League of Ireland in Europe 2016

Omackeral

Alfa Quadrifoglio, when Dundalk go out here tonight don't forget to come back to following Bohs after you inevitably wax lyical about the Lilywhites for the final time this season

Stevecw

corny wrote: »

Dundalk are way off the pace of this game. End of season came too soon unfortunately.

Same as the last game v AZ. They really have struggled since the season ended. Very lucky to be only a goal down tonight. Pity after doing so well early in the group

Mushy

Be harsh on them to finish bottom of the group!

corny

How do you put that wide?

Awesomeness

Exceeded expectations at the beginning but disappointing the way we went out .Need to move on now.

Every goal we conceded came from a mistake

user2011

Awesomeness wrote: »

Exceeded expectations at the beginning but disappointing the way we went out .Need to move on now.

Every goal we conceded came from a mistake

Second sentence, massively agree with that. It's now do the players and management and owners sit and all look too milk this success, which it has been massively and kinda disappointing in the end, does the club look to push on and improve on this season? Let's see, I'm very much hoping so.

With the ownership of the ground sorted, can the fans now look to the future with memories being made in the town on these hugely special nights and not having the bother of trips to Dublin, let's see.

The_Kew_Tour

Mcnulty is poor keeper but he looks good compared to Rodgers

joeysoap

Bridge too far. Still never lost by more than 1 goal in any match in a really tough group. It will be interesting to see how Zenit and AZ progress. Gartland caught in possession; and this is basically where the difference is. Over 33 LOI matches Gartland more than pays his way but at this level good is sometimes not enough. You make a mistake against a LOI team you might get away with it (depends on the team) you make a mistake at this level and its goodbye. Still a great run and we all hope the a LOI team so it again and soon.

wadacrack

Why was Sava dropped ? One bad kick v Zenit , yet Rogers makes mistakes on a much more consistent basis.

joeysoap

I heard earlier in the year that Murphy was the target but obviously not. Know recent performances Cherrie would appear have been a sounder choice.

sparrowcar

Boys are stuck over there still. Air traffic control cancelled their flight at the last minute, coming back in later this morning. Long old day for them.

joeysoap

Mad to think that if Kilduff had scored they could have paid Bray €100k for Connolly and change over. Must try and work out what the win against Maccabi was worth ( afaik you add up all the draws in the groups, (divide by 2 as every draw shows twice) multiply by €120k. And divide the answer by the number of wins. Should bring it well over the €360k for winning a match.

CHealy

For the size of him, Kilduff misses a large number of standard enough goal scoring opportunities from headers.

The_Kew_Tour

Wins in Europe this season

Dundalk 2
Cork City 2.

Just saying....

The_Kew_Tour

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Wins in Europe this season

Dundalk 2
Cork City 2.

Just saying....

Pighead

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Wins in Europe this season

Dundalk 2
Cork City 2.

Just saying....

Earnings in Europe this season:

Dundalk: €7.5m
Cork: €630,000

Hearts and minds won around Europe this season:

Dundalk: Millions and millions
Cork City: A handful. All of whom are from Cork.

Just saying....

The_Kew_Tour

Ohhh

Looking forward to playing on nice surface next season. I bet majority of Europe still know nothing about Dundalk

7.5million is it

LuckyLloyd

Well, the greatest season from a LOI ever? Certainly seems it would be easy to argue them as the pound for pound best LOI side ever.

How to push on is a difficult question. They're not going to be able to retain the current XI in totality, that much is certain. So it's a question of how to use the cash injection to supplement the squad with quality replacements and ensure a solid base in terms of administration and facilities that can be worked off for a decade to come.

There will also be pressure and expectation to deal with in the 2017 European games that was absent from the BATE tie this year. These are all great issues to be worrying about though. The fact that there is some disappointment over not getting out of the group in the end is a pretty stunning achievement all told.

The_Kew_Tour

Sure they have 7.5 million can hang on to best players now

LuckyLloyd

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Sure they have 7.5 million can hang on to best players now

If only it were that simple.

The_Kew_Tour

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

If only it were that simple.

And not menton whole of Europe

LuckyLloyd

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

And not menton whole of Europe

I'm not really interested in whatever Cork sized chip on your shoulder you have tbh.

