Ireland 1, Cyprus 0, but we so didn't deserve it. A few suggestions for the Irish team for the match against Switzerland on Wednesday night:

• When you've beaten all of their defence with a quick break, do something with the ball. Don't pass it back up the field or play with it until they've managed to get their defence in place.
• You've practiced set ( Read more... )

France 1, Ireland 0. On top of which Niall Quinn loses his license over a drink-driving issue. On the plus side, England 0, Northern Ireland 1; the cheer that greeted this news was one of the biggest of the night.

We won a match! hurrah! of course, as my brother put it, beating the Faeroe Islands isn't exactly going to punch us up to the top of the League of Soccer-Playing Nations, but it's nice that we didn't, you know, throw away valuable points for a change. For irony points, the Islanders were all over us for the first half simply through the simple ( Read more... )

Ireland v. Israel World Cup Qualifier: The match starts with an English official marking off one quarter of the pitch, giving it to Israelis, supplying their defence with anything they need, while the Irish run around at random, often into each other, and score several goals against themselves. Well, it would have been more entertaining than what ( Read more... )

From The Beeb: GROUP FOUR

Group Four remains the tightest of the European groups after Israel and France drew 1-1 to stay level at the top.

David Trezeguet put the visitors ahead but was then sent off for violent conduct five minutes later, and Walid Badir equalised in the closing stages.

Switzerland beat Cyprus 1-0 to move level with the ( Read more... )

Poland 8, Azerbaijan 0. Ouch.

Incredibly, the other match in group 4 tonight - France v. Switzerland - finished in a 0-0 draw, leaving us STILL at the top of the table on goal difference. We SO do not deserve this, but hey, I'll take what's being offered.

Israel scored bang on the 90 minute mark. We played a second half full of lousy decisions, stupid fouls, and the occasional lucky break ending in nothing. As a result, we'll be fighting for our chance to make the next World Cup. Bloody YAY IRELAND, not.

Ireland 1, Israel 0. We got a lucky goal at 3:10, and we've played 40+ minutes of "keep-away" ever since. Hardly a memorable game so far.

I'm not clear what the Israeli band did to our national anthem, but it's certianly the most unusual version of it I've heard.