Can we defeat the dutch ?

Bounty Hunter

Prediction time
do you believe we can win the crucial group decider ?

Unfortunatly i reckon not they look too strong, but we will get the point we need to guarantee a playoff place.

---

Sometimes I think the surest sign that inteligent life exists elsewhere is that none of it has tried to contact us

Bard

tough one to call, that... and tickets sold out for it faster than I've ever seen any tickets sell for an Ireland match (I didn't get any ... DAMN! - I'll just have to watch it on the big screen in the pub while I pull pints @ work )

If pushed, I'll make a guess and say we'll scrape a 1-0 victory...

plastic membrane

Its going to be a tough, nervous match. I think we'll scrape a score draw if Robbie is on form (Please Robbie, be on form !), since we have Stan "Why havent my legs fallen off, im so old" Staunton and Richard "Playing for that master of tight defense play, Kevin Keegan" Dunne in the centre..

---

Who is The Beefy King ?

---

Owing to an administrative error, the Pope had been replaced by Lemmy from Moterhead...

Dustaz

we wont win. Even a draw is asking a lot. We have no strikers on form, where are the goals coming from ?

Farls

The Dutch will take it i'd say their far too strong is every area, but for some reason they don't gel well as a team i watched the end of their game against England when the Ireland/Croatia match was over and they struggled the only way Ireland have a hope is if they can get some high balls into the box and sneak a goal then batton down the hatches at the back. I can't for the life of me understand why Clinton Morrison was sent back to the under 21 set up...like whats the story Mick?

Farls

---

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dustaz:
where are the goals coming from ?</font>

either of the Keanes... or possibly Niall Quinn getting his record-breaker.

the fnj

The only realistic chance we have is to grab an early goal and then batton down the hatches. Otherwise the Dutch attack will make monkeys of us.

3 nil to Holland.

TwoShedsJackson

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bard:
either of the Keanes... or possibly Niall Quinn getting his record-breaker.</font>

hahahahahahahha - Roy Keane maybe, but Robbie couldn't score in a brothel at the moment, and Quinn is never going to score for Ireland again - there's a hex on him at this stage

jaarius

its tough to call. ireland at home means little because landsdown isnt exactly a fortress so i dont think that'll count for much. if stan dosnt do his usual groucho marx type defending we might not get a spanking. althought i really think thats there nobody on the team that'll be able to deal with ruud van n.

if we were to go on the english performance, the dutch seem quite happy to leave all the defending to stam so we might catch them.

overall i would say a draw.


j

---

"Why not put the match in a shark tank, with real live sharks, hungry sharks, and the only way to beat your
opponent is to stuff them down a shark's throat and pin a shark".
-Kurt Angle to Lilian Garcia

Bard

Yep- over 2 years unbeaten in Landsdowne Road - s'gotta count for somethin'! Like it/Believe it or not, there's always an advantage of sorts in playing at home in soccer.

- and the tickets sold out, to the best of my knowledge, in a few hours on the day they went on sale. The place will be packed solid with supporters- not a free seat in the house... and most of those supporters Irish.

G'wan the lads!

I still say 1-0 to Ireland ...

---

Bard

---

'First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

Discoballpaul

Realistically, I still thing we're screwed. Scoring should not be a problem as our midfield usually comes up with the goods when they're needed but did anyone see the English match - they were absolutely shredded. Holland won at a canter

ButcherOfNog

things in our favor
1) we're at home
2) dutch really need to win

i think we'll go ahead 1-0, the dutch will commit too many forward and we'll go 2-0 up just after half-time ... then as time moves on we'll start dropping deep, and concede 2-1, then we'll drop deeper, and concede again 2-2, then mick will bring on Carsley, and we'll go 2-3 down and lose the game.

i hope i'm wrong

Xterminator

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Discoballpaul:
Realistically, I still thing we're screwed....did anyone see the English match - they were absolutely shredded. Holland won at a canter</font>

That was the same night we played the highly rated croatians off the pitch (never mind the result).

Besides we'd hammer the English team too at the moment.

The Dutch looked world beaters against the English, but our midfield will be able to prevent the freeflowing stuff, and make it hard work for the Dutch.
We WILL need a large slice of luck, but we could sneak it!

X

---

"Man, you go through life, you try to be nice to people, you struggle against the urge to punch ‘em in the face, and for what?! For some pimply little puke to treat you like dirt unless you're on a team. Well I'm better than dirt ... well most kinds of dirt. I mean, not that fancy, store-bought dirt. That stuff’s loaded with nutrients. I …I can't compete with that stuff."
-Moe Szyslak

[This message has been edited by Xterminator (edited 22-08-2001).]

