About three weeks ago Poland’s men’s volleyball team crashed out of the Olympic Games at the quarter-final stage. Odds on for the gold medal, their failure sparked a tidal wave of criticism at home. The debate soon turned to discussion of the Irish football fans as the Polish asked why they coudn’t follow the example set by the Green Army at Euro 2012. We wonder if they’d ask the same question this week.
SINCE Spain won the Euro’s and the World Cup I’ve become increasingly irked by listening to people in the know go on about how good they are and how good La Liga is, and it’s finally come to a head. I just can’t feckin take it anymore.
HE’S THE love-hate figure of the Irish national team. We love him because he’s our captain, our record goal-scorer, a genuinely decent skin, and hope that we can all pull a smoking-hot bird. But we hate him for his histrionics on the football pitch, his flailing arms, his sometimes glaring misses, and the fact that he hasn’t turned into the consistent sharp-shooter he promised in his youth.
COULD the FAI Cup prove to be the saviour of Irish soccer? With the largest crowd in four decades, over 36,000, flocking to the Aviva Stadium last weekend, there followed a spectacle to enthrall the masses. And now a seed has been sown that the domestic game could achieve what is has always threatened, to capture the hearts and minds of the public.
SO THE dust has settled on Friday night and after reading the weekend’s reports and re-watching the game again (well speeded up) on Saturday morning, it was still very very depressing. We seemed to have fallen into our old routines giving away soft goals, humping the ball forward, no real game plan and certainly no plan B.
IRELAND kick off their European Championship qualification campaign at the relatively inconspicuous time of 4pm this Friday.
It’s a return to midweek matches and a throwback to a time when primary school children would pack into one classroom or a PE hall in the afternoon, crowded around a small TV, to witness the latest escapades of Jack’s Boys in Green.
D’IRISH Indo continued to wade into the League of Ireland v Man United barstooler debate in an interesting way yesterday. The main feeling among supporters of the domestic game was one of despair.