IRELAND vs the Czechosrepublicans (1 Viewer)

[Luther Blissett]

That was a frustrating enough watch. Some decent passages of play in the opening minutes of the first half and then a patchy bit in the middle which the Czech's dominated.

Great finish from Cox who is turning out to be a real find, but the Czech goal was really soft. It was nice to see McClean make his debut too, but he wasn't given that much time to make an impression.

More time than McCarthy though who I'd say must have been fairly pissed off at seeing Paul Green, who wasn't even in the original squad, get on ahead of him.

On another note, Italy and Croatia both lost at home tonight, to the US and Sweden respectively, while Spain are currently hammering Venezuela 4-0.

 

[CinnamonBoy]

We're shit. I wish Trap was leaving after the finals.

 

[Richie]

It was the same as every home game under Trap.. Hard to swallow 40% possession in a home friendly against similar level opposition but you have to hope that all this siege practice pays off (that, or we're looking at coming home with at best 2 points in the summer). Czechs were well up for it in fairness, worked hard throughout and closed down space very quickly. Total shocker of a goal to concede, three defenders running to the same player and leaving Baros with the entire penalty area to himself. Back 4 were solid enough apart from that. It was hard to tell if Keane was in fact playing a deeper role but if he was it didn't have much effect. He had the most joy running onto long diagonal balls behind the defence but he does that anyway. Long did okay, maybe not fully fit. Cox and Walters both impressive, great finish for the goal. We're sorted in one department at least. Andrews did very well going forwards but we conceded as much territory in midfield as ever. Difficult to learn anything new from the whole thing really, we're consistent at least I suppose.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Pretty turgid stuff. I can't for the life of me figure what the value of bringing Green on was. Don't want to expend energy reviewing that. One thing I would take away though is that O'Dea looked very tidy. I'd fancy him to oust St Ledger between now and 10 June.

If you thought Kerr was out of order yesterday, wait till you geta load of this bilge
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0301/1224312583189.html

My favourite line is that he didn't watch actually watch any of the qualifiers!

 

[Unicron]

My favourite line is that he didn't watch actually watch any of the qualifiers!

Mine is "I just can’t see what Trapattoni learned from this outing. Maybe he feels Ireland have nothing left to teach him."


Brian, Trap thinks he's here to teach us.

 

[Unicron]

This coach thinks he knows more about football than we do but he doesn't.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2012/0301/trapattoni.html

 

[Richie]

Somebody should make a montage of Dunphy's current take on Trapattoni alongside the stuff he was spouting when he was aggressively cheerleading for him to be appointed, saying that it would be the greatest thing ever to happen to Irish football etc.. I wanted to see James McCarthy get on last night but the hype over him and McClean from the media is unreal, we're talking about a lad who is having a mediocre season for the bottom-placed side in the Premier League and one who's had 3 months in the Sunderland lineup. I'm sure they'll turn out to be significant players for Ireland in the future but I wonder will people laugh when they look back at the current hysteria over them.

 

[Unicron]

one who's had 3 months in the Sunderland lineup.

McClean looks like he's got a really good final ball and certainly has been playing well but the reception he got when coming on to the pitch reminded me a bit of when Kim Jong Un was presented to the people of North Korea as his father's successor. He does look quite a direct player and maybe he'll show himself to be Bale like in that regard as time goes by, or maybe he'll be another Hunt or Kilbane. Probably somewhere in the middle to be honest.

Right now however he looks like the latest in a line of sticks to beat Trap with as he MUST BE selected but isn't. See also: McCarthy, Long, Coleman.

McClean's highs have been higher but Pilkington has been performnig well for the duration of the season for the most part and there's no scramble to get him in. And I don't want to be beating a drum that'll never be heard but it's a bit of a shame that Hoolahan hasn't and now won't get a look in as it's patently obvious that regardless of talent Trap doesn't trust McCarthy and Wes offers that "something different" without being child in the eyes of the manager like wee Jimmy is. Perhaps I'm indulging in flavour of the month-ism but it's not like there's a huge variance in talent between the guys who are in the team/squad and those that aren't, if there isn't that much of a gap in overall ability pick the ones that are in form. It's not like say England for example where Cashley might be not playing to his full potential and Baines is, Cole is obviously a far better player than Baines.

 

[Jerry Twig]

This coach thinks he knows more about football than we do but he doesn't.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2012/0301/trapattoni.html

Trap is clearly doing something right. It's likle Charlton all over again.
I love the way Dunphy singles out the performance of Andrews and Cox, two players who would never have been on the pitch except for Trappatoni.

 

[Unicron]

Trap is clearly doing something right. It's likle Charlton all over again.
I love the way Dunphy singles out the performance of Andrews and Cox, two players who would never have been on the pitch except for Trappatoni.

As recently as the Armenia game at home Dunphy was raging on the telly about Cox's selection.

