Ireland u19s

ripbomb wrote: Poor from Golding. Once he lost the ball goal was written all over it.

Disappointing, think we've looked good in the second half. Ferizaj has impressed me

horsebox wrote: Murphy's crossing has been really poor. They can't really play ball with the pitch in that condition. The ball bounced and just got stuck in the mud like a medicine ball. Zefi and Vata have been lively enough.

Edited by Nialler - 22 Mar 2023 at 5:23pm

Nialler wrote: It is tragic for sure.  No way a top nation lets a qualifers happen on this pitch.  It is March in Iteland. Shiw some f**king foresight. Braindead to have a technical group of players playing in conditiins at home to suit the opposition.

except for rugby, we seem to be able to handle being favourites in that sport. Not sure any other sport we are favourites in? Utterly nonsense comment. 

Disappointing result, only saw the first half as I was in transit thereafter, but I thought we would go on and win it, we looked to have a bit more about us. Do we have to top the group to qualify? Slovakia didnt look great tbf so no guarantee theyll win their game vs Greece. Estonia will need to be dispatched comfortably on Saturday and hopefully we still have a chance going in to the final game.

John Nice wrote: You Tell Me wrote: Consolation at the end might come in useful but qualification is out of their hands now. They will need Slovakia to slip up.   Even taking account of the pitch and the conditions I think that squad has been vastly overrated by quite a few people. I've maybe just been unlucky, but I've watched Zefi a few times now and have yet to see him do anything to justify the hype. Lots of tricks but little end product. Like you, I have seen him only a couple of times, but he looks like a highlights reel kind of lad, the hype is absurd, he has only just broken in to Inter's U19 side, McJannet, Abankwah and Ryan have all been featuring at U19 level in Italy already. He's clearly got talent, but I have seen calls for him to be capped in case he defects to Albania, crazy stuff. He's a kid with mad skillz innit, does he have all the other traits necessary to make it, I have no idea, but he has plenty to prove. As I said, I only watched the first half, but he wasnt remotely close to being our best player in that period. I like the look of McJannet and Umeh, although very very raw managed to get on the ball a lot and always looked dangerous.

Edited by Nialler - 23 Mar 2023 at 3:28pm

Very frustrating result yesterday but looking back at it, the conditions really did us no favours.
We are a technical ball-playing team who tried to work passing and moving and getting into good attacking positions.
But the pitch was a quagmire (can't really blame anyone after the horrendous March weather we've had). Whereas Slovakia played on the counter, broke direct and fast and took their two chances very well.
They were clinical whereas we had most of the play but were wasteful.
Their style was less hindered by the heavy surface.

The game had 0-0 written all over it until their excellent break.

It's a bitter pill and qualification now looks a long shot.  We'd need Greece to beat Slovakia while we win our two matches with goals to spare.

Let's just get past Estonia (hopefully in better conditions) and then hope Greece do us a favour.
Then we can go into the last game with a shot.


Edited by Fozz - 23 Mar 2023 at 1:20pm