Italy/France shambles..where does this put Ireland?

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

They were both there for the taking during the qualifiers too, and its been proved at this World Cup. In 4 games against both, Ireland failed to win one. Disregard the Henry handball, as Ireland weren't actually winning at that point.

People keep saying "What if Ireland were at this World Cup", well considering the 2 teams that put them out have performed abysmally do you reckon they would of made a better fist of it?? Obviously I would of loved to see them there, but minus Given, and seeing how the 2 teams that are there ahead of them have done, I am not sure they would of got by the group stages at all.

Ush1

Never know. If only me aunty had bollocks she'd be me uncle.

DB10

It is impossible to know.

But certainly we would have made a far more heart filled performance then the French.

Boskowski

Still there ... left of Britain and not in the world cup.

joe123

Was thinking about this myself but I reckon we would of done exactly how we played in nearly every other game. Defensive with alot of heart. We could get a draw against the likes of Italy/France but I also reckon we would be capable of drawing with a Holland for example. Its like we play to nullify the opposition whoever they may be.

Id actually be more wary of the likes of Mexico,Uruguay and Chile if we had to face them.

doncarlos

niallo24 wrote: »

They were both there for the taking during the qualifiers too, and its been proved at this World Cup. In 4 games against both, Ireland failed to win one. Disregard the Henry handball, as Ireland weren't actually winning at that point.

Ireland beat France 1-0 in Paris and conceded a last minute goal against Italy to draw the home game.

Peyton Manning

Still at home, on our arses, watching others get knocked out of a competition we failed to even qualify for.

pickarooney

Who gives a toss at this stage?

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

doncarlos wrote: »

Ireland beat France 1-0 in Paris and conceded a last minute goal against Italy to draw the home game.

Er yeah sorry my bad. It was a draw over the 180 minutes though!

Essien

If we made it I reckon we'd all be reading a "Well done Ireland" thread right about now, brimming with moral victories and ifs and buts.

JerryHandbag

Should have beaten Italy home & away, Bulgaria home & away (cheers Kilbane on both :rolleyes:)
OR shoulda beaten France 2-0 or 3-0 in paris so that the famous handball never had to happen. But then we got some breaks along the way too bigtime. I think if we were there, we'd be hard to beat and probably scrape out of our group on goal difference but probably a strong team would end the journey for us in round of 16

Cypher_sounds

feck this thread

ROCKMAN

Been Honest , We would have made a big hearted effort that would have kept the nation drunkhappy for the last two weeks but the squad would still be packing their bags and heading home this week anyway. We are not a top sixteen team ,
Another glorious failure

lordgoat

It doesn't change anything. Regardless of the world cup we need to focus on qualification for the Euros. We could very easily have qualified and ended up on the frist boat home. It's very easy to look on with green tinted glasses.

JerryHandbag

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Been Honest , We would have made a big hearted effort that would have kept the nation drunkhappy for the last two weeks but the squad would still be packing their bags and heading home this week anyway. We are not a top sixteen team ,
Another glorious failure

A lot would depend on the draw though. Englands group would have been do-able. The Germany/Ghana group though - I wouldnt be confident. It is all ifs and buts though now.

Pauleta

If Ireland got through in France's group i say it would of ended with 3 draws or 2 draws and a loss. The Irish performance in Paris seems to be getting warped in peoples head that Ireland hammered France all night when realistically they probably just edged them out on the night and were awful against France at Croke Park. The Italy results flattered Ireland as the one in Italy was when Italy had ten men for most of the match and when Ireland played at home Italy only need a draw.

Ireland probably would of put up a better fight than France but i doubt they would of got past the 1st round.

SantryRed

Shows how poor we are when you see NZ draw with Italy and get beaten by Slovakia. And then how utterly shambolic France truly are.

karma_

Happy both of these teams are out, they have not played well enough to deserve a place in teh next round.

Cypher_sounds

Robbie Keane and Duffers reaction to French exit from WC

http://www.balls.ie/2010/06/24/robbie-keane-and-duffer-react-to-french-world-cup-exit/

Overheal

So England v Germany....

France Surrendered

And the USA was late to get there.



Is this WWII or Soccer?

Ush1

Cypher_sounds wrote: »

Robbie Keane and Duffers reaction to French exit from WC

http://www.balls.ie/2010/06/24/robbie-keane-and-duffer-react-to-french-world-cup-exit/

Good look from Robbie, lookin' proper Tallaght.

herbieflowers

Overheal wrote: »

So England v Germany....

France Surrendered

And the USA was late to get there.



Is this WWII or Soccer?

Nah, it's football.

:pac:

The_Kew_Tour

Overheal wrote: »

So England v Germany....

France Surrendered

And the USA was late to get there.



Is this WWII or Soccer?

6th time I have heard this one today

LeeroyJones

If anything, I hope this lesson has taught us that we shouldn't be so afraid of high profile countries.

before both the Italian and French matches we knew we had the potential to beat them but we still acted inferior to them and played with a negative attitude.

Jigga

Overheal wrote: »

So England v Germany....

France Surrendered

And the USA was late to get there.



Is this WWII or Soccer?

Don't forget that the Japanese proved stubborn and Ireland sat it out!

baalthor

Jigga wrote: »

Don't forget that the Japanese proved stubborn and Ireland sat it out!

But in WW2 it was Germany who crushed Denmark in 90 minutes ...

TonyD79

The fact is most people were saying how great we were for getting results against these two big sides plus should we have gone through. With Italy and France now struggling against average sides where does that leave us. Compare it to scoring a hot girl and then raising your normal standards only to see the same drunkin girl go with everyone else!!!

Rezident

No matter how good some individuals are for club, it's a team game and it's about more than just technical ability. I was delighted to see the likes of New Zealand, Japan, Ghana, South Korea and Mexico do well despite not being fancied (i.e. they don't have as many Premiership/Seria A individuals as Italy/France).

I feel Ireland would have played with a lot more heart than either France or Italy did and would have done better than both of them as a result. We did it before in the World Cup 2002 with Gary Breen, Ian Harte, Mark Kinsella and Kevin Kilbane - hardly individual world-beaters but effective as part of a decent team.

Guy:Incognito

doncarlos wrote: »

conceded a last minute goal against Italy to draw the home game.

You dont get some sort of moral victory for only conceding int he last minute. The whole 90 minutes is there for teams to score and they count just the same in any of them.

OPENROAD

Felt the media here overreacted to Irelands performance against the French, not wanting to take too much from Ireland, but it was a very poor French team who obviously had problems in the camp at the time, Italians also have gone backwards.

Dunphy and some seem to think Ireland would have done well in this world cup, possibly they would have, but who knows how the team would have performed.

Kidchameleon

pickarooney wrote: »

Who gives a toss at this stage?

The OP

Jordan Berbatov

Ireland somehow managed to get themselves motivated against Paraguay and Algeria putting in two very good energetic performances, they could have easily put in a lethargic and effortless performance and no one would have batted an eyelid, the demands of a long Premier Leauge season would have been used as an excuse, and not too many would have argued against this. So taking this into consideration I reckon Ireland would have got out of the group, beating Mexico and draws against Uruguay and South Africa.

There was and still isn't anything wrong with our results against France and Italy (except the 2-2 in Croker), it was draws against Montenegro and the draw in Croker against Bulgaria that kept us from the W.C really, but unfortunetly all these are ifs and buts.