Irl versus Spain/Paraguay next!!??

Keep on Trekin

Spain next.
??
Paraguay?

Bring duff to the mid wing

Start with Robbie Keane and Clinton Morrison

Also McAteer and Kelly deserve a shot

But who will replace Harte's dead ball free kicks?

Quigs Snr

It's spain or south africa. Paraquay cannot win the group (1 point only compared to Spain's 6, wheras SA are on 4).

If SA beat spain tomorrow we are playing them. Otherwise it's spain.

Kali

looks like i'll be shouting for quentin fortune tomorrow then

Quigs Snr

Amen to that Kali.

KdjaCL

WHAT???
You would rather see Ireland play SA than Spain.
Come on we have to actually believe in the team now.
I hope we get to play Spain i know we want ireland to win but i would rather do it against big teams.
Bring on Spain.
Kdja

Quigs Snr

I would rather see them play Spain too. However, I'd also like to see them play Italy in the quarter finals also and I reckon theres a better chance of that if SA win tomorrow.

prenton

Why take the difficult route, no other country would rather play a "big" team (Spain) over a "little" team (SA) just to prove we're not scared of anyone. You say now is the time to believe in the team, I do believe but theres a difference in being brave and being fool hardy. Come on SA!!!!!

Saruman

Yeah we drew with Germany who are or were a good team..
incidently i laughed my ass of during the Ireland match.. we had the stats for the Germany - Camaroon match and watching the yellow/red cards clock up was so much phun... almost as good as the 3 goals we scored in our game.. but only almost.. !

Sand

Better hope for a SA win, cos if we play Spain well lose. I dont know how anyone who can be confident of taking on spain given weve not stamped any sort of authority onto any of the matches weve played so far. We made hard work of dealing with Saudia Arabia, the same side Germany beat 8-0 with Jancker up front. Glad weve made it to the second round but if we get Spain thats as far as well get:(

Littletinyman

Originally posted by Keep on Trekin
mid wing

What!?

KdjaCL

The world cup is supposed to be about the best 32 countries no matter who you are you should want to play the best.
There is no easy team now all the teams in the 2nd round have played well at some stage to get there so it doesnt matter who we get.
but i want them to get Spain We have done quite well over the last 2 years in international football, playing and possibly losing to SA would be a waste of all that good work .
bring on Spain a top team.
If we gonna play anyone might as well beat decent top 10 teams.
And if we beat them i hope its Italy next.
Looking for an easy team at this stage is loser talk.
I wouldnt be confident against Spain or Italy but i would like to think Ireland can hold their own against any team.
Dont matter if we lose as long as we play our best against the best.
my €0.02
Kdja

Dustaz

Originally posted by kdja
The world cup is supposed to be about the best 32 countries no matter who you are you should want to play the best.

*bzzt* wrong. Its not about the 32 best countries or there would be no asian teams, 1 african and 3 american teams. Do you really think Saudi Arabia are better than holland?

so it doesnt matter who we get.

Id rather Japan than Italy thanks, home advantage or not

KdjaCL

actually 3 african.
and Holland didnt qualify there fore werent good enough for it.
So yes 32 best teams in the world,saudi didnt have to play Holland twice so dont know if there better or not.
But they did qualify.
Anyway thats my opinion so "bzzt wrong" is uncalled for.
Some ppl may want a "easy " way i would rather a hard way.

kdja

Monkey

Holland are better than Saudi Arabia

PiE

I know Spain are always the WC underachievers but Raul/Morientes will tear Staunton & Breen to shreds.

So come on SA, although we'll probably make a meal out of them like we do all the crappy teams.

And Staunton will take Hartes free kicks, just he wont be shooting. He'll be crossing them in.

Overlord

Well Its hard to know which type of game we would want in the 1/8 finals. Ireland play badly against bad teams but rise to the occasion against better teams. Lets be honest we played stupidly in the first half against Saudi arabia after going one goal ahead.
Backing off letting saudi have the ball without too much resistance, making it as easy as possible for the arabians to get as much confidence as possible. That kind of play will cost us against a mediocre to good side. If we are playing Spain/Italy then we will harry them because the irish team know anything less and we will lose. But if the opposing team are not respected enough by Ireland we tend to sit back on a lead like against saudi today, macedonia in '99 and many other countries. Its a stupid thing to do but WE DO IT and continue to do so. I think Mick McCarthy is doing well as manager at the moment. He made the substitutions at half time that were right and always encouraged more attacking play.
If we can continue to be positive even when we are ahead then we can beat any team.

