Ten Days To Go....

June has arrived.  More importantly, June 2010 has arrived.  It is the month in which most of the World Cup will unfold before us, and come July 1st only 8 of the 32 teams who have qualified for South Africa will be in with a shout.

Therefore, I reckon it’s high time that we start to get excited for all things football here on the Almost Daily Sports Blog, and that’s the plan for next few days.  Between now and Friday week I’m going to post a preview of one of the tournament’s pools, A-H as FIFA dictates, followed by a prediction of how the knockout stages will unfold on June 10th, the night before the opening game.  More blogging will then be done throughout the tournament, where I hope to bring you some unusual/interesting pictures and videos and more than just simple match analysis.

Speaking of interesting videos, and to get you somewhat into the mood, ESPN have created some short video pieces which you can see here.  It’s some of the finest work the station has ever done in my opinion, and contains interviews with several players who have scored goals in World Cup Finals, including Ireland Assistant Manager, Marco Tardelli.  It’s wonderfully shot, and well worth checking out.  Enjoy it, and come back here soon for our World Cup coverage.

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PS Thanks for your votes in the quandry I posted recently.  I’m taking your advice on board and some changes will likely be implemented, albeit not until after the World Cup at the earliest. 

A case of Sour Grapes

It's almost two weeks since the Ireland and France match. The night itself can only be described as the stuff nightmares are made of. Ireland sat glued to the television sets in all four corners of the country. I myself sat in the living room, attached to my laptop and blogging away goodo here. I'll admit I was confused at times, and I still need someone to explain the offside rule. But over all I really enjoyed watching the match even if I didn't enjoy the end result.

Not long after the match ended I went to bed to do some lesson planning. Not exactly the highlight but it had to be done. I wasn't there long when I noticed a very popular trend in the online worlds of facebook and twitter. Groups were being set up Henry bashing. Now I agree he was wrong and he knows better then to do the hand ball thing but at the end of the day he did it and got away with it. Given half the chance we would have done the same. I was sent links to various anti Henry sites and pages begging me to join them on twitter or the facebook craze lashing out at Thierry Henry or calling him a cheat (which he is) it goes on and on and on and on.....

It's two weeks later and people are still joining this pointless groups and going on and on and on about the Match. I do understand that it's a big deal. Because of Henry Ireland will not be going to the world cup next year and YES we are all heartbroken but this Hatred of Henry has GONE BEOND A JOKE!!

The rest of the world now sees the Irish as a bunch of sour grapes. And we do not need to be seen like that.

Outside of our little bubble of a island we are seen very differently to how we view ourselves. To look in the mirror we see ourselves as really welcoming and friendly, a lovely nice green country.
Let me assure you the only green thing about Ireland now is the green envy we embody these days. Hating Henry does very little to help our self image.

And as for the replay we spend so long talking about does anyone really believe we deseve it? In all fairness if we had played in anyway well in all the other matches we wouldn't be in this mess. In the group matches yes we did ok but as I stated in a post just hours before the first Ireland and France match, We could have done so much better against Italy. We threw it away. And in the first France match we didn't play half as well as we could have done. And we banked our whole world cup experience on one match in Paris. Yes we played well in that match but it takes more then one match to be good enough to get to the world cup.

So I have a question....

Did we throw away our World Cup chances because we were afraid of actually having to go to Africa and play on the biggest stadium in front of a massive world wide audience? What do you think?

Allez Les Verts!

Óle Óle Óle Ireland take on France....Twice

So today is MASSIVE I am told. I'm guessing it hasn't a whole lot to do with the X Factor and Queen night or with the shopping spree I had this morning. Instead Gav tells me it has something to do with a small insignifigant night of sport.....men in shorts running after a round rolling abject gets my vote any night so I decided to look into it!

Seemingly its Ireland vs France tonight in the World Cup Qualifiers....who knew eh?? Gavin did. As always. But Gavin is a very busy man today at work but I'll explain that later on....I promise. So Trap has had a tough job ahead of him. We all remember the Italy game. That game in my humble opinion was by far the biggest f**k up of the year. I mean we were ahead twice in that match and both times we threw it away and Italy came back so we ended in a draw. We coulda had that win boys! To make it even worse it wasn't long after, a few days to be exact when we realised how crucial that win, the one we threw away, really was.

Then the nerves started in when the draw was coming up and we were faced with the propect of some really tough teams to be in a play off against. Now it's France. So tonight at 8pm the whole nation, inculding me (the girl who is giving up X Factor on Queen night to watch) will have their fingers crossed in hopes that we can come up Traps in this and show France that they have serious competition in Ireland. Prayers will be said. Hopes will be high. Dreams will be made or broken. Lives will be put on hold for 90 minutes of the most important match in ten years.

Nervous?? Hell ya! France won the World Cup in 98, how could we not be nervous? Trap and Given both say it will take nerves but it can be done. I just hope they're right. A squad with Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema and Nicolas Anelka doesn't scare them says the Republic boss Trap. After all he says his team inculdes players who play against Arsenal and Man Utd. Lets hope his faith is all our Fates.

Trap is leaving one decision to the last minute. Having named Shay Given, John O Shea, Richard Dunne, Sean St Ledger*, Kevin Kilbane, Keith Andrews, Glenn Whelan*, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Kevin Doyle as definite starting players this week, Trap is leaving the right side of midfiled open until just before the match. He has a choice of Aiden McGeady and Liam Lawrence. A tactical move? A decision Trap can't or won't make? We'll have to see closer to kick off what our team leader will do. Meanwhile * St Ledger and Whelan are musts after a pair of fantastic goals againt Italy. Can they do it again?

Mistakes like the Italy match cannot happen again and Trap knows this, a goal in Dublin for France tonight could be detrimental to Irelands chances next Wednesday in Paris. If like me you are not a religious person now is the time to pray and pray that our Irish team, our boys in green keep their nerve and show what we Irish are made of.

Ireland has a lot to offer sport mad people tonight as Limericks own University College is hosting a major fight tonight. Our own Andy Lee against Frances own Affif Belghecham, I can see the irony of that too. Belghecham is the French and European Unions Middleweight Champ and tonight Lee looks to take a leapfrog step towards European and World Titles. Fellow Limerick men Jamie Power and Willie Casey are in front of their home crowd as well tonight on the undercard. Having seen Power at the Dunne fight in Sep of this year I can say he's a handy fighter who had a bad night and he will want to bring himself back from his one and only defeat against Micheal Sweeny last September.

It is a big big night! The reason you're stuck with my incoherent ramblings today? Gavin is up the walls at work and is going to see and report on the Andy Lee fight in the Univeristy Arena tonight. So if you happen to be there keep an eye out for him!!

Meanwhile Ireland has a lot to offer us tonight and we want it all. We want to beat France. We want Andy to beat Belghecham and We want to have that good good night we're sacficing the X Factor for. Check out Gav's very quick post from today of Ireland in World Cup 90.....we want this but with less CRINGE factor please!!!

GO ON THE BOYS IN GREEN!!

C'Mon You Boys In Green

The countdown is on to Ireland v Italy.

Four and a half hours now!

I'm not sure how big a game it actually is - Ireland can wil and still not overtake Italy at the top of Group 8.  Nonetheless, it would be brilliant to beat the World Champions in our own back yard and give us four days of dreaming that Cyprus might, just MIGHT, do us a favour against the Italians in Italy.

To get you in the mood, here's a reminder of THAT day in Giants Stadium on the opening weekend of the 1994 World Cup.



It really was fifteen years ago... Christ.  I'm old.