I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football to discuss the Republic of Ireland Mens National Team's 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Armenia - did we deserve anything from the defensive performance, or did spending 90 minutes not trying to create a goalscoring opportunity mean Hallgrímsson's side came away from Lisbon with exactly what they deserved? Armenia came to Dublin looking to finally leave Aviva Stadium with three points, but the team seem to have lucked into a new tactic at home - getting an opposition player sent off!
The Mens Under-17 side kicked off their qualification campaign for the 2026 UEFA Under-17 Championship in Austria, facing the hosts, the Faroe Islands, and Kosovo, and came away with a 100% record without conceding a goal - what did we think of the performance of the team under interim coach Paul Osam and can this side emulate the 2025 squad and qualify for the 2026 Under-17 World Cup?
Finally, Carla Ward has named her squad for the Womens' National Team Nations League promotion play off against Belgium. Without their first choice goalkeeper, and following another retirement, can the team win promotion to League A next year, and what bearing does the result of the tie have on qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup?
I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to discuss the final two games of the Republic of Ireland Women's Team's Nations League campaign - with six points on offer from the games against Turkiye and Slovenia, can Carla Ward's team earn promotion to League A, or will we face the play offs in October?
The final two friendlies for the mens team represent the last chance for experimentation by Heimir Hallgrímsson before the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers start in September. With four new faces in the squad, how do we think the team will line out against Senegal and Luxembourg, and what challenges will the two sides pose for the Boys in Green?
Finally, with the group stage draw completed for the Under 17 World Cup being held in November, we take a look at the sides Colin O'Brien's team will face in Qatar and evaluate our chances of progressing into the knock out stages
Note - this episode was recorded before the updated mens squad was announced, so contains some discussion on where we expected Sammie Szmodics to play in the two friendlies
I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football to review the Republic of Ireland senior men's team's play off against Bulgaria, we've picked up one bad habit under the new manager, but also seem to know how to recover from it.
With the women's team needing to bounce back from two underwhelming performances, and one particularly bad result, in their opening games of the Nations League, and facing a Greek side looking to get their first points on the board for their campaign, how do we think it'll go over the two games for Carla Ward's side?
Finally, the U19 and U17 qualifying campaigns reached their climaxes, with a disappointing result for the U19s in Germany, but the U17s will play in their first World Cup in Qatar this November. What did we think of the performances from both sides, and who do we think is going to worth looking our for at the end of the year?
(note this was recorded before the women's team's first game against Greece)
I'm joined
again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The
Bottomless Pit of Football to discuss the squad announced by Republic of
Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson to face Bulgaria in the 2024/25
UEFA Nations League Relegation Play Off and give our predictions on how
the two legged tie will finish.
Carla Ward's first two games in
charge of the Womens Team ended in a home win and an away loss, but how
did we rate the performance under the new manager, and what do they mean
for the upcoming games against Greece?
Finally, with the U21s due
to play two friendlies in Spain as part of their build up for the 2027
U21 European Championships qualifying campaign, how do we think the
current squad compares to previous U21 sides?
I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to look through the moves for Republic of Ireland players that caught our eye during the January 2025 transfer window, and with Carla Ward's first squad as manager of the Womens' National Team, we preview her first two games against Turkey and Slovenia
I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to preview the final
2024/25 UEFA Nations League games for the Republic of Ireland National
Men's Team against Finland and England. What do we think of the squad
selected by Heimir Hallgrímsson, will the performances against Finland
and Greece affect the expectations of Ireland fans, and how do we think
the Boys in Green will fare over the two games?
Following the
National Women's Team defeat of Georgia in the first round of the play
off for UEFA Women's Euro 2025, what can Eileen Gleeson's team expect in
the second round against Wales.
Finally, we review the U17 Mens
Team's performance in the Qualifying Round for the 2025 UEFA Under 17
Championship and explain how a rare, possible unique, set of
circumstances led to them qualifying with three yellow cards
Also, I make a prediction for the attendance in the final home game of 2024.
I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football, and special guest Philip O'Connor or Reuters to discuss the final two qualifiers of the Republic of Ireland's qualifying campaign for UEFA Women's Euro 2025, and look ahead to the play offs*, and discuss what we can expect from the new manager of the Men's National Team, Heimir Hallgrímsson, as well as the ongoing issues in the FAI
*note this was recorded before the draw for the play offs took place, so we didn't know the opposition for the Women's National Team
I'm joined again by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to discuss the women's national side's qualifiers against France and England in April, the neverending quest for a new manager, and, with the season in England reaching its conclusion, we congratulate the players who have won promotion with their sides across the leagues
This was a little surprising to us, because we had posted on mastodon 🔗 and blue sky 🔗 that it was actually the Bristol City midfielder's 51st cap, having reached the half century against Hungary at Tallaght Stadium in the previous game.
So, which is correct?
