I was going through some old video tapes today. I found a copy of Ireland V England in World Cup 1990. I only had the last 35 minutes or so. I thought that was a brilliant game at the time in 1990. I watched some of it. God it was an awful game. We really just didn't do football back then. When in doubt hoof it forward. How did we never notice it as a country?
Ireland v England was a poxy game. Italian papers had a headline the next day reading 'No football please we're British'
I used to know it all, Now I'm going to school.
What about the Egypt game - Dunphy flinging his pen and all that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3GeTQ21nxE
Didn't stop us from going mad all the same!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEkc8dGF2ds
We were an affliction on that tournament, never played an ounce of football in any game. Scored two goals in five games, both from defensive errors off two big hoofs down the pitch. The real victim in the long term was Mick McCarthy IMO, as his achievement of getting an Irish national team within a penalty shootout of a WC Quarter Final whilst actually playing some football and attacking sides was seen as a relative failure when that '02 World Cup ought to be remembered as our best ever performance on the International stage.
Rather like trappatoni now, the end justifies the means. If we qualify, its job done.Originally Posted by Gaz
In 1990, we got to the quarters so that ranks as our biggest achievement.
Its not under 8's football we're talking about, its results and nothing else
Disagree that it's JUST about results with International football, it's also a showcase for a country's footballing culture. And that team showed ours in a very poor light.
Each to their own. I look back on the McCarthy era with a lot of pride at the manner in which we took on teams like Portugal, Holland (away), Yugoslavia, Croatia and Spain (battered them for the last 90 minutes of that game) playing high tempo, attacking football. It's the only time (apart from Hand's first campaign) that we've ever had the courage to do that for any more than one freak game in my time watching Ireland. Whatever may have happened off the pitch and despite his obvious managerial flaws, what his teams did on it made me (and I think most Irish fans at the time) proud of Irish football and I think it's sad that has been forgotten over the way his tenure ended.
One legacy of the success of the Charlton years was a perception that there was nothing much wrong with the coaching structures, style of play etc in this country. That was deeply flawed IMO and kept us way behind other countries in technical terms when we needed to change things badly, it's only in the last 7-8 years that serious attempts have been made to redress that. It also led to an expectation among the wider Irish sporting public that Irish teams should be capable of regularly reaching the knockout stages of the World Cup which was achieved on pretty false premises IMO with a style of play which is long since redundant.
Would love to see McCarthy back as manager
I wouldn't funnily enough (just on the 'you never go back' principle) but think he did a good job with us and doesn't get enough credit for it. Would like to see him establish Wolves as regulars in the EPL.
might be free soon as well with the wolves fans on his cae. Reckon he will be in demand though.
I've a lot of time for McCarthy and think he did a fantastic job but if we "do a Greece" and win a major tournament playing poxy football i wouldn't get too hung up peoples perception of our footballing culture.
While I think it should be that, with an English manager in 1990 and an Italian now, its clearly not
Don't think it's the nationalities of Charlton and Trap that are/were the problem. It's their managerial style that prohibits players from attempting anything creative with the ball that results in the awful football they play/played. It's often said that Trap manages in an Italian style, I disagree strongly, have never seen any Italian National or Club side that places so little value on keeping possession of the ball as he does with us.
You think that's plausable?
I remember before the Spain game McCarthy said "win and we can reach the final". He was right. We had a group of players that played 360 exceptional minutes of football against Holland and Portugal.
In this campaign we played a good 45 minutes away to Slovakia (dictated by Keith Fahey), and not much else to shout about.
We should qualify but I think we'll make hard work of Estonia and we'd need a kind draw to get out of the group phase.
Nope but my point was winning is what matters in the professional game.
Absolutely.
Jack took us to three finals. Trap is on his second attempt. Ok, we were robbed in Paris, but only after failing to top the group ahead of an Italy side which was there for the taking. If we do qualify this time round, it'll be as a result of a handy draw and a fuckload of luck in qualifying campaign. It'll be no vindication of Trap's methods.
When we qualified under Charlton, wasn't it always 2 teams qualifying automatically from every group?
Now we topped the group to qualify for Euro 88. ONly 7 qualified then (+ hosts)
For 1990 we finished 2nd behind Spain, ahead of the north, Hingary and malta
For 1994 we finsihed 2nd behind Spain again, ahead of Denmark (euro champs), the North, Lithuania, Latvia, Albania
Loads of luck involved there too (if you believe in luck)
i know where you are coming from but if we qualify, then its job done. How we got there means nothing.Its unfair to be picking holes in the methods we used to get there.
Dont think we have had a fuckload of luck tbh. Russia was a freak game fair enough but we should have beaten slovakia at home. We were robbed in the last campaign by a dodgy handball and we were on the right end of a dodgy handball against armenia. Swings and roundabouts.
If people think Trap is lucky, then Charlton was definitely lucky for Euro '88 qualifying (with the Bulgaria v Scotland game). Plus , as said, Charlton had the advantage of top 2 teams qualifying automatically for 1990 and 1994, something managers since then didn't have. Plus (IMO), Charlton had much better players than Trap does
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