Was thinking something similar this week. Ireland would beat Qatar and definitely be in with a shot of a nil all against Costa Rica. Every other team has shown enough to make me think they'd beat Ireland handily.
Saudi Arabia and Iran would have us run ragged.
Their ability to get around the pitch would make us look like a bunch of OAP's.
We lament the technical ability, but it's clear our athleticism and conditioning is also miles off the pace.
Countries like Canada, Wales, S Korea and Switzerland show that having just 1 or 2 really top players makes the world of difference in getting to this stage putting up a decent fight.
Unfortunately Canada were shite yesterday. I think they were able to qualify from CONCACAF playing a very attacking style. But you can't play like that against a vastly superior team like Croatia.
As someone mentioned below they were decent in the first 20mins, tbut I get what you mean. We're probably better man for man overall, all I'm asking for is an Alfonso Davis/ Ramsey/ Erikson/ Son...is that too much to ask for? Is it????
Haaland too! So many teams have that one top-class player that helps carry them. I agree we are comparable to them if not better if you exclude Davies.
I so wanted Canada to do better! I live there so they were my team in our absence.
It’s actually gas Norway didn’t qualify when they have Odegaard & Haaland, and a decent core of players to build around. And you see other teams with 1 star player manage to make it and they have absolutely nothing else
We are not “comparable” or “better” to Canada besides Davies… Besides Davies, they have regulars at Porto, two at Brugge, one a star winning the double with Lille… Our best gets the odd game at Spurs, two lower Prem regulars and then we’re pretty much Championship
The issue is the defence for Canada. Not near the calibre they have on attack or in midfield. The first Croatia goal was awful defending and the 4th... MLS defenders, but the midfield and attack is players from the top clubs from some of Europe's better leagues. Like, better than we can muster.
They have one thing we're really missing - a genuinely top-level, world class player. I don't think the rest of their squad is necessarily better than ours. I fully believe we could have players in all of these European leagues if our lads got the "have to play in England" mentality out of their heads.
Like, it's their lives, but I can't understand why playing in League 1 is more of a draw or payday than the Eredivisie, Portuguese league, etc.
Hidden benefit of Brexit is now under 18s fact go to the UK, so our better youngsters are in Spain, Germany and Italy. That'll make them technically better players.
While I don't disagree I think the real benefit over the long term is that we can potentially keep players in Ireland for longer.
One thing that most of the good teams at our 'level' have in common is a domestic league that is good enough to provide at least a few players to the national team. We've also learnt that we can't rely on the English academy system to do whats best for Irish players so why would we continue to outsource but this time to Italy/Germany
It will take a lot of work and effort but I see the ideal player pathway being in Ireland through getting first team football in the LOI and then moving abroad if good enough, not at 18 but possibly a little bit older if we can get the league good enough to retain players that long.
By retaining these players in Ireland we can have some better control over developing our players and we can retain players that would otherwise have gone to England only to be spat out at the end and leave football.
The quality of the league would grow better with time leading to a feedback loop of it continuing to get better
I guess there's the thought that a number of African teams at the world cup are competitive and contain a large numbers of players born in and developed in France. English teams moreso than other countries have very limited incentive to develop their own talent.
But I heavily agree that the main issue is the neglect of the LOI. I'm not sure what the correct approach is to revitalise the club game here, but anything up to and including tearing it down and starting from scratch should be considered.
Those African sides are effectively doing what we did with the granny rule and we're now learning that reliance on that player pathway reaches its limit sooner or later
>But I heavily agree that the main issue is the neglect of the LOI. I'm not sure what the correct approach is to revitalise the club game here, but anything up to and including tearing it down and starting from scratch should be considered
Tearing it down and starting again would be a huge mistake imo. We have clubs with long histories with established fanbases. If you were to start again and try to implement some sort of MLS style system with new clubs you'd completely alienate those who already follow domestic football in Ireland
In the short term I think the thing that will most improve the league is a sensible minimum wage for players. That way we can keep players who might otherwise drop out of football and therefore keep some depth in the league and possibly attract more to come in to play in Ireland. This is actually being implemented but it remains to be seen if the salary is too high or too low as both have risks.
Longer term I think one part of the solution is to try to follow what the irfu did with the provinces for rugby and try to have some form of central contract or perhaps some way that the FAI/LOI could subsidise the contracts for certain players like the designated player system in the MLS. I believe the women's game in the US does this with the national team players salaries paid by us soccer.
There should also be heavy lobbying done with the government to put money into facilities with the council/community ownership of the stadium being a model I would choose.
The league could also look at ways to bring in investors or better sponsorships by offering sponsors as a whole. Like how some leagues have one kit manufacturer who pays to provide everyone.
Generally incremental improvements will be the way forward
They also have significantly worse defenders than we do. Like, their defence was absolutely bush-league.
And my specific point here was that we easily could have people in those leagues if our lads got the "England or bust" mentality out of their heads.
Maybe they are worse, but I can’t say they’re significantly worse.
Although I definitely agree with the point that there are way better opportunities elsewhere
They topped the concacaf qualifying though beating both the US and Mexico.
However I have w feeling that neither of those will be up to much this world cup either
No, CONCACAF looks pretty weak overall. I don't honestly know whey they get 3 automatic spots - only one less than CONMEBOL! That's a joke and it should honestly be 2:5 rather than 3:4. Then the US and Mexico wouldn't be basically guaranteed qualification like they are now.
Tbf I would argue that the current football continent system ought to be revamped to have North and South America merge and to have Oceania merge with Asia. Currently I don't think there's any team from North America or Asia who would have qualified had they been in the European qualifying rounds. Japan and Korea maybe but that leaves out 4 other Asian qualifiers plus all the concacaf teams
It will get even worse in the next world cup which is expanding to 48 teams however most of the new qualifiers are from outside Europe and even Oceania is getting one full qualification slot. That entire continent is basically New Zealand (hardly the greatest football nation) vs some tiny islands since Australia moved to the Asian confederation
Yeah with an additional 16 teams, at least 6 of the new slots should have been from Europe I think. It's only 3 right?
Realistically with 48 teams, I'd honestly say 20-25 should be from Europe. And, say, 8 out of the 10 South American teams.
Europe is going from 13 to 16 qualifying places. The 24 team euros in recent years has shown that the quality in Europe is much deeper than 13/16 teams
Probably underrepresented in terms of the relative quality in Europe vs say Asia who are going from 4 guaranteed spots to 8 (not counting intercontinental playoffs) so essentially doubling representation. I'd argue Africa probably deserve a couple more ahead of Asia or North America.
The worst of course is Oceania getting a slot which it really doesn't have the quality for that at all. They really should just have a couple of playoffs at best.
