"Merkel" Flag sold for charity!

The "Angela Merkel thinks we're at work" flag that some cheeky Irish fans took with them to the Euro's has been auctioned off to raise money for some worthwhile charities and has raised nearly €16000!  Sp proud of our fans!! :)  Fair play lads, being a wee bit cheeky has literally paid off!! 

Very sad to hear the news that an Irish fan has died tragically while at the Euro's in Poland.  RIP James Nolan.  My condolences to his family and friends.

Well we've one match left in the tournament, we play Italy tonight who need to win this game if they wish to proceed in the tournament  See the teams below.  Trap is putting the same team he put out against Croatia.  The only change made is giving the captaincy to Duff.  

Can we win, is féidir linn!

Italy: Buffon, Abate, Barzagli, Chiellini, Balzaretti, Pirlo, Marchisio, Thiago Motta, De Rossi, Di Natale, Cassano. Subs: Sirigu, Maggio, Ogbonna Obienza, Balotelli, Giaccherni, Borini, Montolivo, Bonucci, Giovinco, Diamanti, Nocerino, De Sanctis.

Rep of Ireland: Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St. Ledger, Ward, McGeady, Whelan, Andrews, Duff, Keane, Doyle. Subs: Westwood, Kelly, McShane, Walters, Gibson, Hunt, O'Dea, Long, Cox, Green, McClean, Forde.

Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)






Update.....Can we win...well we didn't, disastrous tournament, that's all I have to say about that right now!

Spain 4 - 0 Ireland

Well it's all over for the Irish team, at least we won something....we were the first team to get knocked out!!

I have to say though I am so proud to be Irish today.  The hairs were standing on the back of my neck listening to the Irish fans sing The Fields of Athenry and we were 4-0 down....what other fans in the world would do that!  It's just such a pity we don't have an equally as amazing team.

To start, Trappatoni's team selection was questionable, Robbie Keane up front on his own?  Only if he was in form, which unfortunately in this tournament he has not been.  Maybe he's getting too much sun in LA but the Robbie of old was nowhere to be seen.  He then chose Cox over Doyle to make up the 4-5-1 formation.
Again, like Sundays game against Croatia, we conceded a goal within the first 4 minutes of the game when Torres smashed a shot passed Given and into the back of the net.  It was not a good start and looked all too easy for Spain.  The remainder of the first half was dominated by Spain, who lay siege on Given's goal but couldn't convert any of the chances.

The second half started and Trap changed Cox for Walters, which was a bit strange as Cox wasn't doing too bad, although Walters is a bit more physical.  Devastatingly we conceded another goal less than 4 minutes into the second half, an all too familiar occurrence for this Irish team, with Silva getting through the Irish defense with ease to put it in the bottom corner of the goal.  I think it was then we realised there was very little chance of us coming back from this, and just how many more goals were Spain going to score.

With twenty minutes remaining Torres got his second goal and was eventually substituted for Fabregas.  When I saw him coming on I had this feeling in my gut he was going to score against us too, but how many would he score was the question?  In the 76th minute Trap finally put McClean on for his first competitive international game with Ireland, replacing Damien Duff.  However, we were caught sleeping again when Fabregas easily got the better of Paul Green (who came on for Whelan in the 79th minute, although god only knows why Trap put a defender on when we were 3-0 down!) and slotted home Spain's fourth and final goal of the match.

On a final note, I'm just going to leave you with the below video of why I am so proud to be Irish and contrary to what Roy Keane said, singing did not make the defeat acceptable, however our fans should be proud of themselves in a tournament where hooliganism and racism have been all too prominent.

In the 87th minute our amazing fans sang The Fields of Athenry until stoppage time.

Devastated…

Well, it’s taken me two days to sit down and write this, I can’t believe we lost our opening game in the Euro’s against Croatia.

We conceded two soft goals in the first half and both goals couldn’t have come at a worse time, just 3 minutes into the game and just before half time!  St. Ledger had equalised for us but conceding the goal just before the first half ended left us all a bit numb. 

So what were we to do, all we could do was suck it up and try and come back out in the second half and equalise.  However, it just wasn’t our night, as just after the second half had started Croatia got a 3^rd goal.  Again, a devastating blow for the team as it came at such a bad time.  I think we just lost the momentum after that and we just weren’t breaking them down quick enough.  We had a few chances but nothing converted and the final score was 3-1 to Croatia.

So we have the Spaniards and the Italians next and all we can do is regroup and pray for a little luck.  Both Spain and Italy played each other in the first game of the group and drew 1-1.  Italy look a lot better than was expected, with a match-fixing controversy coming into the games, and they played very well against the Euro and World Cup holders Spain.  They will be two very tough games but you never know!

So to try and instill a bit of hope back in the build-up to Thursday’s game, here’s a little video you might like to watch!  C’mon the Boys in Green.

Ireland's best moments at major tournaments

Found my jersey, nails painted....c'mon Ireland! My prediction? 1-0 to Ireland ;)

Only another 24 hours to go until our first game and I have to say I cannot wait.  All week momentum has been gaining with the build up to the matches.  Memories of Italia '90 and USA '94, old and new football songs, streets lined with bunting and the Irish flags flying proud.
So what are you most looking forward to from the Euro 2012 Championship, apart from Ireland winning all their games (here's hoping!)?  I'm really looking forward to the Aprés match coverage - check out the below video - I think we'll all have to do "The Jack Charlton" in the pub over the coming weeks :)

Just listening to Matt Cooper on Today FM and The Last Word Euro 2012 Party....it's brilliant, check it out - From Jack to Trap

Bunting or No Bunting ?

So the build up to the Euro's has been pretty low key up to now.  We haven't been in a major championship like this since....2002! (who can forget Saipan-gate from the Korea/Japan world cup!), so I think it's time we started showing the lads a bit of support.  I have only seen a few house so far with bunting, so I want to know will you be bunting it out like the below house...

....or maybe keep it a bit more low key and just add some wing mirror socks to your car (loving these btw!)...

C'mon everyone, lets start showing our support for the Boys in Green.