[quote=“Thrawneen”]I’ll be spouting some truly outrageous and devilish things at the TFK Xmas Party next week, don’t worry.
I laughed long and hard at the Uaneen joke, thought it was going too far, then realised it’s only the fucking internet and copped on. You could try doing the same.[/quote]
yeah you fucking keyboard hero, I’ll have you at the TFKXMAS 09 party when you’ve no keyboard to hide behind 
[SIZE=“1”]the above is obvious sarcasm, the fact that you’re looking means you’re slow[/SIZE]
[quote=“KIB man”]
Guess it will be Rooney upon whom their hopes will rest. Failed in two champions league finals and disgraced himself at the last World Cup.
.[/quote]
thought fergie’s tactics played the major part in Rooney’s poor first champs lge final…his best contribution was a fookin dinger of a pass from right back nearly the length of the pitch to ronaldo…
tactics or not he didnt do it. Doubt the refs at the World Cup will be as lenient to his constant backchat. Think Capello is able to manage him better than Ferguson. Will hardly see him charge back to his goal line as Capello has him strictly playing off the front man.
Seriously though an injury to any of the English first X1 and they are fucked. Brown, Upson, Bridge, Jenas, Beckham, Downing, Carlton and Joe Cole. A lot of shit there.
Cant be having them at 13/2 third favourites. Spain with a vastly superior squad are 9/2 and good value pre draw imo.
thing about spain is that they have a far better manager now than they did when they won the euro’s imho…del bosque got some raw deal at madrid…
Cant doubt what Aragones did though. He got them playing as a team and made some very unpopular decisions (e.g. dropping Raul from squad, dropping Fabregas, playing Senna etc). They really impressed me in the World Cup prior to the Euros but lost out to a revitalised France in a superb game. Aragones went too attacking on the day, playing Alonso over Senna but he learned his lesson.
I know some of ye might say yeah right but I’ve a serious record when it comes to tipping teams to win the World Cup/Euros. I tend to wait until after the first game to put money down but unfortunately Spain hammered someone in the first game in the Euros so the price was gone. As we all know too well getting your best players to the World Cup can be half the battle. Tipped Italy at 12/1 to win in 2006, was working in Dublin at the time and all the females in my team put money on aswell. Good times.
Was on a J1 in 2004 and didnt see any games. Would have fancied Portugal with home advantage.
2002, fancied Brazil strongly. They kind of came into the Championships quietly bit like this team. 2000 - tipped France to win Euros - were strong favourites anyway. 1998 - probably the best one tipped France who were long outsiders to win. They had been shocking in the friendlies before hand but were decent enough in Euro 96.
With the exception of Greece in 2004 major championship winners tend to come from one of the fancied sides. Climate makes a big difference, English sides tend to tire badly which may not be as bad in South Africa. Team spirit is massive, a lot of egos living close together for close to a month can be a recipe for disaster. Cant wait.
[quote=“KIB man”]
With the exception of Greece in 2004 major championship winners tend to come from one of the fancied sides. Climate makes a big difference, English sides tend to tire badly which may not be as bad in South Africa. Team spirit is massive, a lot of egos living close together for close to a month can be a recipe for disaster. Cant wait.[/quote]
I have a desperate feeling that England might do it this time. Can’t really see anybody except Brazil, Spain, or maybe Italy having the beating them. France and Argentina are a rabble, Holland probably aren’t quite good enough. Although you can never write off the Germans. 
If England win the World Cup and the Tories get re-elected in the same month it might be a good time to emigrate to Borneo for a while.
[quote=“KIB man”]tactics or not he didnt do it. Doubt the refs at the World Cup will be as lenient to his constant backchat. Think Capello is able to manage him better than Ferguson. Will hardly see him charge back to his goal line as Capello has him strictly playing off the front man.
Seriously though an injury to any of the English first X1 and they are fucked. Brown, Upson, Bridge, Jenas, Beckham, Downing, Carlton and Joe Cole. A lot of shit there.
