Israel -v- Ireland (containing scores....hopefully Ireland ones)

Dingatron

Can't belive that! We always seem to make qualifying so difficult.

smemon

typical :mad:

bizmark

im so ****ing pissed off

ferdi

bollix

DapperGent

That was fúcking disgraceful. Even before the equaliser went in.

mike65

..that was thin gruel alright. 1-0 up is no lead at all and yet once again Kerr inante conservertism leads to 2 points dropped. If England had played like that this afternoon they'd never have scored against NI.

Mike.

Praetorian

Well I'm furious. We threw that away. Kerr's attitude, the players attitude. We were playing the time out for the whole second half. They had the best chances. Now we've thrown away the potential bonus we could have had. We only drew with Israel just as the French and Swiss did.

Disgusted.

thejollyrodger

You have to question the whole mentality behind this team. Complete lack of any desire to win, pressuring opponents etc.

Kerr on the TV trying to flog a draw :rolleyes:

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

MisterAnarchy

Yet again another atrocious away performance by Ireland.
They have been rubbish in the vast majority of their competitive away matches over the last ten years.
They play far too many home friendlies .
The negative attitude of hold what we have is sickening.
You'd have to wonder would they try and play like that away against a team like San Marino,or Liechenstein.
I bet they would.
I' m really sick of their attitude.
Macedonia syndrome strikes again.

thejollyrodger

The only way out of this sh1te is France and Switzerland draw.

Pigman II

Unlike some others on this thread I wouldn't be so bitter with that late equaliser and result. We got what we deserved (if even that much with that lacklustre performance). The rot is starting to set in with Kerrs misguided tactics and hopefully this will be the end of his overly extended honeymoon period. Mark my words (despite our current group position) we're not going to qualify for WC2006 and after tonights match you can put your house on it as far as I'm concerned.

I've said in the past and I'll say it again, Kerrs defensive style of football will serve us well in finals tournaments ... but it won't get us there in the first place.

AngelofFire

We would have been good enough to kill them off but we didn`t, we wasted too many chances didn`t have a single shot on goal and our failed to make the most of our set pieces.

thejollyrodger

I reckon we will still get to Germany but its going to be through the play offs at best. Kerr settled for a point even before a ball was kicked in anger. Keane played well but was terribly slow. Im not sure if he will even be a huge loss for the return leg.

As for Carr. I dont know what he is playing at. Thats the second match that he was lucky to be still on the pitch and had some terrible clearances. Finnan at right back, Ried right midfield for me !!!

Josh looked a bit better than previous games and had a few good balls but was all a bit clumsy on ocassions.

Clinton did very well for his current position. If he was match fit he would have contributed a lot more. So you cant blame him but you can certainly blame Kerr for not making a sub at the 60 mark.

Very little creativity, although it must be said Israel are incredibly hard to break down. I cant see France wipping ass there next week. The israeli's will probably be boosted by the result and I see another draw on the cards. The swiss have drawn as well so maybe its not a complete Shamrock Rovers.

mad m

Id second what thejollyroger said "Very little creativity".God it was a sickener to see that goal go in.

As Eamon Dunphy said were qualifying for the world cup not some leinster final.

Feck it anyway.

applehunter

Morrison did nothing for 89 minutes. He should have been taken off earlier. We won a lot of frees around the penalty box and yet we didnt threaten once from the resulting free kick. Just let Duff stick the ball in the box. he has a great cross so I dont know why Finnan kept hanging around him when there was a free to be taken, Just let Duff take it, hes our best player.

Despite what Dunphy says I dont think Roy Keane played well. And the foul he got booked for was a lazy cynical tackle.

I still think we can qualify though.

KdjaCL

Sweet jesus do you people watch football ? or live in a bubble where ireland are kings of the world?


FFS we played well enough to get a draw away to Israel as you may have noticed in this campaign they have not been beaten at home. Ffs some of the muppets posting here should actually learn about international football and the simple fact you win at home and dont lose away the other top team in the group to qualify. We doing that now as was said way before we have to beat them at home.