The_Kew_Tour

its not me with the chip. I only stated a fact.:D

CHealy

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well, the greatest season from a LOI ever? Certainly seems it would be easy to argue them as the pound for pound best LOI side ever.

No doubt a great season, but people often forget about Shamrock Rovers 2011 season when mentioning things like this. In fact, if we are taking a season on honours and final positions then Rovers actually pip Dundalk to that seeing as they won the League and Setanta Cup in that year, while also finishing 4th in their EL group. But IMO Dundalk are a better team than the '10/'11 Rovers team.

Mushy

CHealy wrote: »

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Well, the greatest season from a LOI ever? Certainly seems it would be easy to argue them as the pound for pound best LOI side ever.

No doubt a great season, but people often forget about Shamrock Rovers 2011 season when mentioning things like this. In fact, if we are taking a season on honours and final positions then Rovers actually pip Dundalk to that seeing as they won the League and Setanta Cup in that year, while also finishing 4th in their EL group. But IMO Dundalk are a better team than the '10/'11 Rovers team.

Ah here, Dundalk couldn't compete in the Setanta cup and they actually got points in the group stages of Europe. Surely that's much better?

Pighead

For quite a while now I've sort of had it in my head that this season may be the best season I have or will ever have supporting Dundalk FC. What we did this year was exceptional and I made sure to enjoy every single second of the journey as I know this stuff should never be taken for granted. We will not be seeded next year so there is every chance our European adventure could be finished by July next season. I could live to be a hundred and 2016 could still be the year I take with me as the greatest I've ever seen.

We have lost Boyle and Horgan which is huge and Kenny is faced with a challenge almost as big as the one he inherited when he first walked through the doors. Finding another Horgan is nigh on impossible so we're going to have to adapt and tweak the system. But no better man than Kenny to take that challenge on.

As LuckyLloyd says the money we have earned has to be spent to ensure everything is in place to create an environment where we continue to dominate domestically and give ourselves every chance of progressing to the promised land which is Champions League qualification.

Ferris_Bueller

It will be tough for Dundalk to build on this season but domestically at least they are in a very strong position. Boyle is gone, Horgan and possibly Gannon to follow, is it likely that any other players will leave? While all three of those players have been phenomenal, Boyle and Gannon are replaceable at least, Sean Hoare isn't a bad replacement for Boyle if that deal goes ahead. I don't think their team will be too much weaker next year but it will be hard to get those performances out of the players again, I wish them the best of luck however. Personally, they really captured my imagination in the LoI more than any other club have managed over the past few years, probably ever, they will go down as heroes in my book.

cormie

So is now a good time to give away that Jersey signed by the Dundalk team against Zenit I mentioned earlier?

Guffy

cormie wrote: »

So is now a good time to give away that Jersey signed by the Dundalk team against Zenit I mentioned earlier?

Sure.... I'll take it

joeysoap

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Ohhh

Looking forward to playing on nice surface next season. I bet majority of Europe still know nothing about Dundalk

1) agree with that. Didnt do Dundalk any favours this year, quite the opposite.

2) Could be right but they certainly know in the UK, the guys who present the highlights of the europa league every Thursday on ITV were very supportive. Couldnt believe the number of matches Dundalk had to play in Sept/Oct (or that the had to play on a Monday before a europa match) and had great sympathy that the LOI season ended when it did leaving Dundalk match stale.Dundalk got mentioned in the pre match talk immediately after Man U and Southampton. Legia Warsaw made a (quite a good)video of the club.

joeysoap

Long day for the lads

https://twitter.com/DundalkFC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

user2011

cormie wrote: »

So is now a good time to give away that Jersey signed by the Dundalk team against Zenit I mentioned earlier?

