O When Irish Eyes are Smiling

[johnny]

Originally posted by Davros: Cheers johnny - yes I am aware of what players were in your national squad at that time. It would still be nice if you could find out how many if any of the next generation (ie Zendens and De Boers and Nistelrojs and Davids) played in that game though. I can't seem to find that info from my end. I am betting your team didn't all sink into anonymity based on their one antipodean disgrace and thta some of them went on to wear the national shirt.

I'll have to get back to you on that one, i've been searching in every olympic archive available, concerning our olympic footballsquads, but nothing came up, as if it never happened. I have a few friends with very large books though, and i wouldn't be surprised if one of them contains at least a line up of our teams over the years.

But like i said, olympic football isn't very big here. The best players play in our national A squad, and aren't in any way available for the olympics. Then there's Young Holland, the youngsters who aren't good enough for the A team yet, and they aren't olympic material either. So whatever it is you guys played against, it couldn't have been any young talents from Ajax, PSV, or Feyenoord, because they have obligations to "other" national squads. I'll fill you in on any names once i have the info, you actually got me curious now too.

You said something about Ireland not getting the attention it deserved, and i take it that was a subtle poke at them knocking us out of the worlcup in the 2002 qualification round. So here's what i think of how that was possible:

First of all... Ireland completely deserved that win, because we simply sucked, no more and no less. But there are two reasons for that in my opinion. The first one is that in the 12 years before that crucial match, we've battled the Irish on several tournaments and/or qualifications, and on every occasion we sent them home fairly easy. I'm kinda lost on the exact dates, but it started in 1988, and it happened at least four times after that. Nobody here took Ireland serious, how could we ? We have been degrading them for so long, the players must have thought it would automatically happen again. Overconfidence is key here, and the 2-0 win against the English 4 days before the Ireland match made it only worse. So we had a severe case of underestimating the Irish, and overestimating ourselves, because some players were long over their top. Which brings me to the second reason: the coach didn't have the balls to take out some experienced, but over the hill players, and replace them with fresh blood. We paid the price for that against the Irish. History almost repeated itself recently against the Scots, which lead to the 1-0 loss in Glasgow. Finally, and kuckily for all the Dutch footballfans, the coach listened to all the critics, and replaced among others, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf, and Frank de Boer, which resulted in the 6-0 thrashing of the Scots in Amsterdam. We now have a younger, more talented, and more hungry squad than we had in 2002, and are once again back on the highest stage. Something that COULD and SHOULD have happened in Ireland, but didn't happen because wwe had a coach with no balls.

Anyway, enough ranting for now, i'll get back to you once i know who played in Utrecht.

[SpiritWarrior]

Originally posted by Davros: So is Ireland - and I don't this thread has given them enough credit yet

Hey, I sang for my country!