Losing to France in a world cup qualifier is falling miserably?
Switzerland really fucked Kerr. He lost to them in a Euro campaign one of two competitive losses, the other being a loss to france at home. Henry, Zidane et al went on to win that world cup and we gave them plenty of it. We got a draw in Paris in that campaign. But yeah, he failed miserably
Duff’s one on one…
Done
It was the two Isreal games that did for Kerr. Especially the home game where we blew a 2 nil lead.
The two draws to Israel fucked Kerr over. Conceding in injury time away from home after Clinton Morrison scored for us and then failing to beat them at home after being 2-0 up. That was annoying keeper (Dudu something or other). My recollection is that we were fairly turgid under him, despite having a good squad at the time. Gary Doherty upfront and stuff. He also took friendlies incredibly seriously and didn’t experiment a lot, although I might have that wrong.
Yes mate. Azerbaijan was an even better result because we didnt need to win it cos we’d already fucked our chances in the group. O Neill won games he had to win. Sure you have to win them.
I was at the france match in 2005, roy keane gave an exhibition. He was putting out fires all over the pitch. We really scared them.
Was it andy reid free kick hit the bar?
It’s actually sad thinking of that night and what’s there now.
OK, I accept that MON’s tenure is tainted by his last campaign and I’m probably being a little unfair on him due to that. But fuckin hell the football was practical at best. He routinely talked down the player’s ability and was fairly negative in general.
There were some good results such as Austria away and Wales away but they were always smash and grab, like Germany away and at home. We had absolutely no control whatsoever over any of those games, none. We were completely at the mercy of the opposition whether they’d score or not, it was backs against the wall stuff and in fairness we were good at holding out but there was no attempt to try and have any sort of control or foothold in those games. In fairness, Bosnia in the play off games were very decent displays but they were the exception rather than the norm in that usually we were flying by the seat of our pants.
We had control over the game on Saturday night. We had control over the game at home to Portugal, as in they were still in possession more than us but we had a foothold in the game and had the ability to keep the ball for decent spells at times and carried a threat going forward. We had control over the game v Ukraine in Poland. We had control over the home game v Scotland.
This is what is key. Development of a style whereby we can have a proper foothold and a sense of control in the game while defending soundly (yet to get this right) and carrying a threat going forward (that was never there but is really starting to bed in now)
The media turned on him very early. I remember there was a negative reaction to a nil all draw with world champions brazil. Dunphy hated him
Kilbane actually partnered him in CM that day I think. Both of them never stopped getting in the face of the French if i remember correctly
Bosnia away first leg, night of the Bataclan massacre, take it away Mr George Hamilton:
“Out of the fog comes clarity…clarity in the shape of a precious away goal from the left foot of Robbie Brady.”
I was listening to George commentating on the U21 game on Friday night and I concluded that he should be reinstated as main senior international commentator immediately. Even though he’s been on the wane for a few years, he’s a different class to Maloney, Curran et al.
Yeah it was a 4-4-2 with Reid on the right and Duff on the left. France had Vieira, Makele and Zidane by comparison
We just got beat by a midfield of John McGinn and Scott fucking mcTominay
Kerr failed miserably because the generation we had that got us within a couple of penalty kicks of the quarter-finals in 2002 was now at its peak and should have been kicking on. The results were not good enough, the tactics were both negative and naive and the performances were desperate. In qualifiers under Kerr, Ireland pulled out one decent performance in Paris against a French team without Zidane which was a rabble under a coach who hadn’t a clue what he was doing and had precisely zero to do with them reaching the World Cup final, a tournament in which a core group of experienced players took charge.
Every other big game, the performances were desperate.
Kerr tried to cover up failure by pointing to meaningless friendly results. He wasted the best years of that generation.
Was it not Reid up front? Think he came on for Clinton Morrison in the first hald and played up top with Robbie and played well
Pretty sure France had none of those lads mentioned either. Dacourt and some nobody started midfield for them. the big guns were back when we played them the following year
No, morrison played most of the match up top with robbie. Robbie played him in for a chance when we were on top early
This was September 2005. We drew nil all in Paris earlier in the campaign
This is against the best midfield in the world and you’ve lads, irish lads, who don’t rate him
Should be ashamed of yourselves.
We’ll never have the like of him again
I mostly agree with this. There was a period in ONeill’s tenure where results that had been achieved through basic defensive organisation allied to a bit of luck had built up the confidence of players to a level where they actually started to play a bit and the football became watchable. This period ran from the Bosnia play-offs in November 2015 to the Austria away game in November 2016. Brady and Hendrick were in the best period of their careers, Walters was still doing it, McClean was in his best period, Coleman was in his pomp and Duffy had emerged.
Coleman’s injury against Wales was the beginning of the end, Walters started breaking down, the form of Brady and Hendrick started waning, O’Neill retreated into a caricature of himself, the whole thing started stagnating pretty quickly. The team had become a caricature by the time of the Denmark play-offs. O’Neill should have gone after the 5-1.
Mick’s second tenure was always destined to be a desperate repackaging of the methods of the late O’Neill tenure by nature of him only being given a contract for 18 months.
Kenny to me is the inverse of Kerr. Kerr was constantly papering over cracks with friendly results and pointing to them. All the while the rot was setting in underneath. Kenny’s results have not been good and his first year was a disaster but since summer 2021, underneath those bare results he has been building something decent and for the longer term, there’s currently a feel of Mick McCarthy’s first tenure circa late 1997-early 1998 about it. There’s a real investment by him in the future of the team. Mick’s first tenure took time to blossom and so will this. The direction of travel is what matters. The direction of travel is currently reasonably positive.
Line ups for the 0-0 in Paris in 2004:
France: Barthez, Gallas, Squillaci, Givet, Silvestre, Wiltord, Mavuba, Dacourt (Diarra 64), Pires, Cisse (Govou 82), Henry.
Subs Not Used: Boumsong, Evra, Zebina, Luyindula, Coupet.
Booked: Mavuba.
Rep of Ireland: Given, Carr, O’Brien, Cunningham, O’Shea, Finnan, Roy Keane, Kilbane, Duff, Robbie Keane, Morrison (Reid 40).
Subs Not Used: Breen, Holland, Kavanagh, Miller, Kenny, Doherty.
Whatever and which… switzerland have been fucking us for a generation
A friend of mine won a Champions League with Cork City in Football Manager 2020. Lee O’ Connor was the stalwart club captain.