An away draw is a a superb result and considering the amount of pressure we were under be glad we got a point.


kdjac

thejollyrodger

But thats not the case kdjac. France can win against Switzerland and occupied palestine and that puts them on top of the group with us in a fúckin battle for second place play off.

Im not glad at all. So much for the improved performance.

Slash/ED

Perhaps the most predictable last minute goal in the history of football, who didn't see that coming?

The reason we have an amazing home record and rubbish away record is our own fault. Look at the team selection, a full back at right wing and Andy Reid doesn't get a minute of football, a sub is needed and Holland is brought on. If we were at home that wouldn't be the case, that's the difference. Israel are not a good side on the evidence of today and we threw away three points by giving them too much respect and overly negative tactics from Kerr, which is fast becoming his trademark.

It's no disaster though, as I said before it it was never a 'must win' match. Lets pray for a draw in the France Swiss game, we're still in pole position if that result goes our way and we have no more tough away games left.

A Dub in Glasgo

KdjaC wrote:

Sweet jesus do you people watch football ? or live in a bubble where ireland are kings of the world?

I watch a lot of football live and the fact of the matter is Ireland threw 3 points away.

FFS we played well enough to get a draw away to Israel as you may have noticed in this campaign they have not been beaten at home. Ffs some of the muppets posting here should actually learn about international football and the simple fact you win at home and dont lose away the other top team in the group to qualify. We doing that now as was said way before we have to beat them at home.

An away draw is a a superb result and considering the amount of pressure we were under be glad we got a point.


kdjac

A draw is a good result but we scored very early and sat back on that 1 - 0 lead. If that is acceptable to you then fair enough. I would not call getting pegged back to a draw in the 91st minute a superb result.

KdjaCL

thejollyrodger wrote:

But thats not the case kdjac. France can win against Switzerland and occupied palestine and that puts them on top of the group with us in a fúckin battle for second place play off.
.

There a big difference between can and doing. I doubt anyone will beat Israel in Tel Aviv if Israel have somfin t play for (oh look they still do another plus for a draw, they play France on Wednesday)

I watch a lot of football live and the fact of the matter is Ireland threw 3 points away.

We started the game with 8 points finished with 9. We still control this group we have to play the other 3 teams (who are seperated by a point , easy group , easy games :rolleyes: ) They have to come to Dublin and we have to beat them , Kerr knows that and the players know that. We all know that since the draw was made, we have played them all away and havent lost. < to the super fans who know stuff, thats really really good.



kdjac

MisterAnarchy

An away draw is a a superb result and considering the amount of pressure we were under be glad we got a point.

Most of that pressure was drawn upon Ireland by the negative tactics they adopted.

gandalf

Very bad result for the boys in green. I am only able to post now because earlier my post would have been a pile of obsenities !!!

Free Kicks, what the hell were they doing. Every one kicked into the Keepers hands.

What is it with this negative play that Ireland seem to fall into every time we play away.They should have been forcing the game not standing back waiting for something to happen.

But the most annoying thing for me is this. Why when the two Isreali Centre backs are both on yellow cards did Duff and our forwards not take a chance and run at them. It was set up for that.

Well at least we didn't lose which is something I suppose.

Pigman II

KdjaC wrote:

FFS we played well enough to get a draw away to Israel as you may have noticed in this campaign they have not been beaten at home. Ffs some of the muppets posting here should actually learn about international football and the simple fact you win at home and dont lose away the other top team in the group to qualify.

Nice mathematical logic there, but before this particular muppet gets back into his bubble perhaps you might give me the benefit of your vast knowledge of International football and highlight exactly what you have seen so far to convince you that we will actually beat either Switzerland, France or Israel at home ... because I've seen scant evidence of it so far.

And btw we may have played 'well enough' to get a draw but on tonights occasion merely terrible was more than well enough and just goes to show what opportunity lost it was.

So before you get back to your own particular bubble where Ireland win all their home games remember we 'only' had to beat Russia at home this time 2 years ago too and you saw what a great job Kerr did of that too.

