New thread as the last thread seems to be broken.
the people trying to say it wasn’t that bad or wasn’t that worst than other regimes do him no favours as they just get responses that showed how much worst than every other regime we’ve ever had.
Do yellow card accumulations cause bans for the play offs?
We went 14 months (7 matches) without scoring a goal under SK - from his second to eight match. The signs were there early on. He would have been devastated at how it all turned out but football doesn't give much room for sentimentality.
Kenny’s team went 7 games without scoring a goal. Didn’t get the sack.
Didn't we set some record for consecutive games without scoring ?
That was the closest I ever came to total apathy for Ireland. At least when Stan was useless you knew there was a team there if he would fuk off and with Kenny I liked the kids coming through despite the results. But that weird team of journeyman had some lads I actively hated and seeing Jeff Hendrick and Cyrus Christie would almost have you cheering for the opposition.
Yep we are still living with the aftershock of SK's reign as the ranking position got so bad we are now forced into an away SF tie in the draw on Thursday.
Kenny’s Ireland scored one goal in his first 8 matches. Micks team hadnt that sort of a record. One more goal vs Denmark would have qualified them directly.
And how in the name of Jesus could anyone argue Kenny’s reign did work out without resorting to strong drugs.
why we even have to talk about it I don’t know
Really, for fairness sake, we should've been rolling things all the way back to MON for the playoff, since he's the one whose Nations League campaign actually earned it 😅
We've had some tough times since 2016… great to finally have something a bit more tangibly positive happening. Can enjoy living with hope for the next ~5 months now at least. And from there, who knows.
Most people accept that SK's reign didn't work out.
There are more now trying to rewrite history for Mick's reign, trying to make out that it wasn't that bad and that he would have won the playoff against Slovakia when there was zero evidence he would have done so.
It'd be in Bratislava if we draw them.
Wouldn't mind Slovakia, watching this.
A win makes Bosnia group winners and through automatically leaving the play-offs entirely.
Austria would then fall into the play-offs and into Pot 1. Pushing Poland down to Pot 2 and us into Pot 3.
That times article has bosnia 75th, why would a win put them into pot 2 ahead of us(62 in that times article)?
Its simple assuming we jump Albania we are in Pot 2 currently.
If Macedonia draw or beat Wales
AND Austria draw or beat Bosnia
we stay in Pot 2.
If Wales OR Bosnia get a win we fall to Pot 3.
I was sk sure this is how it would go.
Be 2-1 up and concede in the 96th minute and like always end in a draw.
https://www.balls.ie/football/results-ireland-world-cup-play-off-draw-644558
That Times article is paywalled.
Say if Hungary scored in the 96 min a lot of us would just give up
@mods I’d pin this as the first post since many noobs have questions
So what happens next for the Irish men's team. This does,
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/2025/11/17/world-cup-playoff-draw-what-needs-to-happen-for-ireland-to-make-pot-2-on-thursday/
Its all explained in there
Both on tomorrow
North Macedonia to draw or beat Wales in Wales. Wales are 8/11 favourites to win on Tuesday
Austria to draw or beat Bosnia in Austria. Bosnia are 7/1to win. Match is on Tuesday.
Both results are required for Ireland to be in Pot 2
we want Northern Ireland to lose but no more than usual.
for playoffs purposes tonight: no. Tomorrow.
Are there any fixtures that we want to go out way tonight?
His level is LOI, and he has proved that since he went to back into club football. Nothing wrong with that obviously. He was a fish out of water in senior International football.
A lot of spin going on here regarding SK. Here's the Fifa rankings for the start and end of his reign, the stain that it was.
Ireland Fifa ranking April 2020 was 34.
Ireland Fifa ranking in Nov 2023 was 60.
Kerr had a much better squad of players than SK and while his record was not too bad he still failed to qualify. My point is that while we would all love these home grown managers that have managed in the League of Ireland to be successful they just do not have the qualifications to compete at International Level. It's one thing managing a squad of players but another being tactically astute to get results in International football. HH on the other hand while we have not qualified for anything yet had managed Iceland and Jamaica
his team scored one goal in his first eight games. Martin O’Neill’s tenure ended with a similar record but he got the sack. The fai were skint at the time and gate receipts were good under Kenny so he served a purpose in that way. He brought through Ogbene and Bazunu. All the other players were not up to the level or absolutely obvious to bring through. We dropped about 20 places in our fifa ranking.
It didn’t go well. Let’s move on.
Ireland squandered a lead to Israel twice under Kerr. A one goal lead in Tel Aviv and a two goal lead in Dublin. A win in either one of those rather than a draw and Ireland would have simply needed to not lose the last game v. Switzerland. And the last game v. Switzerland was a remarkably listless and depressing Irish performance considering what was at stake. Second was very doable, but it was completely fumbled.
No doubt "Pot 3" will be the same "Pot 3" reality be damned.
