Euro 2016 - Group E - Belgium vs Ireland, 2 pm, RTE & ITV

vidor

teddyhead wrote: »

I thought Keanes comments this week , where he praised the 'warrior' spirit and expressed his love of the physical side of the game ,were very depressing. Seems we have not really evolved from the quaint , up and at them , mentality. No wonder the gobby lout has won nowt as a manager.

And exactly the reason why McClean will always get a run out.

Mec27

I am not optimistic that what I propose will happen, the will isn't there for us to really push on from our current station as a nobody team. I really feel we need a fresh impetus, the Irish team has gone stale and radical overhauls are needed if we are to at least remain in our position as a third tier European team.

NIMAN

Mec27 wrote: »

The EPL moved on without us, it nearly moved on without English players but of course that could never happen in their own league, but they owe nothing to us. The days of Ireland having lots of starters in the English Premier League is over. Going to have to look to the European mainland for opportunities me thinks, probably a slow stream of players into Belgium and Netherlands. I highly doubt we will ever see an Irish contingent in Spain, Italy or Germany.

Irish players will never be in demand in those type of footballing countries until we change how we teach youngsters to play football.

As long as we follow the British model, and have 7 yr old playing on full size pitches in full size nets, you may forget about any future quality footballers from this country.

The Talking Bread

Sand wrote: »

The thing is Belgium put the work in long before 2014. They recognised there was a problem and began addressing it in 1998. That means even if Ireland started right now, it would take until the late 2020s or even the early 2030s to bear fruit.

Thats an argument to start yesterday, but it also means we need to stop thinking in terms of short term success. O'Neill is a huge success in the short term by even qualifying, but there is nothing more coming through. The reality is a few years from now the like of Whelan will be the 'big stars' of the Irish team.

The other reality is that bigger sides like England have been less complacent than Ireland - they have reformed at youth level. They have 10 times the people to draw from, and far better coaching to develop them. The remarkable thing about Rashford (for example) is that up to 6 months ago no one knew about him. His composure, technical ability and performance was not unusual. He was just another decent English youth prospect at a PL club. England is producing players like him, Alli, Shaw, Eriksen, etc, etc. There is an arms race, and Ireland is far, far, far behind nations who are larger and better coached.

I honestly dont know why people dont realise that we have 2, even three (rugby) sports which attract team environment membership over soccer and this is the biggest obstacle to overcome, an obstacle that Belgium never had.

Green Fella

teddyhead wrote: »

I thought Keanes comments this week , where he praised the 'warrior' spirit and expressed his love of the physical side of the game ,were very depressing. Seems we have not really evolved from the quaint , up and at them , mentality. No wonder the gobby lout has won nowt as a manager.

Keane is a parody of himself at this stage.

Green Fella

Arthur Daley wrote: »

After wednesday where we will do well to get a point, fair enough Italy have the group won. But then we actually have a winnable group for the world cup. A well motivated and structured Ireland team could with strong performances come out on top in thd mix of wales, austria and serbia. It's a good opportunity but we need a bit more of premiership standard like artur to come through to beef the up thd squad and duffy to prove a himself reliable centre back.

Going on what we have seen so far I would not back us to top any group. It is as easy a draw as we could get but we could easily finish 4th in that group if we dont change things and buck up our ideas. Theres something very stale about the set up at present. I fear for us big time tbh

NIMAN

teddyhead wrote: »

I thought Keanes comments this week , where he praised the 'warrior' spirit and expressed his love of the physical side of the game ,were very depressing. Seems we have not really evolved from the quaint , up and at them , mentality. No wonder the gobby lout has won nowt as a manager.

Those qualities will only take you so far. Its probably enough to get you past the likes of Georgia, Estonia and even compete v likes of Sweden or Denmark etc.

But you need skill as well if you are going to give better teams a game.

11 warriors will get you nowhere in football.

