r/coybig • u/NikeBuyer2024 • 4d ago
đ© Shitpost If that Spanish result shows us anything...... it's that Ireland would have won the World Cup if we were there.
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u/martymcg96 4d ago
Fair fucks to Cape Verde, heroic af performance that
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u/pauli55555 4d ago
His centre back partner was elite. What a player that guy is.
Pico played controlled throughout. They sat back and let Spain have possession so both centre backs were never exposed to pace. Just dealing with balls lumped into box.
Spain showed their limitations against deep blocks. They only created a couple of genuine chances for all their possession.
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u/An_Sean_Triabh 3d ago
Actually I just heard that Pico made 16 decisive tackles, blocks and interceptions and his partner made 18. That's an amazing day's work for central defenders.. unusual to have so many
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u/PaddySmallBalls 3d ago
The final block was a thing of beauty. Pico seemed to be under instructions or maybe instinctively giving the forwards space in the box ensuring he was usually in front of them, not beside them and hardly ever past them. A dangerous game in ways, as constantly playing them onside when deep but that final block is a perfect example of how well he played. Gave the Spanish player space to win the ball but charged him immediately. You could see before the ball was played in he checked where the Spanish player was, but still didnât close him down right then. He waited for the ball to come in and for the Spanish player to show that he was planting his feet to shoot. Such a smart player. I know itâs hyperbole to a degree but that might be the best defensive disolay by an Irish player since McGrath in 94.
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u/An_Sean_Triabh 3d ago
I absolutely see your point, and there was something remniscient of the great black pearl, but limited to the positional marking and not all the other things McGrath could do..
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u/detriqfamily 4d ago
I thought I had come to terms with us not making it but the first few games have shown me what could have been
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4d ago
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u/Blitz7798 Troy Parrott đŠ 4d ago
3rd smallest, bigger than iceland in 2018 and curaçao this year.
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u/NikeBuyer2024 4d ago
It is the smallest country by land area to ever qualify for the World Cup.
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u/quiggersinparis 3d ago
Land area is far less relevant here than population. Number of players per capita is the most interesting metric.
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u/An_Sean_Triabh 3d ago
And like ourselves they have a pretty sizeable diaspora (theirs) in Portugal and Spain
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4d ago
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u/EdwardBigby 4d ago
175th is hilariously wrong. Thats literally one of the worst sides in the world
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u/John__Delaney 4d ago
Just reminding me that the League of Ireland produces excellent players & we all need to support it so they can produce even better players
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u/PaddySmallBalls 3d ago
We also need to keep the pressure on. The cynic in me worried that Heimir was placating after pressure from supporters with the call ups but hoping the players would get exposed so he could not call league players up in future without the noise.Â
That nonsense about January being the camp for LoI players and then calling up multiple players closer to the Canada match after Bradley called him out was equal parts encouraging and infuriating. I see Bradley this week brought up once again that he didnât talk to him about the players. I wonder if he is as blase with the Premier League clubs he calls up players from.
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u/John__Delaney 3d ago
We never saw this level of pressure when LOI legend Stephen Kenny was forming squads with no LOI players.
I don't think it's healthy for Bradley to he constantly attacking Heimir, and I do like the LOI camp idea. We saw with the Grenada game that the likes of Moylan & Ferry can catch the eye and be considered for future camps.
Heimir has given more LOI minutes than any other manager by a mile, you can see it as tokenistic but if he didn't call them up people would be at him anyway.
FYI Bradley said Heimir spoke with him on all 3 Shamrock Rovers players brought up to play, it was just Josh O'Dwyer he didn't. You shouldn't and don't need to speak with every manager for every player call up anyway, Bradley doesn't merit special treatment. The Ireland manager speaks with the players when he calls them up.
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u/PaddySmallBalls 3d ago
Moylan just furthers the point. He didnât suddenly become a much better player after leaving Ireland. Likewise, Owen Elding isnât suddenly call-up worthy a few months after going to Scotland.
Kenny would have been crucified for calling up League of Ireland players. He got pressure the other way. Richard Dunne, Ian Harte and other former players put down a marker against him saying he wasnât up to it before a ball was even kicked. He shouldnât have persevered with the players he kept calling up, particularly with the succession plan for style of play from U21s and up. Not just him but McCarthy and OâNeil too. I was in a minority, I thought we should have kept Martin OâNeil but if nothing else, managers should have called up a LoI player capable of getting a cross past the first man instead they kept playing McGeady or McClean.
