Tom Doyle :: TALK

Well as every Irish supporter expected, Ireland came through tonights game convincing winners in their game against San Marino. The 5-0 scoreline was a deserved result for Ireland, but I can’t help feeling that Ireland we’re very poor on the night.
For the first 20 minutes it looked like San Marino’s own goal was the only way Ireland were going to score. But in fairness to Ireland they kept at it and get their rewards.

How Kilbane stayed on the pitch as long as he did is beyond me, he was poor from the start until he came off late in the game. Another person I thought was very poor tonite was Stephen Reid. It’s obvious that he has tremendous talent and a sweet left foot, but he is over weight, lacks match fitness and most of the time he was playing nothing balls or just losing it to the opposition .

Three players caught my eye tonight, Robbie Keane, Paul McShane and Aiden McGeady. Robbie Keane, who seems to be back to his very best was fantastic. Each time he touched the ball he seemed to create something and of course he scored a hat-trick to prove it.

Paul McShane was again very confident looking and always trying to get involved in the game. He even got forward and won a pentaly, which was slotted home by Robbie Keane.

Aiden McGeady game on late in the game and should some fantastic skills running down the wing. This guy is really a class act and should definitely start before Kilbane, even if they have to play him out of position!!!

All in all, I thought it was a flattering scoreline for Ireland. Although they thoroughly deserved to win, it was more down to the fact that they played a really poor team rather than them putting in a world class performance.

I worry about our game against Wales, we’ll have to play a lot better to get a win out of that game!

Well Steve Staunton sure knows how to instill belief into all Irish fans who will be attending tonights game (me included!).

Steve reckons we are going to have a really tough game against a team that lost 13-0 to Germany only a month or so ago. Ok, San Marino had a great game against Czech Republic where they were narrowly beaten, but surely Ireland can handle these amateur group of footballers???

Is this Steve Stauntons way of justifying what would be a terrible result for Ireland if we were to get less than a win?

Why oh why do we do it to ourselves? For the last couple of seasons Man United have been the only ones to blame for leaving themselves approaching tough games.

Last night was a prime opportunity for Man United to finish top of their group and have an easy ride to the next stage. But no, we loose to Copenhagen, who in fairness to them looked the better team. We now have the daunting prospect of having to beat Celtic, who as always will be well fired up for this game.

Complacency is a really bad thing…. we should have just killed off that game last night and then thought about resting…..

Ok a lot of you might not like the title, but that is just how I feel about Chelsea right now. Whenever any english team is playing in Europe I usually cheer them on and am always hoping that they will succeed.

However, this all changed last night. I was absolutely disgusted with how Chelsea approached last nights game. With all the talk over the weekend by José Mourinho that Barcelona were a team of divers and actors. I think it’s obvious that he has now acquired the Arsne Wenger syndrome of “I didn’t see it”.

After the game José Mourinho said “it’s hard being a ref with all that diving going on every few minutes”. It sure is, so why not stop your players from doing it?

Drogba was a disgrace, if he wasn’t writhing on the ground in pain after falling over a divot in the grass, he was being aggressive towards the Barcelona players.

There was a bit of confusion just before half time when Ashley cole received what appeared to be a second yellow card and was NOT sent off. However, it turned out that the spanish TV crew had mistakenly assumed the initial card awarded to Frank Lampard was in fact for Ashely Cole. This caused a fracas between the players as the Barcelona team (aswell as Mourinho) assumed the card was for Cole.

In fairness to Chelsea, they always looked the better team and Drogba’s equaliser proved he is on form. But I couldn’t help but feel a bitter taste in my mouth when you take account for all the un-sportsmanship acts by Chelsea.

Even close to the end, Terry smashed the ball into Deco who was on the floor after being clattered by Essien. This was the first time in the whole game that Deco lowered himself to Chelsea’s pityful level.

To make matters worse, John Motson biasedly avoided any criticism of Chelsea even when in mid sentence, Carvalho drop kicked a Barcelona player in the groin.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. It appears Chelsea are going down the same route that Arsenal went when they were winning everything. Cheating to save a lost cause….. And to think Chelsea were alway a team I admired…..

2-2 was a good result for Chelsea after all the shenanigans, even though, they were the better team!!!!!

I know I will loose a lot of votes when I voice my opinion on the above mentioned, but I can’t help it… he is seriously getting on my nerves.

Ok he has a great scoring record so far for United this season, but then again Van Nistelrooys was better.

Yes, I do agree that Louis suits Man Uniteds game a lot more than Van Nistelrooy did in his latter days, but I still can’t shine to his terrible performances.

