Ireland V Norway[R]

Teams:
Rep of Ireland: Given, Carr, Breen, Dunne, Harte, Holland, Kilbane, Kinsella, Duff, Connolly, Keane. Subs: Colgan, Finnan, Carsley, Healy, Quinn, Crowe, McPhail, Lee, Murphy.

Norway: Frode Olsen, Bergdolmo, Ronny Johnsen, Andersen, Basma, Hangeland, Svindal, Leonhardsen, Iversen, Rushfeldt, Carew. Subs: Holtan, Aas, Flo, Frode Johnsen, Winsnes, Rudi, Hansen.

 

Commentary is available on http://www.newstalk106.ie/

 

Maybe not, back to the studio now...

 

From BBC: 1951: Damien Duff puts the Republic ahead with a close range shot after his initial header from a Stephen Carr cross rebounds back to him off a defender.
Republic of Ireland 1-0 Norway

 

Welldone, Duffer!! Sounds great!

 

2046: Carr thumps an acute-angled shot against the underside of the Norway crossbar only to see it bounce away to safety.

 

1-0

and Duffer is the man of the match.

Good!

 

I don't go in for analysing each player's performance - usually because I'm too nervous to focus - but I'm delighted by the way the lads played tonight. Two notable examples were provided by Richard Dunne and David Connolly - two players about whom I've been less than complimentary in the past. Dunne was solid as a rock and had John Carew in his pocket, whilst Connolly linked well with both Duff and Keane and made a lot of intelligent running.

Good stuff all round. And nice to see Glen Crowe's reception when he arrived on the scene. Just a shame he had only two minutes - if he'd have had more time and scored, I think Lansdowne would have collapsed with the cheering!

PP - Great stuff...

 

Initial thoughts........

Some very encouraging things to be taken from the game. Its a long time since I saw an Ireland team string together 20+ passes that resulted in a shot, so the style was very much suited to three small lads playing up front. Duff playing in the hole caused consternation when he got the ball. More often than not two men went to tackle him leaving space for Keane and Connolly further up the park.

On the worrying side was the lack of physical presence. Every time Norway had a set piece near our goal, there was a real threat. I can see this not being as big a problem against Albania and Georgia, but it could be costly against the likes of Russia.

In terms of players, Duff obviously was head and shoulders above anyone on the pitch. Some of his skill was sublime - if he doesn't get a move to Utd or Liverpool in the summer, I'll eat my (World Cup 94) hat. Connolly put in an excellent display in my book - really worked hard and showed for everything. Keane was less effective - still has an annoying tendency to take on one man too many and lose the ball. That said he showed some wonderful touches, none more so than when he pulled down the pass in the box that led to the goal. I thought Carr, Breen, Dunne and Given were also assured and solid if not spectacular. Holland and Kinsella were ok - again they performed a very similar role which suggests to me one of them should be left out. They just don't impose themselves on a game the way.....maybe I'll leave that one blank.

And bottom of the class? No surprise for me. I'm sure I'm going to be contradicted by following posts, but I thought Kilbane and Harte were well below average. Generally awful crossing from both, an inability to control the ball shown by Kilbane time and again and a woeful appreciation of the art of defending by Harte. I can guarantee both will get a 7/10 ranking in the papers because they "try hard". Genius.

As for the subs - pick of the bunch for me was Finnan (a massive improvement down the left - forced Carew into the centre for some joy) and Colgan (some difficult if not spectacular saves)

All in all, a very worthwhile exercise and the positives outweighed the negatives.

 

Agree. Good summary.

However, not enough of a shout for big Richard Dunne....heart of a lion and an arse of a rhino.

Has he ever had a bad game for us? Up to his nightmare game against Arsenal there were quite a few shouts for him on this website to be the partner of O'Shea in defence. O'Shea being the ball player and sweeper and Dunne to mark the centre forward. I have never seen someone head the ball so far in all my life. Perhaps a move to Sunderland would do him the world of good.

Shame Morrison was out. Duff playing off Keane and Clinton would be tasty indeed. Connolly did alright but missed an absolute sitter from Carr's cross. Great to see Finnan and Carr playing for the first time together at Full Back. Its what we have all been waiting for!!

Again not much invention from Holland and Kinsella but both ran their heart out even though its a friendly. However, given Duff's role perhaps you need a couple of players who are more defensive???

