Ireland v Albania [contains score]

kaimera

1-1 after 14 mins

Keane opens scoring but Albania score literally straight from the top off

PiE

Christ this is pathetic.

Why do I always feel depressed while watching Ireland play?

kaimera

expectations are too high?

We're not as good as made out to be

oh...and Kevin Kilbane

Tellox

I am so damn happy I decided to get planetside instead of going to lansdowne road to watch this...

Seriously, Our goal was good, but the goal we left in, horrible. Duff isnt having a great game, and Whenever Connolly gets the ball, he hands it back to the albanians...

StickyMcGinty

nice to see the sea of green and a good start... for 7 mins. the passing is terrible, Kevin Kilbane is terrible and oh, kevin kilbane is terrible! bring on reid. feck sake kerr sort it out this is a joke. their pitch was like a third world countries, and these are a joke of an outfit!

and is keanne gonna pass the ball? there ARE 10 others keano.

connoly is sh1te also, there would want to be an improved performance in the second half or no Euro 2004 for us. Scotland are supposed to be the joke of the UK & Irleand

SantaHoe

So many dives in this match...
"Owww! he touched my bum" *fall over and wait for stretcher*

kaimera

Lee Carsley comming on :rolleyes:

ffs

kaimera

I dont ****ing believe it

og

2-1 Ireland 92 mins

Tellox

Yaarhrghrhghhghhrrrr agagaarrrghh!!!!!!!s viyfg!!!
/me dances

mike65

Jesus! Talk about the luck of the Irish!

Rubbish, and Albania can feel hard done by.

Mike.

PiE

Be proud lads... only took an OG to beat those giants of world football :rolleyes:

Round up 11 (well, maybe keep Given) lads from this board and they'd play better than that shower of overated/overpaid amateurs.

Johnny Gomez

Phew that was close! Well all I can say is that was an average performance with an excellent result.Some of our players were almost non-existent Holland for example oh yeah and Kevin Kilbane and Gary Breen of course.

Bubba

Ireland are so lucky!!!

robbie keane is so rubbish. he should have scored at least twice and he just falls over when he gets the ball.

duff was playing well and he set up alot of chances.

is irelands game on wednesday in landsdowne road???

Emboss

I was reading WWM's journal and I read something about the moany Irish and I was thinking to myself WWM STFU, but as I read this thread I know exactly what he's talking about,

and is keanne gonna pass the ball? There ARE 10 others keano.

does anyone here even play football? I’d love to come and watch some of you, anytime keane decide to set something up i.e. the overhead into space where was the follow-up?

Lee Carsley coming on

kaimera you obviously haven't watch a single Everton game all year, stop ****ing moaning and sit back and admire the silky skills of duff some lovely threaded balls from David, o shea had a great game as did carr kinsella and holland, when Gary came on he did what he does best knocking balls down into space which eventually led to us winning the game, ok it wasn't a great goal to watch, the idea is to get the ball over the line and that's what we did. No ones mentioned the time wasting and abbey acting, 11 men behind the ball Albania, no just slag our own, cop on or at least join a club and try and understand what you’re talking about

mike65

Its sad to hear a decent man (Kerr) talking like a proper
international manager ie full of BULL!

Why don't Irish managers play Duff where he plays best? and if Duff in the middle was the plan then Mark Kennedy should have been deployed on the left.

Mike.

StickyMcGinty

Originally posted by mike65


Why don't Irish managers play Duff where he plays best?

Mike.

and where do you think that is??

gotta play duff on the left and have keane and morisson up frount when he gets back for the russia game. connoly tries hard but is not up for it. keanne had a poor game today, and although he is sometimes magic, misses too many clear cut chances. the back 4, especiall carr and o shea were class except for the brutal marking for the goal. midfield was the problem today, they played 5 in the middle, we played 3. go figure!

4-1-2-1-2 is our best for formation with Holland Sitting ahead in midfield and Kinsella sitting back and mopping up the spills. Reid has to play on the right - and likewise Kennedy has to be put in on the left after a great season with wolves. all in all a sh1te performance today!!

BKtje

i think 4-4-2 is our best formation, we need width. Every team does. Gary Doherty should start on wednesday, we cans tick crosses in for him to win or play the low ball to Keane. You gotta mix it up.

ella minnow pea

Originally posted by PiE


Round up 11 (well, maybe keep Given) lads from this board and they'd play better than that shower of overated/overpaid amateurs.