Dustaz

Originally posted by kdja
actually 3 african.
and Holland didnt qualify there fore werent good enough for it.
So yes 32 best teams in the world,saudi didnt have to play Holland twice so dont know if there better or not.
But they did qualify.
Anyway thats my opinion so "bzzt wrong" is uncalled for.
Some ppl may want a "easy " way i would rather a hard way.

kdja

No kdja, the teams qualify from thier different regions so that there is a spread of teams involved and so that every continent is represented. Do you really think that if qualifying involved intercontinental groups that europe wouldnt dominate? The teams involved are the 32 best teams from thier own regions. not the absolute best 32 in the world.

KdjaCL

Dont mean to be bitchy but looking at some Europeans teams results so far doe leave a lot to be desired
France out without scoring
Poland out ( i thought they would be decent qualified well)
Italy needing to win
England needing to win.
Germany had to win.
Portugal needing to win.
But spain dont.
i am actually the only person who wants to get Spain i dont know anyone else, i just want to see us doing well,i know we are capable of it and i think Overlords post sums it up pretty well.
Kdja

Kenshin

I'm a fan of both Ireland and Spain... and I dont want to see either team lose. I would prefer if Spain lost against SA so that both Ireland and Spain have a chance to get through to the next round...
Oh well, we'll see what happens.

Makaveli

Why would you want a more difficult game? True if you want to win the World Cup eventually you will have to come up against at least one of the top teams but the later on the better IMO.
If we get Spain (and we probably will) I cant see us beating them. Yeah we did well against Portugal and Holland in qualification but I think Spain would beat us.
As for the other little argument going on, I agree with Dustaz, it's not the best 32 teams in the world. If it was it would probably be 29 European teams, Argentina, Brazil and some African nation. We may have seen some upsets but it's quite obvious that there are crap teams in the tournament while better sides didnt qualify because of their group.

Stinkah

Regardless of who we get I'm off to Spain on Sunday morning, and I'm due to arrive an hour before the game. But I'd say there'd be some atmosphere if it were Spain so that's what I'll be kinda hoping for.

Having said this, there is one thing you are all missing out on here.

South Africa have actually done much better than anyone thought - i.e. as good as through without kicking a ball in their third game. Admittedly they're no great shapes, but you can't really afford to dismiss them as if it's a given we'd beat them considering, if we do end up playing them it would mean they have beaten Spain- and that in itself doesn't make sense to me.

I feel that if Spain do win today they may very well be over confident ahead of Sunday... and that would be a right Brucie Bonus for our lads

KdjaCL

As i said "anyone who gets to the 2nd round has played well at some stage to get there".
But you are correct SA have done well.
i think someone posted raul and Morientes agisnt Breen and Staunton.
Look at the Spanish defence Man utd have a quicker back four
And on todays game both teams know they are tru and 2nd plays germany should be an interesting game:)


kdja

Quigs Snr

Yes and Man U also have Van Nistleroy and Ole Gunnar up front (2 natural scorers, we have a winger and an occasional scorer - albeit a very talented one), they also have Beckham, Scholes, Butt and Keane in the middle, wheras anyone who watched the game yesterday will tell you, we didn't have a midfield, everything we did came up the wings.

Kinsella and Holland need to be at their defensive best to stop balls going through the middle to Raul & Co, if they play like they did yesterday it will be embarrassing.

I think, Spain will score against us, it's a question of how many. The real issue is how many we can score against them. Their defence is not that wonderful, they have conceded soft goals in both games so far, and in the case of the paraquay game, were very lucky not to have conceded more.

It will be a good game. I think Spain will have a little too much for us, but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

I agree it would be better to go out to Spain then South Africa, however, I really want to see another Ireland/Italy Quarter Final like in 1990. This time with a different result. That way we will have met the italians in every world cup we have been to.

Sposs

Ireland have nothing to fear if we face spain in the next round,there the great underacheivers at international level and have been going so well i can see them slipping up soon,(sunday to be precise) the pace and trickery of Duff and Keane will skin Nadal and Hierro who are way past it.

KdjaCL

Well its all sorted now .
Bring on Spain
And after watching the match today it looks like sunday will be a great day whatever the result im still happy we got Spain and am looking forward to it.
But for some reason the pure fear i had b4 the Holland and Germany games isnt there.
I think we have a chance of beating them as i said if ireland play their best we into the Qtr finals .
Come on Ireland
Kdja

Quigs Snr

Yeah, watched the match and it confirmed everything I said in an earlier post. Spain will have no problem scoring goals against us, but they will have problems preventing us from scoring goals too.

They have scored 9 times - 3 in each game, and won 3 out of 3. But they have conceded in every game.

