Wednesday, September 10, 2008
International Round Up
Draws were the order of the day for the Irish international sides tonight, with the Republic- Montenegro and Northern Ireland- Czech Republic matches both ending in scoreless draws. The Scots got their campaign back on track with a hard fought 2-1 win in Iceland, whilst England were particularly impressive in hammering Croatia 4-1 in what should have been their trickiest fixture of the entire campaign. Wales lost earlier in the day to Russia 2-1.
Chris Donnelly @ 07:01 PM
Phew what a relief for devolution! (Now there’s a name for a side)! And for IONA of course.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 08:31 PMUseful point for ROI, NI canīt really complain with a point either and as ever the GAWA in good voice at Windsor Park. The draw is probably disapointing because the Czechs werenīt at their game tonight.
Well done to Arsenalīs Theo Walcot scoring a hat trick for England.
See ya in Slovenia.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 08:40 PMAstonishing Welsh performance - should have won really - and missed a second penalty in two days. Really proud - a bloke came on from Wrexham in the last 10 minutes - the first time a non-league player has represented Wales in 78 years.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 09:15 PMGreat point for the Republic. 4 points from 2 away games, very useful indeed. Thought the north should have prob won tonight. The Czechs will win the group so maybe a point gained rather than 2 lost. If neither Irish team make it to South Africa then surely it must be time to think about an all Ireland team.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 09:31 PMThought Ireland could have won tonight in Montenegro, but overall a good 4 points from two tricky away fixtures at the start of the campaign.
Solid defence, hard working midfield and a team that has clearly bonded with each other and the manager.
Still think Andy Reid has a part to play in the qualifiers, but overall a competent display by the Boys In Green.
Roll on the trip from Belfast to Dublin for the first home game against Cyprus in mid October.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 10:02 PMHopefully heading down myself too for the match Colin. Haven’t been to Croker for a soccer match yet so I’m really looking forward to it. Might stay over for a few libations to celebrate a win hopefully.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 10:07 PMI cannot see how an all-Ireland team would be much better than either of the two current teams.
With respect youd be talking about 2-4 NI players to be added to the ROI team.
That marginal improvement would be lost in the big picture of form, luck, management etc.
And the supporters are too far apart to unite behind one team. They weren’t 50 years ago, and they might not be 50 years hence, but that’s the way I see it for now.
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 10:22 PMGood on England. And on Capello for telling it like it is, and suggesting publicly to the British sports press that his players are a bit nervous playing at home (I wonder why?).
It seemed to confuse Alan Green on the Today Programme this morning, which was nice!
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 10:24 PMGood performance by the south, some of the passing was excellent.
Quietly confident of qualification…
Hard luck Cymru Dewi!
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 11:07 PM“Good on England” - Mick - what on earth have you got against Croatia ? Terribly biased - is it a religious thing?......
Posted by on Sep 10, 2008 @ 11:37 PMMust say i thought Capello was bonkers with his selection but appears to have got it spot on. I think all the home nations have started fairly well - good stuff.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 05:53 AMIs this where we can discuss Sunday football…..i notice that the bbc ni website has a poll which 79% people who have responded support it…....
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 06:19 AMDewi,
When you’ve lived amongst the Sasanaigh as long as I have, you begin to see the humanity beneath the shirt.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 06:52 AMGreat result for England and a decent one for Northern Ireland.
I think as well Cypress will be very dangerous in the Irish Republic group. They could have had Italy the other night if the ball bounced the other way.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:10 AMhappy with that result for Northern Ireland especially without Davis who is pretty sharp at the moment - also no Lafferty and with the subs coming on i felt the team looked solid enough… Healy is obviously suffering from lack of match play so hopefully that will change in next month or so… Czechs were for the taking though…
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 07:32 AMIf we’d have had Davis and Lafferty on the pitch last night then who knows. The midfield was definitely lacking something without Davis and Healy definitely needs more support up front. Its really not fair that there’s such a roar of expectation just because he happens to get the ball. He really needs someone who could have maybe taken a few of those longer balls which were coming up front.
However, we had quite a few lucky escapes last night too and if a few balls had bounced differently then we could easily have found ourselves at least 1-0 down.