Sand

Mec27 wrote: »

It is going to be so hard for us really isn't it. Football is huge in this country but it is not fundamental, the will just isn't there to turn us into a Croatia of the north so we will probably just continue plodding along, qualifying for tournaments once in a bluemoon. Scotland probably has the better chance of achieving that since football plays more part in their everyday society than it does here. Although while we have qualified for 3 tournaments since 2000, they have qualified for none.

Its extremely hard - we have a small population, and we have to get 20 or so players to a level who are able to face bigger, better funded nations. However, if trying is not the point, then why bother with sport at all? My point is Ireland is smaller, so it needs to be smarter and braver. Its not impossible - Belgium, Croatia, Netherlands are small nations that punch above their weight because they invest in coaching.

Right now, there is too much complacency - personified in Delaney and his cohort.

I don't think its necessarily a problem for Ireland to have competition from GAA and Rugby - Soccer is still easily the most play game in Ireland. In any given age group GAA and Rugby might take away the attention of the physically bigger and stronger players, but if the ambition is to build a team of technically and tactically strong players then that's not a huge loss.

sonic85

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I honestly dont know why people dont realise that we have 2, even three (rugby) sports which attract team environment membership over soccer and this is the biggest obstacle to overcome, an obstacle that Belgium never had.

Where are you getting this information from may I ask? Because many more people play football in Ireland than plays GAA I'd wager. From what I've seen online the Irish Sports Council did some research (Ballpark Figures) that states 9% of adults play some form of football while 4% play gaelic and 3% play hurling. Rugby wasnt even mentioned. Now I don't know how old those stats are but that sounds about right to me.

Corholio

Keane's comments seem to be bizarrely taken as him saying that's all Ireland offer. The context of quotes don't show that in the slightest and had nothing to do with that. Are we just slowly moving through the coaching staff sticking blame on everyone?

The blame lies a lot, lot deeper than that. But once we get the odd 1 or 2 semi famous football players playing in England a lot of people are happy with that and the root cause doesn't matter to a lot, that's the blunt truth.

NIMAN

We need someone/a team to come in from outside and change the culture of how football is taught/coached/played in this country.

Even if it takes 20yrs, then do it.

Ulysses Gaze

We're starting to sound like the English after every terrible performance or poor tournament. "We have to produce more technical players, need to get better coaches, got to produce tactically astute players.etc..etc.."

And then all conversations like that stop once August comes around and "The Best League in the World (tm)" kicks off. Nothing will change either here or in England in the next 20 years.

England may produce a Wayne Rooney every so often, and the media will overhype him as as World Class player, but they will continue to struggle to produce a team capable of mixing it with the big boys.

And so will we.

Sand

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

We're starting to sound like the English after every terrible performance or poor tournament. "We have to produce more technical players, need to get better coaches, got to produce tactically astute players.etc..etc.."

And then all conversations like that stop once August comes around and "The Best League in the World (tm)" kicks off. Nothing will change either here or in England in the next 20 years.
England may produce a Wayne Rooney every so often, and the media will overhype him as as World Class player, but they will continue to struggle to produce a team capable of mixing it with the big boys.

And so will we.

The problem is the English are producing more technical, more tactically astute players. They got better coaches to develop their much larger population of naturally decent footballers. I saw someone earlier saying the solution was for Irish players to go continental and avoid the backwards PL game... the problem is the PL has advanced, and Irish players are no longer good enough to compete in it.

We are still hoping to produce a Wayne Rooney every so often. Coaching is for cheaters.

OttoPilot

I think all this talk of improving coaching and development is fantastic, however it should have been done 4 years ago...

As a mainly gaa supporter myself, I can't see the league of Ireland ever reaching the required standard to produce a good team, so I think we need to incentivize foreign clubs to come over here and develop talent, perhaps some sort of feeder system, or twinning clubs with a foreign club.

sonic85

I always thought it would be a great idea to build an academy somewhere central a kind of boarding school and have it run by fully qualified coaches who want to promote technical skills instead of physical traits. Bring in a couple of hundred good young players and train them intensively. Would probably cost a fortune though which immediately means it's dead in the water!

teddyhead

The Talking Bread wrote: »

I honestly dont know why people dont realise that we have 2, even three (rugby) sports which attract team environment membership over soccer and this is the biggest obstacle to overcome, an obstacle that Belgium never had.