WhiteWashMan

ireland to lose 4 nil.
dutch are far too strong and ireland cant play to save their lives at the moment.
last match against croatia we threw away another 2 goal lead just like against holland. we should have won that one, and again, our bad form in early games will go against us at the end of the campaign.

---

your Dungeon Is Full Of Yoghurt.....

leeroybrown

We'll have to play very well then I think its up to the Dutch.

If they play well the extra ability and class they have will defeat us. If not, we all know the way the Dutch can often give matches away.

---

"I'd rather have a bottle infront of me than a frontal lobotamy"

G

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WhiteWashMan:

last match against croatia we threw away another 2 goal lead just like against holland. we should have won that one, and again, our bad form in early games will go against us at the end of the campaign.

</font>

yeah we should have one that but it was only a friendly and Mick threw on a lot of newbies in the second half. call me optimistic but I think we can beat them. If we can snatch two draws v Portugal & Holland we can win @ home.

WhiteWashMan

you can only ride your luck for so long.
think of all the games that ireland have drawn against holland and portugal and even the last campaign.
a lot of them were pretty lucky. its been a while since ireland gave a performance that looked solid and accomplished. ireland always look like a bunch of school kids who play playground football when they play against strong teams.

gandalf

It all depends really on who gets the 1st goal and when that goal is scored.

If the dutch score early we are screwed they will fire a few more in. If we get one early then the pressure on the dutch may tell (they seem to crack under pressure) and we could do the business if we keep it tight in the midfield.

This is one match that McCarthy cannot use that idiot Kennedy or that lightweight Connolly in. As for Morrison I was not impressed with his debut, I felt he was not prepared to track back and close people down. Quinn is an asset once we have a striker that can feed off him properly, all Robbie Keane needs is to get a goal and get his confidence going again.

I feel that this match is too close to call and I will be watching it thru my fingers as well!!!

Gandalf.

[This message has been edited by gandalf (edited 22-08-2001).]

dogberry

Things are not looking good, Robbie Keane wasn't trusted to be let off the bench last night against Arsenal. If Ireland play out of their skins, they may just scrape a draw, though be warned if McCarthy persists with that Kennedy fella....we're doomed.

I have a premonition of watching this match through my fingers again.....3-1 to Holland

TwoShedsJackson

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by jaarius:
its tough to call. ireland at home means little because landsdown isnt exactly a fortress so i dont think that'll count for much. </font>

I wouldn't agree with that - we haven't lost at Lansdowne Road in nearly a couple of years now, and we usually do well there - it's one of the few things on our side for this game.

jaarius

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Castor Troy:

I wouldn't agree with that - we haven't lost at Lansdowne Road in nearly a couple of years now, and we usually do well there - it's one of the few things on our side for this game.</font>

oh i wont deny that we have a decent track record at home. what i was saying, was that the dutch are hardly going to being affraid of the irish in our own back yard.

there are a couple of things that could go our way. if robbie keeps to the basics and dosnt try to score the goal of his carrier every time he plays. if we get an early goal they dutch might break. they have been known to start crying when things go pearshaped. if mick picks solid players i.e. NOT KENNEDY! i know mick loves the guy but c'mon!


j

---

"Why not put the match in a shark tank, with real live sharks, hungry sharks, and the only way to beat your
opponent is to stuff them down a shark's throat and pin a shark".
-Kurt Angle to Lilian Garcia

Dont be at yourself

I reckon we'll get a very close match, it could go either way but I'll go for a 1-0 win to Ireland.

Its going to be difficult though, especially with Kinsella missing. The dutch are very creative in the centre and Keano may not be able to cope

The dutch do have a dodgy defence though (more so than ours) and with a bit of luck we can get a goal or two.

---

Rich dans les Dublin a Douze, c'est les poof de la grande. Magnifique.

Maiow.

Vokes

Lineup Prediction:

GK - Given
DL - Harte
DR - Kelly
DC - Staunton
DC - Dunne
ML - Kilbane
MR - Duff
MC - Roy Keane (may be injured now)
MC - Holland
FW - Quinn
FW - Robbie Keane

Augmerson

It looks like a good team sofaking-but I seriously doubt Keane will make the match. I just saw the news on TV3 "Ireland hope for a draw"...Why arent we hoping for a win? I know its not very realistic but I'm sick of the pessimistic attitude in irish Football. Why should we be hoping for a play-off situation when we have a team that COULD OF won the group! its ridicolous!

Ireland could have beaten the Dutch the first time. We did well drawing aganst the Portugese. We CAN beat the dutch-the men have the skill but its not there in another way. Its almost a part of us now to hope for a play-off situation-im sick of it.

