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Saturday Football

By jlynch on October 7, 2006.

ASU have the day off, but Saturday wouldn't be the same without me grousing about a team choking at football, so I present to you the Republic of Ireland soccer team (different "football" I know, but at least this one involves feet).

The qualifying rounds for Euro 2008 began last month and Ireland began with a relatively encouraging 1-0 loss to Germany, one of the useful teams (along with the Czech Republic and Slovakia) in the group. This would lead one to believe that games against teams such as Cyprus, Wales and San Marino should be gimmies, right? Wrong! Today, Cyprus beat Ireland 5-2 at Nicosia.

To put this into context, Slovakia beat Cyprus 6-1 last month and Wales 5-1 today. Germany whipped San Marino, 13-0 (yeah, you read that right) last month, with the latter being punished 7-0 by the Czechs today. There's a clear difference between the "big three" and the rest ... Ireland is, unfortunately, very much in the "rest" category.

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