International Weekends, do you find them dull?

dd972

Apart from the game against Wales, for me it'll feel like football's been cancelled for two weeks, there's always this strange vibe in the air as well, can't quite describe it.

flas

Ireland playing Friday night, the town on Saturday, more football than usual,its great

Arghus

Dull but necessary.

GSPfan

I hate it.

ArnoldJRimmer

Same with FA cup weekend, I end up watching games I wouldn't normally watch, some of which are quite enjoyable. I don't mind it at all

Richard Hillman

It's actually quite liberating that of all the Sports that I watch, there is nothing really happening this weekend. I'll watch the Ireland game of course and have a sport free weekend after that.

All the best Euro games are on Friday. Northern v Norway is a noteworthy game but nothing much else on Saturday and Sunday. Although England have a chance of lifting the world cup at Wembley if they put 5+ goals past Lithuania.

Nalz

There's more closer ties between countries on Sunday than Friday. More interesting games imho with the exception of Ireland's group.

Rekop dog

The South American qualifying is excellent. Probably the best standard football after the Champions League. Argies struggling too makes it interesting. Much rather watch games this week like Uruguay v Brazil and Argentina v Chile than your average premier league match.

Tom Mann Centuria

England qualifying games are never fun to watch, and it's not just because England aren't very good, it's because they are playing virtually every game against 9 men behind the ball which makes for dull games, a lot of the bigger seeds also have the same problem, and often the games are just as uninteresting and cagey.

Until UEFA and FIFA decide that everyone can play in their tournaments (which seems to be the way they want to go with ever growing finals tournaments) qualifying is the only option.

International break is fine anyway because there's a couple of divisions in England that still play and leagues elsewhere, plus plenty of other sports to watch.

Vanolder

dd972 wrote: »

Apart from the game against Wales, for me it'll feel like football's been cancelled for two weeks, there's always this strange vibe in the air as well, can't quite describe it.

There's a full round of League of Ireland football next Saturday.

doncarlos

dd972 wrote: »

Apart from the game against Wales, for me it'll feel like football's been cancelled for two weeks, there's always this strange vibe in the air as well, can't quite describe it.

Football cancelled????

Ireland on Friday followed by a full round of LOI fixtures on Saturday including a mouthwatering clash between the big two of recent seasons live on RTE. If anything there is more football

Vanolder

doncarlos wrote: »

Football cancelled????

Ireland on Friday followed by a full round of LOI fixtures on Saturday including a mouthwatering clash between the big two of recent seasons live on RTE. If anything there is more football

I think he meant barstool football is cancelled.

Cantona's Collars

Vanolder wrote: »

I think he meant barstool football is cancelled.

And here we go,I was wondering how long it would take for this thread to be dragged down to the level of "if you don't go to LOI games,then you aren't a real fan".

Vanolder

zerks wrote: »

And here we go,I was wondering how long it would take for this thread to be dragged down to the level of "if you don't go to LOI games,then you aren't a real fan".

They are your words - Maybe that's an insecurity on your part? The OP wrote off the whole league saying 'football' is cancelled' - fairly horrible comments to be honest.

elefant

Apart from the Ireland game, yes.

I appreciate there might be some good quality football played around the world but, honestly, I'm starting to think I don't even like football that much anymore. I'm more interested in the drama, fantasy football and news stories surrounding games than the actual football itself. It's more entertainment than sport for me at this stage, maybe sadly.

I'm invested in Ireland doing well, so I'll be glued to that. But otherwise, I really couldn't give a toss about the international weekend.

Cantona's Collars

The vast majority here follow EPL teams and we are getting into the make or break end of the season and there's a halt put to it.Of course many will watch Ireland but as was said aren't too pushed in the other games. You'll find they'll keep an eye on how their club players do and hope none get hurt.Fair enough with the qualifiers but having meaningless friendlies tacked on is kinda pointless.
I'll be at the game on Friday night but not exactly pushed about the Iceland match.When you are invested in your team week in,week out, it's hard to get interested in another one,even if it's the national team.It's a bit like watching your favourite series and in the middle having a break for a week.Maybe I didn't explain it well,but people will get the gist.

Kingp35

I love International weekends purely because Ireland are playing. I'm a huge Ireland fan, they are way more important to me that club football so I absolutely love International weekends. I can't wait for Friday.

Not dull for me. I'll be glued to the Ireland game too.

OK, so Norway vs Slovakia may not rock my world. But Stoke vs Burnley wouldn't either. Could be because I follow a non-EPL team

noodler

Love it.

