Ireland: We could have done well at the WC perhaps?

After another night when Ireland beat another country that is going to the WC it makes me even more angry and sad at what might have been only for that lad who thought he was on trials that night for the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Tonight we beat Algeria 3-0 and earlier in the week we beat Paraguay 2-1, just makes me think what might have been.

It pretty certain we’d have drawn one African team and one South American, so if we were in a group stage at the WC right now you could say we’d have had 2 wins, 6 points and only one more game to play most likely a European team, we’d have been well on the way to round two.

I just know I’m going to be so depressed when the whole thing start and we’re not there.

Thanks Thierry. :(

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Originally Posted by JohnRambo

After another night when Ireland beat another country that is going to the WC it makes me even more angry and sad at what might have been only for that lad who thought he was on trials that night for the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Tonight we beat Algeria 3-0 and earlier in the week we beat Paraguay 2-1, just makes me think what might have been.

It pretty certain we’d have drawn one African team and one South American, so if we were in a group stage at the WC right now you could say we’d have had 2 wins, 6 points and only one more game to play most likely a European team, we’d have been well on the way to round two.

I just know I’m going to be so depressed when the whole thing start and we’re not there.

Thanks Thierry. :(

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I know how u feel,it's just a feeling that won't go away.Other than brazil or the argies there are not much teams to fear outside of europe.Hope the french fail to make it out of the group stages,they are insuch a mess right now it would'nt surprize me if they fell flat on their asses.

^^ I know how you feel.. We had some potential to surprise there but Trapatoni messed it up by victimizing Andy reid...

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Originally Posted by JohnRambo

After another night when Ireland beat another country that is going to the WC it makes me even more angry and sad at what might have been only for that lad who thought he was on trials that night for the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Tonight we beat Algeria 3-0 and earlier in the week we beat Paraguay 2-1, just makes me think what might have been.

It pretty certain we’d have drawn one African team and one South American, so if we were in a group stage at the WC right now you could say we’d have had 2 wins, 6 points and only one more game to play most likely a European team, we’d have been well on the way to round two.

I just know I’m going to be so depressed when the whole thing start and we’re not there.

Thanks Thierry. :(

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Im not so sure about that.If Ireland had qualified they would be in the group that France are in playing Mexico Uruguay and South Africa.Ireland played Mexico in the World Cup in the past and were beaten by them Uruguay are a strong team and while South Africa have not been showing any form the host nation nearly always does well. Anyway I think too much can be read into friendlies especially with players who are involved in the World Cup not wanting to risk injuries so close to the start of the tournament.

as the WC draws nearer its very disappointing we're not represented we've a sub-standard team but with a bit of luck I feel we would have gone a long way...

We were UNBEATEN in the qualifiers for the W.C. and were on course for penalties in the play off game till you know what happened , how is that sub standard . The boys did us proud in my eyes

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Originally Posted by JohnRambo

After another night when Ireland beat another country that is going to the WC it makes me even more angry and sad at what might have been only for that lad who thought he was on trials that night for the Harlem Globe Trotters.

Tonight we beat Algeria 3-0 and earlier in the week we beat Paraguay 2-1, just makes me think what might have been.

It pretty certain we’d have drawn one African team and one South American, so if we were in a group stage at the WC right now you could say we’d have had 2 wins, 6 points and only one more game to play most likely a European team, we’d have been well on the way to round two.

I just know I’m going to be so depressed when the whole thing start and we’re not there.

Thanks Thierry. :(

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We will never never repeat the Italian World cup. Ireland wouldnt have done great,We would have being haunted to make the Quarter finals. We dont have the experience to win at this level or the skill either besides we fall aprt too quickly.

so do England,
Westside.

People tend to forget because of the huge Saipangate thing that Ireland actually did very well at that world cup considering the huge upset all that caused to the team. I always wonder how much farther they could have went if Roy the boy had not flung his toys from the pram, he had valid complaints but I think the team of that world cup never get due credit for their efforts against that backdrop, can't see any team doing as well as they did in a similar situation.

We could have given anyone a game if we were in it. However without Given I fear we may have leaked some goals to better standerd of striker, still I reckon we could have given as good as we got.

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Originally Posted by westcorklad

Im not so sure about that.If Ireland had qualified they would be in the group that France are in playing Mexico Uruguay and South Africa.Ireland played Mexico in the World Cup in the past and were beaten by them Uruguay are a strong team and while South Africa have not been showing any form the host nation nearly always does well. Anyway I think too much can be read into friendlies especially with players who are involved in the World Cup not wanting to risk injuries so close to the start of the tournament.