 

[Cormcolash]

Very disappointed last night. Cox came on... and Long went off. Just when it looked like we would finally have Long Cox. Oh well.All the 'Pick this player, pick that player' is a pain in the hole. Fair enough, having a look at different options in the friendlies isn't the worst idea, but as far as the real matches go, you need a fairly consistent team together if you are to play properly as a team. You can't just switch players in and out every time the media sees someone getting used as a substitute for fucking Swansea or some shit. "Oh, he plays in the Premiership, he must be as good or better than what's there already."The reason England are constantly shit is that they let the media run their team for them too much. The Irish media are now trying to do the exact same thing with Ireland, and if Trap let them, we'd almost certainly just start losing games due to silly mistakes between players that haven't played together enough. I'm not saying guys like McClean and McCarthy aren't great possibilities for us, but there's really no point throwing them in there right before a European Championship when they haven't had time to gel with the team. It's a rare player for any country that can come in like that and fit in right away.In saying that, there are players, like Green and McShane for instance, that we do just need to blast into space rather than let them play for us.Sure, we play horribly frustrating and awful to watch football right now, but is it going to be any different if a couple of new guys come in with a different style? No - instead, McCarthy or McClean would come in, spray the ball about, get forward, then make a mistake, and boom, the other team has run in behind them and fired the ball in the net.At least with Andrews and Whelan, everyone knows they are going to lose the ball most of the time, and can be ready for it.

 

[Con]

Very disappointed last night. Cox came on... and Long went off. Just when it looked like we would finally have Long Cox. Oh well.All the 'Pick this player, pick that player' is a pain in the hole. Fair enough, having a look at different options in the friendlies isn't the worst idea, but as far as the real matches go, you need a fairly consistent team together if you are to play properly as a team. You can't just switch players in and out every time the media sees someone getting used as a substitute for fucking Swansea or some shit. "Oh, he plays in the Premiership, he must be as good or better than what's there already."The reason England are constantly shit is that they let the media run their team for them too much. The Irish media are now trying to do the exact same thing with Ireland, and if Trap let them, we'd almost certainly just start losing games due to silly mistakes between players that haven't played together enough. I'm not saying guys like McClean and McCarthy aren't great possibilities for us, but there's really no point throwing them in there right before a European Championship when they haven't had time to gel with the team. It's a rare player for any country that can come in like that and fit in right away.In saying that, there are players, like Green and McShane for instance, that we do just need to blast into space rather than let them play for us.Sure, we play horribly frustrating and awful to watch football right now, but is it going to be any different if a couple of new guys come in with a different style? No - instead, McCarthy or McClean would come in, spray the ball about, get forward, then make a mistake, and boom, the other team has run in behind them and fired the ball in the net.At least with Andrews and Whelan, everyone knows they are going to lose the ball most of the time, and can be ready for it.

Paragraphs please monsieur!!!!

 

[Cryptid]

Sure, we play horribly frustrating and awful to watch football right now, but is it going to be any different if a couple of new guys come in with a different style? No - instead, McCarthy or McClean would come in, spray the ball about, get forward, then make a mistake, and boom, the other team has run in behind them and fired the ball in the net.At least with Andrews and Whelan, everyone knows they are going to lose the ball most of the time, and can be ready for it.

I think if we got in a manager with a reputation for decent football, I think we'd probably have to forego the 'success' we enjoy with our penchant for dour football managers. At least we'd have something decent to watch. It's not just us, it's a British Isles thing. Boring national sides all round. In fairness, Trap has been rather lucky. Maybe some of that is down to his persona. The weird thing is that the lads do show cameos of sharp attacking play. It just seems to be a plan b thing.

If it were up to me, I'd try to get someone like O'Neill, the former Shamrock. Rovers manager with Jim Magilton as No. 2. We'd win feck all and it would end in a headbutt, but it sure would be fun to watch.

 

[Jerry Twig]

If it were up to me, I'd try to get someone like O'Neill, the former Shamrock. Rovers manager with Jim Magilton as No. 2. We'd win feck all and it would end in a headbutt, but it sure would be fun to watch.

The IFA and the Windsor faithful would just love that.
PS - it's a brutal idea.

 

[Cryptid]

The IFA and the Windsor faithful would just love that.
PS - it's a brutal idea.

We'd get non-hoofy football and hasten an island of Ireland football team. Win win dude.

 

[Cormcolash]

Paragraphs please monsieur!!!!

It's not my fault, ever since the last upgrade/backup , Thumped isn't working properly on my browser. My replies take bloody ages to load, and I actually had that one in paragraphs too, and I couldn't even edit it into paragraphs afterwards. Basically, I blame @Pete . Still, I will sum my thoughts up succintly: Long Cox

 

[evil bandit]

Still, I will sum my thoughts up succintly: Long Cox

Surely it's time to call Terry Phelan back up for one last hurrah and to give us a Phelan Long Cox axis of comedy.

 

[Jerry Twig]

We need to find a player called Magee.

 

[Cormcolash]

And try and find an Irish granny for Ballack and Kuntz. We can ask Daddy Dick sure, he has loads of grannies!

 

[washingcattle]

Juan Carlos Arce