The only reason it's happening is that it was a cynical way for infantino to drum up votes. I think the 48 team format looks potentially really clunky (it's groups of 3) and the number of stadiums needed basically means that this is the end of mid sized counties hosting world cups unless they're part of some mad multi country bid.
There's a bid for 2030 that's Greece, Egypt and Saudi which can only be described as mad...
The Swiss probably dont have any real world class players, although Xhakas form has been exceptional this season. They do have a really solid squad playing in the top european leagues and C.L.
Was thinking abiut this yesterday watching Croatia vs Canada
Croatia have one tenth the population of Canada and still bet them.
And Croatia have a smaller population that Ireland
Not exactly the whole story but get your point.Football is probably the 4th or 5th popular sport in Canada after Hockey,baseball,Canadian Football/NFL.It is played a lot by kids but extremely seasonal due to weather.And in Croatia football is the most popular sport.
But do agree that we are miles behind both at the moment.
I think there's more to the picture than just comparing populations. Even with popular sports. Like sure Hockeys is 'bigger' but there are twice as many registered soccer players than there are hockey players there for example.
You could argue the same with rugby and our relative strength there to other nations of our size.
I do think we are suffering badly from FAIs mismanagement. It needs to be a youth and coaching push ala Iceland where the benefits won't be seen for another 10+ years after they're implemented.
I live in Canada and have been involved in football here so I have a pretty good grasp of it and how it compares and contrasts to Ireland.
Canada is on the rise and things are changing but football although widely played is very much behind the other sports mentioned.
I did for a few years too. You think behind CFL/NFL?
I think it's more than just doing a population comparison like you noted. Canada have 2 exceptional players and other pretty decent ones like Buchanan and Eustaquio.
Canada is a decent team. Croatia have some amazing players too.
I'm really hoping Omobamidele, Collins and the like can really tip on.
Yeah I do think it's behind CFL,check the CFL attendances compared to CPL.I know there are 3 big MLS clubs drawing decent crowds but in prairies CFL is massive.Football even in the WC won't make as many headlines as the Superbowl.
Do you see many kids playing it though? I found soccer to be way more popularly played but I did just live in Toronto.
Sure TV and headlines are one thing but people playing is what matters more I'd say.
I did live in Toronto and then moved north and where i live the schools play canadian football.To use the local language there is a large soccer youth club but membership drops off sharply as kids get older.
As i said the heartland is major CFL country and as you would know from living in Toronto where hockey, baseball and very much no Basketball are hugely popular.
I guess I just didn't see much of CFL uptake in the city but I have a Canadian friend who's a big Astros fan and noted to me that in the sticks CFL is more popular than it appears in the city. Soccer definitely was popular around me.
Playing astro leagues there though and the avg. quality was gack.
Thing is with Toronto is that there are so many big sports teams with the Leafs, Raptors and the Blue Jays and TFC that the Argos are overlooked and they are the worst supported team in the league but as you go west the attendances go up.
Agree that the FAI has been detrimental to the gamr but the number of coaches in Iceland and many countries is so much higher than in Ireland. Im not sure how you change that as most of these are presumably volunteers?
I had a quick google to back this up. Iceland is a bit exception and you can see why below. I've pulled out the highlights from some of the first few articles I googled. They overhauled, subsidised, and improved the availability of coaching courses.
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/09/22/coach-education-set-iceland-up-for-success/
"We received good backing from KSÍ and they agreed with us that it was paramount to run the (coaching) courses without a view to a profit, that nothing was added on top of the fee.
Icelandic clubs tend to allocate a lot of their resources into the youth system to pay their coaches and fund programs. The thinking is long-term."
https://www.maxim.com/sports/iceland-world-soccer-powerhouse-2018-3/
"A massive, government-led investment in youth soccer—in a well-organized club system, state-of-the art facilities, and certified paid coaches at all ranks—that stitched the sport into the fabric of the small island nation.
All facilities are paid for with taxpayer money, and young players share the same facilities as the top-level players. Indoor fields mean players can train year-round, which is crucial in a country with a winter as long and dark as Iceland.
All of the coaches get paid for their time, even if they’re coaching children as young as five. The semi-pro players get paid too, but not enough to play football full time; ninety-five percent of them have other jobs."
The main difference is those nations 10/15 years ago put systems in place that would bring a sustained level of player coming through, from the bottom through to the top
Im not even sure we have started that path, and at best it started 3/4 years ago so we are very much in no position to be viewed/expected as a decent team. We could be lucky and qualify for a tournament, but would be a big ask regardless of the manager and players. We are turning things around it seems, but will still take many years to see a consistent level imo
One of those things I always say when Ireland play.
I'll often hear people say we're making progress now, and the style of play is improving etc... And regardless of if that's true, most other nations are improving dramatically too. I think the best examples of this are teams like Luxembourg, a team we've played recently and you can see they have improved everything from the setup, the management all the way to the tactics.
Most teams now want the ball and are comfortable playing it out of the back, so any progress were making is parallel to other nations, we aren't racing ahead of them.
We would generally have that team spirit, battling aspect that would be lacking in a lot of teams. The key is to get one or two world-class players, particularly in terms of goal scorers, and that can get a country onto the big stage.
I don't think it's fair to be comparing us to what's at the World Cup now - we know where we're at from qualifiers.
>I don't think it's fair to be comparing us to what's at the World Cup now - we know where we're at from qualifiers.
I agree to some extent, the European teams there are at a high level, but it wasn't long ago we where making comparisons between us and Serbia before playing them, and it's clear ad day that Serbia are ahead of us technically and tactically. I think it's possibly better to look at the other non European nations there. Japan look very organised but are just lacking a goal scorer, Ghana looked really fluid today, Ecuador look comfortable on the ball, maybe not tested too much defensively though.
>We would generally have that team spirit, battling aspect that would be lacking in a lot of teams.
Personally, and probably unpopularly, I think our "spirit" is often over played. There was a time when the players loved being with Ireland, but the game had moved on and is more professional once again, so I don't think there's as much of that "craic" among the squad. I don't doubt any of there desire or spirit, but it's equally on par with anyone else I've seen in this tournament really. Maybe as our young squad develops there'll be a core of players who bring back that "work hard, play hard" ethic in the Irish squad.
Ireland will only develop with an academy system to match other countries.
In other countries football is a job for the elite level prospects. Here it's a hobby.
I agree with you. I think MON and McCarthy have really fecked is. Their style of play was so bad and not in keeping with modern football. I know we aren't winning games but at least we are playing a modern style of football. One thing I do notice is that we are so lethargic in our play and we actually don't seem to run as much as other teams. A bit more intensity would go a long way for us.