SWEET JEBUS

i cant stand this sh1te
ffs lads what do you expect, brazil???
pure irish soccer fans, moan moan moan,i think i'll slag off kilbane, moan moan moan, we didn't beat a side that beat russia 7 nil, moan moan
ye barstool managers

what do you expect from a country of 4 million

have you EVER seen any other nation's fans critise their team so much???

ok yeah so it was a bad game but we didnt lose 3 nil and jebus id like to see ye play as well as kinsella some day

robbie keane is rubbish????????? oh yeah he is, jeez he only scored once

i hate this fuppin sh1te i have to listen to every time we play a game

call yourselves "supporters"?! and no i dont mean being the olé olé lets drink anyway brigade, i mean dont CONSTANTLY give out about them ffs

Dampsquid

Only heard it on the radio cos the signal on the TV kept going. They said that just before the goal that Albania should have gotten the ball back from a throw in cos they kicked it out cos one of there guys was injured...

Now we have to cheat to beat someone?

StickyMcGinty

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
i think 4-4-2 is our best formation

4-4-2 is a great aul formation against weaker teams, but against stronger teams you need to be more flexible, like have duff floating between free role behind the frount 2 and on the left hand side sometimes.

StickyMcGinty

Originally posted by Dampsquid
Only heard it on the radio cos the signal on the TV kept going. They said that just before the goal that Albania should have gotten the ball back from a throw in cos they kicked it out cos one of there guys was injured...

Now we have to cheat to beat someone?

they were play actin the whole game, and they should have kicked the ball back earlier to us and didn't. and that incident was 5mins before the goal

Dampsquid

Maybe it was the commentary on Radio 1, but they meantioned ireland not giving the ball back about 20 seconds before the goal.

ferdi

beating albania thu an OG...nice:cool:

Celtic Tiger

All I can say is : let-off. Very poor performance. OMG I'm agreeing with Eamon Dunphy noooooooooooo

mike65

...and where do you think that is??

VinnyL, Duff should always play on the left as you say yourself, that was the point I was making. Souness understands this, so why did'nt McCarthy and why does'nt Kerr?

Mike.

PiE

Originally posted by ella minnow pea
ffs lads what do you expect, brazil???

No, but I expect to be able to criticise my national representatives when they play crap. If you don't agree with that, fuck off to China.

Lennoxschips

John Giles at half time: "I've never seen the free role work"

Well, Johnnie, were the hell were you when the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Maradona were single-handedly (no pun intended) winning World Cups?

kaimera

kaimera you obviously haven't watch a single Everton game all year, stop ****ing moaning and sit back and admire the silky skills of duff some lovely threaded balls from David, o shea had a great game as did carr kinsella and holland,

acourse I didn't watch Everton. No reason to.

Holland did not have a great game. Watch the highlights of the game again.

why do I moan?
I honestly expect us to beat the likes of Albania without the help of a frickin og.

it's not like they are potential Euro 2004 or World Cup 2006 winners.

Given the majority of players we have and the underage teams, Ireland should NOT be struggling against ****e teams like Albania.

StickyMcGinty

Originally posted by mike65
VinnyL, Duff should always play on the left as you say yourself, that was the point I was making. Souness understands this, so why did'nt McCarthy and why does'nt Kerr?

Mike.

yea sorry i didnt deduce that from what ye said.... but he is our best player. Keane has a lot to do to get back on par with him. Kerr knows this and thinks he wont be as effective on the left! pity really!!

hoolio

Ah now Ella,not everyone hates Kilbane,if you were watching it on TV today you could clearly hear a guy in the crowd compliment him on his nice arse while he was taking one of those 'long' throws.

Also did anyone else see Dunphy saying "......****ing stupid!" when they came back after that thing with Brian Kerr setting out formations with biscuits.Whether he meant the reaction in the stadium to the win of the sketch i dont know.I hate those sketches personally,i mean have they EVER been funny?

cournioni

Every single player that started in our midfield today should be left out of the squad for the remainder of the qualifiers. Absolute rubbish.

My midfield...
Reid (RM)
Delap (CM)
Healy (CM)
Duff (LM)

cournioni

Originally posted by hoolio
Also did anyone else see Dunphy saying "......****ing stupid!" when they came back after that thing with Brian Kerr setting out formations with biscuits.Whether he meant the reaction in the stadium to the win of the sketch i dont know.I hate those sketches personally,i mean have they EVER been funny?

Haha... I heard that alright. I think he was commenting on the crowds reaction to a close scrape against a half decent international team. I thought the crowds reaction after the game was a bit stupid myself. Yeah we got three points but we haven't got anywhere yet. We still have to win all of our remaining matches.

Ronan|Raven

Having been there I think the crowds reaction at the end was toatally justified we watched what could have been Liverpool in disguise by our style of play The goal so late on was a major point of releif for everyone as it meant we were right back in the running for a chance of qualification had we drawn we were up that smelly creek without a paddle. The crowd danced and sang for 5 mins big bloody deal I suppose everyone should have stood there and crossed their arms :rolleyes: Every single person knew how crap we were but because people had a laugh at the end of a close lucky victory they are stupid? Ever hear the words relief? Oh why even bother.......

