We went minute-by-minute as Ireland travelled to Kazakhstan for their opening World Cup 2014 qualifier. It was… emm… it was something, that’s for sure.
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Kazakhstan 1-2 Republic of Ireland
Evening all. Five o’clock is the new quarter-to-eight, so what better way to kick start your weekend than with some competitive international football.
Yes, you have to watch Ireland. No, it’s not optional.
Giovanni Trapattoni and his (slightly) new-look Boys in Green are in Astana for their opening 2014 World Cup qualifier; the first ginger steps (we’re looking at you, Paul McShane) on the road to Rio.
Kick-off is in 15 minutes so if you’re still at the desk, already in the pub, on a bus or on a train, make sure you stay with us for the latest updates.
Here’s how tonight’s hosts line out. I can’t pronounce most of the names but at the very least I’ll try to spell them consistently.
Kazakhstan: Sidelnikov, Kirov, Kislitsyn, Mukhtarov, Nurdauletov (c), Konysbaev, Bogdanov, Ostapenko, Schmidtgal, Nusserbayev, Roshkov.
And here’s Trapattoni’s XI as announced yesterday. Kieran Westwood in goal, James McCarthy makes his first competitive start in midfield, Simon Cox is out on the wing and Jon Walters gets the nod to partner Robbie Keane up front.
Republic of Ireland: Westwood, O’Shea, St Ledger, O’Dea, Ward, Whelan, McCarthy, McGeady, Cox, Walters, Keane.
An estimated 200 hardy Irish fans have made the 3,000-mile trip to Astana. They’re making their voices heard as best they can as the band belts out both national anthems. Not long now.
Just to clarify, this is not the Kazakhstan national anthem. It is long though.
Paul Ryan: Fair play to Simon Cox for learning Amhrán na bhFiann.
Missed that (too busy searching YouTube for the obligatory Borat clip) but fair play to Coxy if that’s the case.
They’re just wrapping up the last of the pre-match formalities with both captains reading the Fair Play statement. Or is it the Respect statement? A solid moral message either way.
Kazakhstan captain Kairat Nurdauletov’s hands are shaking as he reads from his script. Either he doesn’t do public speaking all that often or he knows he’s in the presence of greatness as he rubs shoulders with Robbie.
KICK-OFF: We’re up and running. As expected, Cox starts out on the right with McGeady in the left. O’Shea is at right-full with St Ledger and O’Dea in the middle of defence.
All of the early pressure is coming from Ireland and James McCarthy draws the first save of the evening from Sidelnikov. The Wigan midfielder tries to curl one from the edge of the box into the bottom corner but the keeper is down to tip it around the post.
A barrage of corners follows with half-chances for both O’Shea and Walters but Kazakhstan survive. Still, a good positive start from Ireland.
Over on Facebook, the predictions are coming in. The pessimism of earlier seems to have been replaced by that Friday feeling:
Mick ‘The Bull’ Daly: I hate the excuses that are made, ”oh the pitch is shite” get over it
Barry Curtin: your not allowed slide tackle on astroturf
I’m not making excuses but there does seem to be a good bit of water on the pitch. Has it been raining in Astana? And yes, Barry’s right. No sliding on the Astroturf.
Despite their lowly place (142nd) in the FIFA Rankings, this Kazakhstan side are no mugs. The crowd in the Astana Arena isn’t huge but those who are there make their voices heard as Nusserbayev breaks into space in front of the box. With the Irish defence retreating, he has all the time in the world to pick out Kirov on the overlap but overhits his pass.
Kazakhstan concede possession away cheaply in midfield but Glenn Whelan gives it straight back just as easily, misjudging a pass that could’ve set Aiden McGeady free inside the box.
“It’s incredible how we are playing route one football where as they can pass straight through us with ease,” writes Conor Flynn. “They’re much more confident.”
As we near the 20-minute mark, Ireland are relying on the direct approach to Keane and Walters. Kazakhstan’s lone striker Ostapenko is getting much more ball into his feed which allowing him to bring the midfield into the game in advanced positions. Schmidtgal tries to cross for Nusserbayev but Westwood watches it past his back post.