It looks to me like Spains front two will be the difference (or perhaps their centre midfield unless holland and kinsella come through for us this time). If we contain the front two or snuff out the service from the middle of the park, then you never know what we might get up the wings. if we can do that, it's anyones game.

Littletinyman

It's going to be an interesting game alright... Raul and Morientes are sure to cancel out any goals left in by that defence though. My prediction: 3-1 to the Spaniards.

Pigman

If I was a betting man (and I am) I'd still predict that we'll be running into our old friend the Portugese in the quarter finals if (when!) we get there.

cournioni

If we pressureise them from the start to the finish I think we can win by 2 goals. My prediction is 3-1 Ireland (and I got all of my predictions right so far in the WC). I know Raúl is a great forward and so is Morientes, but I think we'll make it extremely difficult for them. Our forwards will decapitate their defence. The Spaniards won't be looking forward to Sunday because they know what they are up against.

Littletinyman

Originally posted by PORNAPSTER
Our forwards will decapitate their defence.

That's just silly, you're not allowed to do that.

Molly

Our forwards will decapitate their defence.

I take it you've been watching a different world cup to the rest of us.

Dustaz

Originally posted by PORNAPSTER
My prediction is 3-1 Ireland

roflmfao

You think theyre going to borrow the saudi keeper for the day or something?

imo, the only real chance we have is peno's

Sposs

Whats everyone worried about , we are going to beat spain with ease,they are crap the fact the have a strong national league hides the fact that their national team is crap,abit like England.

Dont be at yourself

Spain will destroy us.

richindub2

2-0 to spain.

BKtje

i gotta agree with the 2-0 to spain result

Molly

They are crap the fact the have a strong national league hides the fact that their national team is crap.

Wish ireland could use an excuse like that.

Keep on Trekin

The Stats are simple

Spain or Brazil have the best forward line in the entire World cup.

Spanish strikers were unhappy about the chances of playing Germany
but happy about the possibility of playing Ireland ( Eurosport.com )
They took delight in the thoughts of goiung against the Irish defence

Spainish Defenders and the Spanish keeper were very unhappy about playing Ireland because Ireland has scored in ever match.

Spain have Scored 9 goals ( 3 per game )
But
Spain have lost 4 goals ( 1 per game )

If Spain were to play a good methodical or concentrated Danish, German, or Sweedish side with a solid back four.
Spain would Fail to progress

I wonder do we have the Strikers to Punish the Spaniards

Sposs

Thanks for the stats keep on trekin,but stats dont win games,and as for the spanish forwards saying they are happy to be playing us,i believe the dutch forwards were saying the same thing last year and look what happened them,i also believe the dutch have far superior strikers than the spanish.

Go On the Boys in Green.

cheeky_monkey

i believe the dutch forwards were saying the same thing last year and look what happened them

so we pray the spanish put 20 shots over/wide? might work. Think of all the prayers that were being said the last 5/10 mins of the Germany game. Not saying we should all hold hands and stare towards the heavens but there's a lot of truth in the owl saying "The luck of the Irish"

That luck was there the day of the Holland game and it was kinda there when Keano scored the other day. There's a mosh of support gone over the last few days to scream their lungs out. If Ireland beat Spain on Saturday it will not be the biggest surprise of the tournament so far.

Ireland are going out to win that game and with a bit of luck I think they will.

JarJar blinks

McCarthy says he won't make any changes, in other words Harte continues.

We must change our team and play Duff Keane and Morrison up front to take the game to the Spanish. Many of the so called "GREAT teams" are on a plane home.

There are only 4 top class teams left in this world cup.

Italy, Brazil, Germany, Spain!!?? It's anyones World Cup including Paraguay or Mexico's.
I do think Harte has been a good player he played well with Portugal and the Netherlands.
This is the most important game of the world cup, change Harte. I think he's got stage fright or else his Heart is not in it.

Some players lack motivation and results at club levels but do Great at the World Cup ( Master Ronaldo, Totto Skilly, Japan's Inamoto, most of the German team ).

Others have done great at club level but Terrible at the World Cup ( Most of the Prtugese team, Zidane, Harte ).

It's simply a matter of priority. Which is most important for a player Playing for Barcelona/Liverpool/Milan or playing for the Country.

For Roy Keane it was playing for Man United.

Molly

Originally posted by Sposs
I also believe the dutch have far superior strikers than the spanish.

I really hope your taking the p*ss.

Kim Tae-Woo

Good point which is more important to a player.

Club
or
Country
?

For Ronaldo it's the country Brazil for Roy it was Man U sh1ted

Sposs

What?moi taking the p*ss.The Spanish have Raul thats it,
The dutch where do i start have Van Nistellrooy,Hasselbaink,Kluivert three strikers who would walk into any team in the world.