DapperGent

KdjaC wrote:

Ffs some of the muppets posting here should actually learn about international football and the simple fact you win at home and dont lose away the other top team in the group to qualify. We doing that now as was said way before we have to beat them at home.

An away draw is a a superb result and considering the amount of pressure we were under be glad we got a point.

That may be true most of the time but failing to be a worse team when given a goal start is bad and there is also the fact that it would probably be easier to beat Isreal away than beat France at home. In the battle for top spot a win in Isreal was essential given that Switzerland had drawn there and France had drawn with them away. If we're happy with second place in the group then it's a good result if we're trying to win it then it isn't. Simple as that.

There were a few ways to top this group:

1. Better France's results against Switzerland.
2. Beat France at home.
3. Better France's results against Isreal.

To my mind No.3 looked to be the easiest way and we were given a great chance to do it today but lacked the ambition to go for a second goal and got punished. And I'm not talking about chasing a second goal aggressively simply having some conviction and urgency in attack. I didn't see an Irish player attack a ball properly today. It was all simply take and control and play a square ball, that's okay sometimes but not for 87 minutes. It gives the opposing team too much impetus and encouragement. We didn't even play counterattacking football, no soak up and hit on the break, just soak up and keep ball. Over the course of an entire game that's suicidal.

Given that we were 1-0 inside 4 minutes, given the limitations in attack of the Isreal team and given the advantage a win would have given us over Switzerland and France a draw is an atrocious result.

KdjaCL

The very same Russia who thumped us 4-2 away? Another easy win for the expectant irish public eh?, Pigman being an EL fan you should know Irelands place in international football we have 0 playering at home we punching well above our weight, 11th in FIFA rankings for a nation of 5 million.

This is the hardest group possible for all 4 concerned all 4 could possibly qualify, yet every other group has a max 2 certainties and one possible. But we have 4 possibles we will be doing very well to get out of this group. But i sure most irish fans expect us to wlak the group i mean sure isnt international football easy when your Ireland :rolleyes:


kdjac

illumin

Very poor perfomance by ireland, without kenny cunningham we would have been in serious trouble. Roy keane had a so-so game, robbie worked his socks off while the rest of the team did very little. Duff showed flashes of brilliance but i cant for the life of me know how morrison stayed on for so long. Why wasnt reid played??? It was sticking out that morrison/finnan should have been taken off and reid put on.

The Muppet

Well it's not the result that annoyed me but the nature of the performance. If we had gone at them and got a draw , that would be acceptable but to try and defend a 1 0 lead for 90 mins against Israel is not good enough IMO. It was definitely 2 points dropped tonight ,time will tell how damaging that is.

Pigman II

KdjaC wrote:

The very same Russia who thumped us 4-2 away? Another easy win for the expectant irish public eh?, Pigman being an EL fan you should know Irelands place in international football we have 0 playering at home we punching well above our weight, 11th in FIFA rankings for a nation of 5 million.

This is the hardest group possible for all 4 concerned all 4 could possibly qualify, yet every other group has a max 2 certainties and one possible. But we have 4 possibles we will be doing very well to get out of this group. But i sure most irish fans expect us to wlak the group i mean sure isnt international football easy when your Ireland :rolleyes:


kdjac

1. Eh no, it was actually a vert different Russia with new coach Georgi Yartsev helming his FIRST match and several new players playing for the side. I can't think of a better time to go for the jugular on an opponent but instead we bloody well played into their hands that day with a typically insipid Kerr gameplan.

2. Your point about population and zero domestic representatives would have some merit if the best we could offer the Kerr squad was the EL's top players but as for Ireland we put out 11 players today who are all employed by Premiership clubs (7 of which have played European level for their clubs THIS season!). So whether we come from a country of 5 or 500 million people it doesn't really matter. Our current level should be judged purely on what we can manage to put out on that pitch and as far as I'm concerned that selection has enough quality in it justify it's current ranking in the 10's - 20's of world football ... and beat israel tonight too I might add!

