off the top of my head 

Wim Kieft - complete and utter fluke 

Harte and Kilbane v Spain , the two eejits 

Spain in Gdansk , misery unbound , dont dare mention the fields of Athenry 

Schillaci 

loads more of course if we didn't just mention finals but lets just keep it to the tournaments 

The whole thing was such a debacle, between leaving behind/in the stands about 11 players who would have made a demonstrable difference to the players who were brought, the style of experimentation Trap tried, with Cox playing as a form of winger, the horrendous defeat to Spain, the overlooked injuries etc.

I’m not sure we’ve ever truly recovered from it.

 

Totally devoid of everything

 

That utter c*nt of a Turkish ref refusing us a blatant penno at the start of that half from which Belgium broke straight up the other end to score - and it kept going downhill from there.

 

Can you still create a poll for this thread now that it's been opened btw?

Not a hope, we would have to qualify first!

Italia 90 - Egypt. As boring as it gets

USA 94 - Packie's mistake v Wim Jonk

Japan/Korea 02 - Big Mick not realising Spain were down to 10 men

Poland/Ukraine 12 - Spain match set records for levels of poxiness never seen in a major finals before or since

France 16 - Clarke was unlucky not to have scored several own goals in that tournament. We did alright though

 

And in Rome vs Italy.

Not remotely comparable. 

I think Orlando one was worse.

You can kind of blame perhaps the defence for not reacting to Schillaci quick enough, but of course Bonner should have done better with the Donadoni(?) shot

Jonk's shot he for some tried to punch it or catch it and it went through him, pam it and he could have collected or the defense could have cleared.

In fairness there was more than just players playing through the pain barrier. The nonsense for leaving Coleman at home etc made the tournament a real farce.

Dave O'LEARY was left out of the Euro 88 squad as was Liam BRADY.  I didn't have a big issue with Coleman as he was young and had a poor season at Everton.  Trap probably overtrained the players and should have dropped Dunne and Given and taken the decision out of their hands.

Given said he couldn't jump off his left leg FFS and was getting treatment off the German team doctor on the day of the Croatia match unknown to everybody.  He went way down in my estimation that day.

Can't remember much of Bonner tbh, but I always think he was helped in fact we had a pretty decent defence during his time Moran,McCarthy, McGrath ahead of him they were hard to get through.

He was a tall enough and was decent on the high balls (Can't remember him being beaten much of hand). and had a decent long boot on him.

The penalty save though I think does gloss over a lot of his flaws though and probably makes us look upon him with more tinted glasses.

I'll agree Shay shouldn't have played 2012, in fact I don't think he should have come back. Still the best keeper we've ever produced his shot stopping and reflexes were superb.

P.S. haven't read his book any use? it be somewhere in the house

Shay was one of my favourite players but I lost a lot of respect for him for a number of reasons.  He was way better than Packie but it became clear to me he is a me feiner.  Coming back in 2015 was nothing short of a joke.  His autobiography was pretty poor and unmemorable bar the Euro 2012 story about his fitness.

 

In what way? They were both pretty poor mistakes, albeit the 94' one was worse.

Green had been injured for a lot that season, and McShane had played very little. Coleman was young, but was not nearly as poor as had been suggested and could have been easily included. The narrative at the time made little sense to me.

don't forget what happened to Kevin Foley extremely harsh I think he had a slight hamstring injury but would have recovered in time.

I think i have repressed that bad memory , how the hell did i forget that 

macateer did the same in Japan 

I think there may have been three players in our squad who were in “the shop window”, arriving in Poland unattached and uncontracted. That also didn’t take into account the number of players contracted to a poor Wolves team, which had just been relegated or how some of our key lads were carrying injuries. And, our spine was more or less what had been our star players at the World Cup a decade earlier.

Retrospectively, it couldn’t have gone any other way.

And boy, did that show in that game, especially the 1st goal when he took half the night to try and get to that header (which he would surely have saved comfortably if fully fit. 

 

As for Packie - I thought he was unlucky for Schillaci's goal in that he slipped just after parrying the shot from Donadoni.  If that hadn't happened, he would probably have been able to either get closer to Schillachi quicker to smother the shot or even just get back on his line. 

 

But the one from Jonk in Orlando that he let slip through his hands was definitely a dreadful moment for him and a sad way for him to finish his international career.

Don't think it done much in sales tbh. Don't think I have seen in paperback form usually a sign of demand. 

I'd be interested in reading it more for his views on his time at Newcastle and saipan 

2012 we were sh*t and weren't getting out of the group whatever. 

In 1994 we'd beaten Italy and deserved to do so, and the sky felt the limit after that. 

But the tournament just completely petered out for us. 

Bonner letting that shot through was the point of no return. 

We were probably going to lose anyway, but once that ball slipped through him there was no way back and everybody knew it immediately.

Everything felt wrong about that day - we'd assumed it would be Belgium after the group and then they somehow lost to Saudi Arabia meaning it was the Dutch, who we knew were better than us, the venue, the line up, the horrible kit. 

Urgghhh. 

Here Holland, have a free place in the quarter-finals on us.

Ifrc the Dutch had been based there so we're used to it compared to ourselves going to new Jersey for two games 

The EIRE were based in Orlando and travelled up to New York for the games only. 

Big difference between training and playing games there

But we did play games there.  The Dutch played one more.  Not sure it made a difference.  The Dutch were better.  There were signs that Jack's time was up as early as September 1993.

Kieft's goal was a hammer blow but we went home with our heads held high in 88.

Egypt was a major disappointment in 90.  There was a plane waiting in Palermo airport to take the team home after the Dutch game that Quinner managed to cancel.  We got semi final tickets that day as the FAI offloaded tickets.  Losing to Italy was no disgrace and we thought we'd lost to the eventual winners again.

The Dutch game was a major blow.  We really thought we'd beat them.  We were ranked 6th in the World at that stage having beaten the Dutch and the Germans away in warm ups.  the heat was a factor in the Mexico game but it was much cooler v the Dutch.     

Expectations were low after Saipan so I was very happy with 2002.  OK we could have pushed on in extra time and taken better penalties but still a decent effort.

2012 was as others have said a big letdown.  

The Belgium performance in 2016 was a letdown.  We were poor I thought.   

Packie was a superb keeper btw. He had a bad day in Orlando.  I think the backpass rule which came in maybe in 92 cut short his career.  He would never cut in in a Pep or Klopp side.  However he was a fine shot stopper and commanded his area very well.    

Ah, the '94 one was an absolute howler, '90 was a bit unfortunate. Ball came to him swerving from the original shot and he saved it, was a bit unlucky it rebounded straight to Schillaci. 

It's become a bit of revisionism to chalk it down as a howler by some, no one was saying that at the time. The Jonk one was a horror show. You can see in the difference to his reaction to each goal which would be judged a big error by players. 

Brady was injured in 88 and would have been suspended for the first two games even if he'd been fit.

Coleman himself has said he didn't deserve to be picked in 2012 as he'd been p1ss poor in 2011/12 after a great season the year before.

Hibbert got injured early the next season, so Coleman played pretty much every game, and got back to his previous form. That 's when people started asking why he didn't go to Poland.

In every tournament we played we always gave as good as we got but 2012 lowered the bar for us. And it has stayed that low since. 

The worst performance at euro 2012 wasn’t even on

The pitch. 

AidoM doing Old McDonnell had a farm

And going full chicken is as embarrassing as anything traps team did at euro 2012. 

Was he ever first choice for club again in his career?? 

I've grown to dislike him since, he shouldn't have been playing in the first place

He was nowhere near 100% fit for the Euros. If he had any sense he'd have made himself unavailable 

If we’re completely honest with ourselves, that 4-0 loss was the expected result. They weren’t just the reigning world and European champions, that Spanish side was one of the all-time greatest teams.

His career was on a downward spiral for some time before it really, 2012 was just the culmination. I think there were clear signs of disimprovement from 2010 and certainly 2011.

Although FAI were probably happy when Kieft scored, apparently didn't have enough money for semi final, not obviously in the plans. 