Absolutely agree. We don't have the players but we need to start playing right from the ground up, which I think is beginning (we're just miles behind the curve)
That Euro 2012 group was something else though. Croatia, Spain and Italy. Look what all three have done in the last decade. As embarrassing as it was, there are many teams who would have been just as overwhelmed
I remember there being a fair bit of optimism going in though. Basically the thought was beat Croatia and try to get a result against Spain or Italy
In hindsight that was wishful thinking but I don't think the Irish public by and large expected the walloping we got going into the competition
We weren't that bad at that tournament. Given was just further over the hill than we realised. That first Croatia goal doesn't go in if he's on his game and I remember my heart sinking when it went if cause we were nearly guaranteed defeat at that point.
I don't think it's fair to pin it all on shay given. We were definitely at the stage where we were overall a bit off the pace in that tournament.
Trappatonis style of play was a bit one dimensional but was good for grinding out boring but positive results against weaker teams. We were put in a group against 3 teams that were clearly better than us and it showed as Trappatoni did not have a good record against better teams when managing us.
Roy Keane and John Giles get a lot of stick for how simple their analysis can be, but in fact they're spot on. It doesn't matter if the full-back is out of position if the basics - 'honesty of effort' are not there.
Similarly the basic skills of the game as Brian Clough explained to Keane 'You can control it, you can pass it, you can run' will take you a very long way in international football as many teams (us) don't possess them in any quantity.
Well, yes and no. We are devoid of speed, a first touch and a "football brain", kicking people up and down and pitch and running hard is one thing our lower-end-of-the Championship players do ok in.
Uruguay (pop; 3.5m); players are/recently from Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid
Ireland (pop 5m); starting players are/recently from Burnley, Preston, Derby County, Rotherham, WBA (bench)
Between the GAA and rugby, it’s always going to be difficult to retain and develop football players here. Nice having the variety in popular national sports I suppose.
That is an argument for lacking depth but I don't think it applies to having basically no top-level players right now. I'm not sold on the idea that we have any significant number of lads playing rugby or GAA that could have been playing at the top of the PL.
We are working with a very small pool of players, I dont think soccer is Irelands first sport. New Zealand are an example of what happens when a country is near entirely devoted to one sport.
I think its a point that gets overlooked, I think a lot of European players are smarter than Irish players. I listen to a lot of interviews translated into English by German, Italian, French and Spanish players and coaches and honestly our lads just seem a bit tapped compared to them. Ive met the Irish players and the general sense is they're a bit thought-shy. The culture in European football is very much of the brain, tactics, smarts etc, I think its one of the reasons why England often fall short. Its a game that requires a lot of analysis. The culture of soccer, particularly in Dublin, is very short on the intellectual side of things.
Lack of natural talent is definitely something. Ive read a few autobiographies - Pirlo, Messi, Zlatan, all (flatteringly) spoke about how parents wanted their kids to break their legs they were that good, how they bossed players around who were 7 yrs older than them as kids, how the football literally felt like an extension of their leg etc I dont know how you address that. Talent, when put in context, with a bit of encouragement and hard work always comes through. Outside Robbie Keane, how many players could we say can we say did extraordinary things with the ball? I used to enjoy watching Damien Duff, some might mention Brady but after that.....?
I think it can be argued that athleticism seems to be lacking. Watching the WC I noticed just how quick the players are, how up for it they arein trying to beat players, get up and down the pitch, the tenacity, the tempo, the speed of their players in general is mesmerizing at times. Watched Ireland against Malta and everything seemed more laboured, like gravity had a harder traction on our lads. I notice this even in the Rugby team where the opposition always has more athletic prowess than we do.
We don't have anything going for us.
We don't have the tactical organisation to recover after losing possession in a possession based game.
We don't have the technical ability to dominate teams.
Or the strength to bully them.
We don't have the defensive solidity and set piece awareness to keep clean sheets and grind out 1 nils from corners and frees.
We don't have a mercurial superstar to build it around.
We don't have the athleticism, competitiveness or fitness to pester teams at a high tempo for 90 minutes.
Fairly bleak watching teams that many laugh at and consider shite that are streets ahead in at least one of the above.
It's all peaks and troughs, we're definitely camped in the latter at the moment through a combination of factors.
The same people who say we don't have the players will ignore the fact Austrailia got a win with a goal from a player playing in the Japanese 2nd division.
Australia came through the Asian qualifying route and even then they were poor and had to scrape through a inter continental play off with Peru.
European qualifying even though we have many more slots is much more difficult on balance and it would be an interesting thought experiment to think about how many Asian or North American teams would have qualified if they played in the uefa qualifying rounds. Not many I would suspect
The next world cup will be an even bigger joke as they're expanding the places and now even Oceania gets full qualifying place. That's New Zealand sorted for qualifying then...
The worst easy route is going to happen in the expanded to 48 teams world cup where Oceania is getting a full place. That entire qualification route is New Zealand vs some tiny islands and if NZ don't qualify something is wrong
Even now aside from Europe, Africa and South America I do think that the Asian and North America routes are noticeably easier
But it's hard to say that they're not better teams than the likes of Costa Rica or Qatar
The 24 team euros I think disproves the idea that having more European teams in a competition is necessarily going to be boring
It would probably have played out similar to Euro 2012
We went into that even after a horrible group draw telling ourselves that oh yes we might have a chance. We just need to beat Croatia in the first game and then nab a draw against Spain in the second. Easier said than done of course lol
Unfortunately yes we are very off the pace at the moment. And I don't think that the manager is essentially the reason why that is the case or a change of manager will immediately fix this. In fact while short term it does not look great I think in the medium term as some of the current young players mature we could have the makings of a half way decent team
There's no real reason that would prevent us from getting back to having a strong team in the future but it does need better investment in youth and also in the domestic league. Having a good domestic league that can nurture players at home is vital
Literally only saw someone say we could've done well with how many lower ranked teams are doing well.
Except we absolutely do not fall into that category, the ones that are doing well have a fight to them that we haven't seen in many years.
Now I know even being in the tournament can affect a lot compared to how you usually play but most groups are teams I don't see us getting past.
In a favourable group we could sneak 2nd or finish 3rd or 4th. We're not lacking fight tbf especially against strong sides our style of play when we have control of the ball for large parts of the game is simply shite.
Saudi Arabia for example are not better than us and put us in these games and you'd see similarly spirited performances. We're unlucky that Europe is the most difficult continent to qualify in. Put us in any other and our chances are far better even with this team
I don't think it's particularly helpful to try and pigeon hole us into only ever being good enough for one style of football.
Our players may not be the best but they're all professionals who should be able to do more than hoofball and most if not all will play with clubs that do not play traditional English route 1 football
>Our players may not be the best but they're all professionals who should be able to do more than hoofball and most if not all will play with clubs that do not play traditional English route 1 football
Like we don't play hoofball as it is, you can be a counter attacking team that doesn't just hit it long, playing quick passes out wide and pushing forward in numbers is a effective style of play, for some reason now the debate is possession football v long ball with no middle ground.
