This is an excerpt from Yahoo Sports news this morning:

The Football Association of Ireland have confirmed that Roy Keane has been sent home from the World Cup.
The news comes after Keane's criticism of the Republic of Ireland's preparations for the tournament.

Keane pulled out of the squad on Tuesday only to have a change of heart - but FAI officials confirmed the team captain has been sent home.

Prefab hangs his head in shame!!!!!





:eek: :( :(

Damn, that's a quite a blow :eek:
At least you still have Given, Harte & Kelly left :thumb:

yup roy had a spat with the manager so he's on his way home
i did predict that he might have trouble controlling his temper, but i woulda thought more on the field rather than off it!

Its certainly huge news over here. Whilst Keane was in the Team we would be very confident of progressing but now it fairly unlikely!! :(

The swedish site has trouble too ... Did ya see Fredrik Ljungberg & Olof Melberg fight it out ??! :eek: That can't be good for team morale ....

ah that was just a spur of the moment thing.!!! They'll still stuff Engerland!!!

I really dunno Prefab, group F is definitely a dynamite group .... A lot will depend on match day form .... I only see Nigeria as a potential weak team, since they use many oldtimers, admitted mixed with some young talent .... I don't think this team is ready for greatness just yet. Next WC they'll have started on a new generation of players, and is more likely to pose a thread then :)

OK this was waaaaaaaaay of topic, sorry :D

maybe nigeria aren't as strong as say the last world cup, but at the same time i wouldn't be overly suprised if they top the group!

I know what you mean Spacey, that's why I put a potential in there .... It's really hard to give an acurate assement of Nigeria's strength :)

I have been reading about Roy Keane the past two days. I can not believe that they hang their hat on one player. I thought football was a team sport.

Speaking of Nigeria, didn't we kick their butts in 1998, Smurf? I am so bad with those African countries.

OK who let that Pippi chik into the boys lockerroom ;) :lol:

Yup, it's team sport allright, but some players are so good they can make the difference between winning and loosing .... Players that can determine the outcome of a game on their own (think Michael Laudrup for Denmark).

And yup, I vaguely remember something about a 4-1 victory in France '98 ;) :D

Originally posted by 80sSmurf
OK who let that Pippi chik into the boys lockerroom ;) :lol:

Now listen, blue boy. This chick knows her football. I admit I know nothing about Baseball, Hockey, Basketball or American Football, so I promise to be a good chick and stay out of those discussions.

Roy Keane did not make a difference for Manchester United this year, so I was questioning the importance of him for the Irish national team.

You may continue to fart, drink beer and talk about naked women now, guys. I am done for now :p ;)

roy keane is a little over-rated IMHO...when SIR alex named him the most influential man u player blah blah blah i had to laugh! he is a good player, but not THAT good (i personally think eric cantona was more influential)
ireland will probably be competitive, but i didn't think they would get through their group, even with keane

Originally posted by Pippi


You may continue to fart, drink beer and talk about naked women now, guys. I am done for now :p ;)


oh we're not like that! :angel:

Originally posted by Pippi
[B]Now listen, blue boy. This chick knows her football. I admit I know nothing about Baseball, Hockey, Basketball or American Football, so I promise to be a good chick and stay out of those discussions.

OK well ... erh ... Naah won't make any apologies, you know I was only kidding :D


Roy Keane did not make a difference for Manchester United this year, so I was questioning the importance of him for the Irish national team.


I won't go into his importance for Man U. but his without a doubt the most valuable player on the irish síte .... at least IMHO :)


You may continue to fart, drink beer and talk about naked women now, guys. I am done for now

Thank you :lol:

Originally posted by 80sSmurf
OK well ... erh ... Naah won't make any apologies, you know I was only kidding :D

I know, snuske :* ;)

I am more worried about Martin Jørgensen not playing for Denmark today. I couldn't see the game, but I hope we did well. I have my Denmark banner ready for my signature during the World Cup. :) ;)

You probably already saw this on the net, but we won 2-1 (Grønkjæe & Sand) ... Nothing fancy in our play, good thing this was only a friendly :)

Originally posted by 80sSmurf
You probably already saw this on the net, but we won 2-1 (Grønkjæe & Sand) ... Nothing fancy in our play, good thing this was only a friendly :)

I saw that. At least we won where other teams have stumbled in their warm up games. I can not wait for next weekend. We are going to kick some butt. :) :)

Well Pippi,

Your footballing knowledge cannot be called into question. I have already put money on Denmark reaching the quarter finals; I still think its an outside shot but hey Denmark always play well as the underdogs.

On the subject of Cantona being more influential than Keane; to me there is no contest. Cantona may have kickstarted the United boom in the 90's but on the European Stage he was always found wanting. Keane plays for 90 minutes unlike Cantona who used to drift in and out of games for long periods; Keane was the player who inspired the 3-2 victory at Juventus in 1999 to ensure that they qualified for the final even though he knew that he couldnt play in the final through suspension.

Cantona was more skilful but definitely wasnt more influential (and I still regard him as Le King!!!)

let me elaborate....

before cantona got entiised from leeds to man u (grrrr ), man u hadn't won a league title for AGES, and wern't thought of seriously in england let alone europe.

once he joined man u, they started winning titles, getting confidence etc to take on europe... sure he wasn't as consistant as roy keane as a player, but that's not the point!

a solid foundation is needed to mount european challenges, and cantona gave that foundation.

also, cantona is much better at karate anyways! :D

Good answer mate!!!!!

You're not a Leeds Fan are you?

well...having two aussies in the team, i have a "soft spot" for them! :)

generally, i don't follow any one team...which i like better in a way...i don't like getting too emotionally attached to a team so that if they lose, i'd be grumpy for the rest of the day!
i usually like going for the underdog...the little team doing a giant killing act!