That said NI made a few good chances and managed to get a few half decent balls into the box. Bit of luck on the other side and who knows. Good result with 2 key players missing.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 08:02 AM“Good on England. And on Capello for telling it like it is, and suggesting publicly to the British sports press that his players are a bit nervous playing at home (I wonder why?).”
I guess because England fans are sick of their team’s piss poor performances and the claims of players (as well as the press) that they could win some of the major tournaments of recent years?
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 09:58 AMThose 2 points given up in Montenegro may/will come back to haunt us. Thanks to the Italian management we have made a fair start
Amazing performance by England - Walcott the Great and ahem again the Italian ‘management ‘.:) Credible performance by NI and as for the Welsh well missing a penalty is 99% of the time ‘death’ at this level of competition .Scotland made up for thier Macedonian blunder so it’s even stevens for the haggis eaters at this stage :)
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 10:28 AMhttp://www.bangkokpost.com/sportsplus/sportsplus.php?id=130586
I’m concerned about Uruguay after their goalless draw with Ecuador. A match they really should have won.Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 10:36 AMAlthough we were a little toothless going forward, I would have to say that last night was the first time in 5 or 6 years that the team went to the other side of Europe to play in a hostile atmosphere and not look like they would give up a goal. I think that it is good that Trap is concentrating on shoring up the defence as he was always going to do, because the first step to prolonged success is to develop a culture of not conceding as a rule. This will hopefully lend itself to a growing confidence in the team that should lead to the kind of football which makes for a steady flow of chances. Even from one end of the match to the other last night it was noticeable how the players moved from survival mode in the early stages to actually getting a foot on the ball, at times playing triangles and asking the opposition some questions. There are some signs I believe that the confidence that has been absent for some years is threatening to return and this is important as anyone can tell you that in order to achieve the sort of results necessary for qualification, that bit of swagger, just that touch of arrogance that comes from knowing that you’ve got your opponent’s number is an indispensable commodity.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 11:06 AMhttp://soccernet.espn.go.com/tables?league=fifa.worldq.conmebol&cc=5739
Good to see our boys flying ahead of the pack. Like to see them go through as well as Montevideos finest.
That’s the sort of ‘guay’ I am.Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 11:21 AM4 points from 6 is decent but I haven’t been overly impressed by Ireland. Stephen Hunt is totally brainless. He looked worse than Dirk Donkey at Anfield and that’s saying something. Andy Reid is a vastly superior option to Stephen Hunt, even if Reid always looks like he lives in McDonalds.
NI got a good result but have little chance to qualify. I’d prefer Sanchez to Worthington.
England surprised everyone. The talent is there so maybe Don Fabio will get them to improve.
England and Trap’s Ireland will be the two home nations off to South Africa. Can’t see Bulgaria stopping us.Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 11:36 AMIn the short time Trap had been with Ireland, he is already moulding a team that looks robust and solid in defence.
O’Shea and Dunne are forming a good partnership in the Cente back roles and the return of Finnan has been important.
The team worked well as a unit and we may well be in the mix, come the end of the campaign.
Good wins for England and Scotland, Wales had the chance to Draw away to Russia and the North are finding out that teams may well be happy enough to come to Windsor and take the draw, and with such a poor away record i can’t see them featuring in the fight for qualification.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 11:50 AMWell to be honest RoC I know Dunphy and Giles have been waxing lyrical about Reid quite a bit lately but I’ve always seen him as a bit of an up and down player. His form for me tends to be streaky enough, one night he’s quite good, the next night he’s hopeless. And when he’s not doing it on the ball he goes missing because he just doesn’t believe in defensive duties, he’s a passenger. Hunt gives away the ball quite a bit but then he’s on it a lot. I don’t think anyone regains more possession. In the games against Italy and Bulgaria, I think Hunt will be a better asset than Reid.
Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 11:51 AMI agree Consul, Andy Reid is far from great. But Hunt spent so much time chasing the ball because he can’t retain it and had so little ability to do anything with it. He’s like a dumb cat chasing his own tale. Reid should have came on yesterday simply because Hunt was a joke.
As a left winger we need much better quality but I suppose Duff will come back in anyway. Not that he is the player he was either, but he’s better than the other two.Posted by on Sep 11, 2008 @ 12:07 PM
