Never realised the full games were above on Youtube
Ah lovely 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qq1MQMkbms&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juWVwgNSanY
Many thanks chewy
Is it Kinsella who plays long ball in for our goal against Germany? Hard to tell.
Pretty sure it was Finnan
Cool I’m off sick today so might watch the Germany game. Missed it live as I was doing my Leaving Cert, think it was English paper 1, that day.
It was Finnan alright.
Jesus you have a lot of sick days.
well we get 10 of them so we might aswell take them. I have a cert for 3 but will go back tomorrow. Thats commitment right there. Had a late night trip to hospital over the weekend that I’m trying to keep quiet.
Had we no-one better than Gary Kelly to play right side of midfield? Fuck he was limited. Kelly, Kinsella, Holland, Kilbane. Reckon our midfield 4 now is better than that quartet. Finnan is the only one of the back 4 that day that would make the current defence too. If memory serves correct Cunningham was only coming back from injury at the time but Staunton’s selection ahead of him reeked of Big Mick’s job for the boys who supported him in Saipan.
Ah nice one chewy will get stuck into the German and Spanish one in the next few days,we played way.beyond ourselves in both!
You’re doing a great job keeping it quiet by posting about it here.
Gary Kelly was great in 1994, but by 2002 he had lost most of the pace his game was based on and certainly he shouldn’t have been playing in midfield, right back perhaps, but midfield no, not creative enough.
watched it in full there. fuck he was shocking altogether.
The German approach after they went 1-0 up was difficult to fathom. Far too many long balls to Jancker whose performance was Andy Carroll esque. Hamann had a fine second half and Ballack’s class was always evident. super ball for their goal and laid one on a plate for Jancker in the second half too. Schneider was very disappointing. Frings had a fine game at right back as did Finnan for us. But they never really seemed that bothered about getting the second. they never tried to press us too much in possession and we had plenty of space in midfield.
Hard to know if our goal was deserved on the run of play. Duff had a great chance after a flick on by the outstanding Breen. Holland had a decent effort in the first half. But aside from Duff’s best efforts we struggled badly to create anything. Kelly was hopeless on the right and Keane was anonymous until the introduction of Quinn. I thought Holland had a decent game in midfield but Kinsella was well past his best by then. The Walkers Leprechaun was very badly missed in there. Bizarre substitution by big Mick late on, Harte taken off for Reid. Kilbane was fairly hopeless at left back for a late German chance. Harte did alright though should have got goal side for their goal. Arguably Given shouldnt have watched the ball travel that far either.
To be fair we didnt hoof it too much. But as Duff’s influence faded, the Quinn introduction was needed. Some assist for the goal in fairness to him and Keane on a serious goal drought for club and country, as the commentator informed us, tucked away his 11th goal for Ireland superbly.
There was a hilarious few minutes just before the substitutions where the commentator kept saying here comes Clinton Morrison. it was only when Reid ran on that he corrected himself.
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Cunningham was a fine servant to the FAI representative team but Staunton was excellent in that World Cup and fully justified his selection.
He was in his fuck excellent.
Watched the Spain game too. Had forgot Cunningham replaced Staunton early enough in that game.
Spain truly played us off the park for the first hour. In the first hour we couldn’t get close to Valeron but Barraja was the outstanding player on view by a distance. Pity injuries pretty much ruined their careers not long after. Raul too was excellent but should have made the game safe for Spain on a couple of occasions. Enrique disappointed a bit considering he was up against Harte. Harte’s confidence was in pieces at the time.
To our credit we certainly hung in there but were dominated even more than against Germany. Duff only really got going when moved to the right in the second half. Disgraceful dive for the penalty though. Keane looked sharp but again it was only with Quinn’s introduction that he really came into the game. Brave but correct call from the pornstar ref for the second peno. Connolly was lively enough too when he came on.
Finnan again was excellent at right back as was Breen in the centre. Holland decent in midfield. The sight of our lads gamely battling on against vastly superior opponents is hopefully a good omen for the summer.
Spain were a decent side then but nothing like the all conquering side of recent years. Players like Juanfran and De Pedro were fairly ordinary. Albert Luque coming on as sub. Mendieta too who was decent when he came on. They both pretty much gave up on their careers.
It’s sad that the magnificent Raul wasn’t part of their international glory. Think the injury he picked up in our game forced him out of the next round. Think he might have caused trouble behind the scenes in 2006 and Aragones left him out after that. Considering the form of Torres, would be great to see him get a recall. But I guess Del Bosque would have called him up by now if that was going to happen.
The penalty shoot out was fairly mental. Some truly dire ones from both teams. I’m not sure how much more limited the current side is compared to that one. Roy Keane was hugely missed. Kelly, Kilbane, Kinsella, Harte, Staunton were all very limited at that stage of their careers. The likes of Breen and Connolly were second tier club players. Holland had just been relegated with Ipswich. Keane had been through a nightmare season at club and international level. But come tournament time they all pulled through to play above themselves. We will be hoping for the same in June.
It was a worthy reminder of how much space teams are given with the ball in international tournaments with players trying to conserve energy. Unfortunately JOS nor Kelly aren’t as comfortable as Finnan on the ball. Our midfield 2 won’t be any better on the ball than the 2002 vintage. Again maybe having a ball player like Hoolahan in reserve might be worthwhile.
It certainly wasn’t a vintage Irish team but Saudi Arabia were awful, Cameroon bottled it (though that was a decent point) and neither Germany nor Spain were at their best. That was a German team that had lost 5-0 at home to England recently. Still much better than we were but they were certainly no better than Italy are now.
Hopefully we can put on a performance in the summer but this group is on a par with the England-Holland-Russia group we got in Euro 88 and it would be a sensational achievement to finish ahead of two of those teams. We’ve only managed to finish ahead of England twice (once by raffle), Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Norway (only them?) in finals tournaments. Putting two of Croatia, Spain and Italy beneath us would be our best achievement in our international soccer history I think.
Steve Staunton is a true Irish hero who never let his representative international selection down, a warrior - unlike the Walker’s Leprechaun. Mick McCarthy wisely entrusted him with the captaincy and how the veteran rewarded his manager. A fitting final chapter to the Dundalk man’s international career.
Yet another glaring inaccuracy from rocko
I can spot two mistakes there.
I have chosen to ignore Carsten Jancker’s embarrassing contributions to the footballing history of one of my countries.
Hmmm. Italy behind us too in 94?
yeah-hllarious :rolleyes: