IRELAND 2-0 MACEDONIA

June 7th, 2011 | by: Schwallacus | No Comments »

We went to their house, battled, and took all three points home with us in a cauldron that normally Leaves us burnt to a crisp, or with some wounds (A 3-2 defeat in 1997, as well as a 1-1 tie in 1999).  However, this time around, unlike past trips to Macedonia, we came out with a win and shut them out.

That goes with the man of the week right now, Robbie Keane, scoring his 50th and 51st goals for The Republic of Ireland.  In doing so, he is the highest scoring international of the British Isles, making him the highest scoring international with more goals than the highest scorers of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Give a huge round of applause for Mr Keane, who showed us why he is so valuable to us even though he’s been playing for Ireland for a very long time.

As for the game, we played pretty well considering we were missing some valuable parts to our lineup.  Both Duff and Dunne were missing from the lineup, leaving both our midfield and defense with untested spots.  Those roles were filled though and our defense looked pretty good.  We got off to a great start thanks to Keane’s first strike, about 8 minutes into the game.  The Macedonian defense decided to give Keane a large amount of space in front of him, so he took a pass and fired a shot from about 20 yards out, which deflected off a defender and went past the goalie.  Definitely a decent shot, but the deflection helped it go in.  A great way for Keane to get his half century of goals!!  His next goal came in the 36th minute, when a weak back pass was scoped out and intercepted by Keane, who easily put the ball in the back of the net to give Ireland a 2-0 lead.  Overall, away fromhome, we played a pretty good game both offensively and defensively.  Aside from a foul inside the box by O’Shea, which was a stupid foul to give.  However, Macedonia were unable to get back into the game as the ensuing penalty hit the crossbar and was cleared.

Most of the action occurred in the first half of the game, and aside from a few chances here and there for both teams, the second half was us just trying to protect our lead.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Yes, we also played Italy today and BEAT THEM 2-0, and there will definitely be a report on that soooooon!  Hope you all are rockin socks and have a great day! Slainte!! ♣