A bit of a scare for Ireland as Westwood needs to get down quickly at the feet of Konysbaev to prevent him from capitalising on a loose ball in the box. The midfielder was in an offside position as it broke to him but still, they’re half-chances Ireland could do without conceding.
Ireland’s best passage of play so far sees some nice interplay between McCarthy and Cox, and then Cox and Walters on the edge of the box. Rather than cross, Cox tries his luck from a narrow angle and ends up with nothing but net — side-net, that is.
From a quick free-kick out to the left wing, Simon Cox hoofs a hopeful ball into the box where it’s cleared away before John O’Shea even manages to leave his feet. Pretty uninspiring stuff from Ireland so far — and that’s me being nice.
“Does anyone have a bottle of Optrex I can borrow,” Will asks. “Because this is hurting my eyes.”
Aiden McGeady appears to have been boxed in in the corner but somehow manages to dig the ball out and cross to Robbie Keane, the only man in the box. Keane gets a bit of a nudge from Rozhkov and that’s enough to send him flying, arms flailing everywhere.
On the half-hour mark, Nusserbayev picks up the evening’s first booking for a cruncher on John O’Shea. Deserved.
McGeady’s free to the back post has Sidelnikov scrambling but it’s knocked behind for a corner before O’Dea can make any meaningful contact.
Ireland on the back foot again as Nusserbayev runs at a retreating Irish defence. He plays it short to Schmidtgal who tries to cut back inside but by the time he finally pulls the trigger, O’Dea is on top of him to smother the danger.
GOAL! Kazakhstan 1-0 Republic Ireland (Nurdauletov, 37′) Yes, yes, yes – Kazakhstan is the greatest country of them all. Schmidtgal — who has put in some good deliveries tonight — whips in a near-post cross with a free from the right, captain Nurdauletov gets a headed flick and the pace of the ball carries it into the net before Westwood had a chance.
Great. Just great.
“This is a f****** shambles,” writes Les Rock, echoing the sentiments of a nation — and it very nearly gets worse. Bogdanov’s long-range effort is palmed straight back out by Westwood and the rebound comes back off the post. The fact that the linesman’s flag is up is no consolation at all unfortunately.
A minute plus stoppage time to play.
HALF TIME: Kazakhstan 1-0 Republic of Ireland
Something needs to change, and fast, or else we’ll be filing this one with Cyprus and Macedonia. What a shambles.
“How did we get so bad so suddenly” is the question being floated in TheScore.ie HQ over the half-time oranges. My sarcasm detector isn’t always the best but I’m guessing that’s not worthy of a response.
This email landed during that first-half disaster. Everyone say hi to Derek.
Hi,
Can everyone give a shout-out to my mate Derek? I’m visiting him in Galway hospital and we’re following the match on The Score.
John The Bad.
“Caveman stuff” is how John Giles has described that first-half and he’s not wrong.
If you’re looking for someone to blame for the goal, look to Stephen Ward for giving away the easy free with a lazy tackle or Glenn Whelan for trying to mark Nurdauletov from two yards away.
Now for the best thing to happen since this whole sorry charade kicked off: time for me to have my dinner.
My colleague Patrick McCarry has just texted to say that Ireland’s “filth-addled” performance is ruining his honeymoon. You’ve a lot to answer for, Trap.
I’m no international manager (Football Manager doesn’t count, right?) and I’ve won less than Trapattoni in my time (Football Manager doesn’t count, right?) but the secret here is to stop hoofing the ball to Walters and hoping for a lucky break, surely.
In the history of their World Cup qualifiers, Kazakhstan have only ever beaten Andorra. Chew on that.
James McCarthy tries to cause some mischief with a deft touch to cut in behind his marker from the right but loses his footing inside the box. No contact, no foul. Damn you, Astroturf.
I wish I had something positive to type here but I don’t really. Same old, same old. The Irish players who were warming up have sat back down again.
McGeady has a chance to make some sort of an impression with a free kick from deep on the left but it’s way, way, way too close to Sidelnikov who palms it behind for a corner.
Substitution: 57 minutes in and Kevin Doyle comes on for Simon Cox. Looks like Walters is going to drop to play on the right wing — sure if you’re going to play one out of position, why not play them all out of position?
