*ck!

Irishcrx

Have to agree with Clinton Morrison over Leon Best , Best has looked brutal at international level everytime he has played he may there to hold up play or intimidate or whatever but he isn't doing that and we have that in the Midfeild that trap is playing anyway, what we need is goals and Clinton has scored crucial goals at this level before and is more expierienced.

As for the match, I thought we did well first half but we still weren't getting to many chances in front of goal, Doyle was being pushed out wide everytime him and Keane hooked up and there was nobody to aim for in the the box so we ended up going backwards. Andrews and Whelan were blasting any mid range shots over the bar (Altough they did their job in midfield very well) it was more the point that we needed to press up more, doyle and Keane were back helping midfield almost all the way through. France simply outclassed us second half when we got tired.

Listening to Trap after the match, I know he likes to defend and all and that we don't want to concede in Paris, but we HAVE TO ATTACK, we have to score and that means changing our approach to the game I would rather loose 3-1 and have given it our best shot that sit back and do nothing but defend for 80-85 mins and draw = going out of the world cup.

nicklauski

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

Nice, clean, hard tackle on him in the opening moments to sort him out. A la keane v Holland, and to a certain extent Duffer the other night.

Andrews is dead right to get p'eed off over that. I would have swung for him, and Im sure others would have as well. I think Dunne definitely would have went for him.

Sets things up nicely for Weds night.
If Ireland score, which I think they will, the French supporters will get on the teams back as they have done, and hopefully spur the Irish boys on.

Evil_Clown

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

We may have lost the battle but we all know about the French and wars
See you Wednesday you little F**k

joe123

I hope thats what Diarra said. Can you imagine the motivation of the Irish lads going into wednesday?

prendy

nicklauski wrote: »

Nice, clean, hard tackle on him in the opening moments to sort him out. A la keane v Holland, and to a certain extent Duffer the other night.

Andrews is dead right to get p'eed off over that. I would have swung for him, and Im sure others would have as well. I think Dunne definitely would have went for him.

Sets things up nicely for Weds night.
If Ireland score, which I think they will, the French supporters will get on the teams back as they have done, and hopefully spur the Irish boys on.

huge if

but i agree that the french fans are useless if the team isnt winning.

BraziliaNZ

how many irish do you think will be at the game?

redout

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

how many irish do you think will be at the game?

12,000 - 15,000 would be my guess inside the stadium. Probably closer to 20,000 in Paris itself.

BraziliaNZ

that's really good, they should be able to make a lot of noise

Idbatterim

The positives! 1. Diara's comment will give the team even more ammunition! 2. no injuries or suspensions for us 3. the game is now Frances to throw away and the pressure is on them. 4. Eric Abadal and Jeremey toulalan are both ruled out of the Paris tie.

big_show

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

I like this interpretation of what Diarra said, puts more fire in the belly!

deisedevil

redout wrote: »

12,000 - 15,000 would be my guess inside the stadium. Probably closer to 20,000 in Paris itself.

Isn't there still plenty tickets available for this match, if so then there could be 20,000 in stadium itself.

Idbatterim

So FIFA want the mighty French to go to the world cup at all costs! this is the same country that with a population of 60 million odd, sold 6k tickets in Croke Park, 15 - 20,000 Irish from a population of 4 million will attend the match in Paris, despite the fact we lost the first match! If we score first, Id like to see how their fans react! well probably have a twelfth man!

briany

What's his problem anyway? Did he take exception to a tackle by Andrews earlier on or something or is he just being a cocky arse? What is it with taunting Irish teams after defeats like this? The same kind of thing happened in Basel and Bursa more or less as well.

Mikeyt086

I cant be the only one who read that and is just dying for a go at Lassana Diarra. :mad:

helimachoptor

Diaby will be missing aswell!

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2009/1116/france_ireland_diabya.html

Diaby ruled out of Stade de France tie

Monday, 16 November 2009 15:23
Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby has been ruled out of France's World Cup playoff against Ireland in Paris on Wednesday through injury, the French football federation (FFF) said on Monday.
Diaby will not be replaced in the squad, the FFF said on its website, without specifying the nature of the injury.

Defender Eric Abidal and midfielder Jeremy Toulalan have also pulled out injured from the Stade de France showdown.


France are well placed to make next year's finals in South Africa after beating Ireland 1-0 at Croke Park on Saturday.

Boggles

deisedevil wrote: »

It's a pity Caleb Folan is out. He usually gives a boost when he comes in and he would have been a much better option to Best on sat night.