3. FYI, I don't currently (nor did I ever) expect us to walk this group. Hell I was one of the few people on here telling others to calm down after the draw was made as the majority threw round their shapes about getting revenge on the Swiss and putting France in their place as tho it was our wont. Rest assured I realise how precarious our prediciment is and that's why it pisses me off when we needlessly drop points in games like this when I know if we had approached it correctly we'd have won tonight and gotten the edge we need on the pack. If I thought we'd stroll thru Group4 I'd just be shrugging my shoulders right now and having the optimistic apprasal that we'll win our 3 home games anyway to repair the damage, However I don't for a second see that happening and consider every sniff we get to be vital.

PHB

Thats the exact problem Ireland has kdjac, that Kerr has, that McCarthy had.

They see Ireland as the underdogs, as a team with spirit, who are punching above their weight.
We're not!
We have one of the best goalkeepers, midfielders, wingers, and to a lesser exent poachers in the world.
Around that we have a solid player in Finnan Cunningham Kilbane
Then we have some players who have potential.
We don't have the squad size or options of the big countries, but we have a top 11 that on their day can beat anyone in the world imo.

The difference between a good team and a great team, just like in the premiership, is when you go 1-0, you end up 2-0/3-0/4-0
Ireland can do that, but they don't, and its because of defensive managers.
We need either a change in attitude, or a new manager who is willing to use our potential instead of curb it

thejollyrodger

I totally agree with Point 2. There is no point in bringing out that flimsy excuse

We are a very good team now. We have 11 good players, 4 of whom play with the top 3 clubs. The rest mostly play in clubs in the top half of the priemership.

We need a coach who really belives in this side. Not another Mr Negative who settles for draws and never tries to put away teams. Has this side made any progress ?

That was another poor performance. How can this team play so badly ?? Its beyond me.

Dewey

When morrison scored after 4 mins i was thinking we would go onto win by 2 or 3. but for some reason it was like we didnt know what to do. we were all over the place at times, but Duffer was the only one trying to go forward. Why cant we win away???? really come on?? look at the team, its one of the best but it was a disappointing display from Ireland. we wanted to shut up shop after 4 minutes.

I'm a big fan of Kerr and from his pre-match talk he was saying they are going for a win but that doesnt mean as soon as you get the lead defend for the rest of the match.

The only plus from the match is that France and the Swiss drew.

KdjaCL

Odd how most here expect us to qualify while i hope to dear god we do.
Then i look at this

1  	Rep of Ireland  	5  	2  	3  	0  	7  	2  	5  	9
2 	France 	5 	2 	3 	0 	4 	0 	4 	9
3 	Israel 	5 	2 	3 	0 	7 	5 	2 	9
4 	Switzerland 	4 	1 	3 	0 	9 	3 	6 	6
5 	Cyprus 	5 	0 	1 	4 	4 	11 	-7 	1
6 	Faroe Islands 	4 	0 	1 	3 	2 	12 	-10 	1

And realise how **** we are and how fcuked we are, and i start to cry about how **** we are and how **** our manager is. :rolleyes:

We are in the group of death, worst group i ever seen in any qualifying theres 4 teams who realisticaly can qualify. And yet we top it and have qualifying to WC in our hands, well done ireland so far so good.


kdjac

DapperGent

We top it on goal difference having already played our two home bankers. Switzerland will top it when they win their game in hand against Cyprus.

France will have a better goal difference than us when they beat the Faroes at home.

KdjaCL

Goal difference irrelevant

NB: At present teams equal on points are separated by goal difference and then number of goals scored.

However in the final tables according to the Fifa regulations if teams have the same number of points then the head to head record between the sides is taken into account before goal difference.

