EURO 2012

[GAA_Talk]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/14/euro-2012-spain-republic-of-ireland-live#block-7

"A lot of these Irish players will be playing in the Championship next season so they might aswell enjoy this," reckons Roy Keane on ITV.

SO F**K Roy 'Ditch your team mates' Keane ya c0ck!! them lads gave us something to cheer on at a major tournament for the first time in 10 years so fair play to them. the fans at the end of that match were brilliant. singin to the death. maybe get a bit further next time sure

[seafoid]

Ireland are in the same boat as all the British and to a lesser extent Scandinavian sides. We need better technical players to have any hope of progressing in the future. In the past teams from this part of the world could make up for lack of technique with determination, aggression and an unstinting willingness to "get stuck in" which discombobulated superior technical players. However modern football is virtually a non-contact sport now so the advantage has swung markedly towards players who are technically sound. Who can receive, pass the ball and make space for themselves with the minimum of fuss.

Needless to say we just don't produce players like that and neither do England but they at least have a huge footballing population and moneybags domestic league to fall back on.

+1

It was like watching that champions league final drubbing that Barca gave Man Utd.

[rrhf]

What a crock o shit.  Embarrassing.   Worst Irish team in 50 years.  Captain
Krystal.  They let us down

[seafoid]

This is commenter "FROMMADRID" on a Spailout thread in the The Economist:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2012/06/spains-banks?sort=3

5. More than one billion is funding directly the soccer teams (with tax exemptions) that's why Spain can afford the best players in the world.

There is no point moaning about Ireland. You have to sit back and admire the tika taka.  They are as good as the Kilkenny hurlers were in 2009 . Den scoth.

And remember that Spain is about to go into the arms of the Troika. 

Ni bheidh a leitheid aris ann.

[Declan]

I can understand that 4-0 probably reflects the gulf in class between the two teams, but, to sit back, invite the best team in the world to attack AND THEN give them five yards of space on the edge of the penalty area, is just ridiculous.

In the second half, in between picking my belly button and staring out the window, I decided to track Iniesta, as the match was painful to watch, and he is a legend.

He wasn't picked up once, not once, by the Irish when attacking. Talk about ball watching.

In the replays for Silva's goal, Iniesta and Xavi both had ten yards of space on the edge of Ireland's penalty area - that is not a lack of class, that is football suicide.

That was the pain I felt the most, that the team just looked like a complete bunch of muppets, turning up to play fotball for the first time. Given and Dunne clearly telling porkys about how fit they are. Its the first time I ever saw Given look shaky.

Positives? The singing at the end - good fans who paid hard earned money to get there and support their team, not grumpy oul shites like me

Fair comment there.  Just reading Keane's quotes and he's correct re the defending. Re the attitude and sing song  to me he's missing the point. The fans recognised that we were beaten by a better team and decided to try and sing to show their support. Nothing wrong with that at all, in fact  it makes a refreshing change from booing etc. The bigger question is what will we do in the future? Answers on a postcard to John Delaney Dublin 15

[puskas]

this came up on the board before, whether it is better to qualify and be a laughing stock or not to qualify. remember some lads howling at the sacreligious idea that not qualifying might be better. what have ireland gained though by this. of course u can admire the fans for having a sing-song, but the team really had no business there on the pitch at this level. it is embarassing, and for every patronising twat who says, ah look, bless them and their plucky ballad-singing, there's another that will call it as primitive football by primitive people. the only possible positive is that it might lead to some change in direction in how we play. unlikely though, we're too stitched in to the fabric of English football to do things independently of them.     

[Shamrock Shore]

Roy Keane and his apologists can go and fcuk themselves.

[Evil Genius]

This lad knew where the net was against the Spanish

Yep, not once, not twice, but... er, thrice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsUwb5iQiM4

Of course, he wasn't the only Irishman who knew how to stick it to the Spaniards...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1085nzrIeIU

[johnneycool]

This lad knew where the net was against the Spanish

Yep, not once, not twice, but... er, thrice?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsUwb5iQiM4

Of course, he wasn't the only Irishman who knew how to stick it to the Spaniards...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1085nzrIeIU

Does Trapp know Dave is Irish? I don't think Dave knows he's Irish 


Joking aside, bate off the park by the better team and Irish mistakes aside there was ever only going to be one winner.

Time for Duff and Robbie to bid their farewells after a run out against Italy.

[Billys Boots]

I can understand that 4-0 probably reflects the gulf in class between the two teams, but, to sit back, invite the best team in the world to attack AND THEN give them five yards of space on the edge of the penalty area, is just ridiculous.

In the second half, in between picking my belly button and staring out the window, I decided to track Iniesta, as the match was painful to watch, and he is a legend.

He wasn't picked up once, not once, by the Irish when attacking. Talk about ball watching.

In the replays for Silva's goal, Iniesta and Xavi both had ten yards of space on the edge of Ireland's penalty area - that is not a lack of class, that is football suicide.

That was the pain I felt the most, that the team just looked like a complete bunch of muppets, turning up to play fotball for the first time. Given and Dunne clearly telling porkys about how fit they are. Its the first time I ever saw Given look shaky.

Positives? The singing at the end - good fans who paid hard earned money to get there and support their team, not grumpy oul shites like me

Fair comment there.  Just reading Keane's quotes and he's correct re the defending. Re the attitude and sing song  to me he's missing the point. The fans recognised that we were beaten by a better team and decided to try and sing to show their support. Nothing wrong with that at all, in fact  it makes a refreshing change from booing etc. The bigger question is what will we do in the future? Answers on a postcard to John Delaney Dublin 15

Well firstly the benefits of qualifying versus not-qualifying are two-fold: (a) we're ranked higher for the next competition so (on paper) it should be easier to qualify, and (b) there should be a financial spin-off (for participating in the Euros) for the association, which we would hope is invested in grassroots coaching for the future. 

