Ireland v Bulgaria, August 18th 2004 (1-1)

Pictures from game will be posted shortly.

Thank God all these friendlies are finally over and we can get down to playing some proper football. It seems like forever since we made the journey to Basle last year to watch our last competitive game of football. It’s been one friendly after another since and most of them have been quite boring. This one was no exception. To be honest I didn’t expect much else. The season has only just kicked off & the pace this was played at had all the hallmarks of one of those pre-season friendlies that Sky hype up but are invariably as entertaining as watching an Olympic shooting final.
Everyone knows that the manager & players need these games to build for the World Cup qualifiers but I think the Irish footballing public are getting completely browned off with them. 31,000 is still a great crowd for a meaningless match but on such a lovely evening I thought there’d be at least another 5,000 on the gate. Even Donogh came up with some excuse (flu, I think) to give this one a miss. The rest of TPF were of course in attendance & the flag was positioned in its now customary position on the Nth. Terrace wall. Despite my apathy towards friendlies, I was looking forward to seeing the Boys in Green for the first time in nearly three months.
A lot has happened since I last got to see my country playing the beautiful game. The PeoplesFlag lads had a great time in Amsterdam & London at a couple of June friendlies (none of which I managed to see due to my job sending me to the US for a couple of weeks). Only gone for 2 weeks and I managed to miss 3 internationals. Believe me, I was not a happy man touring the Irish pubs in Portland trying to get one that would be showing the Dutch match. Ed and I actually met Ronaldinho in McFaddens one night and he went home that evening with a PeoplesFlag business card in his pocket. Ronny (as we now call him!!), if you’re reading this, best of luck for the new season. On returning from the States my beautiful wife & I began to tell the world that we are expecting our first baby. This will obviously have a bearing on the amount of away trips that I’ll be able to make in the years to come but the feeling that evening when I found out that I was going to be a Daddy was more exhilarating that watching Damien Duff beat six men and lashing in an unstoppable strike. Roll on Dec 30th (or some time around then) !!!!!

Colm & Angus (an incredibly contrary Scotsman) accompanied Karl and me along to the Beggars Bush for a few (reasonably priced) pre-match scoops and when Mozzy, Eamo & Niall arrived we headed down the road to the home of Irish rugby. There was a distinct lack of atmosphere in the pubs and on the streets around the ground but this was nothing compared to the atmosphere over the next ninety minutes. It gets worse and worse. Half way through the second half the West Stand started a chant of “Ireland” & near the end of the game the South Terrace managed to get a quick rendition going of “Come on you Boys in Green” going. That was it. Even the Olympic shooting final had a better atmosphere (probably)!

The football itself started quite brightly and the first twenty minutes or so was actually quite reasonable. However the following seventy ensured that this was a game that would be quickly forgotten. Before even a minute had been played Berbatov waltzed through the centre of our defence with Gary Doherty running the other way with his arm up for a non-existent offside. Somehow, with only Shay to beat he screwed his shot wide of the far post. A let-off of the highest order. Ireland were spurred into action by this. Duffer was playing up front tonight and his first touch was a brilliant chested lay-off after a ball had been pumped up to him. He picked up the return ball beat two men down our right and produced a cross which was cut-out. Genius at work !!! Miller and Duff combined well a couple of time on the right wing with the latter occasion providing Clint with a header but he got no power behind it & the baldy one saved comfortably in the Bulgarian goal. Andy Reid was also playing well and in the 15th minute he jinked inside two men on the left before forcing a corner. A minute later he stood over a free-kick near the right hand corner of the penalty area. A beautifully flighted ball was just missed by Clint but the keeper seemed to be expecting a touch from our centre forward and was completely deceived by the lack of contact. He tried to re-adjust but the ball had evaded him and was lying in the back of the net. A deserved goal on our attacking performance so far and nice for young Reid to get his first International goal.

Shortly afterwards Killer hit a brilliant volley from outside the box but this time Baldy was equal to it. Kilbane was playing really well in his now customary central midfield role & produced a sublime tackle after 3 or 4 minutes to halt a Bulgarian attack. Looks a cert to partner Judas when the real action starts next month. The match was slowly drifting into a non-event. The Bulgarians were incredibly inept and our boys realised that they would probably beat them easily without even raising a sweat. Doherty had a free-header from a corner but the ball blazed over. Ten minutes from half time Capt. Kenny had to be alert and made a terrific interception as one of the ov’s beared down on goal. The second half started with the lively Morrison beating a man and shooting but the Bulgarian keeper saved easily enough. A few minutes later he just failed to connect with a Duffer cross after our red-headed footballing genius made a ball from Judas look good. Duffer then had a brief pinball session with the Bulgarian defence with both shots rebounding away. Stephen Carr went on a Brazilian run into the box but alas it came to nothing. He had continued on from where Steve Finnan had left off at half time by playing really well at right back. An interesting selection dilemma for the boss on Sept. 4th.

There was over an hour gone when suddenly the visitors decide that maybe there was draw there for them if they fancied. Messing around in our defence let one of them in for a shot but he blazed over. Another ov had a shot soon afterwards and Shay had to make a really good save down to his right. A goal looked like it might be coming and unfortunately it did. O’Shea, whose performance tonight will have given Ian Harte great hope of resurrecting his international career, shepherded his man out to the touchline. The ov’s managed to get in a cross which was knocked down to the great white hope of Bulgarian football, Boshinov, who lashed an unstoppable drive past poor Shay. He hit it that hard, that I was fully expecting it to break through the net and fly off over the North Terrace and into Dublin night.

And that was almost it. Twenty minutes left to go and regain the lead but apart from a Duffer shot from a Reid corner we did very little. Their new manager Stoichcov will have been pleased to get a draw but apart from Boshinov, Berbatov and Petrov (who didn’t do much tonight) the rest of the ov’s don’t look to be up to much. Still, probably a bit harsh judging them on a game so lacking in intensity. From an Irish point of view, I think the boss more or less knows the make-up of his team for the next game at Lansdowne against Cyprus. Shay, Kenny, Andy O’Brien & O’Shea are certs with the choice between Finnan and Carr at rightback an interesting one. Miller had a good game tonight and will probably start on the right side of midfield. Killer & Judas will probably form the central midfield partnership (providing Man Ure don’t have any important games on the horizon allowing Fergusmoan to make up some non-existent injury) and Duffer will definitely play on the left. As good as Andy Reid is playing, he will have to make way for the red-headed footballing genius to play in his more natural position. We can only pray that Robbie Keane is fit and well so that the boss isn’t tempted to make Duffers move up front more permanent. Jon Macken did okay when he came on tonight but I think that Clint’s greater International experience will give him the nod. He needs to start scoring though. Untill then, I’ll just have to make do with the Olympics (shooting and all). If anyone reading this has any spare tickets for the Cyprus game, we’d be extremely grateful if you could see your way towards selling them to TPF. Drop me a mail to ciaran@thepeoplesflag.com. As usual for competitive games, it’s going to be a struggle to get our hands on tickets. Hopefully the next match report won’t have to be written after watching the game on TV !!!!

Ciaran