Well said Larry. 
[quote=“scumpot, post: 690907”]
never once suggested booing the players…i just don’t understand being in the mood to sing after witnessing that…its true you tell a kid to do his best but you also tell them to know their worth and believe in themselves and while respect an opponent but never fear them…[/quote]
It’s unfair to suggest they feared Spain , they were out classed, it wasn’t a lack of ambition as you seem to suggest , it was a lack of talent. That group overachieved in getting there. That result in Russia was a freak. I think you are confusing sheer lack of talent with lack of ambition
[quote=“The Tipping King, post: 690934”]
In individual counties and clubs with GAA we have had plenty to sing about. As a nation, when we won the Grand Slam, when we won 5 major golf championships, when we have the World’s number 1 golfer, when we won gold medals in the Olympics, when our professional boxers became european and world champions, when we won the Tour De France, when we won a world snooker championship, when we win 20+ Group 1s a year, when we win 20+ Grade 1s a year, when we win Grand National after Grand National, when we had 13 winners at the Cheltenham festival in 2011, when we send our horses to win some of the most prestigious races in the world, when we join Europe in winning the Ryder Cup, when the countries elite athletes represent us and win on the world stage with respect and honor. We have plenty to be proud of, losing 4 nil to Spain is not one on to put on the list.[/quote]
If victory was the only reason ever to show support, there’d be a lot of dull days in people’s lives . Not everybody can sway with the wind and hitch themselves to the next passing bandwagon
Some good points here on both sides but TTK’s general point about us singing and declaring ourselves great in a situation like this just doesn’t sit well with me either. It’s such an utterly pointless and laughable accolade. Oh, we have the best fans. Who gives a shit? And do we have the best fans? Maybe we just have the fans who are most easily pleased. Huzzah!
4-0 should not just be accepted and our success in the past against teams who would have been ranked as highly as Spain with the same numbers of limited players should see it that we don’t accept this level of abject failure as easily as we have done tonight and Sunday.
Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.
You don’t need to boo the players either. But they shouldn’t get a pass after a thoroughly shit performance.
Come on …did you see how easy spain took the ball back off us in the tackle ?..that has nothing to do with talent…our players were making BASIC mistakes in possession…thats application not talent
They’re not getting a pass, cld. They were brutally exposed an professionally embarrassed on the world stage, and for the rest of their careers, most them will have this night as a reference point for the argument that they were third rate players. In the months ahead, both the media and the public will be calling for many of them to be dropped off the Irish squad and have their international careers ended. Showing a bit of solidarity with them tonight is hardly too much in that context.
They shouldn’t get a pass, 4-5 of them will never play again I would imagine. I think you’ll find most fans either shout abuse or encouragement. That’s the choice really when you go to live sport, that’s what creates the atmosphere. The Christians and the lions , it’s still amphitheatre. The real cop out on this thread are the folks who come out with the we shouldn’t support them because the lost shite. That’s the real inferiority complex. The preposterous notion that if this group of players didn’t fear or somehow manned up we’d have done better , fuck off. We’re not good enough, they achieved their probable maximum. If they gave up you boo them, because it’s a fight and it’d primal. If they keep trying you support them if they are your team it’s that simple. The best supporters are the ones that are there on the bad days. There’s a name for the other type of which we’ve plenty on this thread
The Roy keane anicdotes are hilarious. That utter kunt should have been frogmarched out in front of the crowd at full time and told to listen…shut your eyes, now imagine that in a world cup semi final.
Now fuck off because that’s what you walked out on , not a missing load of training bibs
thats quite sanctimonious…again i never said boo them… actually find it odd that you fail to see how a lot of people couldn’t stomach a sing song after that…clap the players for their efforts after game no problem but a celebratory singsong is understandably not everyone’s cup idea…i think the problem here is you don’t seem to be able to differentiate between kids playing sport and professional adults playing…
and as a professional you should live for days when you play the best because its a text of your character and will more than anything else because you’ve a ready made excuse when you lose…can you honestly say one spanish player broke a sweat tonight?..if soemone is more gifted than you thats fine but at least test their desire…
by your logic the more skillful team should always win…sport would be very boring if that was the case…
Nah i have to say i actually think that has plenty to do with talent in this case. Barca had it easy enough to keep the ball and win it back against Chelsea but couldnt score due to a serious defensive effort.
The Irish midfield and defence has nowhere near the ability or quality that even Chelsea had.
This Irish side is very very poor. Given, Dunne, O’Shea, Keane and Duff are all well past their best days but we are still reliant on them.
St. Ledger, Ward, Whelan, Andrews are all very mediocre - probably Championship players at best to be honest.
Then you have McGeady and Cox who are both well below that level again.
Coming up against players like Iniesta, Xavi, Alonso, Torres, etc. the gulf in class is ridiculous. Those players have World Cup and European Championship medals. They dont even know who Paul Green is…This was a poor Irish side and we were very lucky to qualify in that we drew Estonia who dominated us for a good percentage of the game there despite being a man down and we managed to win 4-0 in the finish.
