Although they are dead-rubber fixtures, Ireland's final two World Cup Qualifiers mark the beginning of the post-Trapattoni era. Noel King is in charge, and I'm sure he will instruct the players to adopt a more "continental", possession-based approach, with some variation of of 4-5-1/4-3-3 in both matches. Germany will be a backs to the wall job, but I'm actually quite keen to see how we get on at home against the lower-ranked Kazakhs. Big questions about whether Irish players are capable of playing "modern" international football will begin to be answered. And the matches aren't totally meaningless. If we can get, say, 4 points and some other results go our way, Ireland could, remarkably, still be second seeds for Euro 2016 qualifying. Final Irish squad: Forde, Henderson, Elliott, O'Brien, St Ledger, Wilson, Coleman, Kelly, Clark, Delaney, Gibson, Whelan, McCarthy, Green, A Reid, McGeady, Pilkington, McClean, Hoolahan, Long, Keane , Doyle, Stokes.
Has Robbie Keane definitely been called up for this one since the game are close to meaningless and the Galaxy have a big weekend fixture, or did Arena somehow get him to stay in LA this weekend?
Yes, Robbie is definitely in Dublin. Will captain the side if he starts according to King. German squad: Goalkeepers Rene Adler (Hamburger SV), Manuel Neuer (FC Bayern München), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hannover 96) Defenders Jérome Boateng (FC Bayern München), Benedikt Höwedes (FC Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Marcell Jansen (Hamburger SV), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal) Midfielders Julian Draxler (FC Schalke 04), Mario Götze (FC Bayern München), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (FC Bayern München), Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München), Mesut Özil (Arsenal), Sidney Sam(Bayer Leverkusen), André Schürrle (Chelsea), Bastian Schweinsteiger (FC Bayern München) Forwards Max Kruse (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soc...ically-deficient-ireland-in-cologne-1.1555426 Germany obviously expect to thump us, and in fairness it's probably one of those matches where at full time we ask ourselves "what positive can we take from that?" Any lineup predictions? I'll go with ------------------Forde----------------- Coleman, St. Ledger, Clark, Wilson ------------McCarthy, Gibson------------ McGeady-------Reid-----------Pilkington -------------------Keane----------------- Though there are a lot of other possibilities. Dropping Glenn Whelan would be a big call, and both Stokes and Shane Long have a good chance of starting too.
That was very harsh from Low, I suppose he's right but hasn't any respect for us. So remind me again about all the competitions Germany has won since 1996 considering the resources they have, 80 million population etc.
Very strange, very defensive XI for Ireland: Forde, Coleman, Clark, Delaney, Kelly, Gibson, Wilson, Whelan, McCarthy, Doyle, Stokes.
The same with Robbie Keane yesterday. Löw went right onto the field to talk to two of his players who got slight injuries during the game - and that instead of giving shake-hands to the Irish coach. When Löw came back Keane - kinda offended - told Löw what to do and Löw did give a shakehands. The German commentators stressed during the game Irelands good performance but were puzzled by this proud and respect thing that probably could be found only with you guys. Puzzled in the sense of "proud of what?". And Löw just gave his realistic opinion. I cannot see where he was disrespectful. If he'd told the Faroers they'd probably never win the WC, would that have been disrespectful?
He sure was. Bizarre line up, but could see what King was trying to do. 10 men behind the ball with the hopes to catch them on the counter. Not sure why he just didn't go for it. What had he got to lose? Not making any substitutions the whole game, even an armchair coach could see we were crying for a change after the second goal. A lot of the lads looked knackered out there. I thought Stokes had a good game, albeit his finishing let him down on a number of occasions, but he was a far better threat than Keane has been for the past two years. Very disappointing match none the less.
I remember Mick McCarthy saying years ago (before a match against Andorra) that when playing a lower ranked team like Andorra or Kazakhstan, the better side could never win. That was very much the case last night. Ireland were average at best, but it was still a perfectly comfortable win. And it was nice to see us actually try and pass the ball for once.