I dont buy that argument . On the continent and further afield , there are loads of highly organized , well supported sports that compete with football for attention , from basketball to cycling to alpine sports. Ireland is not unusual in having a few different,competing popular sports. Indeed both Gaa and Rugby have thrown up a few handy soccer players over the years.

Ulysses Gaze

sonic85 wrote: »

I always thought it would be a great idea to build an academy somewhere central a kind of boarding school and have it run by fully qualified coaches who want to promote technical skills instead of physical traits. Bring in a couple of hundred good young players and train them intensively. Would probably cost a fortune though which immediately means it's dead in the water!

I think that an Irish Clairefontaine had been proposed previously but was dismissed because of the expenses attached.

It costs Barcelona $15 million per annum to run La Masia. But that's excluding the build costs of the facility.

Does the FAI have that kind of cash available to pump into an academy system like that?

Sand

sonic85 wrote: »

I always thought it would be a great idea to build an academy somewhere central a kind of boarding school and have it run by fully qualified coaches who want to promote technical skills instead of physical traits. Bring in a couple of hundred good young players and train them intensively. Would probably cost a fortune though which immediately means it's dead in the water!

There is also the problem of identifying those hundred players. The best solution is for the general level of coaching to be improved so that all young players have some access to a qualified coach. Right now, even the best young players can go through 10 years of youth football without ever being trained how to play football, and instead relying on heart and strength.

OttoPilot

OttoPilot wrote: »

I think all this talk of improving coaching and development is fantastic, however it should have been done 4 years ago...

As a mainly gaa supporter myself, I can't see the league of Ireland ever reaching the required standard to produce a good team, so I think we need to incentivize foreign clubs to come over here and develop talent, perhaps some sort of feeder system, or twinning clubs with a foreign club.

Building on this, imagine a Liverpool b team playing in league of Ireland under Liverpool badge/brand, same could be done for other popular foreign clubs. If anything hopefully it would increase interest in the league, allowing native clubs to grow.

Foreign clubs could reduce their tax bill, increase fanbase and develop more talent.

teddyhead

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Does the FAI have that kind of cash available to pump into an academy system like that?

Maybe if the bigshots in the FAI took a paycut ?

Berserker

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

Does the FAI have that kind of cash available to pump into an academy system like that?

No, repaying the cost of the new LR has them stretched to the max financially.

teddyhead wrote: »

Maybe if the bigshots in the FAI took a paycut ?

If they worked for nothing, it wouldn't even begin to cover the costs of an academy.

Ulysses Gaze

teddyhead wrote: »

Maybe if the bigshots in the FAI took a paycut ?

That's mad talk altogether.

You know those prawn sandwiches don't pay for themselves, right?

Green Fella

They are a few different issues I feel:

- The increasing lack of players coming through
- Technical levels of Irish players
- FAI issues with LOI and many other problems
- Issues with current Management and Set up

Long term the top 3 need to be addressed. Short term-Medium term the 4th issue is something I feel is also problem and I would blame most on our poor performances so far.

MisterAnarchy

On a more positive note ,there is an Irishman leading the US Open yet again.
Its amazing the success we have in golf for such a small country .
The GUI do a good job with underage coaching it has to be said but I wouldnt say its revolutionary,we dont have many academies or centres for excellence.

sonic85

Ulysses Gaze wrote: »

I think that an Irish Clairefontaine had been proposed previously but was dismissed because of the expenses attached.

It costs Barcelona $15 million per annum to run La Masia. But that's excluding the build costs of the facility.

Does the FAI have that kind of cash available to pump into an academy system like that?

That's the thing - to do anything like that is gonna cost money and that money is prohibitive. But if it gets results could it not be tried for a few years. Even on a smaller scale - 50 good young players maybe. I don't know - just seemed like a good idea to me!