McGeady gets down the left to the endline but there’s nobody to challenge when he cuts the ball back to the middle of the area and the goalscorer Nurdauletov sidefoots it clear.
Good, confident claim from Westwood who comes all the way past the penalty spot to take a punt off the head of Ostapenko.
“It’s certainly not football the Barcelona way,” says George Hamilton. You’ve got that one right, George.
Again, Ireland are reduced to a rather predictable ball from McGeady into the box and again Kazakhstan have plenty of men to fend off the threat. Mukhtarov wins the header this time.
Nusserbayev tries his luck from distance but it’s a foot or two wide of Westwood’s left post. Had it been any closer, the keeper would’ve certainly saved it.
Substitutions: Changes for either side. Dzolchiyev comes on for Nusserbayev, and Long comes on for Walters.
If you’re trying to keep track of who is playing where, it looks like Long is going out on the right now. If you’re keeping count, that’s three strikers who have played on the wing tonight. So far.
That was very nearly curtains for Ireland. Dzolchiyev outmuscles St Ledger and drills the ball low inside Westwood’s near post. He gets down to tip it behind but that really should’ve been Kazakhstan’s second.
Ten minutes to go. Part of me wants tonight to last for as long as it takes Ireland to score twice; the other part wants this to end as quickly as possible.
The chances falling to Ireland can’t even be described as half-chances — quarter- or eighth-chances would be more accurate. McCarthy volleys a breaking ball into the Astroturf in an attempt at something different but the result is the same. Kazakhstan clear.
PENALTY TO IRELAND! There is the get out of jail card. Doyle crosses from the left, Mukhtarov skews his cross towards the line and as Robbie Keane stretches to prod it in, he’s dragged down by Rozhkov.
It will be Robbie Keane to save Ireland from total embarrassment…
GOAL! Kazakhstan 1-1 Republic of Ireland (Keane pen, 89′) Keeper goes right, Robbie goes left. Trapattoni might well live to fight another day.
GOAL! Kazakhstan 1-2 Republic of Ireland (Doyle, 90′) WOW. WOW. WOW. A long free kick isn’t dealt with Kazakhstan and Doyle is on hand to slam the ball home from close range. How did Ireland get away with this one? With four minutes of injury time to go, it looks like they’ll be leaving Astana with three points. Remarkable.
FULL TIME: Kazakhstan 1-2 Republic of Ireland
How do you even begin to describe that? 88 minutes of awful, turgid rubbish followed by 120 seconds of sheer insanity. Ireland get out of jail in a major way but the message from Ronnie Whelan and the pundits on RTÉ is the same — a smash-and-grab win against the 142nd best team in the world should not paper over the cracks of how awful Ireland were.
Kevin Doyle is your man of the match, obviously. Had it been awarded on 88 minutes, even RTÉ would have given it to a Kazakhstan player.
And if you’re in the business in sparing a thought for others, the entire nation of Kazakhstan probably deserves your sympathy, as does the person who laid Ireland at 109/1 on Betfair towards the end of the game.
Im not feeling the love towards the irish team tonight, iv a bad feeling that we could be sh1te and be beaten/drawn, If we loose/draw this one Trap must go and collect his old age pension
I’m supporting rep of Ireland for almost 40 years and I’ve never seen a worse 11 line out for us. The problem is that there ARE better players available, but a manager who refuses to watch games in the UK doesn’t seem to know or care.
He should’ve gone after the Euro’s….
I cannot understand why the players insist on playing the long ball even when the Kazakhstan players are pushed back. Nobody is willing to carry the ball. We are a total joke. This is an embarrassment.
I reckon it’ll be a 2-1 victory for Ireland with Kevin Doyle scoring the winner.
Ok on paper we won, but trap must go! You would think it was an end of season friendly the way 90% of the team played.
I tell ya what, give me Richie Sadlier any day ahead of those other two dinosaurs.
Fair play to Simon Cox for learning Amhrán na bhFiann.
more interesting jason smyth is running @ 7.15 in the 200 metres at the paralympics
718pm actually
Boring. Boring. Boring. No imagination. No skill. No heart. Puke soccer.
I feel sorry for Kazakhstan.
