FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[nrico2006]

Could you imagine if the north v the south were drawn together in France.

I'd love a handy win and would love to get the north of Ireland team in our group!
Handy points for us!

Why  would they be handy? They beat Greece tonight away who were in the knockout stages of the WC, and were missing Evans.

Anyway thats a long way off, neither team is qualified yet.

Isn't that Greek team all about 50 years old now!

We drew with the World Cup winners away and played sihte doing it!
If we improve at all we could be quite handy!

Missing Evans is a bonus I'd say!
Dreadful 'defender'

Wish we had the north of Ireland in our group!
Easy points!

Typical Irish mentality, going mad at fluking a draw to a depleted German side.  As for playing shite doing it, thats probably as well as the Irish team can play when you look at the players they have.  Evans would walk in to the Irish team.

[Canalman]

Darragh maloney looks totally uncomfortable with the flow of negativity from the pundits.  Hating it. They are milking it.

Agree on this. The dynamic isn't right on the panel, needs a younger pundit to complement Darragh.

Thought myself that Daragh Moloney was excellent last night . Nailed one pundit in particular on a number of occasions in a nice way.

Great result . Lads in studio seemed almost crestfallen.

[general]

unbelievable last night! Id like to see the stats, im sure they would be like a game of fifa! Great for John O'Shea.

Now for the search for tickets for parkhead in 4 weeks time

[magpie seanie]

Just imagine - if Roy Keane hadn't launched his book last week we'd have won this game easily. 

[AZOffaly]

Good result, but to be honest, probably one that was needed. Scotland's performance in Poland last night, as well as their performance in Germany makes the trip to Celtic Park next month a big game. Poland, Scotland and Ireland will all be happy with their position so far, and you'd expect Germany to pick it up.

I was struck that Germany seemed to take Ireland very lightly last night. Low not calling up some replacements was strange, and I doubt he'd have done that against France or Italy. 4 outfield subs is almost unheard of in International football these days.

I'm one of those who have criticised O'Shea in the past, and I believe justifiably so. However it's true that he's been a good servant for Ireland, and that was a vital goal last night so fair play to him. Seanie, I assume you extend the same level of respect to Robbie Keane given his 136 caps for his country

[magpie seanie]

Most of the criticism O'Shea got was about the club he played for, not what he was doing on the pitch. That might not be the case with yourself but undeniably it was with many other.

Robbie is playing really well at the moment, his best form in years. His record of caps and goals is amazing by any standard. Sure, there's plenty of things over the years I criticised him for but he has actually knuckled down since he went to the US and improved. He still shouldn't have started last night.

[johnneycool]

Most of the criticism O'Shea got was about the club he played for, not what he was doing on the pitch. That might not be the case with yourself but undeniably it was with many other.

Robbie is playing really well at the moment, his best form in years. His record of caps and goals is amazing by any standard. Sure, there's plenty of things over the years I criticised him for but he has actually knuckled down since he went to the US and improved. He still shouldn't have started last night.

I presumed Wes Houlihan is playing for AC Milan or someone the way Dunphy was going on about him, is he at Derby?

As for starting Gibson, he hasn't managed a full 90 minutes for Everton yet, so its unlikely he would have been fit enough to last the full 90 last night when the midfield had to bust their balls to cover the defence as they'd little or no possession

[AZOffaly]

Most of the criticism O'Shea got was about the club he played for, not what he was doing on the pitch. That might not be the case with yourself but undeniably it was with many other.

Robbie is playing really well at the moment, his best form in years. His record of caps and goals is amazing by any standard. Sure, there's plenty of things over the years I criticised him for but he has actually knuckled down since he went to the US and improved. He still shouldn't have started last night.

No harm, there might be a grain of truth in that, but I think you might be hypersensitive to any criticism of any player that ever played for Man United.

[beer baron]

Most of the criticism O'Shea got was about the club he played for, not what he was doing on the pitch. That might not be the case with yourself but undeniably it was with many other.

Robbie is playing really well at the moment, his best form in years. His record of caps and goals is amazing by any standard. Sure, there's plenty of things over the years I criticised him for but he has actually knuckled down since he went to the US and improved. He still shouldn't have started last night.

I presumed Wes Houlihan is playing for AC Milan or someone the way Dunphy was going on about him, is he at Derby?

As for starting Gibson, he hasn't managed a full 90 minutes for Everton yet, so its unlikely he would have been fit enough to last the full 90 last night when the midfield had to bust their balls to cover the defence as they'd little or no possession

Still with Norwich and is a regular now they're down in the championship and is playing pretty well but as you say Dunphy's some boy for getting carried away,what ever happened his love affair with Andy Reid?

[orangeman]

The journos that made a big deal about Keane's book coming out last week and how it was going to be a massive distraction, must feel a little red faced this morning.

[Billys Boots]

I thought they played like they expected to take something from the game last night all the way through - Germany were pretty with the ball at times, but they didn't really make good chances, which was a tribute to our play.  It was a bad mistake not closing Kroos down for the goal, but they reacted well afterwards - we were the better side for the last 15 mins, which surprised me. 

There was a particularly impressive passage of play with 5 mins or so left - the German right-full hesitated in possession just inside his own half and three Irish midfielders descended on him like the Furies, robbing him with Hoolahan racing away with the ball in a 3v2 attack.  Hoolahan held on to the ball for a fraction too long because McGeady didn't get himself in a position to receive the ball at the right angle and the Germans cleared.  I thought then that we could take something from the game - within 90 seconds Hoolahan had almost scored from another fine passage of play with the German full-back making an exceptional block to save the day. 

[gerrykeegan]

Just imagine - if Roy Keane hadn't launched his book last week we'd have won this game easily. 

I'd say Brady had at least a ten minute rant planned for after the game...Roy's book...blah blah blah...cost us ...blah blah

[nrico2006]

Don't but into this talk about Robbie Keane not starting, his running won't stretch a defence in the way Longs does but there isn't another Irish striker even fit to lace his boots when it comes to putting the ball into the net.  Laughable that there is talk of him getting a reduced role etc, you would see through it if the goals were drying up.  Long and Doyle and the other pretenders make Emile Heskey look prolific.

[AZOffaly]

Billy, did you think Germany just assumed they would coast home after they scored? They looked unbelievably careless to me.

[magpie seanie]

I thought Dunphy was wrong last night and as someone said it looked like the panel were annoyed we got a draw. The criticism of Trapp was justified but this is not "Trapp with a Derry accent" as Dunphy put it. In the circumstances, with good players missing and some others not playing regularly it was a brilliant result first and foremost. We should have kept the ball better than we did in the first half. That needs work but I think personnel was the issue here. Team selection - a bit questionable alright but not as bad as they were making out.

Overall this exercise was about containment and hoping to grab enough onthe break to get a draw out of it. We did that and there's more to be positive about than negative.