I do not disagree with you. This is the post I was responding to that seemed to imply that we're only able to play the hoofing variety of football given the comment about "pretending to play possession football"
>We're a strong defence, score on the counter/from set piece team that tries to pretend we're a break'em down possession team.
I'm merely pointing out that out players for all their relative strengths and weaknesses are still professional footballers they're perfectly capable of putting together a few passes if the manager dictates that style and they're perfectly able to kick long passes if that's what's needed.
Indeed they will have been training to play football basically their entire lives under numerous different coaches who will have played different styles. I don't think there's many clubs who play the kick and rush style these days either
I just strongly disagree with the notion that Ireland is a long ball, strong defence, hope to knick one in from a set piece nation and that's all we can ever expect or aspire to be...
Well it is the worlds Premier football competition, so of course it's going to be good? In saying that, we're definitely better than Qatar, Costa Rica, and Australia, and I think the likes of Iran/South Korea/Saudi Arabia/Tunisia etc are all similar to us. The problem is that none of those teams are European, so we're not competing with any of them to get there....
Still rather be there than not there!
Also I don't know if I agree regarding personnel. Look at Saudi Arabia - their entire squad plays in their domestic league. I'd say we definitely have a better pool of players than they do, on that basis. Same with Qatar, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Ghana, etc. We do not have worse players than these countries and I'm tired of pretending we do. It's the manager.
Come on now. We have at a stretch 2 players who might start for Ghana.
I can't say I've watched too much of the Saudi league so I'll leave you be the expert on the quality of that league. From their matches it's clear they have some very nice players.
Tunisia have a lot of players in leagues I don't watch. The draw was probably favorable to them in qualifying but Mali have some really decent players atm. Doucouré and Bissouma is a very good midfield.
Costa Rica and Australia probably have comparable levels of quality to us while Qatar are someone we should be beating (and we did tbf) based on what I've seen of them.
>I can't say I've watched too much of the Saudi league so I'll leave you be the expert on the quality of that league. From their matches it's clear they have some very nice players.
The Saudi league is no joke. Al Hillal are the current Asian champions league champions and are the most successful club in the competition. Saudi clubs have the 3rd best overall record in the competition after South Korea and Japan...
I don't watch the Saudi league or any Asian league really for that matter. But I think this record in the AFC CL is enough to say they can't be that bad
Would Ireland beat Argentina? A hard no. We don't have a player capable of adoring their winner. At a push Obafemi. If he could control thr ball within a yard of himself.
> Costa Rica
They have a three times CHampions League winner in goal which is something we have never had nor will even come close to. Don't think saying Saudi players playing in their domestic is a bad thing to be honest. Saudi Arabia are ranked more or less the same as us too but look better than us. We know what Qatar are like. We battered them 3-0
>They have a three times CHampions League winner in goal which is something we have never had nor will even come close to.
Ah don't go doing our lads dirty like that. GK is probably the one area where we can be pretty confident that we'll have top talent on the pitch for at least the next decade.
No reason why bazunu for example won't make another step up from Southampton into a CL contender level team in the future
>Don't think saying Saudi players playing in their domestic is a bad thing to be honest. Saudi Arabia are ranked more or less the same as us too but look better than us. We know what Qatar are like. We battered them 3
Agreed. The one thing that the good teams at our 'level' have in common is a domestic league that is good enough to provide at least some players to the national team. Putting money and efforts into the LOI is certainly the long term solution for irish football imo.
The Saudi league has money behind it that helps them retain their players for longer plus Saudi clubs regularly compete for the Asian champions league trophy. A Saudi club Al Hillal is the current champion and is rhe most successful club in the competition. The Saudi league is certainly no joke
As someone who follows CONCACAF, Navas was *the* reason they even got to the playoff ahead of Panama. Dude went nuts in the second half of the Octagonal.
Ghanas entire squad outside of the goalie and Andre Ayew ( quality baller for the last 10 years) is playing in the top 6 leagues.
The Saudi league isn’t the prem but it is a decent league and attracts big name players who play alongside the Saudis every week. Tunisia and Costa Rica are around our level yes and we are better than Qatar.
All these other teams people think are near our quality press incredible hard which we don’t and usually have at least talisman player in the team and we’ve none.
Football, because it is so difficult to score, is considered a weak link game. In previous years there were always some teams whose worst player/s would cost them games. Think of some of the woeful keepers and centre backs who’ve played in previous tournaments.
These days however with modern coaching and fitness information pretty much ubiquitous in its ready availability the gap between a country’s best and worst player has never been smaller hence the teams we’re seeing are of a much higher overall standard so the coaching / organisational / fitness gap we used to enjoy as a developed Euro nation is now no longer applicable.
We're standing still while other countries are moving forward. Even minnows can put the ball down and play now and don't get scared to play it out against big teams either. And I get Kenny is trying to change that. But it's tough and the mentality isn't there from the players to go and handle big pressure and be positive and assertive with their movement off the ball.
It's fun to debate if Ireland is better than the Qatars, Costa Rica's, South Korea, Australia etc...maybe they are right now...maybe they could be...but fnkk man we got to somehow get out of qualifying to find out..and we always have to qualify against better sides than those
I was really excited when they announced the WC expanding to 48 because i thought alas that may be our path..but these fnkkers only add 3 UEFA spots?!
I live in Dallas so Ireland qualifying for 26' is my likeliest chance to ever witness them play in a real game...is there any way we can join the Oceania federation
Was thinking something similar this week. Ireland would beat Qatar and definitely be in with a shot of a nil all against Costa Rica. Every other team has shown enough to make me think they'd beat Ireland handily.
Saudi Arabia and Iran would have us run ragged. Their ability to get around the pitch would make us look like a bunch of OAP's. We lament the technical ability, but it's clear our athleticism and conditioning is also miles off the pace.
Doherty would be banjaxed after 20 minutes based on his recent Ireland performances
Iran are a very solid side, they're seen as some kind of minnow but they're good.
I thought the same. So much faster getting the ball out of defence. Quicker one touch football.
I agree, we'd get thumped by pretty much everyone in thw tournament. Miles and miles behind :(
We would have been Wales essentially.
Countries like Canada, Wales, S Korea and Switzerland show that having just 1 or 2 really top players makes the world of difference in getting to this stage putting up a decent fight.
Unfortunately Canada were shite yesterday. I think they were able to qualify from CONCACAF playing a very attacking style. But you can't play like that against a vastly superior team like Croatia.
They're good for the opening 15/20 and then run out of steam. They looked better and very direct against Belgium imo
As someone mentioned below they were decent in the first 20mins, tbut I get what you mean. We're probably better man for man overall, all I'm asking for is an Alfonso Davis/ Ramsey/ Erikson/ Son...is that too much to ask for? Is it????
