[Corholio]

Originally Posted by Felexicon

This means nothing. I'd love to go to all of Irelands games but the price of tickets is crazy.

We probably do have some of the best fans in the world but in no way is this being put forward as a compensation for a poor football team.

I'm thankful that we have produced people with enough common sense that they can go in large numbers and behave in a civilised manner.
I know alot of people say that this should be a given but in reality when you look at other nations fans it is not.

It's the very, very minority that dont behave. It's not really much to say that at least we behave, 95% of other countries do too and sing a lot as well.

[Corholio]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I wouldn't worry too much about our national side being demolished due to domestic league issues. We will continue to produce decent players regardless of how poor our own domestic league is because football is part of our culture and lots of kids still play it as their first sport, even in this obese couch patato age. They will just continue to be picked up by the english clubs at youth level.

I go to all the Ireland games. Have done for my entire life. I watch the epl religiously and have (imo) excellent worldwide footballing knowledge but don't specifically support a club... I tend to root for the team that has the most Irish lads in it. It gives me a better perspective than some of the die-hard supports of english clubs round here. Ireland is sorta like my club. And in my opinion we are fine. A couple bad results doesn't detract from that. We have good young players to replace the guys heading out the door.

And yes, we do have great fans who support their team and very, very rarely boo our own players. Thats fairly uncommon if you speak tp fans of other international teams. Booing is quite common. And I wouldn't worry too much about a couple of empty seats at the Aviva. It's usually full enough. It's worth keeping in mind that most International teams don't fill their stadium and ours is bigger than most, especially when comparing it to our population size.

Decent but not very good right? Good players dont just happen, they have to be coached right. I don't think there's a whole lot of very good young players coming through to be honest, and definitely not that many to replace some of the current better ones. It's too easy to say there will always be players coming through, have you not seen the state of our current national team?

[Kirby]

This is part of the problem with the modern football fan. Overreaction. We lose a couple of games against superior opposition and the sky is falling. We have good young players coming through. Westwood will replace Given, Clarke will replace Dunne or if not Clarke perhaps Duffy. James McCarthy is, in my opinion, a much better player than Whelan so that is a trade upwards. McClean is seen as the replacement for Duff and while Keane and Doyle are getting on a bit, Cox, Walters and Long are hardly OAP's are they? I also quite rate Pilkington and hope to see him in the squad soon.

Relax.

[Kirby]

I would also like to remind people or our recent results. It's not just about a 4-0 spanking to spain. We beat the italians comfortably last summer. We got a draw away to Russia. Nobody does that.

We drew with the Czech's a few months back. We beat the highly rated Bosnian's in the last friendly before the tourney.....many would consider them better team than us and they rarely troubled us. It was their first 11 aswell.

We are a decent team now and with better selection from trap, will continue to be a decent team in the future.

[Renn]

Originally Posted by Kirby

We beat the italians comfortably last summer.

21 (1) shots, 68% possession, nothing comfortable about that game.

We got a draw away to Russia. Nobody does that.

24 (10) shots, 62% possession, and other teams have performed much better away than Ireland (but didn't get a result, true). Slovakia beat them 0-1 fwiw.

We drew with the Czech's a few months back.

20 (5) shots, 60% possession, fortunate to come away with a draw.



Just a reminder of how we play against decent teams.

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by Renn

21 (1) shots, 68% possession, nothing comfortable about that game..

You obviously looked up the stats because you didn't see the game against Italy. The last minute goal flattered us but for all their possession, they didn't score and never looked like scoring.

Originally Posted by Renn

20 (5) shots, 60% possession, fortunate to come away with a draw.

Rubbish. I was at that game and we played well. It was one of Cox's better performance for us. When he came on, he was dangerous every time he had the ball. It was also McCleans debut if memory serves.

Football is a results business and while we were lucky against the Russians, we well deserved the other results I listed.

[seanmc1980]

Originally Posted by Felexicon

This means nothing. I'd love to go to all of Irelands games but the price of tickets is crazy.
.

20 buck is hardly crazy???? lazy arm chair fan

[Kirby]

To be fair, it's 20 for a friendly......but 45-50 for a competitive match. It's not cheap. I pay it but it's not cheap.

[ScienceNerd]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I would also like to remind people or our recent results. It's not just about a 4-0 spanking to spain. We beat the italians comfortably last summer. We got a draw away to Russia. Nobody does that.

We drew with the Czech's a few months back. We beat the highly rated Bosnian's in the last friendly before the tourney.....many would consider them better team than us and they rarely troubled us. It was their first 11 aswell.

We are a decent team now and with better selection from trap, will continue to be a decent team in the future.

With the exception of the Russia game they're all friendlies though, are they not? Friendly results don't mean nearly as much as competitive imo.

[Felexicon]

Originally Posted by seanmc1980

20 buck is hardly crazy???? lazy arm chair fan

Cool. Well I'll just call over to you to collect my ticket every time there's a game since money is no issue to you.

Also wtf is a buck?

[super_furry]

Can't believe Delaney begging UEFA to give us a reward for singing at the end of the game. Embarrassing.

[Felexicon]

Originally Posted by super_furry

Can't believe Delaney begging UEFA to give us a reward for singing at the end of the game. Embarrassing.

Is he? When was this?

[nuxxx]

Facepalm.jpg @ Delaney if true. Thats embarassing

[super_furry]

Originally Posted by Felexicon

Is he? When was this?

http://www.balls.ie/2012/06/16/sober...-ireland-fans/

He appears to be sober but you never know.

[TheBuilder]

Originally Posted by seanmc1980

20 buck is hardly crazy???? lazy arm chair fan

I really hope this is sarcasm, albeit a poor attempt at it.

That twenty euros can be better spent if family need it, you don't know people's employment or living situations so anyone that comes out with that needs to take a look at themselves.

People that can go to every single game deserve credit and respect for it, but they also have no right to try and alienate people because they can't go to games.

I hate the idea that people going to games have the divine right to more of an opinion than those that go rarely or not at all.

Edit: can't wait for Keane's view on Delaney asking for recognition!