Okay, after a week of slagging off Stan and frankly hilarious Man United obsessives, I’m going to be utterly positive today. This all comes on the back of last night’s win for Brazil in Dublin, which, in no particular order, had the following things going for it…
- Robinho: Sid Lowe at The Guardian has talked about how the little Brazilian has finally found his feet at Real Madrid this year and he looked full of beans last night, jinking across the forward line and putting away a neat finish. Great to see quality like that in person.
- Killer Kilbane: Stay with me on this one. After several years of being shouted at by Irish fans for prodigiously finding blind alleys to run into, the mood towards ‘Zinedine’ last night was oddly positive. He could make a solid left back and can still swing in a decent cross when needs be (what in the name of sweet jesus was Lee Carsley doing taking the free kicks by the way). Killer’s enormous run of consecutive competitive games for Ireland will amazingly continue when the new manager comes in. Give it ten years and the Irish crowd might even warm to John O’Shea in similar fashion.
- Robbie Keane: Not many will agree, but I think he made a lot of decent runs and to be honest those around me in the crowd felt he was let down by a lack of support from Doyle. The Wexford man looked lost up front, but Keane showed some glimpses of his Premier League form. Though, then again this was a game that meant little, Keane must do well for Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers to win over a lot of suspicious Irish fans.
- Duff and McGeady: Double header this one, both enjoyed their time on the ball whenever they got it and while McGeady over-runs it far too much he could still turn out to be a match-winner in the years ahead. Duffer is still finding his feet after injury and showed one or two moves reminiscent of Korea in 2002.
The whole situation with the manager is still ridiculous but looks to be drawing to a close. Here’s hoping for a decent autumn with a decent guy in charge, though the names ‘Davies’ and ‘Venables’ are still mentioned far too often in relation to the whole affair. The FAI has apparently signalled to Ray Houghton, Don Givens and Don Howe that they want Trapattoni to take charge.
At this stage, appointing Venables would be a huge anti-climax and would make the Association look like a pack of fools who couldn’t organise a piss up in brewery full of stag nights. Predict nothing though, only today I got a ridiculous email saying that Joe Kinnear (remember him?) would be appointed in the coming days and is available at 250-1. Trust no one.
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We’re podcasting tonight and you can hear us talking about the Premier League, the internationals, Romario’s protective mam, the legend of Franco Baresi and more.
Later, JJ
Okey Doke Football Podcast is available every Friday morning, subscribe here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/OkeyDokeFootball
4 comments:
Was at the match last night and was amazed at the amount of running kilbane did to support and overlap mcgeady. Been one of his biggest critics so to continue your +ve vein of thought, apologies to kizou. mcgeady himself looked sharp and not a million miles removed from robinho's performance. Poor old Duff had a couple of good moments but when not involved in play shuffles around like an old man.Hope knackers yard isn't beckoning.
To be fair to Duff he really came alive after about 60 minutes, it’d be great if he could avoid injury for a while but he never has for longer than a year. Killer was the crowd favourite last night, but on a bit of a shit note I thought Given looked a little shaky. Those years in the comfort zone at Newcastle have definitely taken their toll.
To be fair to Duff he really came alive after about 60 minutes, it’d be great if he could avoid injury for a while but he never has for longer than a year. Killer was the crowd favourite last night, but on a bit of a shit note I thought Given looked a little shaky. Those years in the comfort zone at Newcastle have definitely taken their toll.
yea ireland weren't too bad, there'sa decent squad to work with for whomever comes in...
no rush yet though, wait and get teh right man
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