Vokes

but a play off is all we can hope for cos you cant seriously expect portugal to draw/lose against estonia and cyprus

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Unfortunatley I think our best series of WC qualification games in our history, will come unstuck right @ the death. The only thing I think that can save us, is our ability to motivate ourselves against the big teams.

My Heart Says Ireland
but the Noggin..... Holland

OH & BTW if theres any any shite out of Alex Ferguson along the lines of "Keanes got a bit of a niggle, We Wouldn't want to risk him", I'll stick that Red Devils poker so far up his arse.... Well you get the picture:d

---

80p.
SAVE CHIP !!

Supercell

2-1 Holland win

Gameplan..we score first, concede a soft goal just after half time..they score with 3 mins to go

Bounty Hunter

Call it blind faith as im going ignore all you disbelievers i believe ireland will draw and make it to the playoffs after being undefeated in the group of death.

some achievment that

---

Sometimes I think the surest sign that inteligent life exists elsewhere is that none of it has tried to contact us

Winning Hand

Looking at the trends offered by the bookies
http://news.surreysports.com/article.asp?ARTICLE=58293&club=sky

makes for some interesting reading, 2-2 draw is my bet, ireland being 2-0 up at the 70 min mark with some jammy dutch defender scoring from a corner, and at the 85 min mark conceding a dodgy penalty

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Goalcast
Roy Keane first goal/Holland 1-0 win 50/1
</font>

Indeed

Vokes

Latest news i hear is that Kelly is to play at left full if Harte doesnt make it

plastic membrane

Just so ya know : Ireland (if we get there) have drawn the third best Asian team in the playoffs. Which means, i think, Saudi Arabia, China or Iraq (ha, ha..take it Saddam !).

---

Who is The Beefy King ?

---

Owing to an administrative error, the Pope had been replaced by Lemmy from Moterhead...

[This message has been edited by plastic membrane (edited 31-08-2001).]

Tusky

yeah and the bloody anoying thing is islane is on same day!!!!!!!!!!!i got tickets for both!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

---

"A Master vampire that can walk in day light.....unstopable...unless we stop him!" from John Carpenters Vampires

shanimal

I predict 2-1 for the Green. Any chance that Morrison comes on as a substitute striker for Quinn in the 2nd half? If he does I say he gets the game winner!

shanimal

Ireland 1 Holland 0

Bring on the 3rd place Asians!!!!

Augmerson

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dustaz:
we wont win. Even a draw is asking a lot. We have no strikers on form, where are the goals coming from ?</font>

Id say your flucking raging you capitalist scumbag

IRELAND 1 HOLLAND 0

GWAN IRELAND!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave

Was a great game.

WAN IRELAND!!

-Dave

Miguel_Sanchez

ONE - NIL!!! ONE - NIL!!! ONE - NIL!!!

Oooonnnneeeeee - NiiiilllllllllL!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh sure it's a great day to be Irish!

It's great to read back through all the predictions and have them be so wrong. I thought we'd lose it alright - especially in the first ten minutes or so.

GREAT STUFF!!!! - brilliant, brilliant game

---

You can imagine where it goes from here. --- He fixes the cable?

[This message has been edited by Jeff_Lebowski (edited 01-09-2001).]

Ronan|Raven

Wan the Irish I never had such a nerve rwcking 20 mins in my life now only the germany match to go wan the germans

Augmerson

Did I mention..

Ireland 1 Holland 0

So now we secured a place in the Play-offs. And from what I hear-a play-off against an Asian team?

Now theres 2 Asian groups. A and B, A contains Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Thailand and Bahrain.

B contains the United Arab Emirates, the peoples republic of China, Qatar, Uzbekistan and finally Oman.

Actually-

The nine runners-up of UEFA will be put into one pot. Four European play-off pairings (home and away) will be drawn. The winners qualify for the final competition. The remaining European runner-up will contest a home-and-away play-off against the third-placed AFC team. That winner will also qualify for the final competition.



[This message has been edited by Augmerson (edited 01-09-2001).]

Atomic Pineapple

C'MON THE BOYS IN GREEN!
1-0
Ten Men
Korea and Japan , prepare for the invasion of the green Army!
I am definatly heading over , i mean c'mon if we can beat holland with ten men , we can surely make it through the play offs.
Who else is gonna head over when we make it through?

---

«Donal|R

the fnj

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by The FANJ:


3 nil to Holland.</font>

Well they sure showed me!