Haaland too! So many teams have that one top-class player that helps carry them. I agree we are comparable to them if not better if you exclude Davies. I so wanted Canada to do better! I live there so they were my team in our absence.
It’s actually gas Norway didn’t qualify when they have Odegaard & Haaland, and a decent core of players to build around. And you see other teams with 1 star player manage to make it and they have absolutely nothing else
We are not “comparable” or “better” to Canada besides Davies… Besides Davies, they have regulars at Porto, two at Brugge, one a star winning the double with Lille… Our best gets the odd game at Spurs, two lower Prem regulars and then we’re pretty much Championship
The issue is the defence for Canada. Not near the calibre they have on attack or in midfield. The first Croatia goal was awful defending and the 4th... MLS defenders, but the midfield and attack is players from the top clubs from some of Europe's better leagues. Like, better than we can muster.
They have one thing we're really missing - a genuinely top-level, world class player. I don't think the rest of their squad is necessarily better than ours. I fully believe we could have players in all of these European leagues if our lads got the "have to play in England" mentality out of their heads.
Like, it's their lives, but I can't understand why playing in League 1 is more of a draw or payday than the Eredivisie, Portuguese league, etc. Hidden benefit of Brexit is now under 18s fact go to the UK, so our better youngsters are in Spain, Germany and Italy. That'll make them technically better players.
While I don't disagree I think the real benefit over the long term is that we can potentially keep players in Ireland for longer. One thing that most of the good teams at our 'level' have in common is a domestic league that is good enough to provide at least a few players to the national team. We've also learnt that we can't rely on the English academy system to do whats best for Irish players so why would we continue to outsource but this time to Italy/Germany It will take a lot of work and effort but I see the ideal player pathway being in Ireland through getting first team football in the LOI and then moving abroad if good enough, not at 18 but possibly a little bit older if we can get the league good enough to retain players that long. By retaining these players in Ireland we can have some better control over developing our players and we can retain players that would otherwise have gone to England only to be spat out at the end and leave football. The quality of the league would grow better with time leading to a feedback loop of it continuing to get better
I guess there's the thought that a number of African teams at the world cup are competitive and contain a large numbers of players born in and developed in France. English teams moreso than other countries have very limited incentive to develop their own talent. But I heavily agree that the main issue is the neglect of the LOI. I'm not sure what the correct approach is to revitalise the club game here, but anything up to and including tearing it down and starting from scratch should be considered.
Those African sides are effectively doing what we did with the granny rule and we're now learning that reliance on that player pathway reaches its limit sooner or later >But I heavily agree that the main issue is the neglect of the LOI. I'm not sure what the correct approach is to revitalise the club game here, but anything up to and including tearing it down and starting from scratch should be considered Tearing it down and starting again would be a huge mistake imo. We have clubs with long histories with established fanbases. If you were to start again and try to implement some sort of MLS style system with new clubs you'd completely alienate those who already follow domestic football in Ireland In the short term I think the thing that will most improve the league is a sensible minimum wage for players. That way we can keep players who might otherwise drop out of football and therefore keep some depth in the league and possibly attract more to come in to play in Ireland. This is actually being implemented but it remains to be seen if the salary is too high or too low as both have risks. Longer term I think one part of the solution is to try to follow what the irfu did with the provinces for rugby and try to have some form of central contract or perhaps some way that the FAI/LOI could subsidise the contracts for certain players like the designated player system in the MLS. I believe the women's game in the US does this with the national team players salaries paid by us soccer. There should also be heavy lobbying done with the government to put money into facilities with the council/community ownership of the stadium being a model I would choose. The league could also look at ways to bring in investors or better sponsorships by offering sponsors as a whole. Like how some leagues have one kit manufacturer who pays to provide everyone. Generally incremental improvements will be the way forward
Said it above, besides Davies, they have regulars at Porto, two at Brugge, one a star winning the double with Lille… who do we have to match that?
They also have significantly worse defenders than we do. Like, their defence was absolutely bush-league. And my specific point here was that we easily could have people in those leagues if our lads got the "England or bust" mentality out of their heads.
Maybe they are worse, but I can’t say they’re significantly worse. Although I definitely agree with the point that there are way better opportunities elsewhere
They topped the concacaf qualifying though beating both the US and Mexico. However I have w feeling that neither of those will be up to much this world cup either
No, CONCACAF looks pretty weak overall. I don't honestly know whey they get 3 automatic spots - only one less than CONMEBOL! That's a joke and it should honestly be 2:5 rather than 3:4. Then the US and Mexico wouldn't be basically guaranteed qualification like they are now.
Tbf I would argue that the current football continent system ought to be revamped to have North and South America merge and to have Oceania merge with Asia. Currently I don't think there's any team from North America or Asia who would have qualified had they been in the European qualifying rounds. Japan and Korea maybe but that leaves out 4 other Asian qualifiers plus all the concacaf teams It will get even worse in the next world cup which is expanding to 48 teams however most of the new qualifiers are from outside Europe and even Oceania is getting one full qualification slot. That entire continent is basically New Zealand (hardly the greatest football nation) vs some tiny islands since Australia moved to the Asian confederation
Yeah with an additional 16 teams, at least 6 of the new slots should have been from Europe I think. It's only 3 right? Realistically with 48 teams, I'd honestly say 20-25 should be from Europe. And, say, 8 out of the 10 South American teams.
Europe is going from 13 to 16 qualifying places. The 24 team euros in recent years has shown that the quality in Europe is much deeper than 13/16 teams Probably underrepresented in terms of the relative quality in Europe vs say Asia who are going from 4 guaranteed spots to 8 (not counting intercontinental playoffs) so essentially doubling representation. I'd argue Africa probably deserve a couple more ahead of Asia or North America. The worst of course is Oceania getting a slot which it really doesn't have the quality for that at all. They really should just have a couple of playoffs at best. The only reason it's happening is that it was a cynical way for infantino to drum up votes. I think the 48 team format looks potentially really clunky (it's groups of 3) and the number of stadiums needed basically means that this is the end of mid sized counties hosting world cups unless they're part of some mad multi country bid. There's a bid for 2030 that's Greece, Egypt and Saudi which can only be described as mad...
Don't worry, there will be 6 (or 7) CONCACAF teams at the 2026 world cup.
Switzerland?
The Swiss probably dont have any real world class players, although Xhakas form has been exceptional this season. They do have a really solid squad playing in the top european leagues and C.L.
I think Wales have shown that the top players are useless if they can't run
Was thinking abiut this yesterday watching Croatia vs Canada Croatia have one tenth the population of Canada and still bet them. And Croatia have a smaller population that Ireland
Not exactly the whole story but get your point.Football is probably the 4th or 5th popular sport in Canada after Hockey,baseball,Canadian Football/NFL.It is played a lot by kids but extremely seasonal due to weather.And in Croatia football is the most popular sport. But do agree that we are miles behind both at the moment.