I think Irish people think we can qualify for tournaments willy nilly ala the World Cups in '90, '94 and '02. But we fail to realise the quality these sides had. Look through the '02 squad, all of those players were pretty much playing Premiership, we had plentiful experience and our midfield was more than capable of holding its own…Kinsella, Holland, Keane, Duff and McAteer were all integral parts of their club sides of the time. At that time aswell you werent exactly dealing with the style and quality with what we faced tonight - Spain would probably have beaten that Irish side aswell albeit would have had to have worked harder. This Irish side isnt as good and the manager is hellbent on playing players who serve his style. He doesnt have much options outside of them anyway. McLean had no real experience and he never really looked at Coleman, Clarke in earnest. Our luck ran out with the draw and to be honest we were definitely in the bottom wrung of the ladder in terms of the teams who qualified - technically i think we’re the worst side i’ve watched and i dont believe we’d beat any or the other participants.
In terms of rebuilding, i wouldnt wish the job on anyone. He will have to look at Coleman etc. but id be fairly negative on our chances of reaching a World Cup anyway. I’ll give credit to the players for making the tournament…but thats about it. Any optimism i had for them left when they conceded after a couple of minutes against Croatia who have since looked like a better side than i would have given them credit for!
Fair enough points. The danger with the fans thing is that the message in the media is lost and the “great fans” becomes the story and it pushes out the real story which is our national football team being utterly embarrassed on a world stage when they have the potential to put on a much better showing than they have done in the competition thus far.
Support the team. Absolutely. But support them with victory as the goal.
It’s like the attitude of the Irish to these games have been like it’s 3 bonus games for reaching the goal of qualification rather than a genuine opportunity to make another mark on the world stage like we have done in the past. The fans should be more seething than jovial at this stage. 7-1 in 2 games!
Spot on
That’s right, they should have quietly sat on their hands and bathed in the shame of it all. We ended up with a player who doesn’t have a professional contract marking a player with 2 champions leagues a world cup and a European cup medal. Go to bed
Embarrassing stuff from some. I’m proud to be Irish tonight. That team is not good enough for the top level, end of story. They worked hard but were up against the best players in the world - World/European/Champions League/Numeorus big domestic league winners against our boys who played tonight and who were made up of Derby resereves/West Brom reserves/Players with no club/most others who are in their 30’s and past their sell by date. Get a grip some of ye FFS.
Since when do fans have to settle for players out of contract playing for their nation? As I’ve said we had the assets at our disposal to do very well at the Euro’s but we didn’t use them. Of course there is a gulf of class, but there wouldn’t be if we played the nations best 11 players. It’s bollox to be happy chappy, ah sure we tried lads, aren’t we great ould spirited paddy’s, sure give us a chorus there mick. FFS. Pathetic. Every fan should have sat there with their head in their hands not waving flags and singing like monkeys. The only stocks that have gone up in this nation in the worldwide view is the laughing stock.
“when they have the potential to put on a much better showing than they have done in the competition thus far”
I cant agree here…im actually baffled that people are so surprised by this. Our best chance in this competition was to go out and sneak draws and hold out defensively. We were up against the World and European Champions tonight, any mistakes and we were going to be punished. We dont have the potential to put on a better showing. We were lukcy not to get fcuked 7 or 8 nil, i actually think Spain took it handy on us. Fabrice Muamba posted on twitter earlier - meeting Spain is like doing a bleep test. You just have to keep running around and closing them down. Now Italy, Croatia might have the ability to do this but we certainly do not. As Dunph points out you had lads like Paul Green on the pitch for a finish tonight…To give a relative comparison if i lined out for Clare Sunday im sure John Mullane would go to fcuking town on me. That is what you are comparing here by and large. This is a sh1t Irish side, they did well to get there but were lucky in that the draw for the qualifier game threw up Estonia…the weakest side.
We were the equivalent of Saudi Arabia at a World Cup and we got the fcuking group to match our worst nightmares…as much as id raise the limitations of lads like McGeady etc. you must recognise that it wasnt for the want of trying…they simply arent good enough.
Id have a lot harder words for a fella like Stephen Ireland - who doesnt want to play for the country, or Roy Keane…who for all his talk decided to have a go at fans who represented themselves to perfection in Poland. They went for the party and did nothing to let our country down. When you look at Russia’s fans(and what they’ve probably cost their country in footballing terms) i know that im proud tonight of the Irish fans tonight! Muamba and Robin Van Persie have both tweeted as much!
You’re a cunt.
Are people actually blinded by their own stupidity?? Ireland had much better options in the majority of positions going into this tournament but we didn’t select or use those players. I’m sure if Clare had a better hurling option than you they’d use it. :rolleyes: If I was playing tonight I would have been ashamed to wear the jersey as I wasn’t worthy, I wouldn’t be happy with the fans singing as I wouldn’t have deserved it. Giving them a sing-song when 4 nil down and after the final whistle only gratifies the management team when they should be taken to office about their shambolic job. By singing in the manner we did, we look like un-ambitious simple minded idiots, akin to some sort of amateur organisation. Imagine, singing for a team losing 4 nil. Disgusting. Denmark dropped 2-0 down to Portugal last night and the camera shots of their fans all had their heads in their hands and tears brimming, Ireland getting kicked around like a stray 3 legged dog and it cuts to the fans singing and waving the Irish flag with pride. Fuck right off.
In other words I made another valid point and you have no response other than “only great fans sing when 4-0 down”. Simple, simple Irishman. Sometimes I wonder why the Queen allowed us to have our freedom.