He was right too. The whole social media generated “best fans in the world” bollocks deserves scorn
They gave us a trophy for being the best fans in the world. I’m proud of my accomplishment. Don’t take this away from me!!!
The good luck was getting Estonia in the playoff. The only team we were better than.
we were seeded.
People like to rewrite the Trap era. It was a great time.
I know we were seeded. And Estonia were the lowest ranked of the non seeded countries. And with good reason. I don't think we were better than the other non ranked seeds at the time. Maybe on a similar level to some of them.
It was far from a great time. It wasn't terrible either, when you look at the state we're in now.
We were ranked behind Portugal and Croatia in the play offs. We woulda been there or thereabouts against any of the teams. We lost one game in qualifying to russia. We got a bit of luck against Estonia and then dispatched them incredibly easily.
The Trap era was fantastic. Shoulda gone to a WC and qualified for a tournament. We were always competitive.
Euro 2012 was a lot of things but fantastic was absolutely not one of them.
Hungry look shite but Switzerland will give Scotland an absolute runaround.
nobody said it was
I think the Trap era was pretty good.
It's just that when we got to the Euros the wheels were already coming off and then it was a slow painful death for the following campaign.
But overall, they were far from bad years for the Irish team. Jesus, we'd take them now.
John O'Shea successfully broke this Hungary team, you can't say he didn't achieve anything in the 4 games.
If we'd drawn Bosnia or Turkey it would been a lot tougher. Or even Montenegro, who we failed to score against in the two matches of the previous qualifying campaign for the world cup.
I can see the positives Trap brought to the Irish team after the shambolic qualifiers for Euro 2008. Winning that playoff was undoubtedly the best moment for Irish supporters in 10 years. The tournament itself was awful though. I would say however, that even a team with a stronger bunch of players, playing in a more positive fashion would have struggled to get anything out of that group.
Fantastic is not a word I don't think I've ever heard attributed to that period, though. We just didn't play enough football and be more positive when the opportunity was there to win. Italy and France stand out. Despite being reigning world champions, that was one of the worst performing Italian teams in decades. People go on and on about the handball, but as Keano said at the time, France were there for the taking. If we'd try to play some football in the first leg, we might have beat them. They went onto that World Cup and disgraced themselves.
If your complaints of Traps era are that we didn’t beat France and Italy, you’ve unrealistic and ridiculous expectations for Irish football.
Whatever about the results, the trap era football was so boring that I stopped going to Ireland games for a few years. I remember almost falling asleep at home games in croke park, and I don't think I was the only one!
Well you're right in that I should be highlighting the draws against Bulgaria and Montenegro, over the draws against Italy.
Italy went to that world cup, lost to Slovakia and drew with New Zealand and Paraguay.
In the second leg of the playoff against France, Ireland showed they were capable of playing more on the front foot. A performance and style that it has been said, was down to the senior players, not Trap. When he took over he took one look at our squad and decided he was going to play one way. He was incredibly well paid and should have been more felixible in his approach to matches.
Our most exciting performance was probabky the second half away to France and that was because the players decided themselves decided they needed to go for it.
any evidence for that claim?
He was incredibly well paid and should have been more felixible in his approach to matches.
why? He got us to a play off against France and got us to the Euros. Why do something different when what he did worked?
I thought Montenegro were better than us but they should also be used to show he wasn’t great? Pick a lane.
Why? Because we were capable of topping that WC qualifying group if we'd approached some of the games differently. And should have beaten France, and could have if we'd played the home leg as we did in Paris.
the Montenegro talk is kind of pointless. The game at home to them was a dead rubber. We were in the draw for the playoffs already so it was a non game. I was at it. I hope it’s the worst sports event I ever attend.
Expecting us to beat Italy and France is ridiculous.
What happened to your Montenegro argument? On one hand, drawing with them is a disgrace. On the other, we never would have got past them in a play off.
The results and performances of France and Italy at the WC shows that it was a missed opportunity. We were capable of beating both of them.
I never said it was a disgrace not to beat Montenegro. Nor did I say we would never have beaten them in a play off.
To achieve what? Getting to a tournament…. We did it.
I'm still reeling from someone saying the Aaron Aardvark audiobed is an instant skip.
The Littlest Hobo one? It's one of the greatest ever!
Jesus, I'm clearly discussing failing to qualify for the world cup in the first bit.
Croatia now doing their best Gdańsk tribute against Spain
How the turn tables
yes, after taking over the team that lost 5-2 to Cyprus, Trap shoulda played ball. That makes sense
As I said, you play what's in front of you. The chance of qualifying for world cup doesn't come around very often.
That team that lost to Cyprus was managed by a novice manager who never should have got the job. Other than a brief stint at the mighty Darlington, he never managed again. Trap won multiple leagues and European Cups.
Trap won multiple leagues and European Cups.
Exactly. I reckon he knows best
Knows how to manage a team better than Steve Staunton, yes. As do many others
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https://www.balls.ie/football/france-vs-ireland-2009-359852
