Ireland: Given, Carr, Cunningham, Dunne, O'Shea, S. Reid, Kavanagh, Duff, A. Reid, Doherty, Robbie Keane. Canada: Hirschfeld, Jazic, DeVos, McKenna, Stalteri, Hastings, Imhof, Bircham, Bent, Peschisolido, Radzinski I won't be around until later (my father and I are going to watch the game with some Canadian friends) so if someone could post score updates here it would be great. The match is live on Sportsnet in Canada. For internet coverage, try BBC 5-live; they carried the Turkey game a couple months ago which was Tuesday, like this one. If not, livescore.com might have to do. Thanks. COME ON YOU BOYS IN GREEN
15 minutes lefts. 2-0 Ireland (Keane & Duff, obviously). Kavanagh went off after 8 minutes with an ankle injury (thanks, Bircham) didn't seem that serious, though. Duff's goal was tremendous, he ran about 75 yards, through their whole defense and then beat the keeper (Andy Reid set up the run). Keane's goal was a little scrappier and barely crossed the line, but it still went in (Reid with the assist again). Canada had a goal on the rebound disallowed due to offisde, but Given made an amazing save just beforehand. Andy Reid was sensational (subbed off after 65 minutes) and in my opiniuon, should easily have cemented his place in the first team by the time the WC qualifiers come about. No Miller, he picked up an injury beforehand. BTW... Keane is 23 and has 17 int'l goals The record is held by Niall Quinn (23 goals, I think) who got there at 35! Keane will shatter that record. AND HE JUST SCORED AGAIN AS I TYPE THIS! A TAP IN! MAKE THAT 18 INT'L GOALS! So, in a funny turn of events, centre-mid, our weakspot is now quite a strong spot for us, and probably our depest position. FYI, we have Holland, Kinsella, Miller, Kavanagh, Reid, Delap & Carsley/McPhail (they're very peripheral, though) BTW... Andy Reid was just named man of the match. This guy REALLY is that creative spark we needed. And a little tidbit is that he is being rumoured to move to Birmingham from Forest in January 5 minutes left... Kilbane on for Duff, O'Shea off with Thompson taking his place (and making his debut).
I thought, for a 3-0 win, it was a suprisingly poor preformance all round! I thought the players who felt they had something to prove went out and tried hard and played well, but the more 'assured of their places' players looked very lethargic and just not interested, and that accounted for most of the team. I'll do my legendary () player ratings... Given - 7 - Didn't have much to do, made the one superb save he really had to. Carr - 4 - Didn't seem interested. Rarely left his own half and was poor defencively. O'Shea - 5 - Like Carr, only seemed to play slighltly better. Cunningham - 6 - Not at his best, but not too bad either. Defence looked too shakey for me but he did alright. Dunne - 5 - Made one good tackle at the end, was very poor espically in possession before that. Andy Reid - 9 - Outstanding is the word. Some of the best passing seen in Lansedown since Liam Brady, would have liked to see him get the full 90 minutes. Steven Reid - 6 - Anytime he looked to get going he seemed to get fouled, still worked hard and played alright. Kavanagh - Wasn't on long enough to rate. Gutted for him really, he's waited four years for this match. Did alright when he was on. Doherty - 0 - The worst preformance by a centre forward in Lansedown in recent memory. He's a centre half, starting him as a striker is an embarassment to the country. Keane - 7 - Suprisingly low rating considering he scored twice but generally didn't look interested or sharp at all. Can't be too harsh on someone who scored twice, but he wasn't great I felt. Duff - 8 - What a goal, absolutley stunning. Again though, only did it in sparks and most of the time didn't look like he was killing himself. Still very dangerous as ever. Subs... Morrison - 7 - Did everything Doherty didn't. Held up the ball well and brought others into play and looked a threat in the box, nearly took Keanes effort right off him and put it in himself! Holland - 8 - his best preformance in recent memory. He was everywhere winning tackles. Where everyone else was lethargic, Holland was the opposite. Delap - 7 - Less influencial then Holland, being on for less and moving position didn't help, had some good tackles and some strong running though. McPhail - 5 - Didn't do alot, can't remember anything other then a nice looking but square passes really. Harte - 3 - Even his left foot is deserting him. His passing was awful, gave the ball away alot and looked nervous inside his own half. Should have scored too, the Harte of a few years back would have had a shot at least from the position he found himself in late on. Thompson - 7 - Only on for a few minutes but impressed me. Assured, good passing and looked strong. 7 is probably a bit high considering how long he spent on the pitch, so it's not really a mark over all, just based on his preformance in the little time he did have. Colgan - 6 - Didn't have much to do, but was nearly made look daft by Radzinski. Kilbane - 5 - Came on, gave the ball away a bit and generally didn't do much.