Away goal tonight


kdjac

A Dub in Glasgo

KdjaC wrote:

Odd how most here expect us to qualify while i hope to dear god we do.
Then i look at this


1 Rep of Ireland 5 2 3 0 7 2 5 9
2 France 5 2 3 0 4 0 4 9
3 Israel 5 2 3 0 7 5 2 9
4 Switzerland 4 1 3 0 9 3 6 6
5 Cyprus 5 0 1 4 4 11 -7 1
6 Faroe Islands 4 0 1 3 2 12 -10 1


And realise how **** we are and how fcuked we are, and i start to cry about how **** we are and how **** our manager is. :rolleyes:

We are in the group of death, worst group i ever seen in any qualifying theres 4 teams who realisticaly can qualify. And yet we top it and have qualifying to WC in our hands, well done ireland so far so good.


kdjac

Hang on, the majority of posts in this thread decry our performance tonight when we had an excellent chance to take 3 points. We try and defend a 1 goal lead for 90 minutes. We never attempted to add another goal to ensure the 3 points and it backfired on us. Most people appreciate we are in agood position but that does not mean we cannot decry the performance and tactics tonight.

Imagine if we did and we got 3 points, we would have been sitting very very pretty on 11 points. The issue is whether people think that Ireland fcuked it upo tonight or whether it was a superb result for Ireland. I go with the former.

Pigman II

KdjaC wrote:

Odd how most here expect us to qualify while i hope to dear god we do.
Then i look at this

1  	Rep of Ireland  	5  	2  	3  	0  	7  	2  	5  	9

And realise how **** we are and how fcuked we are, and i start to cry about how **** we are and how **** our manager is. :rolleyes:

Nice attitude.

March '91 - Group 7
1st	Ireland  	3 1-2-0 7-2 5pts

April '95 - Group 6
1st	Ireland		5 4-1-0 13-1 13pts

September '99 – Group 8
1st	Ireland		5 4-0-1 10-2 12pts

We felt pretty smug on those occasions too.

ButcherOfNog

we played poorly, Israel played poorly, a draw was a fair result. Not the right result, but its the way this group is going, we keep missing chances to pull out a lead in the table.

vorbis

You know it would be nice if Ireland could play like a team of top premiership players sometime. Would it hurt them to inject some pace into the game and play like they do a club level. Yer another woefully negative performance from Kerr.

abccormac

It wasn't a great performance, but I have to agree with Kdjac, it's a tough group and we're doing well to be were we are. We were bound to have at least one poor game against the three other good teams in our group, but at least we came away with a point. I still think we'll be in Germany next year.

thejollyrodger

REMAINING GAMES

WEDNESDAY: Israel v France; Switzerland v Cyprus

JUNE 4: Ireland v Israel; Faroe Islands v Switzerland

JUNE 8: Faroe Islands v Ireland

AUGUST 17: Faroe Islands v Cyprus

SEPTEMBER 3: France v Faroe Islands; Switzerland v Israel

SEPTEMBER 7: Ireland v France; Cyprus v Switzerland; Faroe Islands v Israel

OCTOBER 8: Cyprus v Ireland ; Switzerland v France; Israel v Faroe Islands

OCTOBER 12: Irelandv Switzerland ; France v Cyprus


The way I see it, Ireland has to win ALL of the remaining games to have a chance of topping the group or at least get the second play off spot.

9+15=24 points should be enough for second place at least.

But we have it all to do. Any one of those teams can come to Dublin and beat us or come away with a draw. The swiss were very organised at the back in Paris and its going to take a lot of effort to break them down.

We are missing Keane and Carr for Israel and what ever injuries we get. Carr isnt a major loss since Reid has to be accomadated anyway and Carr didnt exactly have the best of matches.

Roy looked far from his best last night. I dont want to start another discussion on him but I wondered if he wanted to miss the Israel game. Reckless tackle by him IMO. Mr Invisble in his place ? Oh god no ! Kavanagh would be better or as a last resort Miller.

France at home ? Anything can happen, Win - Draw - lose. The only plus is that they are not on top form. I cant see them thrashing Israel. Even Israel rate Ireland better than France at the moment. Hopefully the Israelis will be boyed up by the result last night and draw again.

Kerr has to make some changes for this China match: -

Paddy Kenny needs to be in goals.
Andy Ried should get the full 90 minutes.
A replacement for Roy keane should be played.
Clinton should get 90 minutes.
Mc Geady should be given a full game or maybe 60 minutes to see if he can do anything at this level.
Elliott should get a full game to see if he can offer a more potent goal threat to what we have at the moment.