This is just getting worse and worse…Trap must not even read the papers over here …he must think everything is ok in trap land…this is just f–king dire!….how anyone could pay money to watch this dross.
Read the papers?He doesn’t even know what players we have playing in the Premiership.
I actually laughed when they scored. If they manage to be beaten by Kazakhstan they may as well all just hang up their international boots.
It would have been better if we had lost. This has only papered over the cracks. Actually not cracks….massive gapping holes the size of Paul McShane’s fat ugly head.
This is a f****** shambles
Trap is looking for a big payout……Trap is looking for a big payout…Trap wants to get sacked by the useless Delansy mark my words. Trap the sly old dog!
don’t know why Keane is still captain
I hate the excuses that are made, ”oh the pitch is shite” get over it
These guys are tearing us apart. If the FAI was run like anything other than an effing joke shop, there’d be a P45 waiting for Trap at half time. This is just awful.
Dont care if you love him or hate….GET ROY KEANE IN NOW!
I was as biggest fan as a player but as a manager, are you delusional, he’d fall out with even more players that this demented old codger!
@eugene think your fairly on the ball cause chris houghton for me should be the next Irish manager! I haven’t seen the game but it appears nothing’s changed..
Do NOT believe the hype. This was dire. You could have four sheep across midfield, and it wouldn’t matter. Hoof ball. Shocking. Please, please, please Trap – fk off now!
Jesus tap dancin christ what the the F*”K is going on. This is in no way a surprise to me but christ. Trap out, I was saying this before we even qualified for the Euros. I cant stand him and the muck he has these lads playing. Glen whelan you bloody spud two full yards away from your man….ughhh. Now i have to buy another remote
Does anyone have a bottle of Optrex I can borrow? Because this is hurting my eyes.
if it hurts just dont watch it, simple
It’s called a joke, Bazzer. I know you have trouble with those.
what a waste of time
out of jail but trap should still go delany wit him.
When are the FAI going to sack this joke of a manager?? His team selections are horrendous…..people will say ‘oh, but he got us to the euros’s'……….yea, because we drew the worst team in the play-offs, previous Irish managers got us to major play-offs but we were drawn against sides much better than Estonia! Rant over
Time to go Trap…… Mick McCartys doing nothing, best manager since Big Jack , give him another go!!! I hold my hand up and say I wanted him out after the whole Keane saga cause I think he handled it all wrong but everyone deserves a second chance , in fairness Keane got his in a return in the Irish jersey … So why not Mick!!!
Oh God. We could lose 3 nil here . DISGRACEFUL
I don’t understand why people are surprised by the score. We are a shambles and have been since staunton’s escapades. Trap needs to go, a lot of the irish players need to go and FAI management need to go.
No doubt the trapites and delaneyites will be out in their defence – bottom line the irish team is crap and an embarressment!
I dont think Ive ever heard of anyone that likes delany. Cut his and his buddies wages and put it into training the up and coming players!
and then we go and spoil it all by WINNING!
trap will feel vindicated now and stand by his tactics, as ronnie whelan said “dont paper over the cracks”
Don’t worry, we’ll restore pride when the fans sing the fields at the end of a 1 nil loss.
Get Keane off the pitch (permanently) and replace him with Doyle….
Oh dear
right I’m off out to get hammered….
Kevin Doyle outstanding in his field!:)
its incredible how we are playing route one football where as they can pass straight through us with ease… they’re much more confident
I reckon I’ll shout for the country that’s playing actual football, it’ll be a nice change for me.
Exactly. Trap is the most unoriginal piece of shit manager ever. I’m sorry I’m just so angry right now (even though we managed to scrape a win)
I can’t believe it 1-2 , disaster for the Irish team, trap needs to go and now he won’t
A nice win now to hide the fact that the team is in a shambles.
Bill O’ Herlihy’s reaction at the end there says it all…at least Eamonn had the sense 2 stay away
“We’re stuck with a Trap
He won’t walk out
Because Delaney,loves him too much baby
Why can’t you see
What you’re doing the team
When you don’t believe a word we say?
We can’t go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can’t build our teams
On suspicious minds”
Sorry but I was bored :-)
It’s going to be alright, the pisshead that is John Delaney will take to the pitch at half time and inspire our fans with a Delia Smith like, motivational speech. After that he’ll start the sing song.
