FA Cup Preview and International Tigers

By: Matt | February 13th, 2009

Tigers vs Blades

The Tigers head to Bramall Lane on Saturday to take on Kevin Blackwell’s Sheffield United side. The Blades will be reeling after defeat in the Steel Derby to rivals Wednesday, but should view this as a good opportunity to knock off a club from the top division.

From our point of view, we should be able to do enough to get the win, as United will be missing some impact players (Darius Henderson, Arturo Lupoli), but the focus must be on the league at the moment, and some could view progression in the Cup as just further distraction. As long as we can stay healthy for the 90 minutes (and hopefully thats all we need), I wouldn’t mind another win, its a good way to keep the spirits up, and we want to continue to build on two good draws in the league.

International Tigers

I was in the stands at Croke Park for an Ireland v Georgia World Cup qualifier, where Kevin Kilbane’s boys in green conceded a comical opener with 46 seconds gone, only to see Robbie Keane score two late goals to clinch the win. Ireland completely dominated minutes 2-94, but were made to sweat it out. Mr. Kilbane was solid, if not a bit anonymous at times, but will be glad to have gotten the three points.

Boaz Myhill came on in the second half for Wales in their friendly with Poland (played in Portugal for some unbeknownst reason), and was beaten by an absolute stunner of a lob from Roger Guerreiro. Shake that one off Boaz, no one is saving that. Sam Ricketts also went the distance in the back for the Dragons.

In the Far East, Freddie Prinz junior doppelganger, and Hull midfielder, Richard Garcia came on in the second half of a nil-nil draw with Japan, which sets both up nicely for qualification for South Africa.

And last, and probably least as well, since they both got turned over, our African contingent was on the end of two losses, Manucho with Angola, who lost 4-0 to Mali, and Kamil Zayatte with Guinea, who succumbed 3-1 to Cameroon.