/me fold arms and looks all solemn .. dirty feckers , would never happen if Haughey was in power, him and eamoan grumpy theyd have shown us, none of this happy lo larry lark since Bertie is in power.

ella minnow pea

Originally posted by hoolio
Ah now Ella,not everyone hates Kilbane,if you were watching it on TV today you could clearly hear a guy in the crowd compliment him on his nice arse while he was taking one of those 'long' throws.

dont see it meself
yeah and did ya see the confidence it gave him :rolleyes: we should have girls in the dressing room 5 mins before they go out complimenting them on their arses. Seriously. I mean tis a tough job but i suppose id be up to it, for love of my country n all.
/me sings sé na fianna, all teary eyed loike

Ronan|Raven

One thing though and I dunno if it came across on the tele. when Bertie's anthem came on the stadium errupted in a chorus of jeers and whistles it was priceless lol.

StickyMcGinty

Originally posted by PORNAPSTER
Every single player that started in our midfield today should be left out of the squad for the remainder of the qualifiers. Absolute rubbish.

My midfield...
Reid (RM)
Delap (CM)
Healy (CM)
Duff (LM)

ah that midfield is brutal? who is the hard worker there???


Duff Kinsella Holland Reid


worked well in the World cup, did Holland and Kinsella. Holland is not a wide player!!

irishgeo

did anybody here dunphy swearing on TV. It was just after they back from the break at the ned of the match. Apres match came on and then after that they switched back to the studio and you could clearly hear eammon say "****ing rubbish" and throw his pad down on the desk.

Priceless.

BKtje

Gotta admit i miss missing Dunphy;s reaction but tbh it was justified. Ireland today were fairly rubbish, but tbh i couldnt do better and i doubt much of us could have (no matter what some of you seem to believe). The tactics were all wrong , who has evener heard of a 3 man midfield beatign a 5 man mid? I know top players might be able to but we hardly had that....Holland and Kinsella were both average(again) and Kilbane is hardly inspirational at the best of times altho he does work hard and give his all.

A poster disagreed with me in another thread, but 4-4-2 would have worked much better today. We (almost) lost it in midfield today. Holland and Kinsella had their work cut out for em (especially Holland as he had to cover both mid and right). The Albanians played 3-5-2 ffs with 2 midfielders dropping back a bit. If we had 2 out and out wingers we would have gotten so many crosses in for someone like Doherty to get his head to its unreal. Dont get me wrong, Kerr has done a decent job as Irish manager but he made a fairly big mistake today imo. Mcarthy esque if you will...only he had the luck to get away with it.

ella minnow pea: totally agree with you about the pack of moaners. They moaned with Mccarthy and now they moan with Kerr, neither of which are/were total idiots. I watched my national side almost lose to Ireland in the WC qualifyers. Did my fellow countrymen moan? HELL no, they were happy to get away with it (tho i dont think they did after the qualifyers were over ). Stop moaning and apply for the job yourselves next time. The Irish team is no greta shakes, just be glad we are challenging for the top spot at this stage.

Ronan|Raven

Originally posted by B-K-DzR
The Irish team is no greta shakes, just be glad we are challenging for the top spot at this stage.

Totally agree with you there BK, the 4-3-1-2 just simply imho will not work, yesterday was a prime example of this. The Albanians were able to mop up pretty much everything that was coming through to them.

did anybody here dunphy swearing on TV. It was just after they back from the break at the ned of the match. Apres match came on and then after that they switched back to the studio and you could clearly hear eammon say "****ing rubbish" and throw his pad down on the desk.

Oh how I wish I had seen/heard that. One thing no matter what ya may think of grumpy is that he sure as hell will not bite his lip

ella minnow pea

yeah we'll top the group if we win the rest of our games, woo, and indeed, hoo.
without duff against georgia i'll say he'll revert to 4-4-2, too right that our midfield aint solid enough, maybe (!) holland will improve once he's playing the top flight next year. i'd like to see it as

Given
Carr
Jonno
Kenny
Harte (!) (yeah i know, twould be finnster if he was fit)
Reid
Holland
Carsley
Kilbane
Doherty
Keane

for wednesday coz i think we played well with a tall fella up front the last time against em. my 43 cent.

Mark

LIFE, WHY YOU MOCK MEH!(Weebl and Bob tbh)

I stopped watching the match at 87 minutes in disgust.

I turned off the radio just as sport came on as I was starting me dinner.

I held a conversation with my brother for several minutes about the match in which the score wasnt mentioned.

I started reading this thread at page 2 because I couldnt be arsed clicking back.

And only now I find out...

WE WON?!

knobbles

Originally posted by ella minnow pea
have you EVER seen any other nation's fans critise their team so much???

England are bad, Italy are unbelievable.
Fair enough they're big nations with high expectations but,
believe me, we actually have great supporters.
We certainly were the best supporters at the World Cup last year.
But it was a disapointing performance and they can play better than that.

