World Cup 2002

Four mistakes actually.

England finished ahead of us in 1990 (we drew lots with Holland - they got the bogey and drew West Germany). We also finished ahead of Italy in 1994 and of course Cameroon in 2002.

Poor effort Rocko.

:lol:

Thought the exact same when I read it. You can imagine him pissing himself with laughter on the top bunk in the hostel dorm as the Canadian backpackers throw their eyes up to heaven.

I still fondly remember “The Jancker Files” segment that Dunphy compiled after the Germany game in 2002.

:lol:

I think you might be overestimating how strong Croatia and Italy are.

I just can’t see us beating any of those 2 unfortunately but you never know. Euro 88 was too long ago for me although we had a serious team then. 3 teams must have gone through from our group in 1990. 1994 was a strong group too. 2002 was a handy enough draw. Good point in the circumstances against Cameroon but they were pretty shit.

The only thing I’m fearful of is Spain giving us a hell of a beating. Think we will give Croatia and Italy a decent battle.

Staunton was a great servant to his country but earned about 20 caps too many. The Walkers Leprechaun was hugely missed on the field during that tournament.

Cameroon were double African Cup of Nations champions at the time and fancied by many to be a serious dark horse in the tournament - they were favoured by most observers to qualify from that group with Germany.

That’s all true but they bottled it completely against the Saudis.

In every game in 2002 we were all over our opponents in the second half (plus extra time against Spain). That’s a tribute to the superb work of Mick McCarthy and Ian Evans in terms of organisation, tactical preparation and physical prearation in the run up to the tournament. Let the facts speak for themselves - In the three games we played against technically superior teams, we ended up completely outplaying them all and but for some bad luck would have first of all won the group and second of all taken out Spain in that tie. The notion that Roy Keane would have propelled the team to the semi-finals is in my view rubbish. It’s more likely he would have thrown a tantrum during the tournament and ruined everything. When he went home the squad banded together even more tightly and the spirit was probably improved. Big Mick got the very last drop out of that squad. Keane wasn’t missed.

:o

Only just noticing that now :lol:

Let the facts speak for themselves is right… :rolleyes:

only one point I could agree with. Big Mick did get the best out of that squad minus Keane.

They would have got nowhere close to the World Cup without him though as the next campaign quickly revealed.

Cameroon, Germany and Spain were all technically superior teams - they were all outplayed by the FAI team in the second half plus extra time where applicable.

These are facts that the anti-McCarthy mob have never quite got their heads around because it doesn’t suit their agenda.

Did you know that it’s a proven fact that Walkers Leprechaun supporters were statistically more likely to be Fianna Fail voters, Sunday Independent readers and purchasers of non-primary residence properties whereas McCarthy supporters were statistically far less likely to engage in any of those activities?

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A tournament of headers and awful goalkeeping.

19 years ago today. Wasn’t there fellas on here trying to claim Keane was poor v Holland?

Not the correct thread for this post. Keane didn’t play in the 2002 World Cup.

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That was a qualifier for the World Cup. Which we would not have qualified for without Roy Keane

Fair enough. Bring the discussion to the 2002 qualifier thread then. He has no place in a thread about the actual world cup.

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Phenomenal. Lads have dug in about Roy Keane. They’ll defend their opinion that he was average to the death