Sister Sara
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Great to back to football. And back to good football.
What a match
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JoeRoberts
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Most football fans never left it
Sister Sara
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True, just UEFA and FAI.
Great response from Irish supporters. Credit to Austrian team and their supporters, great to be competing on the field with our European partners in a true spirit of unity, and in a spirit of friendship in the stands.
Hard to fathom why we have to play our own home game in Serbia? - in fairness, thats for another thread, 2nd half kicked-off.
JoeRoberts
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Looks like they made the right call.
Next up. Eurovision return
Sister Sara
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If playing home games behind closed doors in a foreign country is your idea of 'the right call' then that's your thing. There is perhaps a bright future for you in officialdom football?
I prefer what we saw tonight, two competing teams, two sets of supporters enjoying an entertaining game of football in a home/away ground fixture.
Second half was poor from Ireland, it didn't take Austria much to up their level and turn tables.
JoeRoberts
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Was necessary to avoid potential trouble makers.
Not unusual. Happens from time to time due to crowd trouble. I remember Dundalk v Linfield in 1979 for one example.
Sister Sara
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Ah, here!
I had to Google to learn about that game that took place in height of conflict. The #StopTheGame campaign has zero to do with rival supporters.
All I saw this evening was good sporting atmosphere, and a token tennis ball demonstration in solidarity with Palestine.
It's 2026, not 1979!
Irish supporters have rightly earned the reputation as some of the best in the world. It's shameful that FAI and UEFA are denying them their attendance at Irish football games, at home and abroad.
JoeRoberts
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Indeed, due to the risk from a few crackpots like tonights, egged on by Rte.
I hear that a lot but I've never seen us on any best supporters list. I suppose we'd have to qualify for competitions in order for our fans to be ranked in them. Scotland, Argentina and Holland are always in the mix.
We are great at telling ourselves how much everyone else loves us.
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Yeah, we're 23rd of 50 in the EUFA rankings but that includes player, officials, and fan behaviour with a skew on the players side. We're a long way off the Japanese in cleaning up after ourselves.
Sister Sara
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There is a list for this? How is it calculated- extra points for clapping a VAR decision?
How banal.
I was more reminiscing over the period of Irelands first qualification for major tournaments in 88 and 90 when European soccer hooliganism had brought the reputation of the game into the gutter.
It was so bad that England were assigned to Sardinia in Italia ’90 as apparently the authorities thought an empty prison building on the island would be a useful resource.
By that time I had attended a few English 1st Division games and I will never forget the lines of horse-mounted baton-charging riot police, crowd cordoning, racial abuse. There was a constant undertone of tension and that violence could spark at any moment.
In contrast, the reaction the Irish supporters received from locals, the media, police and football authorities was a breath of fresh air. It became news, frequent references to their behaviour on foreign TV and printed press. It appeared to me that Irish supporters were unintentionally reminding those who had grappled and failed with resolving cancer of hooliganism for over two decades of how football should be celebrated, as theatres of international culture between rival fans.
I attended Anfield last year for a game, totally transformed since 80's. I saw one police officer for the entire duration. Away supporters were allowed after the match to gloat their victory into our faces of the glum defeated home supporters trudging out of the stadium but all in a spirit of friendly rivalry - they won, it was their day.
I would never attribute Irish supporters being responsible for bringing about an end to the prevalent hooligan culture of the time but my instinct is that a penny-dropped somewhere in the minds of the people charged with taking hooliganism out of the game, and how the focus of football should be centred on the supporters who are genuinely passionate about their team and not centred on the thuggery that had infiltrated it.
Yes, great supporters indeed, some of the best in the world. Who needs a list!
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I remember walking through Genoa in the way to the Romania game in Italian 90. There were thousands of us, bussed in from all over Europe. A small crowd of English thugs were there, stripped to the waist and painted up with their George Cross, goading the Irish fans. We just ignored them. Nothing happened.
Charlie O'Shea. Remember his name as it and his pictures are probably all over the sports sections of your news-papers this morning. 20 years of age, his 2nd Munster senior cap, his first was as a sub, he was the starting out-half yesterday and he bossed it. He scored 2 tries, created another with a majestic cross-field kick, and converted all 3. He was THE man until he was substituted. He looks more like he should be making his Confirmation rather than bossing a professional rugby team around Thomond Park; make that two teams, his own and the opposition. Munster has yet another young hero. His coach is quoted as saying he took to his reponsibilities like a duck to water. I'd go a bit further, he took to them like a duck who'd invented water-proof feathers, webbed feet, paddling, quacking and water. Charlie O'Shea.
Kazakhstan Women 0 - Republic of Ireland Women 8. It was 6 - nil and Kazakhstan were a player down when I caught up with this match live 20 minutes into the 2nd half broadcast from an empty stadium. This was the first leg of their World Cup play-off semi-final in Astana. A complete mis-match and they meet in Cork on Tuesday for the second leg. I know you can only play against the opposition the organisers' draw puts in front of you, but even so, oceans apart, pros vs amateurs. 
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Can't say much for Man United 1-1 Spurs.
As usual lately, Carrick sent out the wrong team and played without a proper No. 9.
It might have worked (though I doubt it) if he'd started with Baleba - even put him behind Mainoo and Tielemans - rather than bringing him on after an hour passed.
Even Zirkzee would have been of effect at No. 9 since he can at least can hold the ball up with his back to goal and lay it off to the wing men.
Yoro at right-back ? No dart of pace in him in defence and too lumbery to be an overlap threat.
I'm behind Carrick's appointment but he isn't helping himself with selections that indulge players like Rashford, Yoro, Cunha, etc.
One fears for Tuesday night's match at Atletico with no Šeško.
As usual lately, Carrick sent out the wrong team and played without a proper No. 9.
It might have worked (though I doubt it) if he'd started with Baleba - even put him behind Mainoo and Tielemans - rather than bringing him on after an hour passed.
Even Zirkzee would have been of effect at No. 9 since he can at least can hold the ball up with his back to goal and lay it off to the wing men.
Yoro at right-back ? No dart of pace in him in defence and too lumbery to be an overlap threat.
I'm behind Carrick's appointment but he isn't helping himself with selections that indulge players like Rashford, Yoro, Cunha, etc.
One fears for Tuesday night's match at Atletico with no Šeško.