People keep mentioning the LOI and I'd like to see more money being given to the league in terms of prize money and grants to improve facilities etc but in reality I can't see the LOI ever being a breeding ground for players capable of playing international football. The odd one will come along sure but unless attendances rise drastically and players decide to stay in Ireland instead of heading across the water then nothing will change from the way it is currently

Berserker

Green Fella wrote: »

They are a few different issues I feel:

- The increasing lack of players coming through
- Technical levels of Irish players
- FAI issues with LOI and many other problems
- Issues with current Management and Set up

Long term the top 3 need to be addressed. Short term-Medium term the 4th issue is something I feel is also problem and I would blame most on our poor performances so far.

On point IV, I believe that the MON and Keane partnership will dissolve after this tournament. Don't agree with you in relation to point III. How does the LoI and the relationship between the FAI and the league have any bearing on the form of the senior international team? The LoI will never be able to attract players of that caliber, in all honesty.

sonic85

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/national-league/the-fai-millions-where-they-come-from-and-how-they-re-spent-1.2264229

I'm on my phone so I hope this link works but there's plenty of waste in the FAI that could be cut out. Not enough for an academy sure but a lot more could be diverted into grassroots football into coaching and facilities

OttoPilot

OttoPilot wrote: »

Building on this, imagine a Liverpool b team playing in league of Ireland under Liverpool badge/brand, same could be done for other popular foreign clubs. If anything hopefully it would increase interest in the league, allowing native clubs to grow.

Foreign clubs could reduce their tax bill, increase fanbase and develop more talent.

There may be an idea in that. Twin clubs or mergers. Everton and Home Farm tried something years ago though and it didnt prove successful.

The big problem here is that UEFA would block any twinning due to the fact that if clubs were to meet in Europe it could create conflict of interest.

Arsenal and Beveren had a twinning agreement back in the nougthies which UEFA done its utmost to discredit

sonic85

[Deleted User] wrote: »

There may be an idea in that. Twin clubs or mergers. Everton and Home Farm tried something years ago though and it didnt prove successful.

The big problem here is that UEFA would block any twinning due to the fact that if clubs were to meet in Europe it could create conflict of interest.

Arsenal and Beveren had a twinning agreement back in the nougthies which UEFA done its utmost to discredit

Would stuff like that really do anything to help the game here though. If we were to go down the road of B teams or twinning or whatever how would it help? If players from Liverpool or Arsenal or whoever were to be loaned to these clubs they wouldn't be stars or future stars they would be young lads no one's ever heard of or ever will hear of again or failed pros that have already been around the lower divisions in England.

darced

This post has been deleted.

764dak

I think Belgium has a weakness at RB. Meunier (from Brugge) played poorly except for 2 or 3 plays and Ciman (who started the first match) plays for the Montreal Impact in MLS.

NIMAN

764dak wrote: »

I think Belgium has a weakness at RB. Meunier (from Brugge) played poorly except for 2 or 3 plays and Ciman (who started the first match) plays for the Montreal Impact in MLS.

He looked alright to me when he took that ball off McClean like he was tackling a 12yr old, and started the play that lead to a goal.

764dak

NIMAN wrote: »

764dak wrote: »

I think Belgium has a weakness at RB. Meunier (from Brugge) played poorly except for 2 or 3 plays and Ciman (who started the first match) plays for the Montreal Impact in MLS.

He looked alright to me when he took that ball off McClean like he was tackling a 12yr old, and started the play that lead to a goal.

That was one of the plays that was good.

irishguitarlad

darced wrote: »

Where is this still going on? My two young fellas both never played on a full size pitch until they were 11.

It is all small pitches with 4 goals, no keepers and emphasis on technique and positioning over winning. I see huge improvements being made at the younger underage level. I hope it will trickle up to the more competitive age groups.

In kerry I know for a fact it still happens.