O'Shea most certainly was a full back (and a fine one), but not after the blood clot in his leg sustained in 2009 which completely robbed him of his pace. Coleman may not have had a great season, but he still should have went, it's not as if he was incredibly young player at the time, he was 23/24. At the very least Foley should have been brought.

No.  MON is the ultimate dinosaur.  How is Given's ability to dive for a header anything to do with tactics?

That 2012 was a hiding to nothing.   We played Spain who won 3 tournaments in a row playing unbelievable tiki taka football.  They are probably the best international team of all time.  We played the finalists in the same group (who Spain also beat 4-0 yet nobody mentions it).  We also played Croatia who almost knocked Italy out.   3 world class sides.  If we had qualified for the 2010 world cup we would have done very respectfully as the team were reaching a peak around then and the draw would have been far easier.  2012 was a disaster because the team was getting too old, the teams we were up against and the injuries and preparation was overdone. Given was a major reason it was over after the 1st game.  He was at fault for 2 of the goals because his reactions were that of a 80 year old man.

For tournament games I was at, that Italy game is my choice too. Wasn't as disinterested in a game in a long time as that one, it near enough defied belief that more or less the same obviously tired,  weakened by injuries & knocks team was picked that had conceded 7 goals the previous week. We basically conceded that game just by the act of naming that team. I've always maintained that this game was where Trap lost the dressing room, or at least the sizeable proportion of it that didn't get an opportunity to play even though we were already out. 

One thing that sticks in my mind is a fairly large section of fans deliberately trying to re-create the misery/eh, unique atmosphere of the Spain game by attempting to get a similar version of the fields of Athenry going when we went 2-nil down (It's a song I've always detested anyway, though I suppose its sheer misery is somehow appropriate for some of the muck we play on the pitch) - f**kin spare us lads will ya. 

Other than that, I would go for Holland in 1994, Bonner hadn't been a top class keeper since around 1991, and what made it worse was that Alan Kelly was one of the form keepers in England at the time, it was an error that Kelly at that stage, would have been extremely unlikely to have made. Yes the Dutch were a better team, but back then we used to justifiably not give a hoot about any team's reputation, though that was more difficult when we shot ourselves in the foot with a few selections in that tournament, not just Bonner. Stan's struggles with the extreme heat spring to mind there too. 

There is a also a theme there that continues to this day of lads playing for us on the basis of what they did 3, 4 or 5 years previously and not current form (Matt Doherty would probably agree with me there) and is seen in the current senior team with the continued selection of Whelan, Hendrick, McClean and Brady, regardless of their own form or performances, never mind those of others. 

2016 was MON's highlight, Belgium aside, we performed admirably for a limited squad, but if we did scrape qualifying with this group for 2020, unless new players make it into the team, or some of the aforementioned regain long lost form, the thought does strike me that the experience could be more like 2012 than 2016, especially with the more or less guaranteed presence of Spain in the group, even if they themselves are not at their 2008-2012 level. 

thought we'd completely f**ked it and didn't expect us to get anything from Belgium or Italy

This for me too.

Every other tournament we had some great memories. We made mistakes but we also had some luck too.

It’s was an extremely difficult group but we seemed to do everything wrong. 

But the last game was the final straw. Not giving other players a game was nothing short of a disgrace. 

2012 will live long in the memories of sh*t shows alright.

I remember thinking before the tournament like most nick 4 points from Croatia / Italy and we'd scrap through as we weren't getting anything against Spain.

I remember hearing the Spain v Italy result and thinking go out and get the win over Croatia and we're in a good position.

3 minutes in and it was just down hill, St. Ledger gave some little hope but as soon as Jelavic score it just was terrible.

As said didn't expect anything from Spain game but we were simply dreadful, I haven't even watched it back in years but if I remember correctly Spain went easy on us in the second half and in sense 4-0 was probably flattering as it could have been more.

The Italy game as people have said it was a dead rubber not giving some other players a chance to play in a major tournament was probably Traps downfall.