Actually quite annoying to see EPL fans moan about it like clockwork half a dozen times a year when most of the teams in England play about 50 games a season.

dan1895

noodler wrote: »

Love it.

Actually quite annoying to see EPL fans moan about it like clockwork half a dozen times a year when most of the teams in England play about 50 games a season.

I think its funny. Its probably because the can't win any points on their fantasy league games.

GavRedKing

I'm going to the Ireland v Wales game and hopefully will get back in time to head to the Cross for the City v Dundalk game too on Saturday.

Theres enough football on if you really want to get your fix.

enzo roco

elefant wrote: »

, honestly, I'm starting to think I don't even like football that much anymore. I'm more interested in the drama, fantasy football and news stories surrounding games than the actual football itself. It's more entertainment than sport for me at this stage, maybe sadly.
.

At least you admit it. It is so sad, that so many people think like this.
It really grinds my gears that fans of football love the drama and not the sport, might as well be watching eastenders.
I hate the drama and news stories. I hate sky sports news.
I love to watch most sports, the whole match. Not just what the manager or player said in the interview afterwards.

ERG89

Rekop dog wrote:

The South American qualifying is excellent. Probably the best standard football after the Champions League. Argies struggling too makes it interesting. Much rather watch games this week like Uruguay v Brazil and Argentina v Chile than your average premier league match.

Its a pity them qualifiers aren't broadcast on TV here. Bar Ireland vs Wales I doubt I'll watch much & only check the scores the next day.
The euros were poor to watch & I ain't clamouring to watch any qualifiers based on that.

elefant

enzo roco wrote: »

At least you admit it. It is so sad, that so many people think like this.
It really grinds my gears that fans of football love the drama and not the sport, might as well be watching eastenders.
I hate the drama and news stories. I hate sky sports news.
I love to watch most sports, the whole match. Not just what the manager or player said in the interview afterwards.

Yeah, it's sad in a way. But I'm not sure I ever felt any differently, and I've only become properly aware of it recently.

I can imagine it would be very different I was back in Ireland supporting a local League of Ireland team. I care passionately about my local GAA team and county team. But I just don't care in the slightest about premier league clubs and players. The players don't gaf about the clubs they play for, the clubs don't gaf about the fans or staff in many cases...

So, in many ways I love international weekends because Ireland are just about the only football team I really care about, but at the same time don't like them because it lacks all the surrounding drama you get in the premiership each weekend.

Vanolder

elefant wrote: »

Yeah, it's sad in a way. But I'm not sure I ever felt any differently, and I've only become properly aware of it recently.

I can imagine it would be very different I was back in Ireland supporting a local League of Ireland team. I care passionately about my local GAA team and county team. But I just don't care in the slightest about premier league clubs and players. The players don't gaf about the clubs they play for, the clubs don't gaf about the fans or staff in many cases...

So, in many ways I love international weekends because Ireland are just about the only football team I really care about, but at the same time don't like them because it lacks all the surrounding drama you get in the premiership each weekend.

I agree with large sentiments of that .. Local teams - GAA/Football and Ireland will always come first, isn't that what sport is about? Identity, culture, community etc. etc.

We've a bizarre outlook when it comes to football - Lads choose a team they like watching on tv and that becomes more important than local football or even our national team. I enjoy the EPL, and recognize we can't compete with the standard of it here in Ireland but we don't have to compete, we can support our own and enjoy the EPL.

We can't even sell out the Aviva most of the time, but then you'll have the EPL die-hards scrambling for tickets if Ireland qualify for tournaments - again, bizarre attitude.

In short, Ireland all day long.

Korat

elefant wrote: »

Apart from the Ireland game, yes.

I appreciate there might be some good quality football played around the world but, honestly, I'm starting to think I don't even like football that much anymore. I'm more interested in the drama, fantasy football and news stories surrounding games than the actual football itself. It's more entertainment than sport for me at this stage, maybe sadly.

I'm invested in Ireland doing well, so I'll be glued to that. But otherwise, I really couldn't give a toss about the international weekend.

When I first read this post I thought it was ridiculous but thinking about it a bit more, I feel the same way if I'm honest.

The standard of actual football in the Premier League is dreadful these days but it's constantly being hyped up as the greatest show on earth. Which I suppose is true now. It's more about personalities, rivalries and drama than about the sport itself.

I roll my eyes when people start talking about Coronation Street or Made in Essex but watching the EPL is much the same thing now.