Ben Gadot

Someone made an awful decision at half time. It's as if MON was channeled into every clown in a boozer who said we need to attack!

The second we came out of the traps in the second half we paid dearly for it. We became easy pickings for a team that man for man is the best in the tournament.

vidor

They had us pinned right back for the entire first half so it was just a matter of time before they scored. Just didn't see two of the goals coming from counter attacks but the goals were going to happen either way.

sReq | uTeK

Ben Gadot wrote: »

Someone made an awful decision at half time. It's as if MON was channeled into every clown in a boozer who said we need to attack!

The second we came out of the traps in the second half we paid dearly for it. We became easy pickings for a team that man for man is the best in the tournament.

That's ridiculous and lazy analysis. We were always going to have an attack in the game just because a good opportunity arose in the opening minutes of the 2nd half is as much significance of the attack happening in the 60th 70th 80th or 90th. You take your chance when the come.

No matter how good you are or what players you have you're open to the counter when you go forward in numbers.

As for the people screaming that we should be able to hold out against Belgium as Italy did, you're looking at the game through rose tinted glasses.

Italy have a back four who play 60+ games a season together and have been winning scudettos for fun and getting to the latter stages of the champions league playing against the best forwards in the business on a weekly basis. We have Clark and Ward.
Back to your initial point. For Belgiums 2nd goal they had possession of the football for a prolonged period of time. We had 11 men behind the ball when they scored.......a simple lapse in concentration from ward allowing Witsel to score.

Stubborntrap

What an awful embarrassing display. We are without doubt the worst team in the tournament. Albania, Iceland, N. Ireland all play football. We cant string 3 passes together. We need to stop accepting mediocrity. Clark out, honest player but will cost you games. McCarthy out, he's not interested. Duffy In, Quinn in, and when he's fit again, Arter in. We have options but everyone, everyone, needs to be switched on all the time. We need to be more ruthless in selection and play. Fans stop applauding horrible performances. At the moment the football, if you can call it that, is just a distraction for a major piss up.

The Talking Bread

teddyhead wrote: »

I dont buy that argument . On the continent and further afield , there are loads of highly organized , well supported sports that compete with football for attention , from basketball to cycling to alpine sports. Ireland is not unusual in having a few different,competing popular sports. Indeed both Gaa and Rugby have thrown up a few handy soccer players over the years.

Go on, tell me a country where 90% of young lads who play sports get involved competitively in skiing and basketball but still manage to produce a comprise soccer team.?

Yes it would be great to incentives those boys to transfer their allegiances to club soccer over club gaa by developing a more professional approach to youth soccer, proper pitches, clubhouses, etc.. But there are massive barriers and gradually as lads reach 10/11 and decide they want to concentrate on gaelic football, hurling or now rugby . The community element of GAA sucks so many in, it certainly did me and all my friends. Playing for your local club, the way the next step up is county level. It's just all but a professional sport in Ireland.

Youth soccer just becomes a Sunday morning kick around more and more and whilst there are competitive leagues and rival clubs it is nothing like in GAA.

There is plenty that can be done by the FAI but people need to respect the domination GAA has over sport in Ireland.

There are certain segments of the country where soccer dominates, Sligo, Louth, parts of Welford and Waterford, parts of Cork and Done gal but GAA will always win.

Dublin reemergence in both codes and the increased money being pumped into the county setup, infrastructure, equipment etc has seen so many young lads who previously chose soccer take Gaelic as their main sport.

You need to be realistic in this regard and that barrier needs to be the first to tackle " how can we attract a larger pool of players into soccer club football "

England can afford to have their cricket, France their rugby because of their massive population.

The Talking Bread

sonic85 wrote: »

Where are you getting this information from may I ask? Because many more people play football in Ireland than plays GAA I'd wager. From what I've seen online the Irish Sports Council did some research (Ballpark Figures) that states 9% of adults play some form of football while 4% play gaelic and 3% play hurling. Rugby wasnt even mentioned. Now I don't know how old those stats are but that sounds about right to me.