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I don't often agree with you WCL but, on this occasion, I think you are spot on.

Mexico, we could beat, not as strong as they were when we last played them. Uruguay are a good team while South Africa we would beat so I would say we would have come at least second in that group

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Originally Posted by Doozer

We could have given anyone a game if we were in it. However without Given I fear we may have leaked some goals to better standerd of striker, still I reckon we could have given as good as we got.

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No way.If we are that good how did it take us relying on one game against France to qualify and bear in mind France are no longer the team that they once were. They are not great. The top teams in the World Cup would laugh us out of it.

Westside.

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Originally Posted by Westsidex

No way.If we are that good how did it take us relying on one game against France to qualify and bear in mind France are no longer the team that they once were. They are not great. The top teams in the World Cup would laugh us out of it.

Westside.

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We were unbeaten in the group Westi. France are a good team. Look at the players they have, Loris, Henry Toulalan Ribery, and we took the game to them in Paris. They will do well at the world cup. Argentina barley qualified for the world cup but they will do well too

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Originally Posted by Doozer

We were unbeaten in the group Westi. France are a good team. Look at the players they have, Loris, Henry Toulalan Ribery, and we took the game to them in Paris. They will do well at the world cup. Argentina barley qualified for the world cup but they will do well too

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Maybe so but look at the favourites to win the World cup. They would mangle us. Spain ,Brazil, etc would hammer us.

Westside.

On paper yes, but its not always the team on paper that wins.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

We were unbeaten in the group Westi. France are a good team. Look at the players they have, Loris, Henry Toulalan Ribery, and we took the game to them in Paris. They will do well at the world cup. Argentina barley qualified for the world cup but they will do well too

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We were unbeaten alright, but how many games, against decent opposition, did we win.
Argentina qualified, despite having no manager.;);)

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Originally Posted by Doozer

On paper yes, but its not always the team on paper that wins.

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especially if the other team has scissors.:p:p

Most teams are overated,theyre are only about five decent teams spain,brazil,argentina,holland and possibly germany.

i am sick of hearing how france, and henry in particular, robbed ireland of going to the world cup.

firstly, if henry hadn't scored, there was the rest of extra time and penalties to come. there is no guarantee france wouldn't have won anyway.

secondly, france are a very ordinary team by world standards. true, they have some world class players, but when there are problems in the squad like what they have, very often you won't get the best out of them.

thirdly, if ireland were good enough to qualify, they should have qualified. the fact is they weren't good enough. i know they were unbeaten in the qualifiers, but look at the results

Georgia - Ireland 1-2
Montenegro - Ireland 0-0
Ireland - Cyprus 1-0
Ireland - Georgia 2-1
Ireland - Bulgaria 1-1
Italy - Ireland 1-1
Bulgaria - Ireland 1-1
Cyprus - Ireland 1-2
Ireland - Italy 2-2
Ireland - Montenegro 0-0

Scanning those results, there isn't really any notable ones apart from the 2 italy games, but if you remember those matches, italy played in bari with 10 men for most of the game, and ireland couldn't hold out for 3 minutes in dublin in the second game. if it wasn't for shay given, ireland would have been nowhere. he can take a lot of the credit for getting them that far.

we also know how much of world power houses the rest of the teams are.

fourthly, ireland would not have replaced france if their group. they would not have had the same seeding and so would probably have been the third team in a group.

fifthly, everyone was calling for andy reid and stephen ireland to be in the squad. andy reid does not suit the style of play trappatoni plays. he is the manager, he picks who he wants. he wants to play with 2 holding midfilders and if he didn't do that, ireland would have been totally over run in midfield. even more than the were during the campaign. i would never pick stephen ireland to play again. he has shown that he has issues, and if i was manager, he wouldn't play. how do you think that would go down in the squad if he was picked at the expense of someone else?

sixtly, friendlies don't mean anything. particullarly end of season friendlies in a world cup year. teams going to the world cup want to avoid injuries, and teams not going just want to be on their holidays.

in conclusion, had ireland managed to qualify for the world cup, they would have struggled to reach the second round. i don't think that they would have taken a hammering in any game, because they seem to have a good deal of luck on their side. you just have to think back over the campaign and remember all they look they had. the would have tried to be solid and possibly hit teams on the break, but in all honesty, they don't have the players to do that. they may have gotten 2 draws and possibly squeaked a win in 1 game, which would have been enough to get out of the group.

