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FOCUS
The World Cup play-off picture
There are several World Cup qualifiers taking place throughout Europe on Wednesday night. How could they affect the play-off picture, and Ireland’s place therein? eleven-a-side.com took a closer look.
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BOOK REVIEW
Trapattoni: A Life in Football
Written by two Austrian journalists and appended with a relevant foreword and epilogue for the Irish audience, this biography of Ireland’s manager is slight but nevertheless worthwhile.
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FOCUS
A day with the Croatians
It’s early Thursday evening in Temple Bar. The anarchy of the weekend, when Dublin’s condensed nightlife district bubbles with stags and cackling hens, is still a day or two away but Fitzsimons’ pub is bustling as I step inside for a possible rendezvous with “30 or 40 Croatians”.
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FOCUS
Watertight Swiss fancied to bounce Czechs
Switzerland have been preparing for this tournament for years – bank on them to edge the over-rated Czech Republic in Saturday’s Euro 2008 opener.
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FOCUS
Group A: Czech mate for old-stagers
They may have topped their qualification group but the Czech Republic could be one of the flops of the Euro 2008 finals.
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FOCUS
France, Holland provide Euro value
It’s a big if, but if France and Holland successfully negotiate the pitfalls of Euro 2008’s most precarious group, have the class – and prolific young strikers – to become leading contenders for outright glory over the next three weeks.
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BOOK REVIEW
Banter & Bustle, by Jeff Scott
Banter & Bustle is an enlightening insight into the Saturday afternoon experiences of the football-supporting Everyman – a breed which, due to the impact of an authorised mass media, may well become an endangered species.
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BOOK REVIEW
Freestaters, by Donal Cullen
With talk of an All-Ireland League in the offing again in 2008, Donal Cullen’s Freestaters – which includes a detailed history of the split between Belfast and Dublin football associations almost a century ago – is a welcome addition to the canon of work on the history of the game on these shores.
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FOCUS
League on cusp of Drogs dynasty
Having coasted to the League of Ireland title with three weeks to spare, despite their captain and best player spending most of the season on the sidelines, Drogheda United could be on the brink of a period of domestic dominance.
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ANALYSIS
The player ratings
The Republic of Ireland’s unbeaten and unbreached record at Croke Park continued with a 0-0 draw against Group D leaders Germany on Saturday night. So who was best for the boys in green in an encouraging overall performance? Read on for the eleven-a-side.com player ratings.
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BOOK REVIEW
You’ll Win Nothing with Kids, by Jim White
The title of this latest book by Daily Telegraph journalist Jim White is taken from a famously errant prognosis given by BBC pundit Alan Hansen. That’s as close as it gets to the bright lights of Premier League football, however. Instead, White’s compelling work reaches beyond the bling and the ivory towers to the very heart of the sport.
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FOCUS
Sunderland and the Irish
Paddification, noun, The act of making Irish or similar to Irish in form, style, appearance or idiom.
“All this f****** Irish sh***. I don’t go along with it. We’re an English club.” – Sunderland supporter, overheard following defeat to Plymouth Argyle, August 2006.
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