The gaze of the footballing press continues to focus on Shamrock Rovers as the countdown to their White Hart Lane meeting with Spurs continues. In particular, former Tottenham player Rohan Ricketts has figured prominently as he prepares to return to his old stomping ground in the hooped shirt of Ireland’s history makers.
Tallaght Stadium. The final stages of a major European competition. Irish particpants for the first time. Heady days for the game here. And no, it’s not Shamrock Rovers. Peamount United Ladies face Paris Saint German in the UEFA Women’s Champions League on Wednesday and take another defining step for football in Ireland.
The Beautiful Game – Turkey’s Fenerbahce banned men from their game with Manisapor on Tuesday. Women and children were allowed in for free and 41,000 turned up. The chant “The referee’s a w*nker” has never sounded so melodic.
Wayne Rooney tweets his support for Celtic in last weekend’s Old Firm. Not surprising given his Irish background.
Irish football’s finest hour? Regardless of what ensues; whether Shamrock Rovers are beaten out the gate in each of their Europa League games, they have put the League of Ireland on the map. Paradoxically, the attention and goodwill flowing towards Rovers from the wider football world may be the route by which the Republic’s domestic game gains respect at home.
Zinedine Zidane’s 16-year-old son Enzo, an academy player at Real Madrid, was invited to train with the first team this week. No head butts were thrown.
Paul McGrath lauds Richard Dunne’s one man Iron Curtain in Moscow.
“Richard Dunne congratulations The Best performance I have seen from any Irish centre half and that includes myself”
Armenia 4 Slovakia 0. That scoreline puts Ireland’s result in Moscow into perspective. Taking into account the reverse result in Dublin and the fact that we were second-best for most of the night, this was a heroic display by Trapattoni’s Ireland. Richard Dunne was a stand-out performer and if Russia fail to beat Slovakia next month, Ireland still have a chance of automatic qualification.