HOW CAN ANYONE DOWN THUMB THIS?…That complete gobsh-te is on 400,000 a year…can you f–king believe that!…This country is so useless and so corrupt is laughable!
I’m optimistic that with the introduction of new young blood, a fresh management approach and a re-invigorated FAI we will qualify for the World Cup Finals ……… in 2018.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!! After the euros you’d think that Trapp would at least attempt to play the ball along the grass!! Reminds me of the words of the late great Brian Clough, if football was meant to be played in the sky there would be grass on the clouds.
why did i include Ireland in my accumulator :-\
lol
I can’t understand how this is apparently more important to show on rte than the paralympics
We are still not good enough – trap has to resign how u could stand by that display of football and say ur happy or come up with any excuse it was disgraceful
We haven’t a hope against Germany or Sweden
Words fail me- a sinking feeling with this team we are going nowhere and trap is trying to cod us all and hang in till he gets the boot
Trap is Crap
Did you look at his CV? he is one of the top managers in Europe. You dont have a clue about football
Trap IS crap with regard to managing the Irish team…..if you can’t see that then YOU know nothing about football
@Dareen
“Did you look at his C.V”
Did you look at the football he has Ireland playing complete Cave man stuff…
Hoff the ball you and wish for the best that’s Trap’s Tactic’s…Also had Cox on the WING??why not put a winger on like McClean?
I can’t wait till Trap leaves,get In Chris Hughton and play the ball on the ground.
Having a great C.V shouldn’t excuse you for murdering football…
One last thing Kazakhstan fifa ranking 142,Ireland 26 Unbelievable.
Well Darren seeing as your views on other posts are as fossilised as his tactics then I’m not surprised at your post and, regardless of his massive past success, this is inept and it’s not like we don’t have better players that can play on the turf, we do, he just fell out with them all!
Eugene
My name is Darren not Dareen
Oop’s Sorry John Delaney.. ,I mean Darren :)
Darren, Waco Jaco has lots of no.1′s but he is never gonna win X Factor.
ah wat yea expect we are crap….
your not allowed slide tackle on astroturf
This isn’t 5-a-side on a Tuesday night with lads you went to college with!
Are you sure?
its called a joke will dont take it to heart, but this match looks like the standard we play every tue night
Don’t give up the day job, Bazzer!
ryte rte please have commentators with less depressing voices. thinken of muten the tv.. saying that, the game is pretty boring ..
I can’t be the only one who wanted him to miss that penalty.
silence In the gaf when he scored
EXACTLY. I took zero pleasure in seeing him score. I don’t think anyone is happy with the current state of this team and even the most hardened fan has gone away from this game happy with the result.
Traps p45 in the post!!
robbie keane please call tyme on your international career .. you were a gud player but its time 4 da younger players to step up…
Talk about jam!
Laughable…how can we get rid of Trap & delaney????….they just wont go away!!!!!…Germany will put an end to them by 5 or 6
Just blasting the ball up the pitch hoping for something to happen..ffs
Absolutely shameful display. Trap has to go PLEASE no more, it’s an abomination. Worst display since Cyprus in ’06. At least in the Euros we lost to world class teams. Utterly shambolic.
Sack him now
Like Ronnie Whelan said “We can’t let the win paper over the cracks”
We were awful for most of the match.
Trap is looking for the sack for his payout and retire from management – wait and see-
We are a joke an absolute joke it’s about time the useless fu*kin Delaney did his job for his 360k a year and fired trap-
If trap had any class at all he would resign after euros and tonight
Why do we keep playing centre forwards as wingers??
If McLean and Coleman come on now we WILL win this game.
Walters cant cross and has no pace just like cox before him.
this is pure insanity!
Bring on Giles dunphy and Brady
What a shambles
goooooooaaaaaaaaallllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arrivaderci Trap…hello Chris Houghton
I agree
your dreaming, Chris Hughton doesn’t want the job!
I think maybe we should just write off Brazil 2014……the team are actually no good…..Ireland are a League 1 team at best now and this only shows it even more….and what overhaul can we have?there aren’t any better players out there,which is all the more depressing
Ya jammy little beautiful bastards ya!!