I find him poor when receiving the ball and he loses it more than he does something useful with it. Andy Cole was bad to watch in his early days, but at least he was making chances, Saha just isn’t.

Fergie’s gotta start looking for a quality striker in the transfer window or I’ll probably end up watching Liverpool instead!

I was at Lansdowne Road last night to witness Ireland’s game against the Czech Republic. Although after last Saturdays result, it looked like a great result for us I couldn’t help feel hard done by, by last weeks result.

Yes, the team played with heart and grit and we created more of the chances - why wasn’t it there last Saturday against the Cyprians who were beaten 3-1 by Wales. That’s the same wales that lost 5-1 to the Czechs on Saturday. In fact the game was quite boring, so boring that my 6 year old nephew whom I’d brought to see his first Ireland match ever fell asleep half way through the second half!!!
Tactically, I don’t think Ireland were any different, the main difference last night was Ireland’s desire to show the fans and the media that they can compete at this level.

It’s this that concerns me. It looks like Steve Staunton isn’t the man that is motivating his team, which he should be! All the great managers will tell you that motivation is key to any teams success….  Just look at what Martin O’Neill is doing at Aston Villa. We never got this response from the Irish team since Steve has taken charge.

He may be technically capable, that has yet to be proven - but so far he certainly doesn’t seem to have control of the dressing room… Is it any wonder when we always knew him as the “Quiet Man”?

I think enough has been said about the dismal performance by Ireland’s soccer team last Saturday. I was probably one of those lucky people that did not get to see the game on Saturday.

I think it’s time for the FAI and Mr. Delaney to sign the signings on the wall… they made a huge mistake by appointing Steve Staunton as Ireland manager. Yes I agree everyone deserves a chance, but this is beyond a joke. I know it’s not our worst defeat ever, but on paper…. it is! Nuff said….

Well as I expected, Arsenal proved to be a step too far for Uniteds youngsters on Sunday. I always thought that this would be United’s first crunch game of the season and that it would be hard for United to overcome Arsenal’s talented side.

Arsenal who haven’t had a great start to the season were much better on the day and thoroughly deserved the win on Sunday. Yet again, I felt United were poor in defence and upfront.

United just weren’t at the races. Rooney still looks like he is far from match fitness, Scholes was kept well under control by Arsenal’s midfield, Wes Brown fell asleep a couple of times and our stand in keeper was, well, a stand in and it showed.

So where do we go from here? Well let’s hope we can pick it up again, but I don’t think we’ll ever get a season again where we could have been so far ahead of our main rivals!

Manchester Uniteds 5th game of the season turned out to be one of their biggest challenges yet. United were 1-0 down within 21 minutes after a great finish by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. Although United looked the better team, Celtic looked like they wanted to win this game more than United did.

It took only 9 minutes before United were gifted with a dubious penalty, when Boruc was deemed to have fouled Ryan Giggs in the Celtic box. Louis Saha took a great penalty to level it at 1-1. My man of the match Paul Scholes, created United’s second goal on 40 minutes, with a great pass to Saha that left him with only the keeper to beat. But not long after this Shunsuke Nakamura scored a beautifully taken free kick to level it at half time.

In the end United were gifted with their third goal when Gravesen mislayed his pass into the path of Paul Sholes who with ony three touches created another great pass to Saha who was denied by Boruc only to be followed up by Solskjaer. The only other player that caught my attention all night was Boruc who had a tremendous game.

All in all, I think this shows, that with all the hype surrounding Man Uniteds great start to the season that this is only because they have yet to be tested by a top team.

United were poor at the back and although I believe Saha suits Uniteds style of play better than Ruud, he didn’t seem very convincing in front of goal. Rooney looked tired and unfit while Michael Carrick looked totally unconfident. His passes were simple and we never saw any match winning passes or even attempted passes from him.

Although Arsenal have had a very poor start to the season, I think the game against United on Sunday will be Uniteds biggest test so far this season. I expect Arsenal to come out with all gun blazing as they always do against United.

I think this is where we will see if United are true contenders for the premiership this season.

I was delighted to see the big part Ruud Van Nistelrooy played in Real Madrids 4-1 thrashing of Levante on Sunday night.

Not content with just scoring his first goal in La Liga, he had to score a hat trick. It looked like it would never come when he missed a number of chances and even a penatly, but he got there in the end with a finish any striker would be proud of.

I really hope Ruud does well with Real. I’m sure he will be a huge success. His style of play seems to suit Real very well and it will be interesting to see how he fits in once Ronaldo is fit again.

On this display, I think he suits Real better than Ronaldo. In saying that, I’d never right off Ronaldo!