Cant be having them at 13/2 third favourites. Spain with a vastly superior squad are 9/2 and good value pre draw imo.[/quote]
All those shit fellas you mention would be running the show if they were playing for Ireland,we’re blessed we havent got through when you think about it,this way the soccerball people can moan on about our bad luck in not getting there for generations to come,France would have beaten us in the shootout, only a nutcase would bet against them v what we had left on the field.
Ha god love you. Did you shed a tear when ireland attacked through wingers staying wide?
your idiotic call for a five man central midfield with andrews attacking was fortunately replaced by more conventional attacking through our strikers and wide men. I said we should rely on these four for goals for first seventy mins and they delivered the goal and a couple of great chances. Far better than keane llaying in midfield wingers tucking in and andrews bombing forward. Trap doesn’t seem to be at your level yet. But you should continue to know better. Misplaced arrogance suits your grating posting style.
Unfortunately no amont of claiming correctness makes it so.
[quote=“KIB man”]Guess you missed Lawrence tucking in, hitting a left foot pass into Duff who was storming through the centre for the chance to put us to the World Cup. Numerous other examples
I only ask, did you shit a brick when Ireland started attacking early and scored? Your tactical masterplan of holding back for 70 minutes was in ruins. I’m happy somewhat that the football philosophy that I espouse was proved right on the night. Keeping the ball, midfielders and forwards offering options to do that. Pass and move.
Think football has moved on from the days of a flat 442 where wingers hug the touchlines and the two in the centre get outnumbered. Its why England will continue to struggle in major championships. The kind of football you espouse - ‘fear football’ hasnt really been popular since the back pass was done away with in 1992. The likes of Jack Charlton, Graham Taylor and Howard Wilkinson did have some success but its time to move on bud 
[/quote]
[quote=“Rocko”]Ha god love you. Did you shed a tear when ireland attacked through wingers staying wide?
your idiotic call for a five man central midfield with andrews attacking was fortunately replaced by more conventional attacking through our strikers and wide men. I said we should rely on these four for goals for first seventy mins and they delivered the goal and a couple of great chances. Far better than keane llaying in midfield wingers tucking in and andrews bombing forward. Trap doesn’t seem to be at your level yet. But you should continue to know better. Misplaced arrogance suits your grating posting style.
Unfortunately no amont of claiming correctness makes it so.[/quote]
Thats very impressive stuff. KO in round 3.
Good article by Vincent Hogan in today’s Indo.
No point looking for heads to roll
By Vincent Hogan
Saturday November 21 2009
You know it’s time to worry when grief escalates to that eccentric condition of invoking a moral imperative. We had travelled that far by Thursday lunchtime. FIFA, having already pulled the stroke of play-off seedings, surely couldn’t be seen to screw the little man over any further. Even the French were coming over misty-eyed and wistful, as if they’d been found jimmying a church collection box.
L’Equipe’s ‘La Main De Dieu’ headline all but wallpapered the bars and cafes of Charles de Gaulle airport.
Their national mood had curdled from relief to mortification then. A crime had been committed in the French name. There was no glory, therefore no victory. So we pressed our noses against the departure gate window, peering at the crippled, green bird outside, and ached to be free of all this Parisian sun and immersed back home, in our stone, grey valley of principle.
Journalists often joke that the worst place to be when a big story erupts is trapped at the scene. Once it gathers legs, the story slips beyond you. So Liam Brady, we heard, had been on Pat Kenny’s radio show calling for a rematch. Next, the FAI gave that call a formal status. By the time we got to board (six hours late), the Taoiseach was supposedly suspending all other business to appeal personally to Nicolas Sarkozy.
It was extraordinary. Our bankrupt, flooded, mixed-up nation had finally located a sense of outrage. And it was directed at someone else’s footballer.
So, the pieties flowed from the usual suspects and beyond. People, who should have known better, couldn’t resist the rumble of uproar. Thierry Henry pushed Seanie FitzPatrick back to the cheap seats of Irish revulsion. He handled the ball. He cheated. He broke our children’s hearts. Va-va-vomit.
It wasn’t a good week to be rational then. The players had simply been too heroic in Stade de France on Wednesday evening for every jumped-up patriot not to now need a piece of the action.