Prior to the FIFA Women's World Cup last summer, we started an initiative to bring the Wikipedia pages for each player in the Women's squad up to date, including corrected tables for appearances and goals. We did notice a discrepency on Megan's page, and asked for help on the Talk section of the page. The table below is taken from the talk section on Megan Connolly's page, with the games that took place since the last update to the page added in, containing the cap number, the date of each cap, and a link to a report on the game containing the lineup, from either RTE, the Irish Times, UEFA's website, FIFA's website, or the FAI's own website.
I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to review the performances of the Republic of Ireland's Women's team in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. What did we think of how the side played against co-hosts Australia, Olympic Champions Canada, and African Cup of Nations semi finalists Nigeria, and who did we think excelled from the squad?
We also review the group stage as a whole and look forward to the round of 16
(note this was recorded before the final fixtures of the group stages, and contains speculation on Germany's performance in the knock out stages)
In our recent podcast, our initiative to encourage Irish football fans to update the Wikipedia articles for the Republic of Ireland Women's squad was announced. We had discussed amongst ourselves what to do in the build up to the first appearance by the Girls In Green at this summer's FIFA Women's World Cup, and, having read of other similar initiatives to improve the quality of women's articles in certain fields (science, art, history, etc) we thought this would be an excellent opportunity for a collective effort by fans of the team to make as much information as possible available before the tournament kicks off in July.
So, what does this entail? For the next eleven weeks, we're going to ask fans to focus on a single position within the squad, read through the articles for the players in that posistion, and either correct any mistakes you notice, or add something to it. This can be as little as correcting a spolling mistake (like that one!), or adding a line about their debut to their career history, to adding their international record.
I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick to review the Republic of Ireland's women's friendlies against the US in Austin and Missouri, discuss the group draw for the UEFA Under 17 Championship, and announce our initiative to encourage fans of the women's team to update the wikipedia page for each member of the squad before the World Cup kicks off in July
I'm joined by Mark Kennedy of Hawkeye Sidekick and Philip Flanagan of The Bottomless Pit of Football to discuss the end of year friendlies for the Republic of Ireland men's team against Norway and Malta, and the women's friendly against Morocco as their preparation for the World Cup in 2023 begin
With the build up to the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, and the first qualification for the Republic of Ireland Women's team, already in full swing, we have started compiling appearance statistics for the women's team, similar to the data we have published for the men's team, and this has led to something unexpected.
With almost 50 years of games to compile, fact checking can be a little time consuming, so it was decided to focus on a single player from the current squad, before expanding to the rest of the team, and then finally previous squads and games, and current captain Katie McCabe was the obvious choice.
After adding the lineups from McCabe's first cap against Hungary in 2015 until the her most recent cap in the play off against Scotland to the database, it was time to compare that data to an existing, trusted, source.
According to the database, McCabe has made 68 appearances for Ireland. That tallies with her total on wikipedia, and the amount listed on her profile on the FAI's website, so all is correct, right?
Well, maybe. According to this article on fai.ie, the midfielder earned her 50th cap against Belgium in April 2021 - McCabe proud to join WNT 50-cap club - and also includes the list of her appearances up to, and including, that game. There's just one problem - there's 51 games in the list! The list includes a 3-0 friendly loss against the USA Under 23s in January 2016, two days after facing the full USA Women's National team. Games against underage sides were not uncommon for the Women's team in the early 2000s, there were two friendlies against Iceland's U21s and four against Sweden's U21s, and a game against an Arsenal XI in 2008, but the game against the USA was the first against an underage side since facing Sweden's U21s in April 2005.
If we take that this game was included in the list by mistake, then it's still valid that McCabe made her 50th appearance against Belgium in April 2014, and currently has 68 caps, right?
Well, maybe. Ireland played two friendlies against Wales in August 2016. Katie McCabe started the first, a 0-0 draw, and came off the bench at half time in the second, going on to score twice in a 2-1 win.
These games, and the two goals, are not included in the list of 50 appearances on fai.ie. The squad announcement itself - Sue Ronan names Wales training camp squad - describes the two games as "challenge matches", i.e. not full internationals, so it's correct that they are not included in the list of 50 caps.
But it looks like they have been included in the list of 68 caps. Since the game against Belgium in April 2021, McCabe has played in a further 16 games. Added to the 50 caps, gives us 66 caps. Do the two appearances against Wales in the challenge games make up the missing two?
If they are counted, then, since they took place before the Belgium game, she actually made her 50th appearance against Germany in December 2020.
Should the two games, including the goals, against Wales be counted in Katie McCabe's international record? If they are now, why were they omitted at the time of the Belgium game?
I'm delighted to be joined by ESPN journalist Kathleen McNamee to discuss the recent FAI women's team's loss to Germany, look ahead to the qualifier against Ukraine on Thursday, 22nd October, discuss the rise of the Women's Super League in England, what it means for the Women's League here in Ireland, and why so many Irish women are playing across the continent