Folan would be an excellent option to come off the bench, he is light years ahead of Best, a pure nuisance, exactly what we needed the other night and Wednesday night.

tolosenc

Idbatterim wrote: »

So FIFA want the mighty French to go to the world cup at all costs! this is the same country that with a population of 60 million odd, sold 6k tickets in Croke Park, 15 - 20,000 Irish from a population of 4 million will attend the match in Paris, despite the fact we lost the first match! If we score first, Id like to see how their fans react! well probably have a twelfth man!

People here are looking for a reason to get at Domenech. If the game on Wednesday starts to go badly, they'd nearly be better packing up and moving the second game to Croker.

Regards strategy for Wednesday night, I reckon we'd want to score first, but have the game at 1-1 at half time. It would give them a scare, and hopefully have them defending for the second half. Robbie Keane to pop up behind the defence with a couple of minutes left. Then prevent an equaliser AT ALL COSTS.

Mikeyt086

Those of you who have Facebook can join this group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=178076722275

Idbatterim

so they now have 3 players ruled out! any chance of Gary Doherty making a come back! I am firmly of the belief now that if are going to play the way we do, we may as well have a target man, who will upset defences and be good for set pieces! Its not like were playing beautiful football now, if we are going purely down the results over performance road anyway, I dont see the problem. To a large extent, I think Ireland are a very cofortable team to play against if your the opposition, no huge pace or physicality. Would we prefer to play bad and get results or play well and not get results. Its not like were a huge international team and can have the luxury of both! I think the problem with Traps set up and Im not arguing that there is a better one is that, we are always likely to finnish runners up in a group, and then over 2 legs its the luck of the draw as much as anything else... Drawing can only get us so far! You would have to wonder if gambling in the qualification campaign is a better gamble than hoping to finnish second and then having another gamble on your hands... We were a few seconds away from beating Italy and had we turned one of the many draws we had during the group stages into a win we could have alread booked our flights!

FrankGrimes

Idbatterim wrote: »

The positives! 1. Diara's comment will give the team even more ammunition! 2. no injuries or suspensions for us 3. the game is now Frances to throw away and the pressure is on them. 4. Eric Abadal and Jeremey toulalan are both ruled out of the Paris tie.

Surely the absence of Abidal is a big dissapointment for Ireland? I haven't seen two Irish strikers win such a high percentage of balls (mostly long or at least direct) played to them against a top tier side for a long, long time. Doyle in particular, and Robbie a fair bit were both given space to take the ball down and lay it off. Admittedly this was rarely in sight of goal, but it was the key to that excellent 20 minute spell we had in the first half where our ball retention was much better than usual.

Gallas seemed off form in the air but Abidal just struck me as totally unimposing and I'd be quite happy for Doyle & Keane to have another shot at him, though I agree that Folan would be interesting. Totally out of left field, I gotta say it's times like this that I often wonder what Richard Sadlier could've done for Ireland - he was developing well and had the feet and the footballing brain to really make use of his height....ah well.

Am I right in thinking that the French didn't give us a single free kick in territory for us to either get Lawrence to whip it in at pace (as Henry did to great effect - each of his frees looked dangerous) or to have a shot? In addition to that and the delibarate positioning of a striker in a deep role (mainly Anelka) in the space that he knew our holding midfielders sat too deep to marshal (playing as 3rd & 4th centre-halves as they did at times), I've got to say that despite everything that has been said, Domenech got his tactics spot on. Trap needs to realise you can't just let France have that much possession in front of your defence as at home they will eventually find a way through - either we need to play a 5th midfielder or Whelan or Andrews needs to be instructed to step up and actually boss that area of the pitch instead of just loitering in front of our defence looking for a man to jockey.

I can't see them going the whole game without conceding a free kick in an area where we can whip it in from, and they showed enough weakness from corners the other day for that to give us hope.

Obviously Hunt and Best were woefully out of their depth - it's irrelevant whether this was due to limited ability or being intimidated by the occassion, either way it's hard to argue that either should feature for this match as it's not for using as a learning ground.

I'd definitely have Clinton on for the last 15 in the absence of Folan, with McGeady being the only other sub to come on.....though the sheer lack of options at centre-midfield is worrying (in the absence of Steven Reid, who is a far more important player to this team than Andy ever will be, though Andy should be in the mix).

Johnny Utah

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

"You're out, you Irish prick", according to French papers (reported in todays Evening Herald)

Sounds like a racist comment to me.... Do Fifa have the balls to take any action?

NaiveMelodies

Lets not make to big a deal out of Diarras comments, as anderws said himself it wasnt as if he needed any more motivation to get to a world cup.

If we produce the exact same performance on wednesday as we did saturday except take our chances and get a slice of luck, we can do it.

ArmaniJeanss

Johnny Utah wrote: »

Sounds like a racist comment to me....

