It was a great few weeks in 1990
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Great memories, george summed it up beautifully before o Leary’s penalty against Romania at italia 90 with “a nation holds its breath” I was on hols in Carne beach in Wexford watching it in the tv room on the campsite with about 100 others
The shot from donadoni swerved a bit . He probably should have dove better though
What a time that was. I will never forget being in the terrace at the front of the East stand and McCarthy tackled one of the spanish players, think it was Salinas and he put Salinas’s foot through the advertising hoarding right in front of me.
Yeah. I distinctly remember the massive kick the country got out of John Treacys silver, Barry McGuigans world title and the Soccer teams success. Things were generally shit so any bit of success at all was a source of great pride for everyone. That old man crying when O Leary scored the penalty encapsulates it perfectly.
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I remember reading at the time that Donadoni had one of the hardest shots in football at the time. I watched every match in Italia 90.
Apparently he was some famous journalist who had written books about the failure of ireland as a country in the 80s.
Euro 88 was nearly more remarkable. Only 8 teams qualified and we were 9 minutes away from knocking one of the greatest Dutch teams ever and eventual champions out and making the semis.
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I was in Croke Park for Leinster final the day Roche won Tour De France. They announced it and everybody clapping and cheering. It was a far more innocent place.
Ronnie Whelan admitted that going out on the beer cost them, they ran out of legs on the day
Full of booze. There was a previous clip in that show of him propping up the bar.
I think Éire had 3 games in 6 days in Euro 88 . Tans on Sunday ; the commies on Wednesday and Dutch on Saturday
Decent show alright but we didnt get enough from the players — i’d say a lot of them hated jack and there was also a lot of drinking and partying.
Italia 90 is one of the most overrated periods in Irish sport, and Irish culture.
We didn’t win a match for FFS and played in some of the most diabolical matches known to man.
Yeah but everyone loved us.
It was brilliant . There was a wonderful atmosphere in the country .
It kickstarted Ireland Inc.
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I hope you’re messing.
I wouldn’t go that far , although …,
Look Italia 90 was what it was. Our first time in a World Cup, the qualification, the pre tournament buzz, unknown for us at the time. Everyone got caught up in it.
But this endless nostalgia about it is ridiculous. Another programme last night. Particularly when you consider that we failed to win a single match.
Let it go. Let it go.
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Well it’s more about the Charlton era but it was weak on real critique ----
The home qualifier game v Spain was the first game I ever went to.