A top 20 in the world footballing nation. That’s some achievement for a country with only 4 million citizens, a sub-standard domestic league and where GAA dominates in many parts of the country. Credit must be paid to the FAI, the players and management on a fantastic achievement with limited resources. Forget about the Ea-moan Dunphy’s of this world. Roll on June!!

people constantly complain about the fact that trap doesnt play good young skillful players and that the football is bad to watch.

in 88, 90 and 94 Ireland had some quality players that were made play a simple unskilled game that yielded results. creativity and panache were not rewarded but we qualified for 3 tournaments and got out of the group in 2 world cups. People still look back with misty eyes and forget the fact that we got to the quaret finals in 1990 with out winning a game or scoring more than one goal in a match, in fact we only scored in 2 of our 5 games. Brutal yet people remember the positives and the victories, not how they happened.

roll on to 2012, after years of not qualifying and trying lots of players who turned out not to be good enough, we now have a stable squad that are in a major tournament. Its upto the manager and his team to work with that squad and myself and all other people with an opinion have to appreciate that we dont know what goes on in the Camp, we cant see what players play well together, what players are disruptive to team moral/mentality and most importantly what players fit the system. The system is what has got us to Poland.

uproar when andy reid was dropped-where is he now
last year, james mccarthy should be in instead of andrews- mccarthy hasnt done much this season and andrew is impressing already at west brom
coleman should be playing- colemans not playing much lately for everton and cant decide his best position, best stick to a stable right back and stable right mid.

lets let the manager manage, its not upto us to pick the team. its ok to have an opinion but the most important thing the irish public can do for the next few months is support them

Roll on June

I love all the people giving out about the moaners, when there are no moaners in the thread!

When we are not qualifying for the World cups and Euro’s people us Irish people are saying oh sure what harm we are a small country and we don’t have the the best pool of players to choose from and that the payers gave it their all and maybe we’ll do better the next time. Then on the other hand when we manage to qualify we say oh our team is shocking and we don’t stand a chance. (and this is with the same group of players.) Also we are fierce for knocking the standard of the Airtricity league when the standard is quiete good (I know not as good as the English prem and other top european leagues) . Some of these people that criticise our own leagues are those who support the likes of celtic, hibs, west ham, leeds and etc, when the 2 standards are close enough. Us Irish love to knock and criticise our own successful teams. Support your LOCAL and NATIONAL teams.

Great achievement (as noted above) for a small country in a sport which at this stage is close to the fourth most popular sport after football hurling and rugby. Hope to see us jump a few more places come June!

We always give out about successful stories…. typical Irish attitude.

The future for Irish football is looking good with these young players making an impact.

lets not forget that in 2002 mick mccarthy had Ireland as a top seed in.following euro qualifying group. great achievement to break into top.20 thgh..need to push on.now. lets all get behind the boys in green

people complaining.typical.if u dont like it turn off ur tv.dont watch them in the Euro’s.irish attitude is to be a moan.pathetic.

Just wait for them to come……