In time, an illusion was being spun. People started believing in the possibility of a rematch. Sepp and FIFA would look into their gentle hearts and deduce that, regardless of logistical stresses, impervious to the potential discomfiting of giant commercial partners, a referee had erred in Paris and – thereby – fairness must prevail.
So Abbotstown waited for the Tooth Fairy to call.
The single mature gesture came from Richard Dunne, a simple pat of Henry’s arm on the pitch afterwards as the pantomime villain feigned remorse. Henry, at that moment, looked pathetic. A man just looking for shade from his guilt. Dunne could have responded with contempt, of course. He could have invited him to take his commiserations and toss them on the compost heap where they belonged.
But what exactly would that have articulated? That the notion of a professional footballer cheating shocked Dunne? That, after more than a decade of baulking the runs of Premier League strikers, he was grievously affronted that Henry might somehow be unscrupulous in pursuit of victory?
REality
Dunne’s was a grown-up gesture. An acknowledgement of reality as distinct from populist fantasy.
Thursday night’s Prime Time, rather theatrically, posed the question of whether the greed of professionalism might have created an ethos of cheating. What planet had they been living on? Some of the biggest names in football impart more art to a dive than Greg Louganis ever did. And there is an extraordinarily high acceptance of defenders fouling (tugging the striker’s shirt, nudging him off balance under a dropping ball, holding his arm and toppling as if it is he who is holding yours, are all plat du jour).
Managers, meanwhile, play games with the truth. The blind eye is endemic.
Yesterday, within hours of FIFA’s declaration that there couldn’t be one, Arsenal’s French manager – Arsene Wenger – called for a rematch. Miraculously, Henry himself soon followed suit. The gestures spun a mirage of selflessness.
Wenger was quoted as saying that he was “not content, because France shouldn’t gain qualification with these things. All the stadium has seen the handball, but the referee hasn’t. This isn’t the French way and football should learn from this.”
This is Wenger who, historically, has never seen an Arsenal player commit a foul. Who once oversaw a period of virtual lawlessness from his team with the TV mantra, “I did not see the incident”.
In this, he is the norm, not the exception. Pick through the Premier League managers, one by one, and you won’t find any for whom the notion of fair play tugs at a higher instinct. Wenger, Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez: all programmed to slip into denial when an unflattering light falls the way of their dressing-room.
So the kids of the nation were never going to be corrupted by Henry’s handball. The corrupting is already done.
You don’t have to dip into the little shops of horror that are track and field or professional cycling to see sport with dirt under its fingernails. Look at rugby’s spring pantomime with fake blood or the discovery of choreographed crashing in Formula One. See tennis squirm at Andre Agassi’s crystal meth confessions.
Look at boxing, still selling snake oil. It is nearly three decades since Larry Holmes declared: “If you stay in a room with Don King for an hour, he’ll con you into anything. That’s why I talk to him over the phone. So I can hang up.” Yet, the man known for electric hair and a couple of homicides, still wheels and deals at the heavyweight table.
What happened on Wednesday in Paris was a long way down sport’s league table of dirty tricks. It was unjust and heartbreaking, no question. For 22 years, we have deified the men who went and won a competitive international against Scotland at Hampden Park. Yet, to beat France over 90 minutes at Stade de France, in the psychological kiln of a World Cup play-off, simply flew to another stratosphere.
It was natural then to feel deep emotion for the players. They played wonderfully, only to be evicted by a goal that should never have stood.
Yet, we were, essentially, two months late with our anger. The hand in our pockets wasn’t Henry’s. FIFA’s decision to seed the play-offs had been an unambiguous declaration of who they wanted in South Africa. Henry or Dunne? They changed the rules mid-stream to leave us in little doubt about the answer. That was when the little man got screwed over.
Henry himself? He just did what footballers do. He took a chance on fooling an unsighted ref. All night long, Mr Hansson had looked strong and objective. Had he been at the bidding of FIFA and big business, Nicolas Anelka’s dive would have offered the perfect convenience.
Yet, Hansson rejected it. He stayed strong. He did what he could to deliver a fair victor from the bedlam of Saint Denis and, ultimately, got swindled.
