Ireland - Cyprus (1 Viewer)

[ratmonkey]

leaving now!
full review tomorrow !

No need. Something like we scraped a win in a game that was painful to watch should cover it.

 

[Janer]

Decent performance but obviously we lacked in the middle of the park, not impressed with either Gibson or Whelan, if Reid had of being in the centre the game would have being more comfortable.
Man of the match for me was Dunne, he just makes it look so easy, very much reminds me of McGrath.
Upfront Doyle was very whole hearted too and Duff and McGeady did enough too.
McShane while not dazzling was very workmanlike and did ok.
53000 only, greedy FAI only to blame there.
My prediction was right for the bookies HT/FT win.

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

53000 only

I was happy to hear that. How many tickets were available?

 

[Richie]

Don't think we scraped it at all, probably half a dozen great chances to score compared to their 2 or 3.. 3-1 might have been a fair result. Last 5 mins was tense as hell though, I was 100% sure the sloppy concession at the death was coming. The Gibson-Whelan gamble just didn't pay off, centre midfield was almost non-existent, neither imposed themselves on the game at all and we have to try different options there in future if Steven Reid is continually going to be unavailable. Some great individual performances in other areas, Doyle, Dunne, Duff especially. A bit of linkup play and solidity in the centre would've made the whole thing far smoother. A flawed 1-0 victory will do at this stage though! Bulgaria dropped points in Georgia which is a nice head start for us.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

1-0 win is good considering we were playing with no central midfield. Like some kind of bizarre training ground exercise. With Andy Reid I'm convinced we'd have won that very handy. Absolutely.
We were blessed they had men out. If they'd been at full strength we'd have been in big trouble. No team performance and we relied on the brilliance of individuals (who occasionally linked up to good effect) plus Richard Dunne.

 

[maims bond]

i don't know if i was watching the same game but i thought that was pretty woeful. McShane should be put down, people walking past him. Dunne, Duff and Doyle were excellent, but the middle of the park was missing. Lost count of the amount of long balls up front because of a lack of anyone coming to take the ball in midfield. Even if Trap can't see this surely Brady can??? And nevermind Reid, what if Stephen Ireland was in there?

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

No need. Something like we scraped a win in a game that was painful to watch should cover it.

fantastic prediction.

here is my review:


we were atrocious but we got 3 points
doyle, dunne, duff and keane worked their socks off.
Given did what he had to when called.

 

[Janer]

I was happy to hear that. How many tickets were available?

Not sure because obviously the capacity is reduced with the seating in hill 16 but there were plenty of empty seats.
I just think that the FAI should take a leaf out of the way some clubs let schoolkids in for a tenner and the like.

 

[Janer]

what if Stephen Ireland was in there?

aye but what can you do if he has no interest?

 

[Cormcolash]

We were bollocks but still won. That's the only real positive thing you can take out of this match.
In all fairness, if this had been the Staunton administration, we would have lost that. If it had been Kerr, it probably would have ended with us scraping a draw.
At least Trap can get the players fired up enough to scrape a win in a shite match. Most importantly, he's sorted the defence out to the point that not only do they look decent, but they keep going to the end and get those last-ditch tackles in we wouldn't have been making a year ago.
I have to say, I think it's a good sign that we can play this shit but still come out with a win.

As for the performances, Doyle and Dunne were the stand-outs tonight, with Duff close behind them.

Dunne was my man of the match. He was a fucking colossus tonight. Not much to do in the first half, but in the second half, didn't put a foot wrong, completely immense. As Janer said above, when I was watching the match I was also thinking "Holy shit, could it be that Richard Dunne is the new Paul McGrath???"
He's a fucking hero. Tonight he actually was almost as good as McGrath at his best, the only thing McGrath had over him is a deftness of touch that Dunne will never have. Defensively though, amazing performance.

Doyle was great up front, worked the whole match. Deserved a goal tonight, and was unlucky with the one that went just over the bar. Showed some great passing and some really nice dribbling as well.

Duff had an excellent night as well, bit of magic for the goal, and then never gave up defensively, made some absolutely superb tackles tracking back. I think he could have had a penalty claim in the first half as well, if he'd have just jumped for that ball that was heading for him as he stood on the goalline, I'm sure the defender could only have fouled him and conceded a penalty.

Keane had a distinctly average night, despite scoring what must be his first ever headed goal! It looked like that knock at the end of the first half was slowing him down a lot in the second half, he seemed to be struggling pace wise when we had a few good chances to break.

McGeady was very 50-50 tonight. Did some lovely pieces of skill and dribbling, but wasn't getting in enough decent crosses and more importantly lost the ball far too many times by trying to beat one man too many. He'll still be amazing in a couple of years though and was very unlucky with that dink over the keeper that just didn't drop under the bar.

Whelan and Gibson - as everyone else has said, it was like they didn't show up. Useless performance. I get the impression either of them, particularly Whelan, would still be good played alongside an experienced player that would take control of the midfield, but together tonight they showed a total lack of experience and failure to take control of situations, I don't know how many times they both went for the same ball and then both stopped thinking the other was going for it only for a Cyprus player to walk away with it.

O'Shea - Good solid game in defence, about fucking time he's found out where his best position is. Got some vital headers in tonight.

Kilbane - Solid as well. Up against a very pacy player by the looks of it, did well particularly in the second half. The great thing about Kilbane is that he's excellent in the air although he doesn't look it, he wins so many balls that a lot of other players wouldn't get near. Too bad he doesn't have the pace he used to.

McShane - Shit in the first half, good in the second, except for that tackle he missed when Cyprus almost scored. He had a decent enough game, and was reliable enough in the second half, which was when we needed it. In saying all that, when you watch him play and see how heavy his touch is and how awkward his passing is, you have to fucking wonder!

