Four games drawing my interest in the FAI Cup

Ok---it is about time I checked in on my favorite little league. Dundalk is still out in front, just like last year with Cork City FC nipping at their heels. Dundalk FC was just tied last week end to make matters interesting. So lets take a look at the FAI Cup 2015.

The Cup winner gets a Europa League spot and badly needed finances if they qualify, not to mention the only excitement many supporters feel, when they realize they are out of the league title race.

Round 3 is August 23 and lets take a look at a few matches.

Cork City FC vs Saint Patrick Athletic @ Turners Cross

The biggest match will be played at Turners Cross which pits 2^nd place Cork City against 3^rd place and current FAI Cup Champion; Saint Patrick’s Athletic. This game will get the most coverage because of the popularity of these famous Premier League clubs. Cork will rely on the trio of Billy Dennehy 9 Karl Sheppard 9 and Mark Sullivan 8 to score. City also has the best defense in the league conceding only 11 goals, lowest in the league. The Saints are in great form right now, best in the league. They are on a 5 game winning streak and the have scored 3 goals in each of their last 4 games. The Saints have Chris Forrester who has scored 11 goals, 3 short of League leader for the season. The Saints also can boast of 2014 Player of the year Christy Fagan, who has scored 5 goals this year.  Ohhhh when the Saints –come marching ing in –oh when the Saints come Marching in! The Saints should be feeling good since they just knocked off their Dublin Rival Shamrock Rovers at home.

  

Bohemians FC vs Bray Wanders @ Dalymount Park

                This pits the 5^th place club against the 6^th place club. Both are out of the League race at this point so the Cubs are the tournaments that matter. Bohemians FC are the surprise team for me.  They have one of the smallest budgets but yet find themselves in 5^th place behind their arch Rival Shamrock Rovers.  Both Bray and the Boh’s have good teams…they both know to  the FAI Cup is their realistic glory for 2015. Dalymount Park will host another big game to add to the history.

Derry City FC vs Drogheda United F.C @ Brandywell

                This game pits the 8^th place teams against each other. Derry just found their offence against Galway, scoring 4 goals. This game will be at the Brandywell which is always a bonus. Droghs need something this season and another Cup viscory would go a long way.

Dundalk FC v Galway FC

                This will pit the current league Champions and current League leaders Dundalk FC against Galway FC.  Dundalk can boast goal scoring leader Richie Towell who has 15 goals. Galway will counter with the young (23 year old) Enda Curran who currently leads Tommy Dunn’s Tribesmen with 10 goals himself. Galway as you know just beat Dundalk FC Aug 3^rd in the semi-finals of the League of Ireland Cup. This game went to a penalty shoot out. Dundalk will be looking for payback – however the fans at Edmond Deacy park will be ready to host another great event.

UEFA World Cup draw

The Republic of Ireland did not draw perennial powers Germany, Netherlands or Spain for the top seed. They drew Wales right across the Irish sea. This derby will attract a lot of local media attention with their World Class star, Gareth Bale. Wales is not usually a top seed and Ireland will take them.

The second seed was Austria, Austria is a lot better draw than France, Italy or Switzerland. Austria was the second ranked nation in this pot but not a bad draw. 

The seed from pot 3 was a low seed in 43rd ranked Serbia. Serbia always produces a good team.Ireland avoided Ukraine, Scotland, Poland, Hungry and Sweden, 

Moldova and Georgia round out this group.

The good thing is teams can take points from each other. 

Northern Ireland was draw into group C. Our northern cousins now have to play Germany, a foe we are oh so familiar with. Northern Ireland has a very difficult draw in Germany Czech Rep and Norway to get by

Group F is where both England and Scotland landed. They will compete with the S countries of Slovakia and Slovenia. Lithuania and Malta round out the group. England and Scotland were also drawn in same group.




What Ireland could be grateful for is not being the Group A or Group G. Group A has Netherlands, France and Sweden from the 1st 3 pots while Spain, Italy and Albania were the first 3 from this group.

Richie Towell and Dundalk....familiar story of last year...with Cork

Airtricity League Table

• Prem
• First

	P	W	D	L	GD	PTS
Dundalk	16	13	2	1	28	41
Cork City	17	11	5	1	21	38
Shamrock Rvrs	17	9	7	1	17	34
St. Pats Ath	17	9	4	4	13	31
Bohemians	17	9	4	4	6	31
Longford Town	16	5	4	7	-3	19
Galway United	16	6	0	10	-8	18
Drogheda Utd	17	5	3	9	-9	18
Derry City	17	3	6	8	-10	15
Sligo Rovers	16	2	6	8	-13	12
Bray Wanderers	16	3	2	11	-20	11
Limerick	16	0	5	11	-22	5

Well this year looks and feels like last year. Dundalk went out in front early and Cork City chased them all year. Saint Pats, and the hoops both gained European League spots and That is what things look like now.

