I got a cat 2 ticket for €140 euro, know 5 lads who paid the bones of €1200 to one of them scouse cunts for 5 tickets and when they tried to get into the ground they were told that the tickets had been reported stolen months ago and the seats reissued and resold
He has worked his bollocks off in both games. Won’t dwell too much on Ireland’s performance, knew once the early goal went in we were going to get a kicking, but it has to be said some of this Spanish team are a pleasure to watch and they will go down as greats of the game. Xavi at one stage controlled a passed that was fired at him from Alonso and dropped a shoulder and left his man for dead that was worth the admission alone
I thought Spain were boring as fuck the other night and they annoyed the shit out of me, as those who witnessed by meltdown in the stadium at around 21.05 (CET) will testify.
FUCK YOU ALL YOU FUCKING BORING FUCKING SIDEWAYS PASSING FUCKING DEFENCE BY POSSESSION FUCKING BORE US INTO SUBMISSION FUCKING TIPPY TAPPY FUCKING CURSE ON FOOTBALL FUCKING SPANISH CUNTS.
This was a Wexford man speaking so the rant went on for about a minute.
A spectator a row in front then inquired, don’t like Spain much then? To which Bandage replied, no.
Madrid did something similar with an Irish kid not so long ago, tho he may have been a little older. But yeah, it’s all about indoctrinating them into a mindset and way of thinking. To start this process at 16, while it will enhance a player some bit, is largely futile as he has developed habits or traits that he will never fully escape from or will always revert to.
You wouldn’t wait till a kid is 16 to start teaching him to read or write, the same should apply here or at the very least we should be getting at them by the ages of 10/12.
Some great reading on this thread. Glad we’ve moved on past the fans debate anyway - I have no problems with criticism of the team or performance etc but it’s funny when people try and back it up by pointing out the fans singing. As though one was a consequence of the other. The last few minutes of that game were very enjoyable - it was the end of an era for a few players possibly, it was also a bit of a reward for the fans for making the trip. The early goals in the two games had really ruined what threatened to be great atmospheres for the entire games.
Awful performance in the game and in the tournament. In order to get out of the group, or even to be in with a chance of qualifying, we really needed our big players to perform heroics. Given unfortunately was dreadful. O’Shea is hardly a big player for us but should be and he was beyond dismal. Dunne had a poor tournament, Keane was too quiet and Duff got no real opportunities. Once those senior players didn’t perform we didn’t really have a chance.
That’s no excuse for some of the mediocrity that we witnessed though. Whelan was abysmal in the two games, McGeady worked hard but should be more than capable of causing defences more problems than he is. Cox did precious little I thought. Walters looked no improvement on Doyle when he played against Spain. Ward was poor in possession throughout.
Really only Andrews has emerged from the two games with credit and as others have said that’s a particularly noteworthy achievement given the lack of support he has received.
I think Trap got the Cox call wrong twice and I think we were slow to react to Croatian possession dominance in the first game and could have dropped Keane deeper once we got level. But it’s hard to blame the manager for some of the goals we gifted them which threw gameplans out the window. And for all the pride in the team for getting to the tournament and for all the talk about collective effort etc the manner of the fourth goal Spain scored the other night was completely unacceptable. One player against six from a set piece and there’s nothing even approaching a tackle. That was unforgivable.
From talking to a number of professional coaches, I’d say this was about right. The coaches at the club Fitzy jnr plays at have basically given up on the U16’s, as they have too many bad habits. They’re concentrating on the 9’s and 10’s, developing the right way to play and the right attitudes to training etc.
I wasn’t around for the debate on this but if I was:
The “true Irish fans” sat on their laptop’s pontificating about the “plastic Irish fans” signing songs having spent a fortune going abroad to support their country have no idea.
It been said by others already but that wasn’t about approval of the football display it was about pride in our country despite everything.
To TTK especially, look at how it has been reported around the world.
I have a good friend working in Holland at the moment and he said the admiration the Dutch had for the Irish fans after the match was enormous, he said that the dutch commentators bearly uttered a word for the last 5 minutes of the match so the people at home could soak up the atmosphere and singing of the Irish supporters
I think the singing for the Spanish game was fantastic and a great sporting moment. Although I was only in a pub watching it - it was spine-tingling. I think the effort to recreate it for the Italian game was a bit “same again” though. It was a great moment by superb fans and has been noted was picked up on by media around the world. I don’t think we should be trying to recreate it every game …
