FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[Jonah]

Decent second half

With a better manager, better tactics and some belief and positive play Ireland have god hung players tha could do well in the euro qualifiers .

Gibson and stokes showing great signs of potential
Def a huge addition

Stokes? Gave the ball away for the first goal and missed a few great chances.
He was out of his depth imho.

[Zulu]

The criticism of the team from rte, both in commentary and in the studio  was the worst I have come across.
I'd say it was  RTE's blackest contribution to sport commentary and punditry. It wasn't just the negativity in the studio but that whinger Whelan never let up for 5 seconds, with a relentless whinge all through the commentary.
King is a caretaker manager brought in for 2 games, wtf did they expect?  a  5 days that shook the world revolution in Irish football? and here he was  thrown into the deep end against Germany where apart from a few obvious criticisms of the team positions  -  King did well.

Agree 100%, I watch little or no soccer anymore but Giles and Dunphy are pure spoofers and that the gombeen O'Herlihy hasn't the balls or the brains to call them out for their buffoonery is astonishing. We think Spillane and the rest are bad, well I'd doubt there's a worse panel in sport than the RTE soccer crowd.

[Captain Obvious]

The criticism of the team from rte, both in commentary and in the studio  was the worst I have come across.
I'd say it was  RTE's blackest contribution to sport commentary and punditry. It wasn't just the negativity in the studio but that whinger Whelan never let up for 5 seconds, with a relentless whinge all through the commentary.
King is a caretaker manager brought in for 2 games, wtf did they expect?  a  5 days that shook the world revolution in Irish football? and here he was  thrown into the deep end against Germany where apart from a few obvious criticisms of the team positions  -  King did well.

Agree 100%, I watch little or no soccer anymore but Giles and Dunphy are pure spoofers and that the gombeen O'Herlihy hasn't the balls or the brains to call them out for their buffoonery is astonishing. We think Spillane and the rest are bad, well I'd doubt there's a worse panel in sport than the RTE soccer crowd.

In fairness Joe Brolly wouldn't be out of place on the RTE soccer panel. Whatever about professional soccer i think its time to ditch the attention seeking punditry in amateur sport.

[mylestheslasher]

Contrary to a lot of the negative talk I thought that we did ok in the last game. First up we had a completely new team. The whole spine was changed. Secondly a new manager with only a few days with the players. Finally we were playing one of the best teams in the world in their own back yard, most teams would be losing by 2-3 goals.

We may have been outclassed but at least when the opportunity arose we tried to play football unlike our previous manager. I think Kelly & Wilson are two weak points and Doyle needs to get back to a higher level before he should be considered. Was impressed with the 2 ctr backs and thought Gibson did well. Our goal has to be to become a strong tier 2 team as that is as good as we can be with the players at our disposal.

[From the Bunker]

Just wondering if there has ever been a country in Europe with a weaker infrastructure and a weaker domestic game than our own that have qualified for the world cup in the past? The only one i can think of is Northern Ireland!

[Main Street]

Just wondering if there has ever been a country in Europe with a weaker infrastructure and a weaker domestic game than our own that have qualified for the world cup in the past? The only one i can think of is Northern Ireland!

Perhaps Slovenia - 2 world cups 1 Euros,     one more Finals than us, over the same timespan.
Maybe their best team is way better than the LOI best team but the rest of the Sovenian league would not be up to much. Crowds of <10,000 for Slovenia's home games.

[muppet]

Just wondering if there has ever been a country in Europe with a weaker infrastructure and a weaker domestic game than our own that have qualified for the world cup in the past? The only one i can think of is Northern Ireland!

Perhaps Slovenia - 2 world cups 1 Euros,     one more Finals than us, over the same timespan.
Maybe their best team is way better than the LOI best team but the rest of the Sovenian league would not be up to much. Crowds of <10,000 for Slovenia's home games.

They only became independent in 1991!

[take_yer_points]

Don't think I've seen any mention of this here yet - Liam Kelly scoring from half way for Ireland U19s at the weekend...

http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/13/reading-youngster-liam-kelly-does-his-best-david-beckham-impression-for-ireland-u19s-video-4144380/

[ballinaman]

Savage trip. Shite football but that's been the story since the match in Estonia so I'm well used to it at this stage.

Good article here I thought...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/friday-night-confirmed-where-the-republic-of-ireland-s-and-anthony-stokes-level-is-1.1559373?page=1

I see Johan Cruyffs odd's to be next Ireland manager and dropping big time, fair bit of money going on him obviously...