Dundalk, Cork and the Hoops all have only lost one game........Dundalk still have the biggest Goal Differential is +28 and are still the team to beat. Lets hope they can make some noise in the Champions League. June 22 is the draw


The surprise of the seasons so far are old soldier Bohemians FC. 

Richie Towel is your current top goal scorer with 11 goals so far followed closely by M Drennan of the hoops. Towell adds muscle and skill to the Lilly whites.

Hopes of qualifying are fading.....

Ireland's James McClean and Scotland striker Steven Naismith display the kind of aggression that bubbled away throughout the match

Qualifying round

• Group D

		Home			Away			Total
Teams	P	W	D	L	W	D	L	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
Poland	6	2	1	0	2	1	0	4	2	0	20	3	17	14
Germany	6	2	1	0	2	0	1	4	1	1	16	4	12	13
Scotland	6	3	0	0	0	2	1	3	2	1	12	6	6	11
Republic of Ireland	6	1	2	0	1	1	1	2	3	1	12	5	7	9
Georgia	6	0	0	3	1	0	2	1	0	5	4	13	-9	3
Gibraltar	6	0	0	3	0	0	3	0	0	6	1	34	-33	0

  Both Scotland and Ireland have a game against Poland, 

Germany, Georgia and Gilbraltar. That is to lay ups and 2 

very difficult games. Ireland last 2 games are against 

Germany and Poland......maybe if both have already qualified 

, they will not play as hard.....There is still a chance to 

overtake Scotland

8 games into the 2015-16 season

 

  Well here we are 8 games into the 2015-16 season. The league is healthy at the top but struggling at the bottom. The defending Champions Dundalk and Cork City are doing fabulous and are once again 1 and 2. Dundalk has scored one more goal (15) than Cork and Cork has conceded one less goal (2). Dundalk will be looking to carry this form into the Champions League this summer. Advancing in the international games will be a big cash bonus. The Lillywhites will get $550,000 for entering the Champions league. This is more than their entire budget for the league.  We are all hoping Dundalk can advance for 2 big reasons. First Dundalk could use this money to pay for infrastructure to their stadium, bathrooms, locker rooms ect. The money could also be saved for future team budgets so Dundalk could compete year in and year out. Secondly Dundalk would represent the League of Ireland. A good reflection in the Champions League would reflect well on the league. We are hoping a good reflection will increase interest.

OK Dundalk sits at the Top. They have the player on the month in David McMillan. McMillan has scored a league leading 5 goals in 8 games. Richie Towell has scored 4 goals from his midfiled position. They has a great 1-2 punch. Dundalk is loaded with quality midfielders and are on the attack.

Cork City had to keep pace all last year to Dundalk and this year is not different. Cork's scoring is coming from multiple players. Billy Delaney and Karl Shepard each have 3 goals while Darren Dennehy and Kieran Dijlali each have 2 goals.

Shamrock Rovers are playing well, getting the attendance at Tallaght and are a healthy club the League needs to be consistent. The hoops also have a 5 goal scored in Michael Drennan. This 21 year old has scored 5 goals in only 7 appearances, back from Protsmouth, he is finding Ireland a lot more rewarding on the field.

The Bohemins are the surprise so far this year for me. The are tied for 3rd place after 8 games. I was hoping their attendance would jump up after a strong start. The Boh's always have a steady core group of fans even when they are out of the title race. Their attendance is about 1,700 which is good but i Was hoping for more. The Bohs are doing the best in regard to their budget and the value they are getting from their players. Their budget is roughly half of the top 4 spenders.....but yet the Boh's are tied for 3rd. I like pulling for the underdog.

The Saints are starting to pick thing up to keep pace with the top of the pack. It will be good for the league if the Saints can take points and win games against the top teams. The Saints will also keep Dublin buzzing with 3 teams from Dublin battling all year for the title and the 2 guaranteed Europa League spots.

Longford Town surprised me the first game against Dundalk. They showed they belonged in the premier league. They are sitting in 6th place and look like they are safe from falling as the year progresses. They have had a nice transition fron the First Division to the Premier League.

Derry City and Bray ARE PLODDING ALONG. David CAssidy is the one blight spot on Bray right now while Anthony Elding seems to be losing to much distance to win the scoring title.

Drogheda, Sligo and Galway are not playing that well. Sligo is the big surprise sitting as low as 10th place. Sligo Rovers so far are the biggest disappointment on the field. Galway is finding it harder in the Premier League but need more quality on their club.

Limerick FC started the season not being able to more into Markets Field. Their fans were so disappointed they also had very bad attendance at Jackman park. The team stinks....it will be bad for the LEague in Limerick get regulated however they must get better.