Pigman II

thejollyrodger wrote:

Roy looked far from his best last night. I dont want to start another discussion on him but I wondered if he wanted to miss the Israel game. Reckless tackle by him IMO.

I don't think he did it deliberately to get booked. Like Kilbane earlier it was a tackle made out of neccessity as the game was starting to slip away from us when Israels began breaking thru us in midfield.

If he literally WANTED to get booked the home game v Israel would have been the ideal time to do it as he would have only been suspended for Faeroes away and would be back in time for France home.

As things stand he will be back for Faeores (and with a clean slate) and will have to avoid 2 bookings in 3 games to be available for Swiss home .... and can you honestly not see him getting booked v France? Which more than likely means he'll have to be VERY careful v Faeores and Cyprus (both away) if selected (or should that be 'if not injured'?).

smemon

again kerr shows us he's a jack charlton man rather than mccarthy.

ive said this before but i cant remember ireland performing under kerr bar maybe 1 or 2 matches like france. the free-flowing passing, movement etc just isnt there as attacking isnt our main concern. irleand reminded me of chelsea last night, boring, didnt deserve to win but unlike chelsea they couldnt hold out for a win, a sign of lack of belief, confidence.

imo our players are more suited and comfortable to attacking rather than defending and it probably showed. you cant waste the likes of duff and robbie keane by trying to play a defensive/pressing game where you play the ball out of defence with one or 2 options, nobody moves forward and as a result youve got 8/9 bodies behind the ball.

biggest disappointment was after israel scored we immediately looked alive and attacked hitting the bar and winning a corner, keeping the ball in israels half. that was proof we had the potential. also proof what israel's attitude was, they were happy with a draw, not just in the circumstances but before the match.

PHB

Why would Keane want to get booked? Thats just stup[id. The premiership season will be over by then, so he won't need to save himself for squad commitments.
Thats just idiotic. And if he was trying to get his card cleared, it would be in the next game.
OF couse it was a reckless challenge, the guy was on the break going to get a very good oppurtunity to score, with a 3 on 3 situation. He had to make that foul and he did.

Roy did what he was meant to do, controlled the ball, never gave it away, made some key tackles, and passed the ball around.
If he gave that preformance for United they would have won, but certain players decided to be stupid and loose the ball.

thejollyrodger

Well who knows whats goes through RMK mind. It was just a thought. Its not that important anyway. He just highlighted the problems we still have in midfield.

RMK is getting old, as someone pointed out he rarely does anything wrong but isnt contributing a lot to the match either. He can set the tempo of the match but its incrediblity slow. It suited the Israeli's last night.

To be honest I dont rate RMK now, I think it looks good on paper but he is just an average good player. Its just that we have no one to replace him. Mr Invisible is usless and contributes little apart from flat passes and back passes.

Kilbane had a good game alongside RMK in Paris but looked poor last night. Lots of effort and work but little guile or creativity. No Zindane passes from him at all. That partnership isnt perfect and its going to hurt us in the remaining matches. I.E we are soley relying on Duffer to produce EVerything.

On the plus side, Cunnigham did brilliantly last night. Him and O Brien did very well IMO. O Shea looks like he is coming on a bit. He is a intelligent footballer and did well to set Duff off (which led to the goal). O Shea just needs confidence, regular first team football at one position and needs to work on his ball retention and positional play. He isnt getting that at Man Utd and he needs to do something.

Finnan is a right back. Kerr can dress it up any way he wants but he goes forward as often as a right back would and we might as well be playing with 5 at the back... The fact he is in the midfield is either to protect Keane or Carr. He should be at the right back spot in the first place.

There is a total lack of creativity across the entire midfield bar Duff. We need at least 1 or 2 other creative midfielder. Ried, Mc Geady, someone ! RMK's position should be totally controlling the game and setting a fast snappy tempo. Obvisouly he cant do that and someone has to.

