FAI...June 2024 Friendlies v Hungary and Portugal

[laoislad]

Adam Idah looks a serious player, loads of pace and power.

Aye he looks like a good prospect. To be fair there are a few in that team that could have big futures. Great second half display.

[Ball Hopper]

ROI v NI in Dundalk?

[Main Street]

Brady was shite the other night and not plsying near standard of lads out there tinight. Byrne plays agsinst amateurs every other week. Cullen never played a competitive international. Robinson gets his game. I dunno what you see on the bench thst will make many improvements to how well Ireland played today. Best performance in years.

The style of play. You say Byrne 'plays against amateurs'. Whelan is in Scotland ffs.

A relatively small bit of tinkering and we can play possession football at more pace.

I'd agree, the team have much going for them and have come a long way from Trap's rigid rearguard and the Mon/Keano sabotaged chaos.
McCarthy did well with no time for messsing about. Michael O'Neill used 2 years in the doldrums before coming good.
Midfield is the area for the tinkering when possession is the issue and the team needs someone to play the Jack Byrne role. The midfield are still hiding away when the opposition press the back 4, what follows is the inevitable pass back to Randolph. Whelan impressed and he was alone in the DM role, he could do with a player like McCarthy alongside when the play offs happen.
Jack Byne is on an upward path and there are three or four class players from the u21s who are next to ready to join the senior squad.

[MayoBuck]

Jack Byrne won't play any football for the next 3 months unless he gets a move to England.

[BennyCake]

ROI v NI in Dundalk?

Isle of Man maybe?

[Ball Hopper]

ROI v NI in Dundalk?

Isle of Man maybe?

Turn it into two legs in Glasgow...one at Ibrox and one at Celtic Park...Thursday and the following Tuesday...that's a long weekend in every sense.

[Ronnie]

Suits us in NI and we love a sectarian slugfest... what about yous in the South?

[shark]

Suits us in NI and we love a sectarian slugfest... what about yous in the South?

Not sure we have any posters from Cork/Kerry/Waterford. The idea is pretty alien to us in the Midlands.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

I presume they'll warm up the Ireland, Scotland and Romania balls to ensure home finals, should they make it. They've made no secret of their preference for host nations to qualify.

This is UEFA, the "warming the balls" trick is too subtle.  Remember in 2009 they just changed the rules the day before the draw.   Teams were seeded according to World rankings to give France, Portugal and Russia the advantage.

/Jim.

[Main Street]

I presume they'll warm up the Ireland, Scotland and Romania balls to ensure home finals, should they make it. They've made no secret of their preference for host nations to qualify.

This is UEFA, the "warming the balls" trick is too subtle.  Remember in 2009 they just changed the rules the day before the draw.   Teams were seeded according to World rankings to give France, Portugal and Russia the advantage.

/Jim.

They didn't change the rules before that draw, but the draw outcome just happened to be exactly similar to a rule change which favoured  seeded teams. I forget the maths but the chances of that exact outcome happening were on the extreme end of remote.
The 4  "seeded" teams just happened to draw  the 4 "unseeded" teams and play away in the first leg.  That was a stroke pulled in the mould of Ray Burke.

Edit - I'm thinking of another draw.
It was the draw  for the euro 2000 qual playoffs, from the wiki page "No seeding system was used, making the draw an open one. This decision was announced by UEFA the day before the draw was made."

[BennyCake]

UEFA said it would be an open draw for 2009 play offs. Then realised France was in there, so they changed the rules and made the draw seeded.

[shark]

UEFA said it would be an open draw for 2009 play offs. Then realised France was in there, so they changed the rules and made the draw seeded.

And then France stunk out the World Cup.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Jack Byrne won't play any football for the next 3 months unless he gets a move to England.

Good. Playoff is in March.

[MayoBuck]

Jack Byrne won't play any football for the next 3 months unless he gets a move to England.

Good. Playoff is in March.

I don't think it's good if he plans to be involved in the playoff.

[rodney trotter]

It would be a surprise if he's still at Rovers next season. 3 or 4 clubs were watching him in the Cup final.

I wonder will Troy Parrott get a Loan move in January or will Mourinho want to keep him involved for rest of season.
Lee O Connor could probaly do with a loan move too. Not getting first team football at Celtic.