Congrats to Ireland on the expected & deserved win - though I do feel the final scoreline flatters you. I expect Ireland can probably play a bit better, though you didn't exactly see Canada at their strongest either with a couple players still involved in the MLS playoffs and many regular younger national team members currently seeing duty with the Olympic team this week. And trust me, just about any of those younger players would have put in a better performance on the night than our poor Richard Hastings.......
Slash, I didn't see the game myself but was told Dunne played quite well. I hope both him and O'Brien will be regulars by next autumn, as I'm not a big fan of Breen. I'm also no fan of Carr now, he seems to put in a lot of poor performances, I thought he was particularly bad in Basle. And why can't O'Shea impress in a green shirt? As for Doherty, lets hope Kerr has finally given up on that experiment. I can understand why he was used in the qualifiers, but why did he play him in a friendly? Surely Kerr doesn't actually consider him a future striker for us?
I can imagine Dunnes preformance will cause a bit of debate. He won a few tackles but at the same time looked fairly unfit and was poor in possession. I think with him you just have to take the good with the bad.
We have a problem defensively. What is the story with John O'Shea. Another wholly unconvincing display by the man we had pretty much accepted as our glorious future (in any of the back four positions if necessary). Again he made poor decisions, gave away cheap possession, never seemed to have the ball under control and worst of all reacted slowly to things - only split seconds in fairness, but at international level, that's suicide. I was disappointed that Finnan wasn't fit because it would have been a great opportunity to do what Slash has been saying for ages and try him at left back. Kerr couldn't just try it up to now in the qualifiers, but I reckon he would have last night. I'd be more inclined to play Harte ahead of O'Shea at left back at the moment. Dunne was by far the best of the defenders as Cunnigham had a strange off night & Carr was dreadful again. The thing about Cunningham & Breen is that they play far better when together for Ireland, and the last couple of games have proven that they are still our best centre half partnership. Dunne is in line for a shock come back though. I thought he looked quite fit and has lost a fair few pounds (t'was there to lose) and it will be interesting to see what Kerr does with O'Brien & O'Shea in the next friendlies. You couldn't ask for more from Andy Reid and some of his passing was exceptional, but let's not get carried away, he is doing that regularly for Forest but Canada didn't look any better than a poor Division 1 team last night and he had a lot of time & space when he needed it. (Sorry to our Canadian contibutors, but last night was not one of your better performances, nor was it one of ours). What Reid, or Miller, need if in the middle need is a grafter alongside, and in fairness to Matt Holland, he did that last night, which allowed Reid to play his game. He (Reid) did track back well too and put in some good challenges, he was well up for the game. One's heart would have to go out to Graham Kavanagh, hopefully he'll get another chance because he would have done a similar job to Holland. Gary Doherty should have been taken out behind the West Stand at half time and had two bullets put in his head, attrocious performance. We need to see more of Delap & Thompson. Colgan did himself no favours and I hope Joe Murphy gets a chance next time out.
O'Shea is an enigma alright. I think part of hos problem is being pushed around alot at club level positions wise, I hope this season and next he cememts one role in the Man U team and sticks with it. He's off form now, but it's still clear in years to come he'll be a top quality player. Harte isn't going to provide any competition in that position, so trying Finnan there is essential for me. I think part of our problem now is a few individuals are playing below themselves and it's hurting the team, at the back the noteable examples are Carr, Finnan and O'Shea but also Morrison and Steven Reid. I would have said Holland too, but by all accounts his recent form for Charlton has been superb, and his preformance yesturday certinally was. Hopefully, he can get back to his best. We need these players back on form, and to gel more as a team which seems to be suprisingly a big problem for us, and we should be alright with 2006. With the inviduals we have, I don't think a lack of talent will hold us back in the qualifyers, it's just getting it right.
I haven't re-watched the match yet, but at first glance I didn't think O'Shea was that bad. He did make some mistakes, but I thought he made some excellent clearences and interceptions, too. I thought Harte was dreadful when he came on, and I wasn't too impressed with McPhail or Morrison, either (though they didn't have much chance) Carr was very poor. I've seen Holland twice for Charlton and once for Ireland in the last month, and each time I've been very impressed with him. Still, with a few more friendlies I'm sure we can work the problems.
I've seen Holland twice for Charlton as well this season. IMO the reason he looks good is because he is playing with an outstanding young midfielder, I think his name is Parker. The thing about Matt is he looks good against the likes of Canada. Neat little passes, good tackles etc. However when the going gets tough he is not the ball winner type midfielder we are going to need.