It's hard to overstate the significance of next week's Euro 2016 qualifier vs Scotland at Celtic Park. The winners will be in an excellent position in the group, the losers will face a difficult uphill battle, while a draw would keep things wide open, though admittedly would hand some initiative to Poland given their excellent win v Germany. I think ourselves and the Scots are fairly evenly matched - this will be a close, difficult tie, and one or two individual errors or moments of quality could decide the outcome. We can also use this thread to discuss the friendly v USA on the 18th at the Aviva.
Final Irish squad announced: Goalkeepers: David Forde (Millwall), Shay Given (Aston Villa), Rob Elliot (Newcastle United), Darren Randolph (Birmingham). Defenders: Seamus Coleman (Everton), Cyrus Christie (Derby County), Ciaran Clark (Aston Villa), Richard Keogh (Derby County), John O’Shea (Sunderland), Alex Pearce (Reading), Stephen Ward (Burnley). Midfielders: Robbie Brady (Hull City), Darron Gibson (Everton), Jeff Hendrick (Derby County), James McCarthy (Everton), Aiden McGeady (Everton), James McClean (Wigan), David Meyler (Hull City), Anthony Pilkington (Cardiff City), Stephen Quinn (Hull City). Forwards: Kevin Doyle (Crystal Palace), Robbie Keane (Los Angeles Galaxy), Shane Long (Southampton), David McGoldrick (Ipswich Town), Daryl Murphy (Ipswich Town), Anthony Stokes (Celtic), Jon Walters (Stoke City). The addition of Christie and McGoldrick will bring much-needed depth, but surely Damien Delaney should be in the final squad, particularly with Wilson out injured? McCarthy is a doubt with a hamstring injury, but will travel to Dublin to be assessed by FAI medical staff. We really need him to be fit.
Republic of Ireland must beat Scotland and USA, because of FIFA rankings and try get seeded 3 in The World cup 2018 qualifying Draw on July 2015 in Russia. OK there are no points for friendlies, but we must win most of our matches Euro'16 matches and competitive friendlies (USA,England) between now and July 2015 in order to improve our FIFA rankings, and try get seeded 3 in our World Cup 2018 qualifiers. We better qualify for Euro'16 and World Cup 2018.
McCarthy out, which is a major blow. Starting to feel as though a draw would be an excellent result - I'd take a 0-0 with both hands if offered. Scotland have the edge in midfield now, which could be critical. Massive pressure on Hendrick now to step up in McCarthy's absence. He's a good player but has yet to be tested at this level. Projected starting XI: -----------------Forde--------------- Coleman, O'Shea, Keough, Ward ------------Hendrick, Gibson------ ------McGeady, Quinn, McLean-- -----------------Keane---------------
Not the best game of football ever I think it's fair to say but a pretty engrossing encounter, as expected. From our point of view, we really needed the win to pull us back after the 'extra points' gained by Ireland and Poland against Germany. I can't believe we've taken a point away to Poland and 3 at home to Ireland and aren't in a stronger position at this stage. Bloody Germans! The game went pretty much as I expected. Ireland are a tough unit and I think it's fair to say O'Neill was looking to keep things tight and look for something on the counter or from set pieces, where Ireland always looked dangerous. I thought we played reasonably well but often didn't commit enough bodies forward to create more chances. Ultimately a very well worked goal from the training ground won it though. This is a great group though. If Ireland beat Poland at home next and there are no shocks in the other two games, the four teams will all be on equal points. I'm expecting a very tough return leg in Dublin although I think the onus definitely being on Ireland to win and a draw now being seen as a good result for us is a very good position to be in.
It was always going to be a grind, full-blooded, and short of quality. I wrote somewhere that if there was to be a winner it would be decided by an individual error or one moment of quality. With the players in our team I had hoped that that one moment could come from us. In the end Scotland got it from Maloney and Brown. Their win is deserved. Overall, what bothered me the most was that the Scots seemed to want it more. They were first to every 50/50 ball, and worked harder than us for the entire 90 minutes. If Irish players can't get themselves up for that kind of match, serious questions need to be asked. Despite assurances that they were 100% focused, one wonders if the mind games and distractions of the last week didn't rattle the players to some extent at least. The biggest individual disappointment was Jeff Hendrick. He's looked so good in his cameos to date, but last night the occasion seemed too much for him. We missed McCarthy and Whelan badly. 4-6 points from the next two matches is essential, or else we're in big trouble.
I think a lot of that is down to Strachan's influence and the huge turnaround in form we've gone through in the last 18 months breeding confidence. But also, I think it's pretty clear that, since McGeady's and McCarthy's decision to represent Ireland, if the two countries played, it was always going to be that much of a bigger game for us. Without those two, of course, it would be a game we really wanted to win but now, for a lot of the fans and I'm sure more than a few of the players, it was a game we were pretty desperate to win. The thought of McGeady coming back to Scotland and losing with Ireland is a very sweet one and the reverse would have been absolutely horrible.
Agreed - I think that this context makes the tie one of those rather "one-sided" rivalries. It is probably augmented by the unique place of "Irishness" or Irish ethnicity in Scottish domestic football via Glasgow Celtic and Hibernians. I know I, at least, have always wished Scottish football well (when their fortunes don't directly intersect with Ireland's, obviously), and losing to Scotland doesn't bother me any more than losing to Poland would (hopefully not will!). But reading Scottish football message boards over the last week strongly suggests that, in most cases, that Scotland's supporters madly keen to put one over on us. Supporters' banter aside, though, I still find it extremely distressing that our players were so badly outworked on Friday. We really need to reverse that at the Aviva in June. Anyway, onto tomorrow. I think it's fair to say that most of us - supporters, management, and probably the players, would rather this USA friendly not be taking place at all. Friday was a brutally difficult pill to swallow, and I would rather just pull the sheets over my head and forget about football for a while. There's a chance that the players might respond positively to Friday's defeat, but I suspect most of them just want to slink back to their clubs. I don't foresee a morale-boosting win and some much-needed world ranking points, but another depressing defeat or at best a dour draw. That said, I will still be watching with interest. Will be interesting to see if Christie and McGoldrick offer anything new.
You've always got the Rangers/Celtic crap but I think most Scottish fans would have wanted to see Ireland do well before McGeady's decision. That changed it for a lot of people. My first memories of international football are of the 1994 World Cup. Obviously with no British teams there, there was a lot of focus on Ireland here and I remember there being tremendous support for Ireland in Scotland. Ray Houghton and Tommy Coyne were in the squad and maybe Owen Coyle as well? Which made people get behind Ireland even more although those were obviously different circumstances. I remeber cheering pretty hard when Houghton scored against Italy and Ireland qualified for the 2nd round.
Half Time: Ireland 1-1 United States Considering the Irish XI we have out there, we have to be happy enough with that. Not sure if any of these lads will play against Poland... Pilkington goal well taken, but the USA are marginally the better side. We would do well to hold out for a draw I think.
Wow - Ireland 4-1 United States. Superb win by a second-string Irish side. We were really excellent in the second half. When McClean, Long, and McGeady came on the Americans just couldn't cope with the pace. Christie looks a real find at right back - an able deputy for Coleman. And Brady is now a contender for left back, though defensively he made some bad mistakes. A team like Poland will punish such errors. Quinn worked his socks, and was effective throughout. Maybe he should have started on Friday? McGoldrick is inventive, but I would like to see him work harder. Everyone played well bar Stokes and Murphy.