Feck it, it'll just have to be my guilty pleasure from now on. When people mention soccer in future I'll pretend I've no idea what they're talking about, battling the urge to reveal my inside source on what happened in the tunnel between Julio and Craig.

Lovely Bloke

Yes.

International football is an anachronism.

bucketybuck

Vanolder wrote: »

I enjoy the EPL, and recognize we can't compete with the standard of it here in Ireland but we don't have to compete, we can support our own and enjoy the EPL.

We can't even sell out the Aviva most of the time, but then you'll have the EPL die-hards scrambling for tickets if Ireland qualify for tournaments - again, bizarre attitude.

We? I thought you reserved "we" for Liverpool, the club you frequently talk about as "we" and the city you stated you were from?

Have you changed your mind about where you are from now?

kfallon

bucketybuck wrote: »

We? I thought you reserved "we" for Liverpool, the club you frequently talk about as "we" and the city you stated you were from?

Have you changed your mind about where you are from now?

28 posts and it's back to Liverpool v United potshots! :rolleyes:

bucketybuck

kfallon wrote: »

28 posts and it's back to Liverpool v United potshots! :rolleyes:

That it is Liverpool is coincidental so you can tone down the outrage, I was simply curious about consistency from the poster in question.

BullBlackNova

Big fan of international football for the most part but a little irked at the frequency of the breaks.

This one isn't an issue, first one in some time and is quite welcome.

But it annoys me that most top flight leagues in Europe break 2 or 3 times between September and November for qualifiers and friendlies - surely that could be condensed into one longer break instead of two/three short ones? I reckon it would create that mini-tournament buzz that can often be missing if your side is playing a dead rubber tie too.

Ireland v Wales is easy to get excited by, but if this was, say, Georgia on Friday and a friendly the following Tuesday, people could be forgiven for not being as interested. I would say extend the break out for another week, scrap the friendly and throw in two more qualifiers. Would be great I think.

Over a year or so, it would be the same number of games, the same length of breaks, just less frequent.

Zebra3

Very little time for international football and the fancy dress fans win, lose or draw let's have a party brigade.

But in saying that it's great for keeping in check the greed of the superclubs.

Mars Bar

I'm gonna take the opportunity to go to a "Live Your Goals" day for girls football on Saturday after coaching my own team. Then on Sunday I might go in to Terryland to watch a local-ish girls team (a team I used to play for) compete in the Irish Cup Finals in two different age groups.

There's more than enough football going on if you go look for it so no, I don't find international weekends dull because it doesn't have to be about the internationals.

Minderbinder

They really ought to plan these things better. They could have had the last round of the six nations on next weekend and maybe brought the masters forward a couple of weeks. There's absolutely no consideration for the armchair supporters anymore.

citytillidie

BullBlackNova wrote: »

Big fan of international football for the most part but a little irked at the frequency of the breaks.

This one isn't an issue, first one in some time and is quite welcome.

But it annoys me that most top flight leagues in Europe break 2 or 3 times between September and November for qualifiers and friendlies - surely that could be condensed into one longer break instead of two/three short ones? I reckon it would create that mini-tournament buzz that can often be missing if your side is playing a dead rubber tie too.

Ireland v Wales is easy to get excited by, but if this was, say, Georgia on Friday and a friendly the following Tuesday, people could be forgiven for not being as interested. I would say extend the break out for another week, scrap the friendly and throw in two more qualifiers. Would be great I think.

Over a year or so, it would be the same number of games, the same length of breaks, just less frequent.

Even worse is CAF, they are running 2 different qualifications at the same time one for the 2018 World Cup and one for the 2019 African Cup of Nations

Heading to Ireland Wales.

Might be able to get Cork City Dundalk on Saturday on way down, if I can find a babysitter for a 2 year old.

Either way, I can't remember a weekend when I've been as excited about 2 games.

Utopia Parkway

Prefer them to FA Cup weekends anyway.

Dirty Dingus McGee

enzo roco wrote: »

At least you admit it. It is so sad, that so many people think like this.
It really grinds my gears that fans of football love the drama and not the sport, might as well be watching eastenders.
I hate the drama and news stories. I hate sky sports news.
I love to watch most sports, the whole match. Not just what the manager or player said in the interview afterwards.

Sport is real life human drama , without that part of it sport wouldn't be anywhere near as entertaining.You take that part of it away and it loses a large part of it's appeal.The reason why sport has so much mainstream popularity now is precisely because of what you seem to hate about it.