[magpie seanie]

Contrary to a lot of the negative talk I thought that we did ok in the last game. First up we had a completely new team. The whole spine was changed. Secondly a new manager with only a few days with the players. Finally we were playing one of the best teams in the world in their own back yard, most teams would be losing by 2-3 goals.

We may have been outclassed but at least when the opportunity arose we tried to play football unlike our previous manager. I think Kelly & Wilson are two weak points and Doyle needs to get back to a higher level before he should be considered. Was impressed with the 2 ctr backs and thought Gibson did well. Our goal has to be to become a strong tier 2 team as that is as good as we can be with the players at our disposal.

Didn't see the whole match (bits here and there) but from what I saw I'd agree totally with the above. I thought it wasn't all that bad considering. There were one or two things where you could say - yip, they worked on that. We should have got a goal or two. To me it looked like the players were more into the whole thing. I'd give Noel King a lot of marks for what I saw to be fair.

[Itchy]

Savage trip. Shite football but that's been the story since the match in Estonia so I'm well used to it at this stage.

Good article here I thought...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/friday-night-confirmed-where-the-republic-of-ireland-s-and-anthony-stokes-level-is-1.1559373?page=1

I see Johan Cruyffs odd's to be next Ireland manager and dropping big time, fair bit of money going on him obviously...

I think that article is horse shit. He looked alright against Barcelona. Nasty bitter article.

[Main Street]

Just wondering if there has ever been a country in Europe with a weaker infrastructure and a weaker domestic game than our own that have qualified for the world cup in the past? The only one i can think of is Northern Ireland!

Perhaps Slovenia - 2 world cups 1 Euros,     one more Finals than us, over the same timespan.
Maybe their best team is way better than the LOI best team but the rest of the Sovenian league would not be up to much. Crowds of <10,000 for Slovenia's home games.

They only became independent in 1991!

Thanks Muppet I was aware that they gained independence sometime after the Berlin Wall fell, however FWIW,I was referring to the timespan, starting from when Slovenia first qualified for a Finals  in 2002, to the present time.

[mouview]

Savage trip. Shite football but that's been the story since the match in Estonia so I'm well used to it at this stage.

Good article here I thought...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/friday-night-confirmed-where-the-republic-of-ireland-s-and-anthony-stokes-level-is-1.1559373?page=1

I see Johan Cruyffs odd's to be next Ireland manager and dropping big time, fair bit of money going on him obviously...

I think that article is horse shit. He looked alright against Barcelona. Nasty bitter article.

It's accurate though. Stokes is a seasoned pro at this stage and should have worked on his game well enough by now to be able to take his chances in front of goal much better than he did. His efforts did nothing to dispel the beliefs abroad that Ireland are rubbish at football.

[Itchy]

Maybe nerves played a part or having too much time on the ball in Scotland. Still think he is ok, no need to go bashing him on one performance.

[Main Street]

Savage trip. Shite football but that's been the story since the match in Estonia so I'm well used to it at this stage.

Good article here I thought...

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/friday-night-confirmed-where-the-republic-of-ireland-s-and-anthony-stokes-level-is-1.1559373?page=1

I see Johan Cruyffs odd's to be next Ireland manager and dropping big time, fair bit of money going on him obviously...

I think that article is horse shit. He looked alright against Barcelona. Nasty bitter article.

It's accurate though. Stokes is a seasoned pro at this stage and should have worked on his game well enough by now to be able to take his chances in front of goal much better than he did. His efforts did nothing to dispel the beliefs abroad that Ireland are rubbish at football.

I agree with Itchy, the article is horse shit, it's written by a guy who struggles to understand basics of football and yet professes to know so much. That's just one reason why it's horse shit.
I suppose there is a context somewhere where a player just walks into an intl team and takes every chance going  in his first real competitive game, against a top class team and goalkeeper. Those who have watched Stokes this season know he has the skill to put away those chances. He's already shoved one in at a tight angle in the SPL. So, he's not lacking the skill to do the job. On another night he would have got one or two of those.

he ends the article with
"If we keep laying the blame on stubborn managers and incompetent systems, it lets too many players off the hook".
Well Mr Clerkin ( you monaghan retard)  if a Trap team would have been able to create 5 clearcut chances against Germany, 2 of which stretched the goalkeeper to making a top class save, then you might have a point. But we all know a Trap team would have been hoofing the ball all night and not likely to have created one chance on target  On another night, Stokes would have taken at least one of them. 
Of course we were outplayed against Germany but a rookie stand - in coach managed a team to create more in one game than Trap managed in all the away games. We had no shots on target in Sweden , maybe we had 2 in Austria.