Switzerland drawing leaves us a great chance of winning the group. 3 wins would guarantee that but 2 wins and a draw in switzerland would be enough if the swiss lost in russia

rollover

was watching the match yesterday like yerselves and a lot of things stood out
-connolly is not up to international standards(he may be top scorer at wimbledon but you need a sharper first touch at international level)
-duff was pressurised into doing too much work via balls from o shea and kilbane..also a lot of ball was played back to given from breen who then played it out to carr to ditribute to keane again..this strategy was predictable and georgia will pick up on things like this if we use the same back 4 against them
-ireland were too reliant on carr playing as a right winger in the 2nd half..o shea played out of position as a cosequence
-reid should have been introduced a lot earlier when it was clear neither kilbane nor connolly were fully match fit and both had inaccurate wayward chances throughout the match
-there was a heavy emphasis on long balls in the 2nd half,deriving predominantly from the right wing(carr)..they should have pursued this strategy from the outset (not from the intro of doherty) or not pursued it at all..instead balls were played ineffectively thro the midfield channels of kilbane and connolly and on more occasions than 1 were intercepted by the albanians..reid,on the left or duff from the start would have given us more options considering neither keane nor doherty nor connolly are left footed
-it is irrelevant whether a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-1-2 formation was employed in this game..the albanian defenders were large,uncompromising and the game relied on short quick passing and dragging those defenders out of position(as duff did,bringing him out to the corner flag on one occasion!)..players like connolly and keane rely on the ball being played to feet to compensate for their lack of height..long balls from carr did not help this situation

sorry if this is too long..just saying what i observed!

StickyMcGinty

does anyone elso think that john o "fu<kin legend" Shea should be given what ever role he wants in the irish team. he looks so comfertable on the ball its unreal. and his versitility is brilliant. defenders never get hyped up as much as the attacking players.

i heard loads about Tare and Skele for Albania, but i heard nothing about Geri Cipi, their best player IMHO

hoolio

We did rely on Carr far too much for some type of attacking option but thats becuase our midfield was made up of workhorses with no real creativity to speak of,and if we are going to play long balls we might as well play wingbacks,Carr on the right,Harte on the left - with less defending to do he could be class.

Basically though yesterday we had three in the midfield,they had five - go figure.They just recognised the dangermen (Duff,Keane) and took them out of the game to a big extent.


And yeah O Shea should be a cornerstone of the defence but he probably is best as a centre half who starts attacks - like Mexes but not a twat.

cournioni

Originally posted by VinnyL
ah that midfield is brutal? who is the hard worker there???


Duff Kinsella Holland Reid


worked well in the World cup, did Holland and Kinsella. Holland is not a wide player!!

*shakes head* Holland and Kinsella are useless. They may not have shown it at the world cup, but after it they have been terrible. Ever notice how Holland and Kinsella go missing for most of the game?

rollover

yeah,o shea should play as a centre back with carr at right back and ideally kenny cunnigham accompanying him at centre back..who at left back tho?

ella minnow pea

*shiver* harte?
i dunno about using finnan there actually coz it aint his natural side and all.
do we have any young fellas coming through in LB?

/edit
yeah cipi stopped keane from scoring twice, really good defensive tackles

BKtje

John O'Shea is a great player but i dont think he has played as well for Ireland yet as he usualy does for Man U. I wonder why this is but im sure he'll be at his best one day (soon) i hope.

I gotta say you man Cipi was their best player by a long way, when they lost him it allowed us to get that lucky goal.
Albania played fairly well and frustrated the Irish very well. The five in midfield really worked for them. (dont know if thats how they play against everyone tho)

ciano

Alot of people winging about the Ireland performance imo. I reckon it wasnt a great display, but it wasnt that bad either. We got the result we so badly needed, and after the way this group has gone so far, the result is really all that matters at the end of the day.

4-4-2 is Irelands best formation, imo. I thought there were a few holes exposed in the formation we played on Saturday. Hopefully Kerr will tighten it up for Wednesday!

C'mon Ireland!!!

jonno

Kerr should be playing Duff on the left and stop with the inventive strategies in an important international. Stick with the solid 4-4-2 unless you have the resources (i.e Zidane) to play a diamond midfield. Play to your strengths and that means Duff playing out wide.

Holland and Kinsella were non-exiatant in the game. We need a midfield shake-up. Carsley had a good game when he appeared. I agree with whoever was saying that Holland and Kinsella aren't our best midfield combination.

Best (fit) Irish team:

Given
Carr
O' Shea
Kenny
Finnan
Reid
Kinsella
Delap/Helay
Duff
Keane
Morrison/Doherty (depending on the opposition's weak spot in defence)

Simple as that 4-4-2 in international footie