FIFA, as is their way, are likely to make an example of him. He probably won’t get to the World Cup and the formality of someone paying for Ireland’s pain will – thus – be delivered. (Thank you kind Mr Blatter). In time, the French and Henry (after, maybe, a one-match ban) will forget their discomfort too and ‘La Marseillaise’ will ring out from the dark continent next summer.
And, soon, maybe a penny will begin to drop here. It’s not the thief we should fixate upon, but the culture that creates him.
Soccer fans to march on French Embassy
08:58, 21 Nov 2009
Irish soccer fans will march on the French Embassy today in an attempt to raise the stakes in the row over Thierry Henry’s handball in Paris on Wednesday night.
Henry’s illegal use of his hand to prevent the ball going out of play allowed him to provide the pass for William Gallas to win the game for the home side.
The FAI lodged a formal complaint with FIFA, but soccer’s governing body has rejected calls for a re-match, as has the French Football Federation.
Today’s protest will leave Lansdowne Road at 2pm. Organiser Kevin Storrs said all the protesters wanted was fair play.
It just gets more ridiculous by the day.
Thrawneeen putting it right up to KIB Wanker here.
Anyone who thinks that playing Senna and dropping Fabregas would make Aragones unpopular clearly hasn’t a clue about football and/or is looking at it through EPL tinted glasses.
Ah it doesn’t really, this is just a handful of idiots. The sting has definitely gone out of it by now. The vast majority of people are reasonable enough about it at this stage.
We were well and truly robbed and people had a right to be angry for a few days at least. The FAI were probably right to at least ask for a replay. They weren’t going to get it but there had to be some kind of response.
It’s all shone a massive light on cheating though, which just might make some small difference. Probably not though.
[quote=“gola”]Ah it doesn’t really, this is just a handful of idiots. The sting has definitely gone out of it by now. The vast majority of people are reasonable enough about it at this stage.
We were well and truly robbed and people had a right to be angry for a few days at least. The FAI were probably right to at least ask for a replay. They weren’t going to get it but there had to be some kind of response.
It’s all shone a massive light on cheating though, which just might make some small difference. Probably not though.[/quote]
Wouldn’t it be great to see in soccer players calling fouls on themselves. Obviously not if you go into a challenge but for things like hand balls it would be great to see. Like there is in snooker. It’s not the culture though and much too physical of a game to demand it I suppose.
Rocko’s tactics 101 - lovers of football look away now!!!
[quote=“Rocko”] a goal tonight is far more important than a goal on Saturday would have been to us. A late equaliser on Saturday night and we’re still behind, a goal tonight and we’re on different terms altogether. (rocko forgetting the old 1+1=2, 2>1, there)
Keep this at 0-0 for 70 minutes if we can and then we can go toe to toe for the last 20.
[/quote]
[quote=“Rocko”]There’s a difference between being negative and being realistic.
It’s a little embarrassing having to explain this to you but away goals are worth more.
It’s not any easier to score in Croke Park.
Keeping Lawrence wide on Evra and using O’Shea to play a ball over both of them into the corner (not a diagonal but doesn’t have to be) gives Doyle a change to drag Gallas out of the centre. Then you’ve got Keane versus one centre half in the middle, Gallas will feel exposed and you’ve a chance at winning a free kick or just whipping it in to Keane where he’s not outnumbered. (rocko tactical masterpiece)
Let the full backs and centre of the park wait until 70 minutes, then attack like fuck. (coup de grace)
I should really charge for this level of in-depth analysis.
[/quote]
I’d fear for the TFK Astro team this year if this tactical neanderthal is left in charge.
You really are an absolute tard in fairness. :rolleyes:
Fifa officials are to meet with the Football Association of Ireland to discuss the controversial handball goal in the play-off against France.
Financial compensation for the Irish has been ruled out but Fifa president [B]Sepp Blatter revealed other measures were being considered.
He explained the ideas ranged from a compliment to a special award. [/B]
Fuckin hell!
A special award!
[quote=“The Runt”]Fuckin hell!
A special award![/quote]
A compliment?? That’s fookin brilliant!
Maybe they will present us with the Special Sorry You Got Fucked Over Award just before they present the winning captain the World Cup.
This might possibly be more embarrassing than that fucking dancing priest.