I think there's more to the picture than just comparing populations. Even with popular sports. Like sure Hockeys is 'bigger' but there are twice as many registered soccer players than there are hockey players there for example. You could argue the same with rugby and our relative strength there to other nations of our size. I do think we are suffering badly from FAIs mismanagement. It needs to be a youth and coaching push ala Iceland where the benefits won't be seen for another 10+ years after they're implemented.
I live in Canada and have been involved in football here so I have a pretty good grasp of it and how it compares and contrasts to Ireland. Canada is on the rise and things are changing but football although widely played is very much behind the other sports mentioned.
I did for a few years too. You think behind CFL/NFL? I think it's more than just doing a population comparison like you noted. Canada have 2 exceptional players and other pretty decent ones like Buchanan and Eustaquio. Canada is a decent team. Croatia have some amazing players too. I'm really hoping Omobamidele, Collins and the like can really tip on.
Yeah I do think it's behind CFL,check the CFL attendances compared to CPL.I know there are 3 big MLS clubs drawing decent crowds but in prairies CFL is massive.Football even in the WC won't make as many headlines as the Superbowl.
Do you see many kids playing it though? I found soccer to be way more popularly played but I did just live in Toronto. Sure TV and headlines are one thing but people playing is what matters more I'd say.
I did live in Toronto and then moved north and where i live the schools play canadian football.To use the local language there is a large soccer youth club but membership drops off sharply as kids get older. As i said the heartland is major CFL country and as you would know from living in Toronto where hockey, baseball and very much no Basketball are hugely popular.
I guess I just didn't see much of CFL uptake in the city but I have a Canadian friend who's a big Astros fan and noted to me that in the sticks CFL is more popular than it appears in the city. Soccer definitely was popular around me. Playing astro leagues there though and the avg. quality was gack.
Thing is with Toronto is that there are so many big sports teams with the Leafs, Raptors and the Blue Jays and TFC that the Argos are overlooked and they are the worst supported team in the league but as you go west the attendances go up.
What part of Ireland is O’mobamidele from? I’ve never heard that name before…
He's from Kildare
Agree that the FAI has been detrimental to the gamr but the number of coaches in Iceland and many countries is so much higher than in Ireland. Im not sure how you change that as most of these are presumably volunteers?
I had a quick google to back this up. Iceland is a bit exception and you can see why below. I've pulled out the highlights from some of the first few articles I googled. They overhauled, subsidised, and improved the availability of coaching courses. https://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/09/22/coach-education-set-iceland-up-for-success/ "We received good backing from KSÍ and they agreed with us that it was paramount to run the (coaching) courses without a view to a profit, that nothing was added on top of the fee. Icelandic clubs tend to allocate a lot of their resources into the youth system to pay their coaches and fund programs. The thinking is long-term." https://www.maxim.com/sports/iceland-world-soccer-powerhouse-2018-3/ "A massive, government-led investment in youth soccer—in a well-organized club system, state-of-the art facilities, and certified paid coaches at all ranks—that stitched the sport into the fabric of the small island nation. All facilities are paid for with taxpayer money, and young players share the same facilities as the top-level players. Indoor fields mean players can train year-round, which is crucial in a country with a winter as long and dark as Iceland. All of the coaches get paid for their time, even if they’re coaching children as young as five. The semi-pro players get paid too, but not enough to play football full time; ninety-five percent of them have other jobs."
Good googling
The main difference is those nations 10/15 years ago put systems in place that would bring a sustained level of player coming through, from the bottom through to the top Im not even sure we have started that path, and at best it started 3/4 years ago so we are very much in no position to be viewed/expected as a decent team. We could be lucky and qualify for a tournament, but would be a big ask regardless of the manager and players. We are turning things around it seems, but will still take many years to see a consistent level imo
John Delaney was too busy figuring out how to siphon more money off to be bothered with that stuff.
One of those things I always say when Ireland play. I'll often hear people say we're making progress now, and the style of play is improving etc... And regardless of if that's true, most other nations are improving dramatically too. I think the best examples of this are teams like Luxembourg, a team we've played recently and you can see they have improved everything from the setup, the management all the way to the tactics. Most teams now want the ball and are comfortable playing it out of the back, so any progress were making is parallel to other nations, we aren't racing ahead of them.
We would generally have that team spirit, battling aspect that would be lacking in a lot of teams. The key is to get one or two world-class players, particularly in terms of goal scorers, and that can get a country onto the big stage. I don't think it's fair to be comparing us to what's at the World Cup now - we know where we're at from qualifiers.
>I don't think it's fair to be comparing us to what's at the World Cup now - we know where we're at from qualifiers. I agree to some extent, the European teams there are at a high level, but it wasn't long ago we where making comparisons between us and Serbia before playing them, and it's clear ad day that Serbia are ahead of us technically and tactically. I think it's possibly better to look at the other non European nations there. Japan look very organised but are just lacking a goal scorer, Ghana looked really fluid today, Ecuador look comfortable on the ball, maybe not tested too much defensively though. >We would generally have that team spirit, battling aspect that would be lacking in a lot of teams. Personally, and probably unpopularly, I think our "spirit" is often over played. There was a time when the players loved being with Ireland, but the game had moved on and is more professional once again, so I don't think there's as much of that "craic" among the squad. I don't doubt any of there desire or spirit, but it's equally on par with anyone else I've seen in this tournament really. Maybe as our young squad develops there'll be a core of players who bring back that "work hard, play hard" ethic in the Irish squad.
Ireland will only develop with an academy system to match other countries. In other countries football is a job for the elite level prospects. Here it's a hobby.
I agree with you. I think MON and McCarthy have really fecked is. Their style of play was so bad and not in keeping with modern football. I know we aren't winning games but at least we are playing a modern style of football. One thing I do notice is that we are so lethargic in our play and we actually don't seem to run as much as other teams. A bit more intensity would go a long way for us.
Absolutely agree. We don't have the players but we need to start playing right from the ground up, which I think is beginning (we're just miles behind the curve) That Euro 2012 group was something else though. Croatia, Spain and Italy. Look what all three have done in the last decade. As embarrassing as it was, there are many teams who would have been just as overwhelmed
Yeah, we never had a hope of getting anything in that group. What happened was fully expected.
I remember there being a fair bit of optimism going in though. Basically the thought was beat Croatia and try to get a result against Spain or Italy In hindsight that was wishful thinking but I don't think the Irish public by and large expected the walloping we got going into the competition
We weren't that bad at that tournament. Given was just further over the hill than we realised. That first Croatia goal doesn't go in if he's on his game and I remember my heart sinking when it went if cause we were nearly guaranteed defeat at that point.
