Just cant get my head round footy at the Olympics! Great shame they didnt select Beckham. He has done so much for them and was obviously dying to play. Mean spirited Team GB!

Why didnt they send an All Ireland footy team to the Olympics? They might have done quite well and brought a bit of joy back to the island after the Euros!

Agree with you on both counts Reiver. In an era where football grounds are awash with the mercenary spirit, Beckham had a pride and passion for his country.
An all Ireland team would have been great .
Off topic, but having been a half-ars#d swimmer, i'm looking forward to those events.The times they clock, especially in the butterfly, are super-human, a joy to watch.

I cant believe Becks isn't there either and Sebastian Coe also should be there in 1500 meters for the same reasons shouldn't he?

Reiver yes as an Ireland supporter i was dissapointed with our results and especially our performances at the Euro's.
But looking back now a few weeks later the fact we qualified in the first place makes up for it a little. We proved that we do have a squad good enough to qualify for a major tournament.
Whether we can qualify for Brazil 2014 remains to be seen. Personally i don't think we will as our group is simply too tough
A lot of your fellow NIreland supporters (not yourself) from looking at this site and other sports forums on the Net seem to think that it is the end of the world for our side as a result of our poor showing at the Euro Finals.
Now i realise a lot of this is wishful thinking!!
But being a realist you have to remember we were up against 3 of the top 10 sides in the world. So a neutral would probably have expected us to lose all 3 anyway!!

If you look at your own teams performance in the last major Finals you were in - WC1986.

NIreland only picked up 1 point out of 3 matches.

And that solitary point was picked up against lowly Algeria!!

And you were thrashed 3-0 by Brazil. if it wasn't for the heoics of Jennings in goals and the fact the Brazillians eased up in the Mexican heat it could easily have been 6 or 7 for Brazil!!

f you look at your own teams performance in the last major Finals you were in - WC1986.

NIreland only picked up 1 point out of 3 matches.

And that solitary point was picked up against lowly Algeria!!

And you were thrashed 3-0 by Brazil. if it wasn't for the heoics of Jennings in goals and the fact the Brazillians eased up in the Mexican heat it could easily have been 6 or 7 for Brazil!!

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and if you look pre-1988 you qualified for nothing , get over it Robbie. And 1 point is better than zip , isnt it? 4 years before that we got to the QF's , not bad for a little country.

At the end of the day , both NI and ROI have qualified for the world cup 3 times, both have reached the QF's. Granted we have never been to the Euros , so you are 2 up on that.

Reiver yes it is true we never qualified for a tournament pre 1986
But by God we came close in 1982!! Think we missed out on goal difference in a group that included France,Holland and Belgium (a side that were beaten finalists 2 years earlier in the 1980 Euro Final by Germany)!!

Look my comments are a reaction to some of the nonsense i have seen posted by NIreland fans on other sites out there in the Internet!! And if i may say a lot of very hate filled comments as well and of course double helpings of Schaudenfreude!!!

I'm just making the point that NIreland fans are proud of the fact that your side qualified for the 82 and 86 WC Finals (and rightly so!!) but they seem to have forgotten that your 1986 Finals appearence was like the ROI's recent Euro finals appearence a failure!!!
Surely objective NIreland fans can admit that.

And as i have stated on here many times before i as a school kid cheered on NIreland at both the 1982 and 86 WC Finals as did most people down here

That said my feelings towards your team changed for the worse due to the bile shown by the Windsor park faithful when we went up there and drew 1-1 to clinch qualification for the 1994 WC Finals!! A lot of the chanting that went on that night was bang out of order

WE MANAGED TO:
Sorry friend, but I think from your last post above you are confusing me with ALEX, as you start your reply to him with the words, "Yes Reiver..." No harm done, Alex is a good bloke!

For what its worth, I think some of the recent criticsm directed against the ROI team is unfair. They lost 0-4 to eventual winners and current World Champs Spain (No disgrace there). They lost 0-2 to eventual runners up Italy when Italy were in much better form than they were in the final (Again, No disgrace). They lost 1-3 to Croatia, arguably the 3rd best team in the Euros(Once again, No disgrace). However, like many people I feel the ROI did not live up to their potential. I thimk this was because of the tactics and team selection employed. These two areas are mainly the responsibility of the coach and I think the ROI admin/fans should be taking a good, hard look at Mr Trapp over the coming matches.

Actually, it appears to me that genuine ROI fans are being just as fierce in their criticsm of the ROI team as some of the NI fans you referred to. The NI fans are obviously just out on the WUM from their lowly position in the World Rankings. You shouldnt take this WUMing too seriously. However, the ROI fans seem totally sincere in their harsh criticsm of their own team. I say, they should direct their complaints more towards the management.

You refer to events during the 1994 WC qualifier. That was a long time ago now and hopefully we have all moved on. You say that you are from the ROI and live there, as such Im afraid it may have been impossible for you to fully understand the depth of feeling existing in NI at the time. The country was basically in a state of war and was being daily ravaged by terrorists. Yes, the behaviour of some fans was "out of order", but it must be seen in the context of the times! Some of those chanting fans who made you so angry would have no doubt lost family members or friends to the actions of terrorists who they felt, rightly or wrongly, were being supported/harboured by certain people in the ROI.

Regarding NI at the 86 WC finals, like the ROI in the recent Euros, I think its unfair to describe our performance as an abject failure. Yes, we didnt win it(Why not remains one of the biggest mysteries of World football until this day!), but lets look at the results. We lost 0-3 to a brilliant Brazil team(No disgrace, especially as we had a perfectly good goal disallowed). We lost 1-2 to France(No disgrace). We drew 1-1 with underrated Algeria(No disgrace in that heat). The Brazil team of the time was quite formidable. In their next match, as I remember, they thrashed Poland(considered a good team then)0-4. In fact, our performance against Socrates, Zico, Jairzinho, etc. may have been one of our best!

Though OWC is my first love, I like to support both Irelands! I feel this is healthier for all of us! Good luck to both Irish teams in the next WC!

Reiver apoligies. I was of course replying to Alex

Personally i don't believe Nireland WC 86 campaign was a disaster. I was deliberately over the top to try and make a point.
Yes a poor showing like the ROI's Euro finals appearence. Just trying to put some perspective on things thats all

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Point taken. You're quite right, without exaggeration you often get no attention at all! Actually, I think things will get better for both Irelands. We've got rid of NW. A decent man perhaps, but not much use as coach of NI. I think MiON is much more astute. We havent got a bad pool of players really considering our player base and I feel MiON is just the right sort of fella to get the best out of us! Regarding you guys, I feel Trapp will be forced to change his ways and consider people like McCarthy, Coleman, etc. and also to review his game strategy. If he refuses and the results continue to be uninspiring, I think the FAI will just chop him! You have some resonable players and you should be able to get some decent results if you have the right man at the helm. I dont think Trapp got the best out of players like Doyle, Duff, McGeady and even Keane.

Good luck in the WC qualifiers! Both Irelands seem to have got the luck of the Irish again in the draw, ie. Fxck all luck at all!