Given - Same as always. Concreto. Did what was asked, performed when needed. Quiet enough game for him really, only actually had to make a couple of real saves. His stop in the first half just before the Cyprus player missed the sitter was very good, just stood up and blocked a goal bound shot that yer man then messed up on the rebound.

Referee - Shite performance. Kept giving free-kicks for absolutely fuck all, then just standing there when a player would fucking hammer someone.
Booked Given for no reason, Given was giving out about the Cypriot player not being 10 yards from the free-kick, and rightly so, yet somehow he's the one gets booked?
What about that free-kick against McGeady, where the Cyprus player was basically standing on top of him so he couldn't possibly move out of the way, and the referee gives a free-kick against him?
I think the start of the game says everything that needs to be said about that ref, the Republic kicked off with 2 Cyprus players offside in the Republic's own half!!! Fucking idiot.

I should write the player rater things for the fucking Sun or some shit!

 

[Umfufu]

Jim Beglin talking about Damien Duff's shot on goal:

"He just tried to go for the little bender, didn't he?"



Another classic quote from Jim "Big Toe Area" Beglin.

 

[shitepipe]

center midfield was appalling, only made up for by probably some of the best individual skills i've seen in an irish shirt since 2002 courtesy of duff/doyle/mcgeady(shocking final balls though from mcg). mcshane was very poor i thought- didnt do alot wrong when he had the ball, but his weak positioning/decision making meant the cypriots were a constant threat on the right. although this could be down to mcgeadys lack of cover. duff/kilbane combined to do a decent job on the left. against better opposition we will get killed on the wings i fear. where have our great full backs gone?

it could easily have ended in a draw and we couldnt have been too disappointed, but overall we defintely had 3/4 clear chances as opposed to 1/2 from the cypriots.

so here- does trapp hate andy reid or what?

 

[Umfufu]

so here- does trapp hate andy reid or what?

The story seems to be that they boys were having a piss up & a sing song, Trapp wasn't impressed & Andy Reid had a go at him.

Or something like that.......maybe.

 

[Cormcolash]

There has been a discipline problem with the Ireland squad, that seems obvious from the Stephen Ireland incident as well.
Seems that some of them like getting pissed too much.
Trap doesn't strike me as someone who'd take kindly to that shit at all (and rightly so if you ask me) and maybe he's teaching Andy Reid a lesson if something like that happened with him.
In which case I say, FUCKIN RIGHT. As long as we're still winning then stick it to them!

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

Lads.
Andy Reid.
Seriously.

Here's the deal.
Trappatoni plays with two defensive central midfielders.
That's THE SYSTEM.
Andy Reid will never be a defensive midfielder, therefore Mr. Reid will not play unless Trappatoni changes the system.

The midfield pair last night were fine, especially when they started to get some of the ball in the second half.

Their job is to keep it tight in front of the back four and keep the ball moving to the front four.
This they did.
If they were anonymous in the first half it was largely due to our poor use of posession.
McShane in particular seemed so afraid of making a mistake that he'd rather blast the ball out of play with nobody anywhere near him than try a pass.
In short, the problem was that we didn't try to play the ball out from the back, so the midfield was bypassed.

Having said that, we're blessed to have Doyle - almost every ball played to him last night stuck. Fully agree with his man of the match award (for once). Dunne was solid and made some important interventions, but Doyle made the game plan possible with his ball retention.

This was NOT a bad performance.
We could have kept the ball better and put together some more sustained pressure on the Cypriots, but pretty good overall.

 

[dAndAn]

This was NOT a bad performance.
We could have kept the ball better and put together some more sustained pressure on the Cypriots

Agreed.

Gibson & Whelan shat their pants in the first half but improved second half. Whelan in particular. you can see that Gibson is good on the ball...when he gets on the thing that is

 

[evil bandit]

The midfield pair last night were fine, especially when they started to get some of the ball in the second half.

Their job is to keep it tight in front of the back four and keep the ball moving to the front four.
This they did.

What are you talking about they were awful last night, everytime we got the ball out of defence it came right back as the midfield was non existant.

The reason Doyle and Dunne were so great is that they had to be as Doyle had no support from midfield so had to hold up the ball until Keane, Duff or McGeady became available and Dunne was a collosus as he was getting no support for Whelan or Gibson.

 

[RED(tape)MENACE]

What are you talking about they were awful last night, everytime we got the ball out of defence it came right back as the midfield was non existant.

The reason Doyle and Dunne were so great is that they had to be as Doyle had no support from midfield so had to hold up the ball until Keane, Duff or McGeady became available and Dunne was a collosus as he was getting no support for Whelan or Gibson.

What are the midfielders supposed to do with the ball if McShane is lumping it 40 yards upfield?

 

[BonsaiSuperstar]

What are the midfielders supposed to do with the ball if McShane is lumping it 40 yards upfield?

give him an option

good midfielders would drop deep and look for a pass - then break forward

 

[Jerry Twig]

Cormcolash, your analysis is good but there's one point you neglected to concede - Cyprus were fucking average and not at all worthy of the respect that you bestowed upon them, even accounting for their missing players.
The three D's carried Ireland, Dunne should be made a saint, no midfield, McShane is a turnip, we showed them far too much respect but because they are shit they couldn't convert it, and we will not get points away playing like that in a million years.
Some postives - yes, everybody is playing their socks off, even if many of them are never going to reach the level required and of course there is a visible system, which is obviously an improvement. We didn't cave in at the death but 1) we were lucky there really 2) when in the name of God are we going to put an end to that shit?
Well, all told I was very underwhelmed.