Lots of sports fans sadly are completely delusional about sport and their love for it apparently being above having a love for films, tv , books etc but they are essentially all the same thing.

This is a great example of a thread leading to an interesting if unintended topic. i.e. are we all a bit disenchanted with football?

Got to love Boards sometimes

BullBlackNova

Deleted User wrote: »

This is a great example of a thread leading to an interesting if unintended topic. i.e. are we all a bit disenchanted with football?

Got to love Boards sometimes

It's certainly less of a treat than it used to be. It's omnipresent - TV, radio, social media, etc and, as such, it isn't quite as fun, maybe.

Live football still has its magic - international, LOI games or travelling to PL games - but the TV saturation has made parts of the game less fun.

Add to that the vitriol and hatred about eeeverything on social media - my Twitter and Facebook feeds are clogged with anti-everything to the point that I don't use them anymore - and it feels less fun.

It's part of what I love about international breaks, though. There's something fun about being in a pub when everyone is cheering for the same side. You don't get that with club football, regardless of who you support.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Rekop dog wrote: »

The South American qualifying is excellent. Probably the best standard football after the Champions League. Argies struggling too makes it interesting. Much rather watch games this week like Uruguay v Brazil and Argentina v Chile than your average premier league match.

This is what I came to post. There really are no easy games in South American qualifying.

irishman86

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

This is what I came to post. There really are no easy games in South American qualifying.

Well except Bolivia and Venezuela

Skylinehead

irishman86 wrote: »

Well except Bolivia and Venezuela

Bolivia in Bolivia is one of the harder games though.

irishman86

Skylinehead wrote: »

Bolivia in Bolivia is one of the harder games though.

Definitely not one of the harder games, its harder than playing them usually but thats not saying much. It says a lot when Moreno is the star of you team.
They arent quiet dominant as Ecuador at home

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

For Colombia, Venezuela always seems to be the hardest game.

gormdubhgorm

Zebra3 wrote: »

Very little time for international football and the fancy dress fans win, lose or draw let's have a party brigade.

But in saying that it's great for keeping in check the greed of the superclubs.

You are dead right Roy sorry I mean Zebra.
There will always be fair-weather fan's in every sport. Just there for the craic more then anything else.
If games only catered for hardcore fans stadiums would be really empty.

And sure if they want to dress up in fancy dress as a green,white and orange Zebra let them at it. They are not doing anyone any harm.

gormdubhgorm

dd972 wrote: »

Apart from the game against Wales, for me it'll feel like football's been cancelled for two weeks, there's always this strange vibe in the air as well, can't quite describe it.

I think it is great weekend of sport.

Ireland v Wales Today - Irleand riddled with injuries against the backdrop of McClean putting on the jersey for Ryan McBride v the Welsh fella with the ponytail

Tomorrow-

Mayo v Dublin (ladies football) - 5pm - the first ladies football league match to be played in croke park

Dublin v Roscommon 7pm - Can the Dubs go 35 games unbeaten in league and championship and create history?

Sunday -
Dublin v Kilkenny (hurling) - Parnell Park hurling the Dubs battling to avoid relegation against the cats

I think international football adds a nice flavour to things. Especially as the Irish soccer team gives it a lash and have a great chance of topping the group.
It also takes away the hype from those who only follow 'the best league in the world' the English Premier League.

For the likes of myself who does not support a League of Ireland team, and does not pretend to follow an English Premier League team and call them 'we' - international matches allow me to shout for a team that I can support and get involved in.

Omackeral

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

And sure if they want to dress up in fancy dress as a green,white and orange Zebra let them at it. They are not doing anyone any harm.

My idea of hell. Dancing leprechauns.

dan1895

Two A-league games on BT back to back tomorrow morning and another one on Sunday morning so plenty of ball on this weekend but I'm guessing only people with kids under 3 are up at that hour of a weekend morning.

irishman86

gormdubhgorm wrote: »

You are dead right Roy sorry I mean Zebra.
There will always be fair-weather fan's in every sport. Just there for the craic more then anything else.
If games only catered for hardcore fans stadiums would be really empty.

And sure if they want to dress up in fancy dress as a green,white and orange Zebra let them at it. They are not doing anyone any harm.

Like the McGregor fans who have never watched MMA before he became good, all of a sudden they are experts :pac:
Saying that do Ireland really have fair weather soccer fans outside of the championships?
Genuine question, I never noticed

HalloweenJack

Massively.

The Trap reign really showed them up. People started complaining about the quality and how he was driving people away, yet some of these were the same ones on about 'country before club', etc.