Sunday, November 15, 2009

France leads 1-0

The Irish side went down 1-0 against France in front of a roaring crowd of around 75,000 on a crisp Autumn evening at Croke Park, Dublin after allowing a late score. After suffering their first defeat in the qualifying rounds. the odds of making the World Cup in South Africa are firmly against them for the second leg of their World Cup play-off with Les Bleus. Robbie Keane said "We have to be confident for Wednesday and believe we can win the game. There's no question we can do it on Wednesday," the captain told Sky Sports 1. "We've been to big teams like Italy and got results, so we know we can. It's not going to be easy but we have to believe. We need to believe that we have to go there, we have to get a goal and hopefully we can get two and not concede." Kevin Doyle, Irish man of the match after leading the line bravely, echoed his skipper's thoughts. "We have to score to win game." he said. "We go to France needing a goal. If not two goals, then one to get into extra time and then we'll see what happens. It was so close tonight. Their goal was not even a half chance, it was a lucky deflection. We had a few chances we made ourselves but just couldn't score. It's half-time and we have another game to go in Paris. We have gone to Italy against the world champions and we got a goal so why not in France?"
France forward Thierry Henry refused to celebrate his side's win too hard, instead choosing to focus on the return leg. "We have seen the Irish are a difficult team to beat and they didn't lose a game in the whole qualifying so what we did today is nice." he said. "There are still 90 minutes to go so it will be a tough game for us in Paris. We wanted to play in the first half but you have to give the Irish team credit, they didn't give us any room to play our game. You can always improve and hopefully the crowd in Paris can be like the crowd the Irish had tonight."

8 comments:

P. Florindo said...

Unfortunatelly, Ireland lost an important game at home. However, I believe that the Irish team can beat France in their home, why not? It would be great too see France eliminated before the WC.

France is the favorite team to win, but I support Ireland, of course.

I would like Ireland had a better luck facing Greece at the playoffs but...

American Irish said...

It sucked getting matched up with France in the playoffs but what can you do? Hopefully they can get a goal on wednesday and send it to extra time and then its anybodys game.

Vévé said...

Man... I'm just going crazy here... Canada is not a football country... I don't have the 2nd match between Ireland and France on TV... and I just heard you're ahead one goal...
THE BEST OF LUCK TO BOTH OF US Steve lol
:)

Vévé said...

I just realized something...
Had I not "known" you, I would have just been pissed off by a loss and so happy for a win...
but now... really... sincerely... I'll be happy but sad if we win... and sad but happy if we lose...
so... I'm not as stressed anymore as I wait for the da*n results LOL
yeah... corny, I know lol

Vévé said...

oh man...
now I come here really sorry... and really mad... and ashamed !
I just saw on the net (no other way to know) that France has qualified because of a hand by Thierry Henry ???? and that the referee has granted the goal ?
man...
I'm so mad if that is the case !
God, that's another reason why I so often hate pro sports :(
the human factor !
euh... Plz Steve and Friends of Steve... don't be mad at me :(

P. Florindo said...

I arrived at home, checked the results of the qualifiers and I became sad when I saw that France had won the game. =/

They won because Henry decided to play volleyball instead football. ¬¬

Blind referee. Ireland should protest but I don't think UEFA and FIFA will try to redress this terrible mistake. Italy just became the winner of the previous World Cup due to a penalty-kick that the referee created against Australia on the Round of 16. ¬¬

I really hope FIFA to be more severe about this fatal mistakes and start to use the TV images when something extremaly wrong happens during the games to change the referee's wrong decisions.

P. Florindo said...

By the way, which team will you support now?

I hope Australia to reach the Round of 16 again and New Zealand to surprise the world. I would like the NZL guys to dance the hakka just like in the rugby games. ^^

American Irish said...

Veve, we still love you. lol Its three Swedes we want to kick the crap out of.

P. Flor - My fav team now is obviously the USA. But I'll also root for Germany, England, Argentina, Spain and Australia because I have friends, relatives, and connections with those countries. This year I will also be rooting for New Zealand because my favorite player of all countries is Shane Smeltz.