Embarressed to be Irish becuase of this performance
We want didi hamann.
oh err missus
lucky is an understatement.. we were crap
Don’t mind this playing football lark. Just defend at all costs no matter how bad the opposition are. Time for trap to go me thinks
I think maybe we should just write off Brazil 2014……the team are actually no good…..Ireland are a League 1 team at best now and this only shows it even more….and what overhaul can we have?there aren’t any better players out there,which is all the more depressing….bring back Mick McCarthy….best manager we ve had since Jack Charlton
Bring back Mick Mccarthy? Thats the day i stop supporting Ireland. Cant stand him
Hold on, we’ve had a shot on target. Things are looking up.
Can anyone explain to me Trap’s team selection, tactics and substitutions so far? I’m baffled by everything. Particularly, since living in Portugal, I’ve got used to Paulo Bento’s common sense selections and tactics with the national “selecção” here?
iv 300 on 1 0 kazach come on
ye have yeh…I’ve 200 on shergar in the 1805.
He won’t go….he ll wait until he s fired and get a huge payoff and the FAI can’t afford to fire him so he s going nowhere I’m afraid….
phew!
GET TRAP OUT NOW!!! We were atrocious. I mean they were 142nd in the world and we have to rely on a 2 goals in the last 5 minutes of the match. Pathetic just pathetic. Please get out Trap
I have to say Richie Sadlier was right on the money tonight, his views, as usual, were spot on….and Brady trying to defend the falling regime that is Trap, was in the words of Boromir ‘complete folly’
Definitely bring back Mick McCarthy,if he s interested….I think Trappatoni will more than likely stay going though until he s sacked
Only for Bill….
Every one of my loyal customers gets a free drink, What a result Yipeeee I love Ireland its a great country.
If Germany were to go for the jugular (which is admittedly unlikely in the early group stages) they could easily score 4 or 5 in Dublin. That said it could still happen.
The way i see it, this is 3 points stolen. Ironically this will do Team moral good because we were beaten everywhere tonight except where it counts. I just hope finally that Trap sees his selection failings now and stops playing guys out of position. Despite his justified criticism, Robbie has great bottle to take a penalty (unlike Shane Long) His uncanny knack to get on the score-sheet (euro 2012 aside) when needed is the reason why he deserves to still be in the Ireland squad (although never to start any more)
Shane Long still deserves to start based on form in the EPL. Please Trap, start selecting, Coleman, Wilson and McClean as well from the off from now on, and we might yet give this qualification a good go! Now is the time to start redeeming yourself.
Every cloud…
Agreed well said..
So Trapp is claiming this was all part of his plan.He has to go,brutal!!!
It’s painful to watch who can get us out of this misery?? HELP
Who can get us out of this misery?? HELP
We are lucky to get a draw, What a disaster.
We are losing to a team
Ranked 147 in the world….. Your out of time Trap. Do the decent thing
Come on you boys in Green. :)
While we’re on about sacking Trap, let’s get rid of Brady too and promote Sadlier to senior analyst. How he could defend the manager after that odious muck today is beyond belief.
Now that is how to play soccer.
Its football not soccer
Westmeath. What is the difference between football and soccer.?
Darren what do u know about football? Obviously not much if u think trap is one of the best football mangers in Europe..
Pfffft what a load of crap! Same old Ireland same old team. If I had the money and we qualified somehow I wouldn’t pay to go over and cheer that embarrassment! Trap needs to be sacked before the world cup simple!
Ireland have a good manager but a sh@t team.
This has to be John “the embarrassing, useless, chancer, utter godsh-te, culchie” Delaneys brother without question.
Roll out the barrell we whacked the Kasies. Bring on the Gerries and we whack them as well. Drink up Yipeeeeee
I think you’ve had enough already Richard…,
Looking forward to the match
English match that is!!!!!
Could you imagine If we were playing Germany first, mother of god! The Borat movie should be set in Ireland, I am not feeling the pride. Lets try not blame the players though!
O SWEET JESUS ,,IF THATS WHAT FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT ,,THE FAI CAN KEEP IT ,,RUBBISH