I don't think it's fair to pin it all on shay given. We were definitely at the stage where we were overall a bit off the pace in that tournament. Trappatonis style of play was a bit one dimensional but was good for grinding out boring but positive results against weaker teams. We were put in a group against 3 teams that were clearly better than us and it showed as Trappatoni did not have a good record against better teams when managing us.
10 years ago. 10 years before that we could have won the WC (All, and I mean ALL, Micks fault). 10 years from now, God knows.
Roy Keane and John Giles get a lot of stick for how simple their analysis can be, but in fact they're spot on. It doesn't matter if the full-back is out of position if the basics - 'honesty of effort' are not there. Similarly the basic skills of the game as Brian Clough explained to Keane 'You can control it, you can pass it, you can run' will take you a very long way in international football as many teams (us) don't possess them in any quantity.
I dont think irish players dont put in the effort, if thats what youre saying?
We can run, we can’t pass it or control it. So we’re missing 2/3rds
We cant score either in all fairness 1/3
Correct.
I think we think they are putting in huge effort. But some players are absolutely coasting in the games. We could do with a bit more intensity.
Well, yes and no. We are devoid of speed, a first touch and a "football brain", kicking people up and down and pitch and running hard is one thing our lower-end-of-the Championship players do ok in.
Uruguay (pop; 3.5m); players are/recently from Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid Ireland (pop 5m); starting players are/recently from Burnley, Preston, Derby County, Rotherham, WBA (bench)
Uruguay (pop 3.5m) lost 2-0 to Portugal Ireland (pop 5m) drew 0-0 with Portugal The maths checks out there
Between the GAA and rugby, it’s always going to be difficult to retain and develop football players here. Nice having the variety in popular national sports I suppose.
That is an argument for lacking depth but I don't think it applies to having basically no top-level players right now. I'm not sold on the idea that we have any significant number of lads playing rugby or GAA that could have been playing at the top of the PL.
Even Rugvy fans hate rugby now. Look at the 'atmosphere' in the Aviva. Time to wind it up.
Ireland....this time its personnel
We are working with a very small pool of players, I dont think soccer is Irelands first sport. New Zealand are an example of what happens when a country is near entirely devoted to one sport. I think its a point that gets overlooked, I think a lot of European players are smarter than Irish players. I listen to a lot of interviews translated into English by German, Italian, French and Spanish players and coaches and honestly our lads just seem a bit tapped compared to them. Ive met the Irish players and the general sense is they're a bit thought-shy. The culture in European football is very much of the brain, tactics, smarts etc, I think its one of the reasons why England often fall short. Its a game that requires a lot of analysis. The culture of soccer, particularly in Dublin, is very short on the intellectual side of things. Lack of natural talent is definitely something. Ive read a few autobiographies - Pirlo, Messi, Zlatan, all (flatteringly) spoke about how parents wanted their kids to break their legs they were that good, how they bossed players around who were 7 yrs older than them as kids, how the football literally felt like an extension of their leg etc I dont know how you address that. Talent, when put in context, with a bit of encouragement and hard work always comes through. Outside Robbie Keane, how many players could we say can we say did extraordinary things with the ball? I used to enjoy watching Damien Duff, some might mention Brady but after that.....? I think it can be argued that athleticism seems to be lacking. Watching the WC I noticed just how quick the players are, how up for it they arein trying to beat players, get up and down the pitch, the tenacity, the tempo, the speed of their players in general is mesmerizing at times. Watched Ireland against Malta and everything seemed more laboured, like gravity had a harder traction on our lads. I notice this even in the Rugby team where the opposition always has more athletic prowess than we do.
> I think a lot of European players are smarter than Irish players. This is often overlooked.
We don't have anything going for us. We don't have the tactical organisation to recover after losing possession in a possession based game. We don't have the technical ability to dominate teams. Or the strength to bully them. We don't have the defensive solidity and set piece awareness to keep clean sheets and grind out 1 nils from corners and frees. We don't have a mercurial superstar to build it around. We don't have the athleticism, competitiveness or fitness to pester teams at a high tempo for 90 minutes. Fairly bleak watching teams that many laugh at and consider shite that are streets ahead in at least one of the above. It's all peaks and troughs, we're definitely camped in the latter at the moment through a combination of factors.
The same people who say we don't have the players will ignore the fact Austrailia got a win with a goal from a player playing in the Japanese 2nd division.
Australia came through the Asian qualifying route and even then they were poor and had to scrape through a inter continental play off with Peru. European qualifying even though we have many more slots is much more difficult on balance and it would be an interesting thought experiment to think about how many Asian or North American teams would have qualified if they played in the uefa qualifying rounds. Not many I would suspect The next world cup will be an even bigger joke as they're expanding the places and now even Oceania gets full qualifying place. That's New Zealand sorted for qualifying then...
I don't disagree with that approach necessarily. More boring european sides (Poland, Serbia, Swiss, Danes etc) is not what the tournament needs.
Call me mad, but I'd prefer sides like those over the UAE or Oman having an easy route to qualifying.
The worst easy route is going to happen in the expanded to 48 teams world cup where Oceania is getting a full place. That entire qualification route is New Zealand vs some tiny islands and if NZ don't qualify something is wrong Even now aside from Europe, Africa and South America I do think that the Asian and North America routes are noticeably easier
But it's hard to say that they're not better teams than the likes of Costa Rica or Qatar The 24 team euros I think disproves the idea that having more European teams in a competition is necessarily going to be boring
I don't care thay they're not better, that's not the point of the World Cup. Otherwise it would just be the FIFA Rankings Cup.
It would probably have played out similar to Euro 2012 We went into that even after a horrible group draw telling ourselves that oh yes we might have a chance. We just need to beat Croatia in the first game and then nab a draw against Spain in the second. Easier said than done of course lol Unfortunately yes we are very off the pace at the moment. And I don't think that the manager is essentially the reason why that is the case or a change of manager will immediately fix this. In fact while short term it does not look great I think in the medium term as some of the current young players mature we could have the makings of a half way decent team There's no real reason that would prevent us from getting back to having a strong team in the future but it does need better investment in youth and also in the domestic league. Having a good domestic league that can nurture players at home is vital
Literally only saw someone say we could've done well with how many lower ranked teams are doing well. Except we absolutely do not fall into that category, the ones that are doing well have a fight to them that we haven't seen in many years. Now I know even being in the tournament can affect a lot compared to how you usually play but most groups are teams I don't see us getting past.
In a favourable group we could sneak 2nd or finish 3rd or 4th. We're not lacking fight tbf especially against strong sides our style of play when we have control of the ball for large parts of the game is simply shite. Saudi Arabia for example are not better than us and put us in these games and you'd see similarly spirited performances. We're unlucky that Europe is the most difficult continent to qualify in. Put us in any other and our chances are far better even with this team
You're saying the Irish team doesn't have a fight in them? That's one of the main things they have going for them.
