Failte…

Hello again everyone, I’ve managed to get some time free from University over the next couple of weeks, and decided that this period was too important for Irish football to let slide by without at least a mention or two. So I’ll try and keep you informed about what’s going on over the next few weeks as best as possible. First things first though, I suppose last Wednesday needs to be given some sort of mention….

Alright, no dressing it up. We were astonishingly bad, Australia weren’t flattered by a 3-0 scoreline, and truth be told, looked worth their lofty world ranking, they’re a class outfit who will give far better sides than us a tough time in South Africa, especially if Tim Cahill stays fit and controls the midfield like he did in Thomond Park. There were other bright spots in their side beyond the obvious Cahill too. Luke Wilkshire looks like a talent in midfield and David Carney also looked capable long before his wonder strike at the death to put some gloss on the scoreline for the visitors.

As for ourselves…the less said about the night the better. I’m struggling to remember Richard Dunne having a worse game in the national shirt, another notch on what is fast turning into his annus horriblis. The two wingers were surprisingly quiet, and Kevin Doyle did nothing to quell my fears that he’s out of his depth at international level. No-one else played quite as badly as Dunne or Doyle, but not one player stood out from the crowd neither. Any positives to take from the match? Well, the new Thomond Park is nice, isn’t it?!?

Anyways, it’s probably best to condemn that one to the statistics and move swiftly onwards. There’s a far more important game coming up in a couple of weeks’ time, in Nicosia, against the Cypriots. At the the risk of sounding pessimistic, I remember what happened the last time we were there. Hell, anyone remotely Irish remembers what happened the last time we played there, and it brings me no pleasure reliving that horror show through the medium of YouTube. The squad has been named for the trip to Cyprus in a few weeks time, it’s unchanged from the defeat against the Australians, and I’ll be hopefully having a good look through it in some sort of preview over the weekend. For now though, this is just a brief hello once again, and I’ll leave you with a link to the goals from the game at Thomond. Enjoy if you’re Australian, click on the links on the right hand side if you’re Irish, surely theres got to be something better to watch in amongst that lot…

Masochism

For now folks, take care.