Well consider this, take consideration of how many gaa clubs are around the country compared to soccer clubs. Also consider squad levels, hurling and football, the competitiveness of the leagues etc. Look at the infrastructure, the clubhouses, the pitches.

We aren't talking about AstroTurf 6 a sides here. You won't see many scouts down in Red Lane in Newbridge on a Tuesday night in January.


I'll find some sort of report but at the moment gaa dominates competitive team sports in Ireland.

gosplan

GAA are great at underage but they're funded like bejaysus.

In junior infants there's a guy in our area of North Dublin who visits every school, joins in with their PE once a week and get's them all to join the local GAA club where hundreds of kids play games every Saturday with young mentors. It's all about fun and participation and no one gives a **** about tactics and play till a lot later on.

Every Sat you hear parents say 'you wouldn't get this with football, sure they only give a **** about the first 11 and three subs'.

But they're all paid. There's do much funding that goes in because they realise if you get 90% of kids in the area through the doors in junior/senior infants, the older teams take care of themselves.

However the poor football guy has no clubhouse, pitchs and infrastructure behind him, is doing it for free and as a result can't take kids till they can at least play a bit and are a bit older.

It's all about funding. No point talking about tactical approaches and pitch size till you fix the funding problem.

Kobe248

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Well consider this, take consideration of how many gaa clubs are around the country compared to soccer clubs. Also consider squad levels, hurling and football, the competitiveness of the leagues etc. Look at the infrastructure, the clubhouses, the pitches.

We aren't talking about AstroTurf 6 a sides here. You won't see many scouts down in Red Lane in Newbridge on a Tuesday night in January.


I'll find some sort of report but at the moment gaa dominates competitive team sports in Ireland.

Im not agreeing with him but well if you look around Im sure you will see more lads play soccer as they get older, gives them something to do on the weekend.

The problem is the younger lads like you said are picking native sports to focus on with rugby becoming a new challenger, all because of the group culture they have.

In my local area we have 4 GAA clubs and 4 football clubs, the rivalry is talked about when the GAA play each other, you wouldnt even hear if one of the football teams played each other, its just not as big.

Our rugby team has a lot of fans as it controls a large catchment area and well run underage section, something the football should focus on improving but seem to have little interest in doing

I think Irelands problem is the coaches we have in charge of our kids are the scream at the kids sort of guys, Ive seen coaches who adults wouldnt play for in charge of kids teams and its madness

764dak

I don't consider Belgium and the Netherlands small countries even when you only look at European countries.

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_area.htm

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/population-by-country.htm

siblers

Stubborntrap wrote: »

What an awful embarrassing display. We are without doubt the worst team in the tournament. Albania, Iceland, N. Ireland all play football. We cant string 3 passes together. We need to stop accepting mediocrity. Clark out, honest player but will cost you games. McCarthy out, he's not interested. Duffy In, Quinn in, and when he's fit again, Arter in. We have options but everyone, everyone, needs to be switched on all the time. We need to be more ruthless in selection and play. Fans stop applauding horrible performances. At the moment the football, if you can call it that, is just a distraction for a major piss up.

N.Ireland were pretty poor against Poland, they played well against Ukraine (who are pretty poor) like we did against Sweden, Iceland weren't any great shakes last night against Hungary, did well against Portual who are essentially a one man team. I'd like to see how they'd get on in our group and how we'd get on in their groups. Ireland would match most teams in the competition just not the 5 or 6 teams in the tiers above us.

I've been very impressed with Albania though, unlucky to be on zero points.

gosplan

gosplan wrote: »

It's all about funding. No point talking about tactical approaches and pitch size till you fix the funding problem.

I fully agree, and the GAA and rugby has the FAI whipped in terms of ability to raise funds and the way it is spent.

There was a time in the 90s where football was beginning to really dominate sports, Euro 88, Italia 90 and USA 94 had the country in fever pitch like no other sporting event has ever managed.

