Republic of Ireland General Discussion Thread 2026

Jesús Christ. It’s an end of season friendly where we haven’t qualified for the World Cup, half the squad have pulled out or were never going to be involved so they could rest/go on holiday. Who else should have been called in?

Canada are miles better than us. Ranked 30th and probably justifiably so. What do you expect!

Canada are woeful (if that's their best team). Don't see them winning a game at the World Cup

What about the standard of team Canada traditionally faces though in CONCACAF?

3 former St Pats players and one current player on the pitch at the end. Excellent work done by our academy and club.

Have to say I couldn't tell what our style of play was, or who it benefitted.

We could have won that match. Just the keeper to beat. I know it's easier said than done and that's the difference of a world class player and someone else. Parrott also should never have stopped for that split second while taking the penalty. Luckily there was someone there to finish it.

I thought the keeper had stepped just off the line when Parrott struck the penalty. Could have been brought back for a re-take if the follow-up wasn't scored. Having said that I prefer not to see any hesitation in a run-up.

I think it’s a hard call. Ideally the event goes ahead in Dublin. The preliminaries start as usual, the players shake hands with the Israeli players as individuals but then walk off the pitch in protest at what the current Israeli government are doing.

That’s what I think should happen but that would need to be meticulously organised and planned and the last thing we would want is any bad behaviour from supporters or hangers on that turn up on the day to just vent spleen and anger. It would need to be organised clandestinely as well because the Israeli players won’t turn up if they got any information that it could happen that way. A proper dignified protest could be arranged but would be difficult to organise and implement. Some people not in the know could make a mess of it.

In the absence of that the match played behind closed doors in a neutral venue would be the least worst option.

I think it's going to be cancelled tbh. I read somewhere over the wkd that the Govt are getting spooked by the whole thing.

Players should refuse to play the match abroad. Either have the balls to play the game in Dublin or not play it at all.

Not playing the game explicitly rewards Israel so it's hard to understand that mentality.

Fair play to the FAI on this one. I had my doubts, but they managed to pull it out of the bag and decide on the absolute worst course of action for everyone here that makes nobody happy.

Well, the "Israel are actually great actually" contrarians will be happy I suppose.