Massive World Cup Qualifiers Sept. 6th vs Sweden in Dublin, and Sept. 10th vs Austria in Vienna. Provisional squad named today: Forde, Westwood, Randolph, O’Shea, O’Brien, St Ledger, Wilson, Coleman, Kelly, O’Dea, Clark, Dunne, McShane, Whelan, McCarthy,Green, Hendrick, McGeady, Pilkington, McClean, Brady, Meyler, Hoolahan, Long, Keane, Sammon, Walters, Madden, Cox. So pretty much everyone bar Kevin Doyle. Trapattoni will trim it to 23 next week. So what do we need from these two qualifiers? 6 points? Or will a win and a draw be enough to see us into the playoffs?
Why is Doyle still with Wolves? He's never going to get back in the National set up playing League 1 football.
Of the original squad, O'Brien, Kelly, Hendrick and McGeady have withdrawn injured, and David Meyler and Paddy Madden have been placed on the standby list.
Bunch of rumors involving him moving but unfortunately nothing happened. Celtic and Leicester City made bids according to the news.
So Germany are more or less in as they have 16 points. Austria, Sweden and Ireland are on 11 points. Remaining games: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 2:45 ET Republic of Ireland v Sweden 2:45 ET Germany v Austria TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 12:00 ET Kazakhstan v Sweden 2:45 ET Austria v Republic of Ireland FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2013 2:00 ET Sweden v Austria 2:00 ET Germany v Republic of Ireland TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013 2:00 ET Faroe Islands v Austria 2:00 ET Republic of Ireland v Kazakhstan 2:00 ET Sweden v Germany Looking at this schedule, it is definitely doable. But we have to get good results in the next 2 games.
For those of us in the US, good news: 20:45/ 2:45pm Rep. Ireland v Sweden.....GOL-TV The Austria game will also be on Gol TV but tape delay at 6:45pm EST.
Starting Line up announced...would of liked to see Robbie Brady included...but not a bad line-up. Republic of Ireland: Forde, Coleman, Dunne, O'Shea, Wilson, Walters, McCarthy, Whelan, McClean, Keane, Long.
I'm happy with the XI. We need a big result tonight, though. Trap has picked the right team, it's up to the players now. The Aviva is a sellout - should be a great atmosphere! Match live on GolTV in Canada too.
Disastrous result. Why does trap persist with Cox? He doesn't make good substitutions at all, why change the wide men if he is going to lump balls forward. At least bring someone like Hoolahan on to try and get on the ball in midfield.
Gutting loss. Really thought a draw was the worst we would see tonight. And Ireland started so well, but it just got worse and worse as the 90 went on. Think qualification is gone on us now, and so will end the Trapattoni reign.
* Lustig there for the taking. Why wasn't he? * If you're going to play long balls into the box - a valid enough tactic for a game like this - maybe some training ground routines wherein the ball doesn't always end in the hands of the keeper might be an idea? * Too much of side to side play, not enough forward. * The road to the playoffs for Brazil now involve beating Germany. In Germany. I'm already smelling the heroic, Pyrrhic draw.
I can already see the headline story of "The Trappatoni times: Ireland lose by only five goals in heroic showing, Emerald Isle erupts over their heroes showing and states Trap is best manager ever". God I cannot wait to have a new manager, even a vacated position is more appealing at this time.
Tough for Ireland. They needed wins against Austria and Sweden, results they could very well have achieved if they had the composure to keep those games in their favor. Anyways, McClean really caught the eye with a spectacular shot, goalie never saw it coming. I really though that was a smart effort and with some luck, it would have sailed into the net. Keane fought tooth and nail for that goal. He got the crowd going. Problem was, Ireland tried to sit pretty after that, they defended poorly, and then Sweden woke up and got into the game. The balance of the game came to a complete shift early in the second half. The score was still 1-1 and it was after a promising Irish break. McClean found the ball rolling at the edge of the Swedish area, he took a touch, and then fired the ball high and straight at the keeper. It was a disappointing shot. Minutes later, Svensson didn't make the same mistake: he one-timed it, kept it low, and won the game. I got the feeling that, had McClean fired a low, one-timed shot, he would have scored or at least have given Keane a chance to pounce on a rebound. If I had to put the blame for Ireland's loss today on one single thing, then it would be their lack of composure; however, tactics and personnel have their share of identifiable problems, too, and I think those bases are covered by just about everyone else here.
There's room for lots of improvement and I see some promising signs. We'll be qualifying through the back door. Bosnia deserve first place.
This disgusts me. We have the players to be second. This was a relatively easy (as its gonna get in UEFA) qualifying group. We're at home to a Sweden team we've beaten before. And Trap leaves Hoolahan on the bench the entire game and brings on crap like Cox.
Martin O'Neill, Mick McCarthy, and Chris Hughton are linked. Obviously Hughton is not gonna leave Norwich, although he would be my favorite. I think Keane would do a good job, but that is not gonna happen. Out of O'Neill and McCarthy I think I'd rather see O'Neill given a shot.
Christ even Big Bird sounds like an improvement over Trap as things stand. Also, for those of you who haven't had your daily fill of propaganda: http://www.independent.ie/sport/trapattoni-defends-ireland-record-29564790.html