But the FAI just completely and utterly screwed up, they've been pathetic at maintaining that mood, the GAA really sat up and took notice and targetted huge commercial sponsors and built fine stadiums. Rugby followed suit. Of course it would be a lot easier for rugby to attract big business in the leafy subarbs of D4. But the FAI really now look like an organisation that exists to pay huge salaries to Delaney and co and just concentrates on the immediate needs of the national side to do that. There really seems to be no long term strategy to grow the game, to develop the league here etc.

Kidchameleon

gosplan wrote: »

To be honest I'll never get over that.

We should have gotten third at least in that World Cup. Standard was awful and we were brilliant at the time.

Korea vrs Turkey in 3rd place match IIRC.

Beat Spain (missed peno in normal time, exit on pens) and we were a Korea match away from a World Cup semi final!!!!

**** you Keane and McCarthy - all are punished!!!

Mec27 wrote: »

How the **** will we ever know? They did beat Spain afteral in the next round.

The Talking Bread wrote: »

...Truth is, we should have taken Spain in injury time, Then we had a massive chance for semi final WC place facing up to South Korea..............semi final against Germany...

Just on this, the South Korean's were brown enveloped into the semi's. The Spanish and the Italians were blatantly robbed. We would have beaten South Korea if the match was played on fair ground. But it wouldn't have been. It would have been more sickening that Henry's handball to be robbed of a WC semi final.

Paully D

Sand wrote: »

Some of the tackles they got away with were shameful - I recall a South Korean player straight up kicking an opponent in the head as the opponent was lying on the ground and nothing given.

The referee in the Spain game was hand-picked by Jack Warner and the referee in the Italy game was arrested and jailed for trying to smuggle heroin through JFK Airport.

When news broke of Moreno’s arrest for attempting to smuggle heroin, Gigi Buffon, Italy’s keeper on that fateful day in 2002, was asked to comment. He reply was, “Sei chili di droga? Li aveva gia nel 2002, ma non nelle mutande, in corpo.” Which translates as: “Six kilograms of drugs? He had them already in 2002 but not in his underwear. In his system.”

:pac::pac::pac:

Dirty Dingus McGee

Paully D wrote: »

The referee in the Spain game was hand-picked by Jack Warner and the referee in the Italy game was arrested and jailed for trying to smuggle heroin through JFK Airport.



:pac::pac::pac:

The irony of a Juventus player complaining about potential match fixing.:)

Paully D

RE: the O'Neill v Trapattoni discussion from last night.

Trapattoni has still done the better job for Ireland as things stand, IMO. Credit to O'Neill, at the end of the day we qualified for the tournament, but the reality is if it had been the qualifying format that had been there for Trapattoni's reign then we would not have qualified. Due to the fact that teams in 3rd place progressed to a play-off under his reign, O'Neill deserves less credit for qualification IMO, as it is an easier task. Remember, Trappatoni guided us through the World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012 qualifying campaigns losing only 1 game from 20. Yes, 1 game in 20.

In this tournament, we drew a game we should have won against Sweden because O'Neill crapped his togs when we took the lead and we were ultimately beaten comfortably by Belgium. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised against Italy and a win there changes everything to be fair such are the margains, but if we lose as expected then we'll have taken 1 more point from an easier group than in 2012 and reached the tournament due to benefiting from the increased amount of teams present. Meh.

People find it easier to get behind O'Neill because of how things ended with Trapattoni (the time was definitely right for a change), some of the things he did and because O'Neill shows a bit of passion. He's a more attractive option to the man on the street for sure. However, for me, Trapattoni has done the better job at the moment and if the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign goes badly then it won't even be an argument.

Mec27

The thing about Ireland is we'll trot out all the clichés about being well organized and 'difficult to beat' but we are actually terrible at this, I don't know how we even qualify, it is like we get to these tournaments and just assume the role of cannon fodder, we have no bravery, it is just the same old story. Look at Austria, limited as we are but they went out last night organized and tough to beat, we can't even excel at the thing we are meant to be good at.