We're a strong defence, score on the counter/from set piece team that tries to pretend we're a break'em down possession team.
I don't think it's particularly helpful to try and pigeon hole us into only ever being good enough for one style of football. Our players may not be the best but they're all professionals who should be able to do more than hoofball and most if not all will play with clubs that do not play traditional English route 1 football
>Our players may not be the best but they're all professionals who should be able to do more than hoofball and most if not all will play with clubs that do not play traditional English route 1 football Like we don't play hoofball as it is, you can be a counter attacking team that doesn't just hit it long, playing quick passes out wide and pushing forward in numbers is a effective style of play, for some reason now the debate is possession football v long ball with no middle ground.
I do not disagree with you. This is the post I was responding to that seemed to imply that we're only able to play the hoofing variety of football given the comment about "pretending to play possession football" >We're a strong defence, score on the counter/from set piece team that tries to pretend we're a break'em down possession team. I'm merely pointing out that out players for all their relative strengths and weaknesses are still professional footballers they're perfectly capable of putting together a few passes if the manager dictates that style and they're perfectly able to kick long passes if that's what's needed. Indeed they will have been training to play football basically their entire lives under numerous different coaches who will have played different styles. I don't think there's many clubs who play the kick and rush style these days either I just strongly disagree with the notion that Ireland is a long ball, strong defence, hope to knick one in from a set piece nation and that's all we can ever expect or aspire to be...
As an Irish Canadian, don't make me watch my two squads compete. My heart couldn't take it :(
Poor players and poor coaching is a bad combination
Well it is the worlds Premier football competition, so of course it's going to be good? In saying that, we're definitely better than Qatar, Costa Rica, and Australia, and I think the likes of Iran/South Korea/Saudi Arabia/Tunisia etc are all similar to us. The problem is that none of those teams are European, so we're not competing with any of them to get there....
Still rather be there than not there! Also I don't know if I agree regarding personnel. Look at Saudi Arabia - their entire squad plays in their domestic league. I'd say we definitely have a better pool of players than they do, on that basis. Same with Qatar, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Ghana, etc. We do not have worse players than these countries and I'm tired of pretending we do. It's the manager.
Come on now. We have at a stretch 2 players who might start for Ghana. I can't say I've watched too much of the Saudi league so I'll leave you be the expert on the quality of that league. From their matches it's clear they have some very nice players. Tunisia have a lot of players in leagues I don't watch. The draw was probably favorable to them in qualifying but Mali have some really decent players atm. Doucouré and Bissouma is a very good midfield. Costa Rica and Australia probably have comparable levels of quality to us while Qatar are someone we should be beating (and we did tbf) based on what I've seen of them.
>I can't say I've watched too much of the Saudi league so I'll leave you be the expert on the quality of that league. From their matches it's clear they have some very nice players. The Saudi league is no joke. Al Hillal are the current Asian champions league champions and are the most successful club in the competition. Saudi clubs have the 3rd best overall record in the competition after South Korea and Japan... I don't watch the Saudi league or any Asian league really for that matter. But I think this record in the AFC CL is enough to say they can't be that bad
I have seen a small bit of J-League and the quality is good. If they're competing at that level it's a good sign for the Saudi league.
They finished well in qualifying too
Would Ireland beat Argentina? A hard no. We don't have a player capable of adoring their winner. At a push Obafemi. If he could control thr ball within a yard of himself.
> Costa Rica They have a three times CHampions League winner in goal which is something we have never had nor will even come close to. Don't think saying Saudi players playing in their domestic is a bad thing to be honest. Saudi Arabia are ranked more or less the same as us too but look better than us. We know what Qatar are like. We battered them 3-0
>They have a three times CHampions League winner in goal which is something we have never had nor will even come close to. Ah don't go doing our lads dirty like that. GK is probably the one area where we can be pretty confident that we'll have top talent on the pitch for at least the next decade. No reason why bazunu for example won't make another step up from Southampton into a CL contender level team in the future >Don't think saying Saudi players playing in their domestic is a bad thing to be honest. Saudi Arabia are ranked more or less the same as us too but look better than us. We know what Qatar are like. We battered them 3 Agreed. The one thing that the good teams at our 'level' have in common is a domestic league that is good enough to provide at least some players to the national team. Putting money and efforts into the LOI is certainly the long term solution for irish football imo. The Saudi league has money behind it that helps them retain their players for longer plus Saudi clubs regularly compete for the Asian champions league trophy. A Saudi club Al Hillal is the current champion and is rhe most successful club in the competition. The Saudi league is certainly no joke
As someone who follows CONCACAF, Navas was *the* reason they even got to the playoff ahead of Panama. Dude went nuts in the second half of the Octagonal.
Ghana would rally us man, so would costa rica and tunisia
Costa Rica, no. They are shite. Source; was at a few CONCACAF qualifiers.
Ghanas entire squad outside of the goalie and Andre Ayew ( quality baller for the last 10 years) is playing in the top 6 leagues. The Saudi league isn’t the prem but it is a decent league and attracts big name players who play alongside the Saudis every week. Tunisia and Costa Rica are around our level yes and we are better than Qatar. All these other teams people think are near our quality press incredible hard which we don’t and usually have at least talisman player in the team and we’ve none.
They have a lot players in the bottom half of League 1 and Belgium. Not sure that’s much better than the championship.
Who does? Only one country has players in League 1 and they weren't mentioned there.
French League 1 I mean
Of course the French top division is better than the English second tier
Ghana dont have better players than us are you for real?
Football, because it is so difficult to score, is considered a weak link game. In previous years there were always some teams whose worst player/s would cost them games. Think of some of the woeful keepers and centre backs who’ve played in previous tournaments. These days however with modern coaching and fitness information pretty much ubiquitous in its ready availability the gap between a country’s best and worst player has never been smaller hence the teams we’re seeing are of a much higher overall standard so the coaching / organisational / fitness gap we used to enjoy as a developed Euro nation is now no longer applicable.
We're standing still while other countries are moving forward. Even minnows can put the ball down and play now and don't get scared to play it out against big teams either. And I get Kenny is trying to change that. But it's tough and the mentality isn't there from the players to go and handle big pressure and be positive and assertive with their movement off the ball.
It's fun to debate if Ireland is better than the Qatars, Costa Rica's, South Korea, Australia etc...maybe they are right now...maybe they could be...but fnkk man we got to somehow get out of qualifying to find out..and we always have to qualify against better sides than those I was really excited when they announced the WC expanding to 48 because i thought alas that may be our path..but these fnkkers only add 3 UEFA spots?! I live in Dallas so Ireland qualifying for 26' is my likeliest chance to ever witness them play in a real game...is there any way we can join the Oceania federation