DemonBaby

How much is a pint of beer in Japan/Korea?
How much is accomadation?
You think any of us can afford to go?.
Anyone know the price of a big mac in Japan?
I reckon its an obscene amount
But those Asian women....
anyway I'm getting sidetracked.
Nemeis

Vokes

price of a pint = around £5 i heard

Vokes

it had to be the greatest ireland game ive seen since the italy match in '94.

keane was immense as was staunton and whatever doubts i had about duff before are surely gone now - did ya see when he was on his own up front near the end and he turned stam inside out and waltzed around 3 or 4 players before they fouled him - i tell ya it coulda been pele himself wearing a green no.9 today!

well done to keane for winning man of the match but for me man of the match has to go to gary kelly - did ya see the way he neutralised the single biggest threat to irelands world cup hopes. kelly's a smart man, he knew the only way that ireland were gonna win was to take out overmars and jaysus, did he take him out...

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bentonio:
yeah and the bloody anoying thing is islane is on same day!!!!!!!!!!!i got tickets for both!!!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

</font>

I've heard that RTÉ (god bless their little cotton socks) have arranged to have the second half of the match shown on the big screens in Slane.

Best of both worlds yiz bastids

--- and yeah, if Ireland don't lose today, they've got a pretty good chance of at least going to the playoffs. If they do go to the playoffs they'll be meeting the 3rd Asian team - which, as far as I'm concerned, means IRELAND ARE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP! (wahey!)

---

Bard

---

'First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'

Farls

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by SofaKing:
gary kelly - did ya see the way he neutralised the single biggest threat to irelands world cup hopes. kelly's a smart man, he knew the only way that ireland were gonna win was to take out overmars and jaysus, did he take him out...</font>

I'm still LMFAO at that statement.... absolute class Overmars was really the only threat on that left flank and Kelly sure as hell welecomed him to Ireland as did Keane...hehehe...plyd man

Farls

Dustaz

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dustaz:
we wont win. Even a draw is asking a lot. We have no strikers on form, where are the goals coming from ?</font>

Yum yum, these words are tasty. MMmmmmm.

good god i still dont believe it.
WANWANWANWANWANWANWEANWANWANWANWANWANWANWAN

Bard

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Castor Troy:

hahahahahahahha - Roy Keane maybe, but Robbie couldn't score in a brothel at the moment

</font>

Most of the players, Robbie Keane in particular, had the game of their lives out there. Keane came close to scoring on a number of occasions and himself and Quinn were still our strongest scoring possibilities. Keane played an absolute blinder, getting in more excellent tackles and covering more ground than anyone else, from what I could see, and fully deserved the Man of the Match award that he didn't get.

Good work young football playing fella!

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted 21-08-2001 11:42 PM by Bard:
tough one to call, that... and tickets sold out for it faster than I've ever seen any tickets sell for an Ireland match (I didn't get any ... DAMN! - I'll just have to watch it on the big screen in the pub while I pull pints @ work )
</font>

Watch it on the big screen in work I did... and the place went absolutely f3cking BALLISTIC...

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted 21-08-2001 11:42 PM by Bard:

If pushed, I'll make a guess and say we'll scrape a 1-0 victory...</font>

hate to say it, but... *cough* ... I WAS RIGHT

What a pity I didn't lay a bet on - I'd say the odds wouldn't have been too bad. Friend of mine (other barman) lost a tenner betting on a 0-0 draw.

Speaking of betting though- wonder what the odds were for England to beat Germany 5 - 1 ?... (and no, we'll never hear the end of THAT one!)

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by DemonBaby:
But those Asian women....
</font>

Pack bags lads, let's gooooooooooo!

---

Bard

---

'First motorbike in the bible ???? ---- a Triumph --- 'Yea verily Moses struck down the ammmanites and all the land heard the roar of his triumph !!!'


[This message has been edited by Bard (edited 02-09-2001).]

plastic membrane

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bard:
Watch it on the big screen in work I did... and the place went absolutely f3cking BALLISTIC...
</font>

Rocky's Bar in Castlebar. Never been to anything with more atmosphere, more tension, more heart palpatations, more ELECTRICITY, in my life. Ballistic doesnt even begin to describe it. It was a great day indeed. Well done to the boys, roll on Iraq, where we can kick Saddams booty and tear him a new back passage..

---

Who is The Beefy King ?

---

Owing to an administrative error, the Pope had been replaced by Lemmy from Moterhead...

Vokes

just realised i made a mistake before about overmars. just found out from reading mondays newspapers that overmars wasnt injured, he just went off for treatment and couldve continued playing... man that van gaal is stoopid...what did he take off his best player for???

WhiteWashMan

its good to eat humble pie
although i missd the goal, i did arrive in slaine just as it ended.
good to see 60,000 people shouting for ireland and watching fireworks