World Cup 2010: Ireland in another lacklustre win.
Typical comments about the Irish soccer team focus on the "unbeaten" status, which generally doesn't mean a string of wins, it's more likely to refer to a string of draws. And the typical draw is an early Irish goal, 80 minutes of keep-away, and then a late goal by the opposition. Tonight's match against Cyprus was no different, except Cyprus didn't quite make the last-minute comeback; sure, there were some sublime moments, but there was also a lot of crap. And I still don't get this tactic of penetrating deep into the opposition's territory and then passing the ball backwards, allowing them time to shore up their defence and make things difficult to impossible for the attackers. What's it supposed to achieve, exactly? Anyway, Kevin Doyle (no, not the guy who plays Elvis) got a well-deserved man of the match award for sheer pace, although Richard Dunne was a good challenger for the title also. Roll on February, when we play Georgia.