Pigman II

Not that I think it was deliberate but actually now that I look at it Keane can confidently have the option of getting booked against both Faeroes and France, miss Cyprus and be back for Swiss.

Who knows, perhaps he's been talking to that genius Beckham

thejollyrodger

I forgot to post, the main advantage the israelis had over us was the size of the pitch. it was so narrow and small. Streching 5 across the back made it difficult to break them down. Im not surprised that we didnt have that many chances.

leeroybrown

We were awful.

Regarding of what some people say about drawing away to them being a good result in a qualification campaign, I think that's utter crap and is the kind of stuff that football managers roll out in interviews after a poor performance. If you want to qualify you turn up and win matches when they're there for the winning. You don't turn up and chance playing for 1-0 from the 4th minute. We were poor and in my view were slightly lucky to get a point. Israel had by far the better chances despite their similarly poor display and if they had show a bit more composure it could easily have been 2 - 1.

I thought we kept the ball well at times but we lacked incisiveness and didn't cause them trouble in the final third. Our set pieces were awful - most of them floated into the hands of their goal keeper. There were a few times in the second half when we attacked and the ball was knocked back towards midfield only to find their full midfield running onto it and most of ours parked 30 yards away waiting for them to run up to us.

I think the best way to sum up the problem is that when I saw that goal go in after four minutes one of my first thoughts was: "Oh crap, this is far too early for us to score".

Villain

Terrible display, any team that trys to hang onto a 1 nil lead for 86 minutes deserves to draw. I thought our defence was good but Keane and Kilbane were not at the races, keane put in a few important tackles but didn't control the game enough. Kilbane IMO has to be dropped from the center, he gives the ball away far too much and can't tackle, i.e. he's not a central midfield player.

Morrisson obviously wasn't fullt fit, IMO he should have come off at half time and put Andy Reid on on the left then lef Duffer roam free, he was very tightly marked on the wing.

I was so mad after the game I didn't post because what I would have said would probably of just ended up been *******************.

The good thing about yesterday is that it's like it never happened with France and the Swiss drawing we all have the same points and goal difference as before yesterdays games. I think we'r in the best position of the all the teams in that we have played our hardest games away from home, so it's totally in our own hands. If Israel could draw with France next week we'd be laughing.

Bad result but we got away with it.

eirebhoy

We've played 5 matches and 3 of those matches have been our hardest on paper. We are joint top of the group and we have the easiest run in of all the teams left. If we won last night it would have been our best win in an away qualifier in 15 years. If Israel lost we also would have broke a very good undefeated run in Tel Aviv from them.

Too many people are underestimating the difference between playing at home and playing away, especially with this team. Mick McCarthy was coaching us for what? 6 years? He only lost 1 home competitive match in that 6 years with no better a team than we have now and that match was his last match in charge against Switzerland. Our away record is brutal and until that changes we can't be expected to beat teams like Israel no matter how good we look on paper.

Looking at the table, all we need is 4 wins and a draw against either France/Swiss to top the group. We really can't expect it to be any more in our own hands than that in a group like this.

And the only thing we can blame Kerr on is playing Finnan on the right of midfield and replacing Morrison with Holland. I hate SGE but I still backed him when they lost against the French. Everyone put the blame on his tactics for the way they sat back. Its psychological and no coach can do anything about that. I remember I had a bet on Chelsea to beat Arsenal on Highbury in the quarters of the CL. I was probably happier to see them go 1-0 down than I would have been if it stayed 0-0 as it was inevitable that Arsenal would sit back.

This is what he Kerr after the match:
“We didn’t create a whole lot, and could have been more incisive going forward.

He's basically saying what we all are. You can't put all the blame on Kerr. Kilbane has gone from being MOM in our last 2 qualifiers to wanting to by dropped. Duffer was not at his best but nobody likes to admit it about him. If it was anyone else that passed that ball back like Duffer did in the match he would have been slated to bits. Robbie Keane was poor too. In fact, Cunningham was our only 1 good outfield player last night. Everyone deserves their fair share of blame, not just the coach.