Ireland chances 50 50 to host the World Cup 2023.

Bidding to host he World Cup Rugby 2023

       Ireland is interested in hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2023. The next World Cup is England 2015. Then the World Cup was awarded to Japan 2019. Ireland has formally stated that will it  front $100 Million to host the event. Ireland already has 7 stadiums that are ready to host a World Cup.  “In addition to Croke Park and Belfast's Casement Park, the other GAA grounds which would be part of the IRFU's bid are Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the Limerick Gaelic Grounds, Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney and Galway's Pearse Stadium."




Dublin    Croke Park and Aviva stadium



    Croke Park will be the feature stadium that would host the semi-finals and Final games. The Rugby governing body wants a stadium over 60,000 for these games. 

Aviva Stadium is the newest state of the art stadium owned jointly by the soccer federation and the Rugby federation in Ireland. RDS will is also getting redeveloped to 25,000. This will give the Irish bid 3 beautiful stadiums in the biggest city Dublin.

Belfast.

    Casement Park the totally redeveloped rugby Stadium will be the feature stadium in Northern Ireland. It will be finished in Setember 2015. It will hold 40,000. Belfast will also have Kingspan Stadium to host games.

World Cup potential stadiums
	Stadium	Capacity	City	Renovation
1	Croke Park	82,500	Dublin	Complete
2	Aviva Stadium	51,200	Dublin	Complete
3	RDS	18,000	Dublin	25,000 – 2016
4	Kingspan-Ravenhill	18,000	Belfast	18,000-2014
5	Casement Park	40,000	Belfast	Sept 2015
6	Gaelic Grounds	50,000	Limerick
7	Thomond Park	26,500	Limerick	Complete
8	Pairc Ui Chaoimh	45,000	Cork	Jan 2017
9	Pearse Stadium	26,000	Galway	Complete
10	Fitzgerald Stadium	50,000	Killarney	Completed 2009
	6 Bold indicated GAA  Grounds to be used.

The GAA had to ask its members earlier this year to allow the stadiums to be opened up to other sports which it had previously done eight years ago. “

Cork

The stadium are redeveloped and Ireland would be a great place to host a World Event

            The World Rugby association might want to come back to Europe after going to Japan in 2019. Ireland has tremendous fan support and a great team that should keep the fans interested. Ireland is also very close to England, France, Wales, Scotland and Italy to draw the fans. Ireland is also combining both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland as one team. This is probably the biggest World Event Ireland could ever host. This might go a long was in achieving the bid. 

They will be up against

South Africa, who has hosted already (1995) but were unsuccessfully for the right to host the 2011, 2015, and 2019 tournament. South Africa already has the Stadiums in place after hosting the FIFA 2010 World Cup. This is a Rugby mad nation and a hot bed for the sport. It is this regions "turn" to host. The Bad: It already hosted in 1995

Ireland's Bid.  It has the stadiums, it has the interest. No other major tournament has been held in Ireland. Ireland has the top team in Europe now and the 3rd ranked team in the World. Ireland just won the 6 Nations Cup 2015. It has tremendous fan support. The biggest bonus is that Ireland will draw many fans from England, France, Scotland and Wales to this tournament. Bad: England hosted in 2015. Ireland also hosted 2 games to the Rugby World Cup in 1991.

USA-Canada bid could be the wild card since the game could grow more rapidly in Northern America if they were to host. They already have all the state of the art stadiums and infrastructure.

Bad: There is interest but not enough at this point to grant this marketing power the reigns. 

Argentina: is the emerging market for South America. They want to bring Rugby Argentina. Argentina tried to join the 6 nations cup but were denied, they then join the tougher Rugby Championship. They have soccer stadiums and infrastructure because of their soccer league.
Bad: not as much interest in South America yet...

Italy have never hosted but. Italy has the infrastructure and the stadiums. Italy however is not as good a pick than Ireland. Ireland has proved attendance better than Italy. Ireland also has a better team to last in the tournament longer. Ireland is also closer to England, Wales and Scotland. not as much interest in the sport as Ireland. 

        The Rugby World Cup has rotated between The Rugby Championship Nations (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa) and the 6 Nations Cup (England France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy) every other tournament. These nations have been the catalyst for the sport. Japan 2019 will break this cycle. The question will become where to go next. 

Rugby World Cup host and winners
1987	Australia & New Zealand	New Zealand
1991	England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales	Australia
1995	South Africa	South Africa
1999	Wales	Australia
2003	Australia	England
2007	France	South Africa
2011	New Zealand	New Zealand
2015	England	-
2019	Japan	-
2023	S Africa or Ireland
2027	America/Canada vs Ireland/S Africa loser	-
2031	America/Canada vs Scotland/Argentina