If you're for real, I'll give you €100 or give it to a charity of your choice?

cormie

I got it because I was the kit truck driver for Zenit when they were here, so I'll prob run a competition for it through the same facebook page for the kit truck

Alfa Quadrifoglio

What Dundalk achieved this year, and Cork City to a lesser extent, must be built on to create a more viable and attractive League in Ireland. I already sense other clubs are taking up the challenge with significant signings but these must be done within budgets or quickly clubs will find themselves in financial trouble.
What really needs to happen is that Irish soccer fans who follow the National team, Celtic, United, Liverpool etc need to adapt a League of Ireland club and support them also. Get to a few games, buy the jersey and commit to Dundalk, Rovers, Cork City, Bohs or whoever. This would have a huge huge uplift on attendances, the lifeblood for most clubs. LoI fans need to stop knocking fans of UK clubs, this is now a trend across Europe, the difference though is that fans in Russia, Holland and Israel also follow their local Teams.
Impressed with Cork holding on to Maguire, not convinced Horgan actually wants to leave Dundalk but offer may be too tempting to tun down

The_Kew_Tour

Dundalk have set a bar but they won 2 in 12 games. If Irish teams do poorly in Europe next season we get the "league is going backwards" stuff again.

Its not going be easy and clubs need look at long term rather then short. If Irish clubs can least get through first round in Europe more often then thats a good platform to start with.

If Dundalk dont get El or Cl does not mean automatically things have gotten worse.

Its good to see bar being raised and may it continue, but I rather we take baby steps forward then big step but crash back down stuff we seem be used to.

Hammer Archer

Out of interest, anyone know if Dundalk will be in with a shout of being seeded in their first round of the Champions League next year?

Ferris_Bueller

I think they missed out on being seeded for the CL next year.

inforfun

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Dundalk have set a bar but they won 2 in 12 games.

PSV won the EC 1 in 1988 winning 3 of their 9 matches.
Feyenoord once got out of a CL group winning 1, drawing 5.

It is the amout of rounds that count, not so much wins.
Of course winning is better for the UEFA list.

joeysoap

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

I think they missed out on being seeded for the CL next year.

They did. Doesn't matter to UEFA if you play Valetta or Zenit, the result is what counts, not the quality of the opposition. Legia have joined AZ and Zenit in the last 32.

joeysoap

Just checked the coefficients as listed by UEFA. Drogheda and Bohs on .525 for this year, so I assume every league club will get this as a result of Dundalk and City doing well in Europe this year?

cormie

Finally got around to throwing the signed Dundalk jersey up for a competition. Not much of a reaction on it, might still give it to a charity instead, but might promote the post and target dundalkfc fans through an ad campaign

https://www.facebook.com/VanTasks/photos/a.10150332327659181.367438.71028214180/10154914855299181/?type=3&theater

topmanamillion

cormie wrote: »

Finally got around to throwing the signed Dundalk jersey up for a competition. Not much of a reaction on it, might still give it to a charity instead, but might promote the post and target dundalkfc fans through an ad campaign

https://www.facebook.com/VanTasks/photos/a.10150332327659181.367438.71028214180/10154914855299181/?type=3&theater

Bit late now to decided to give it to charity, you`ve promised it as a prize!

Alfa Quadrifoglio

AZ 1 Lyon 4.......think Dundalk would have given Lyon a better game!!!

joeysoap

Alfa Quadrifoglio wrote: »

AZ 1 Lyon 4.......think Dundalk would have given Lyon a better game!!!

I don't know AQ, out of season and Dundalk are in transition, who knows if Horgan, Boyle and Finn would have stayed, possibly. Rovers offered Finn a deal he couldn't refuse (and Dundalk for all their success couldn't/wouldn't match) Zenit played their last league match on 3rd December and their play on Thursday showed all the signs. On their day Dundalk were capable of beating AZ, but by the time the match in Tallght came around they were a spent force. I think we will be fine for this season though, I wouldn't read too much into last nights result, lot of key players not available (Rogers, Shields, McMillan and most of the new recruits on the bench)

dr.kenneth noisewater

Both Zenit and AZ knocked out at the first KO stage. Doubt Dundalk would have lost 11-2 on agg

applehunter

Cork City's conqueror's Genk march on.

White Horse

applehunter wrote: »

Cork City's conqueror's Genk march on.

Weird isn't.

Zenit are out and Genk are still in it, and Genk are muck.

joeysoap

McEleney hit the underside of the bar in the 90th minute. (It wouldn't have put Dundalk through, but would have added €120k to the kitty)

Tonight Zenit were going through when Anderlecht scored in the 90th minute. Into the same goal.

Se la vie.

All the teams who Dundalk met are now out.

Se la vie.

inforfun

C'est

sorry

dan1895

inforfun wrote: »

C'est

sorry

Christ of got tht B*witched song in my head now.
Damn you.