Re. the game, I don't think I really expected anything different.  Any hope was really based on Spain not bringing their A-game, and us being able to cope with the frustration of not having the ball and the thankless work of stifling rather than creating.  None of that happened - Spain will do the same to much better teams than us.  It was a step-up in class for us - hopefully we can learn something from this, though it may take a generation before we're 'equipped' physically and tactically to deal with it.  Remember, we had as much possession against Spain as Italy did - the difference is that Italians are coached to expect not to have the ball for a proportion of the game, we are not.  Onward and upward. 

[Bingo]

this came up on the board before, whether it is better to qualify and be a laughing stock or not to qualify. remember some lads howling at the sacreligious idea that not qualifying might be better. what have ireland gained though by this. of course u can admire the fans for having a sing-song, but the team really had no business there on the pitch at this level. it is embarassing, and for every patronising t**t who says, ah look, bless them and their plucky ballad-singing, there's another that will call it as primitive football by primitive people. the only possible positive is that it might lead to some change in direction in how we play. unlikely though, we're too stitched in to the fabric of English football to do things independently of them.   

Its easy to say that but if you don't want to qualify, what is the point of even trying or having a national team? As you say the only positive is that you can change direction and a new group or setup may come along and you'd be competitive.

Getting a hiding from the best International team in the world, arguably one of the best ever, is no shame but it should drive people to a higher standard. The group dealt us a bad hand and at this level you'll be found out.

Is there any call to be hiding behind not qualifying and been happy with that? Never, NI, Wales and Scotland would have loved to be there and Ireland will hopefully be the better for it. Over the years the Irish rugby team have taken some hidings but they learn from it and have pushed on. They've never beat the All Blacks, should they refuse to play them again on that basis?

[seafoid]

I was reading about the Wild Geese a while ago. They fought for various kings on the continent after they left ireland in 1692. they were never trained but they would get stuck in and had no fear. And they were brutal. After the battle of Fontenoy in 1745 they were no longer any use because there was a change in battlefield tactics that came from the continent that meant they would just get butchered themselves.

And the same sort of thing has happened now with the soccer on the continent moving up a gear and getting stuck in doesn't cut the mustard now. 

[Bingo]

The game itself was never going to be any other way. I give up hope when I saw it was raining, greasey pitch that the Spanish would love. I just hoped they'd get a goal at some stage. Ireland could have played 15 players and we'd still have been beat, the auld fella couldn't see that before him.

After it he argued that the goals all came from mistakes, i told him to rewatch the game, count the mistakes and come back to me with the mistakes they got away with.

[Bingo]

D'Y'Know I've no affinity for the ROI soccer team. I do have for Ireland rugby (a little) and Ireland cricket (a little) but I've no love for the ROI soccer side. Many Norn Iron catholics will latch on to the ROI side because they feel it's an expression of their national and political aspirations without actually thinking about the entity they're supporting.

Would you support or have an affinity for the NI team?

I would def support an AI soccer team. Can't support the rugby or cricket team though (unless they're playing England). Nowhere near the circles of either sport.

No. But, whisper it quietly, I'd take slightly more pride in NI doing well than ROI simply because I'd know (of) a few of them. I've no empathy with a Maynooth money-obsessed Mexican.

Says O'Neill who follows club side Arsenal. What part of Tyrone are they from? You went to same school as Robin Van Persie.

Oh, look at me, I'm different 

[AQMP]

In the run up to the Euros I was worried about how Ireland might perform at this tournament but those two games are way beyond my worst nightmares.  First of all the players all tried their best, but their best was nowhere near good enough.  The worst team in the tournament and the worst Irish team in a long time.  I worry for the future.  On RTE they were discussing who might be coming through and really there is no-one of note.  Dunphy made a good point that his fear was that Ireand were on the same slippery slope that Scotland Wales and NI were on 10 years ago in that they would end up never qualifying for a tournament again for a long time.  Brady also said that the Spanish centre back Pique would be Ireland's best player, again you would have to agree.

Although Spain were excellent, that is a team that Italy got a draw off.  Leaving aside the sheer brilliance of Iniesta (one of the best players I have ever seen) you have to say that was a pathetic and embarassing performance by Ireland and no amount of fans singing will cover that up.  Ireland must have set some sort of record for the number of times they gave the ball away.  The amount of times Irish players ended up on their arses was painful.  Given had a nightmare and was at fault for all goals bar Torres' second.  The defence was shocking.  For Silva's goal, no player in the world should be able to stand on the penalty spot for five seconds and pick a spot in the net to roll the ball into.   I'm a big Shay Given fan but he clearly wasn't fit and he or Trap or both should take a long hard look at themselves.

I would probably exempt Keith Andrews from criticism as he was Ireland's best player over the two games and you could see what he was trying to do.  Glenn Whelan?  Give the ball away and then foul trying to get it back time after time.  That league is the US is a retirement home for players who are finished in Europe and clearly you do not have to be as fit as you do for Europe and it didn't half show with Keane.  Paul Green, who??  Not even a 4th division club wants him!!  McGeady, useless and always has been.  O'Shea was brutal, he has the tactic of pumping a long ball into the forward line programmed into his head even when there is only one player up the pitch and just who is he going to head it on to presuming that he wins the ball in the air??

Trap and his substitutions/tactics, well that's a whole other rant...