Closey

 

Harte was awful, luckily Kerrs thinking along the lines of Finnan at left back, and there was a clear improvement, I thought Finnan played very well at left back when he came on. I thought Carr played very well actually, he was getting so much space on the right in the first half and nobody was picking him out and he was getting frustrated but everytime he was making runs he was looking dangerous. All credit to Keane though for the move which led to the Connolly chance and Carr hitting the bar, the pass was absolutley subline. I'm begining to like this 4-3-3 thing, with Duff running riot, Keane coming deep and creating and Morrison being a presence and poacher in the box it could really work, but we'll need a stronger central mid field.

Delap, Reid and Carsley could all stake claims to feature in the middle three, with Delap and Carsley in the middle and Reid doing the job Kilbane did today, providing that extra bit of width. The main problem with the formation is an over reliance on Duff, if he's injured it simply wont work.

Thought Dunne and Breen played well, it wasn't easy with a constant ariel bombardment against the tallest side I've see at Lansedown (Did you see that number four who marked the keeper at corners, jesus...), I still say Cunningham should be the first name down and the only automatic choice at centre half though.

It was difficult to play football with Norway hitting it long to the tall forwards at every chance, so to create some chances as we did and play the football we did at times was very encourageing, and we were worth the win if not by a bigger margin (Steve Carr nearly scored an absolute cracker with his left from an unbelivebley impossible angle and Connolly missed a chance from the same move) so very encouraged by Kerrs home debut who looks to be weeding out the mistakes seen in the McCarthy era.

 

having been at the game i felt that norway just weren't interested (a bit like my girlfriend who i brought along but was more interested in looking at ex-boyzone looser shane lynch who was sitting near us!!)

anyway i thought harte really struggled against carew. the big norwegian had acres of space on the wing and harte failed to pick him up every time. some of the blame must go to kilbane who offered little support.

having said that thought kilbane had a good game. he made a lot of surging runs, worked all night and fed off the strikers effectively.

i thought connolly was the worst player out there. all huff-and-puff but little to show for it. we need more invention in that position.

 

A good result and some interesting performances. Like frankk and unlike some others, I was not very impressed with Connolly, I'd rather see Morrison or someone with more height playing beside Robbie. I've always been a fan of Richard Dunne and have said before our centre backs for 2006 could be him and O'Shea. He played well last night. Harte was weak in defence again, it seemed to me every Norway attack, particularly in the first half, was down the left. They did their homework. Luckily there isn't much they could do about Duff, its been a long time since we've had such a talented attacking player.

 

I actually thought that was Harte's best performance in a green shirt for a long time - apart from one occasion in the first half when Carew skinned him, he wasn't beaten and he got in some very well timed tackles, including a couple of important ones in the penalty area. When he got forward, he put in a couple of decent balls. I wasn't overly impressed by Finnan at left back when he came on - he was reluctant to use his much-vaunted left boot, and checked inside to play backwards every time. Having said that, he wasn't put under much pressure defensively, and it'd be worth looking at again.

I don't agree with the criticism of Connolly either - he was mobile, intelligent and tireless, and set up a few good chances for Keane. He was going to tuck in the rebound from Duff's header if Duff hadn't gotten there fractionally before him, and you could see that he was pissed off not to have scored.....if it'd been 1-0 with Connolly as the scorer I wonder what the comments here would have been like. If Kerr is planning on using that system in competitive games (and it looks very viable to me), Connolly is IMO a real option for the second striker's slot. Still behind Morrison, obviously, but ahead of the rest of the pack. Kilbane was disappointing though.

 

It's no co-incidence that in the first half every ball Norway had was pumped down the right wing towards Carew, and then when Harte went off and Finnan came on that Carew immeditally moved more inside. The secrets out, any manager with his salt will do enough homework to know any team with a half decent right winger will carve us (Or Leeds) open if Hartes playing. Finnan wasn't very adventures, but backwards Lennon-esque passing was the theme of the night for some players, which was the most disappointing aspect of the night. Given a choice between Finnan or Harte for the next two home qualifyers is a very very simple very very straight forward and easy one, Finnan every time.

 

Agreed. It's got to be Finnan at left full for the June games. Harte is simply not good enough.

 

just keep "harte is awful" ready to cut & paste after every performance. who does this guy have naked pictures of now that Mick's gone?

 

did you watch the match?

 

Thank you, at least someone agrees with me - I just think that the Harte-bashing has got to a stage (and reached it a long time ago) that if he doesn't score a hat-trick and clear off the line four times every game then someone will come on and say "Jeez, he is shite". Yes Slash, most of Norway's attacks went down Harte's side in the first half - but he dealt with them. That's the crucial point. Apart from one occasion, he dealt with everything, and he saved Dunne's ass a couple of times as well.