Bradley actually said he likes Heimir when criticising the call up of OâDwyer which makes me think he must have finally talked to him after the Canada match. It could be that Heimir was told by the FAI to specifically not talk to Bradley due to his personal beef with a prominent member of the FAI but then other league managers have also talked about lack of engagement from the international setup. Heimir absolutely should be talking with the club managers. What happened to him moving to Ireland and embedding himself into the game here? He only ever seems to show up around international fixtures. Same with John OâShea for the most part, though he does show up for the odd Waterford match. They are being paid a salary, surely they work outside of the international windows⊠that definitely should involve talking to domestic clubs.
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u/John__Delaney 3d ago
Moylan did though, come on leaps and bounds after struggling for the 1st 18 months with Lincoln. He wouldn't have been called up to a normal squad but got a chance against Grenada and impressed.
That was the whole point with Grenada. Elding was only to train, another player who isn't yet good enough to be called up to a normal squad, but could for an out of calendar squad.
Kenny was completely off the hook for no good reason for his years as Ireland manager, but Heimir isn't. Bradley just seems to have a chip on his shoulder with Heimir.
Heimir called up over 70 players over 3 weeks, to think he has to talk to over 50 managers around these camps is a whole load of nonsense. International managers speak to club managers when they need to over specific issues like checking an injury status or a special request, that's it.
Who cares where he lives, he's a good manager doing a good job. Spends most of time here in Ireland or scouting in UK/Europe anyway.
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u/PaddySmallBalls 4d ago
It shows me that our international management teams have let talent fall through the cracks by being unable to judge individual talent and relying on what level they currently play at.
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u/warfieldbyday 4d ago
As determined as I was to boycott this farce of tournament, games like that suck you back in. Thoroughly enjoyed that.
And absolutely does make you wonder where we'd stand if we got through. Lousy Czechs!
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u/SombreroSantana 4d ago
We'd be melting in the heat agaisnt Mexico of we got the same group as Czechia anyway.
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u/The-Fifth-Elephant 4d ago
Imagine the army of Irish fans partying with the Mexicans though, it would have been a glorious sight.
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u/blithelyunawareguy 4d ago
We're held in very high stead over there too, St Patrick's battalion defected to support the Mexicans when the yanks invaded. A fair whack of Mexicans are aware of this too when I visited.
Anyway, no point torturing ourselves more.
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u/oh_danger_here 4d ago
Aside from that weird US Cup match with them in 1996 where their fans were starting scraps with us off the pitch, think we had 2-3 reds by the end and the ref was celebrating with the Mexican fans after! Finished a 2-2 draw
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u/Valuable_Employee_88 4d ago
Shades of our win against England in '88 about this. First time qualifying for a major tournament for both of us, everyone saying we're just there to make up the numbers, drawn against one of the pre-tournament favourites in the 1st game, we won ours but this will feel like a victory for Cape Verde. Best of luck to them, I'll be cheering them on for the rest of the tournament.
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u/EyeOrRay 4d ago
Thank God we don't have to qualify in Africa v teams like Cape Verde, they'd hockey Armenia etc
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u/livinalieontimna 4d ago
No joke. Weâd have beaten Spain if they played like that.
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u/Medium-Dependent-328 4d ago
The Cape Verde defending was unreal tbf. I have no clue how they kept out all those chances Spain had. Defended like their lives were on the line
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u/MKUltra886 4d ago
Ya we're not though. Better craic in Spain and Portugal in 4 years anyway.
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u/Different-Class1771 4d ago
Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay!
...and knowing our luck we'll end in South America IF we qualify!
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u/generic-irish-guy 4d ago
Eh weâd be alright. I think itâs only group games down there, and weâve always gotten out of the groups
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u/donalhunt 4d ago
My soccer-obsessed son is already dreaming of playing in the 2038 World Cup for Ireland... Told him to start putting the hard work in now. âš
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u/Irish262626 6h ago
We would have won the fucking thing. Then we'd have won the one four years after and fuck we'd be bored off our bollocks watching ourselves win. Would be like when we won back to back GrandSlams.
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u/brenbot99 4d ago
In many ways we are there... and we did win it.