as to who will win the world cup, i have feeling that argentina will be the ones to beat. they don't care about the qualifying phase. they are there now, and i reckon it will take a good team to stop them. the european teams don't look great this year, and surprise packets this year!! i think that ghana can cause quite a stir

Again we were unbeaten, we didnt win well but we were unbeaten. Look at the likes of Greece when they won the euroes, they didnt win by much but the still lifted the trophy. If Ireland had gone to teh World Cup they would have done well

We will be a good outside bet for the 2012 championships , we have a decent squad who buy into the managers philosophy, albeit a bit thin on the ground, a stronger bench , with Kieth Fahey finally coming into the frame and others will give us a better chance.

I think Trap learned alot about the team in both France games, we are a better team than we give ourselves credit for and we should believe that we can achieve more

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Originally Posted by Noah

We will be a good outside bet for the 2012 championships , we have a decent squad who buy into the managers philosophy, albeit a bit thin on the ground, a stronger bench , with Kieth Fahey finally coming into the frame and others will give us a better chance.

I think Trap learned alot about the team in both France games, we are a better team than we give ourselves credit for and we should believe that we can achieve more

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Exactly, Trap ahd to asses the players he had, and try and get the best ot of them, now he has a fiar idea what most of them are capable of

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Originally Posted by Doozer

Exactly, Trap ahd to asses the players he had, and try and get the best ot of them, now he has a fiar idea what most of them are capable of

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i know he had to assess what players he has, and i'm not saying that he did a bad job. far from it. he has a very, very limited bunch of players with 1 or 2 exceptions, and did very well to get the team as far as he did. but i can't see them being an outside bet for the 2012 europeans. they might just squeak in qualifying. the group looks very weak, but as we know, weaker teams are the ones ireland seem to struggle with. it's not a foregone conclusion that they will qualify, but at least trappatoni tends to have the team organised. it's not his fault that the players are so limited. and it dosen't look like there are much guys coming through. in the past, there was always a few guys in the background, but now, if one of the first team players is out, it's a struggle to replace them. god help us if the likes of shay given or richard dunne gets injured for a long spell. someone mentioned earlier in the thread that greece were a similar type of team. that may be the case, but how often do the big guns allow something like that to happen? greece are a nowhere team at the moment, also having failed to qualify for the world cup in what was a pretty weak qualifying group

the long and the short of it is, ireland have done well with a limited, but honest, spirited bunch of players. but it could be a long time again before they are a force to be reckoned with. sure, they might up their game for the big occasion, but they will almost always, slip up against the lesser lights.

There will always be kids comming in capable to replace them, happens all the time, lookm at James Mc Carthy, he will be big. We dont need world class players, juist players that can follow instrauctions

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Originally Posted by bigcxxk

i know he had to assess what players he has, and i'm not saying that he did a bad job. far from it. he has a very, very limited bunch of players with 1 or 2 exceptions, and did very well to get the team as far as he did. but i can't see them being an outside bet for the 2012 europeans. they might just squeak in qualifying. the group looks very weak, but as we know, weaker teams are the ones ireland seem to struggle with. it's not a foregone conclusion that they will qualify, but at least trappatoni tends to have the team organised. it's not his fault that the players are so limited. and it dosen't look like there are much guys coming through. in the past, there was always a few guys in the background, but now, if one of the first team players is out, it's a struggle to replace them. god help us if the likes of shay given or richard dunne gets injured for a long spell. someone mentioned earlier in the thread that greece were a similar type of team. that may be the case, but how often do the big guns allow something like that to happen? greece are a nowhere team at the moment, also having failed to qualify for the world cup in what was a pretty weak qualifying group

the long and the short of it is, ireland have done well with a limited, but honest, spirited bunch of players. but it could be a long time again before they are a force to be reckoned with. sure, they might up their game for the big occasion, but they will almost always, slip up against the lesser lights.

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Greece have qualified for the World Cup and are in Argentinas group.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

There will always be kids comming in capable to replace them, happens all the time, lookm at James Mc Carthy, he will be big. We dont need world class players, juist players that can follow instrauctions

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Maybe so but that can only take a team so far.
Are you saying that if Ireland had a player of the quality of Messi Rooney or Torres that they could be done without.?

I think we are set up well for the euro's ,the only concern i would have if keane is out injured who will bang in the goals for us.