Doubt it to be honest. Words like 'Fenian', 'Frog', 'Hun', 'Greaseball', 'Jewboy' etc could be construed as racist but 'Irish', 'French', 'German', 'Italian', 'Israeli' aren't as far as i know.

Anyway I'd be embarassed for Ireland if we went down that road of making a protest about a relatively minor insult - it it helps the players motivation then lets just use it for that (though you could argue The Prize should be all the motivation needed).

Johnny Utah

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Doubt it to be honest. Words like 'Fenian', 'Frog', 'Hun', 'Greaseball', 'Jewboy' etc could be construed as racist but 'Irish', 'French', 'German', 'Italian', 'Israeli' aren't as far as i know.

Anyway I'd be embarassed for Ireland if we went down that road of making a protest about a relatively minor insult - it it helps the players motivation then lets just use it for that (though you could argue The Prize should be all the motivation needed).

But why did he use the word "Irish" though?

I think there's certainly a racist sentiment there.

The_Kew_Tour

Im goin go game in Paris on Wednesday.

It going to be a very very hard to see us win but you just never know.

Our record in away matches win rate wise anyway is dismal but it has to change sometime and you never know maybe this will be the time. My heart says Ireland my head says 2-0 France.

I think ealry goal could unsettle the French big time there far better team on the ball and we will need luck of that there is no question, but look Luxembourg beat Switzerland 2-1 in Switzerland and the Swiss topped there group so look you just never know. They were 66/1 to win that game so there been bigger shocks thats for sure.

Lets get behind the team.

Bobalicious93

Johnny Utah wrote: »

But why did he use the word "Irish" though?

The answer to that question is so obvious I don't think you need it pointed out tbh...

NaiveMelodies

Johnny Utah wrote: »

But why did he use the word "Irish" though?

I think there's certainly a racist sentiment there.

Yes, I mean why in the world would the word Irish come into his head.



Wow.

GLaDOS

only1stevo wrote: »

Yes, I mean why in the world would the word Irish come into his head.



Wow.

I think the point is, if someone said "you black bastard" to a black person, there would be uproar, though it is a perfectly accurate adjective (black, not bastard ) just like Irish.

Regardless, there's no need to make a fuss.

greendom

Johnny Utah wrote: »

But why did he use the word "Irish" though?

I think there's certainly a racist sentiment there.

How can calling someone their nationality be racist ?

greendom

Evil_Clown wrote: »

We may have lost the battle but we all know about the French and wars
See you Wednesday you little F**k

Nice - rising above it I see

adamshred

Boggles wrote: »

Folan would be an excellent option to come off the bench, he is light years ahead of Best, a pure nuisance, exactly what we needed the other night and Wednesday night.

Yeah especially since everything seemed to take a turn for the worst just after Best came on the other night. Best has the physicality to take on any player but I don't believe that he has the skill of Folan.

wheres me jumpa

Ive only seen bits of Best, the Best bits so to speak (sorry couldnt resist). When he came on against Italy, he didnt do much but he did win balls in the air, which was encouraging. When he came on last Saturday part of me was excited by the prospect. Keane plays a hell of a lot better alongside a static big fella imo. I never feel Doyle and Keane link up that well. Largely because Doyle is always working his socks off all over the last third and not just looking to knock balls down to Keane. Best came in for a lot of criticism from fans at the weekend, sure he didnt do much when he came on, but he had no service to him. If he comes off the bench on Wednesday and we can get decent balls into the box he will cause problems.

adamshred

wheres me jumpa wrote: »

Ive only seen bits of Best, the Best bits so to speak (sorry couldnt resist). When he came on against Italy, he didnt do much but he did win balls in the air, which was encouraging. When he came on last Saturday part of me was excited by the prospect. Keane plays a hell of a lot better alongside a static big fella imo. I never feel Doyle and Keane link up that well. Largely because Doyle is always working his socks off all over the last third and not just looking to knock balls down to Keane. Best came in for a lot of criticism from fans at the weekend, sure he didnt do much when he came on, but he had no service to him. If he comes off the bench on Wednesday and we can get decent balls into the box he will cause problems.

Yeah I agree I just wasn't too happy to see him lose the ball twice in his first two touches of the game. Might have been nerves or something who knows.

PCros

What ever happened to Shane Long on the Irish squad, I know Reading aren't having the best season but I'd love to see him been given a chance, even coming on at around 20 mins to go.

He scored 3 goals in 6 appearances for us and got us a penalty against Poland last year, not a bad return.

I think hes a very underrated player.

emmemm

Injured, I believe.

Xavi6

Hi folks,

Just as a quick query, would anyone be in favour of having a new thread for the second leg? This one is a bit of a more to get through if you've missed a few pages so might be best to start a new one?

Cheers

dubmick

^ Good idea