Overall as people said the preparation for the tournament was a farce, we overtrained, certain players were injured/not 100% fit and I believe the team stayed in the Ayia Napa of Poland i.e. party central not great for preparing for a tournament

Genius 

In my darker moments, I felt the eventual outcome of Euro 2012 was inevitable. The Russian games in 2010 and 2011 should have given us a clue. A fortuitous penalty decision in Dublin potentially stopped a 0-5 defeat that night, and but for some heroic defending and blind luck, we escaped from Moscow with a 0-0 draw after being hammered. We also looked blunt at home against Slovakia. We really made it to the finals on the back of wins against Armenia and Estonia, and when we met teams at the peak of their fitness and ambition, we were slaughtered.

I did watch the Spain highlights last year, and it makes for deeply uncomfortable watching. Our backline looks like something out of a Benny Hill sketch, as they were bamboozled by Spanish skill.

The Italy selection still baffles, and its always worth watching the video on RTÉ discussing the players left behind or on the bench. 

 

Yeah fair enough. I certainly don't think '90 falls into the 'absolute howler' category but it surely is an error, admittedly exacerbated by the unfortunate slip which immediately proceeded it. I'm sure if you asked the man himself he would accept he could have done better with it. There was fierce power on the strike and it was moving though, they are both mitigating factors as you point out.

 

Also no-one was saying anything like that at the time as the team was pretty much beyond criticism by that point. The term 'revisionism' often invokes negative connotations but that's generally due to it being confused with negationism (denial or distortion of factual events). There's no harm in using the passage of time to review something a bit more objectively and without the rose tinted glasses that we all rightly had on back in the day. Not that I'm looking to scapegoat the man either, I fully accept he was a fine keeper who bailed us out on several occasions and at the end of the day we simply weren't able to cause the Italians enough problems to deserve to progress anyway.

 

 

This

 

Sure, we came out of the ground after the Sweden match thinking 'we should have won that game'. But one of our worst moments at a tournament?  Not a chance!

 

Brady was suspended for the first two games but got injured and wouldn't have made it anyway.

 

Back to the thread, regarding finals, McGrath's header hitting the post in Gelsenkirchen followed then by Kieft's jammy offside goal (when offside meant offside), absolute sickners.

 

Soviet game, we had the most blatant peno ever when Dasaev nearly broke Galvin in two and then still at 1-0 when we had the Soviets on their knees, Aldo missed an absolute sitter from a Galvin cross. That gets forgotten in an outstanding performance from us.

 

Italia 90, Egypt was truly sh*t and we were never gonna be allowed to beat the Italians so I'd give Packy a bit of a break on the goal.  I wouldn't give him a break however for Jonk's goal in 94, horrific.

 

I wouldn't put Gdansk in 2012 as a particularly sickening game, Spain were at the top of their game back then and we were carrying a few players and we were ruthlessly exposed and that I saw Iniesta at his brilliant best tempers that game a lot for me. The other two games we were horrific, absolutely.

 

2002 for worst moments it doesn't really go past Saipan for me, what a crock of sh*t.

 

France 2016, Bordeaux is down there with Egypt and Norway for the sheer ineptitude of the performance.   At least we didn't lose against Egypt or Norway and they proved crucial points, but Jaysus we were absolutely deplorable in Bordeaux.  People were giving out that many of us went on the lash that night, but for Jaysus sake we'd witnessed 90 plus depressingly bad minutes, we needed something to make that day somewhat less sh*te.

 

Good thread.

Now I'd say that would have gone to VAR and who knows I'll agree Belgium were the much better team but that game could have been a hell of a lot different had decisions gone our way 

Yeah twas nil all at half time in bordeaux? 

That was a tough day. 

That was an awful game.  Playing  aimless hoofball to Shane Long. The defence was a mess as well.

Torture.

We didn't get a kick.

The end of a tournament in the most humiliating way

We played another game after that (I know we were knocked out after that result but our tournament wasn't over) 

I had to google that as it seems unbelievable-

33% v Spain (not sure how we got that much!)

Only 26%  v Georgia.

Does picking the ball out of the back of the net and walking it up the field count?