Caught Offside: SPECIAL POD - Irish Hype Train Finally Reaches Prague

0:00Howdy howdy ho and welcome to fantasy fanfellas. I'm Hayden producer of the fantasy fangirls podcast and your resident lover of all things sanderson and I'm steven your bookish internet goofball but you can call me the smash daddy and we are currently deep diving Brandon sanderson's fantasy epic misborn but here's the catch steven here has not read misborn before that's right hey hey so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single and along the way we'll do character deep dives magic explainers and steven will even try to guess what's next spoiler alert he'll be wrong. News flash I'm never wrong episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts. I'm going to give you a sense of the excitement that's here with me and back home in Ireland and from the social media I've seen in Prague where chapel roams past the

1:07morning club was being blasted out in some Prague bars last night by the thousands of Irish fans who've gone over I wonder how this is going to work out because we were told they're only getting I think something like maybe less than 1200 tickets for a 20,000-seater stadium and that the checks were going to ensure that Irish fans couldn't get in to the general population to the to the Czech side of the stadium. I can't wait to see how that works out because we've heard the Czechs aren't that hugely enthusiastic about this team right now I bet they will be come kick off time on Thursday. But yeah it's going to be interesting to do the Irish do what they did at USA 94 and get a complete takeover of a stadium that we expected was going to be for the opening game entirely Italian East Rutherford New Jersey and it ended up being taken over by the Irish. I don't know if that's going to happen tomorrow in Prague

2:20but yeah so much excitement and it's it's kind of I don't have formal because I could have had a ticket for the Czech end but my Czech friend told me there was no guarantees I'd get in. So travelling from Brooklyn to Prague and not in the Czech Republic to Prague and not knowing whether you'll get into the ground is it's not a great option so decided to stay at home I'm going to stay in a local bar where I've watched all these qualifiers. I'm going to sit in the exact same seat and I've even texted the people that were with me for all those qualifier games are they going to be there and can they sit exactly where they did before because it's been such a roller coaster when I mean it was pretty much over at half time in Dublin in the very first game against Hungary

3:24there was so much optimism coming into that game and Ireland or Tunnel down at half time to the Hungarians and we knew they were the team we'd have to take points off try and get something against the Portuguese but unlikely beat Armenia home and away and the group just did not turn out like that at all so we drew two two with Hungary but the general feeling after that pulled one out of the fire general feeling was if we don't win in Armenia that's it and we didn't we went to Armenia and were beaten and then after that it's like okay the Armenians come back for the reverse fixture we beat them but it's so scrappy we get it done we go to Portugal and that's kind of the first thing thing that something is changing shame is calm comes back into the side and we're seconds away from a point in Portugal and Portugal of score and then you're basically facing down the barrel of four points and you have to beat Hungary in Hungary

4:38but whatever you do you got to try and get a result against Portugal and we go and beat Portugal in Dublin and then that famous three two in Hungary and it was it's such a tight timeline that it's and everybody's been whipped up in such Troy parrot fever after the hat trick in Hungary and the two goals against Portugal and the group qualifying was so tight four teams in the group starting in September and finishing in November you know like qualifying campaigns used to be stretched out they'd start the September after the previous tournament and you know whether it was euros or whatever and then it did roll on in then you know for the the following year so it was like almost what maybe 15 18 months and now qualifying has just been distilled down into this this quick quick period and it makes you forget just how hopeless the whole situation was the manager hey mayor Hal Grimson

5:39has been given a new contract to take us true euro 28 in October it was pretty much over hammer's not going to be offered in a new contract he's probably not going to want to stick around he pretty much said we're going to need a miracle to qualify there was also an acceptance that this was done and in the space of two games everything's being turned on its head and then this interminable weight it's been November since we played hungry just waiting and waiting for these playoff games and then you think about that and you think even if we do win against the checks tomorrow night by the way getting ahead of myself here we go back to Dublin for the the quote final playoff game and it's likely the Danes we'll have to get through so for Ireland to qualify for a World Cup right now we had to beat Portugal at home we had to go to Hungary and win we scored three goals and we were behind twice

6:44we have to do that then we have to go to Prague and beat the Czech Republic and then come back and likely unless North Macedonia pulled one of their pull something out of the bag likely play the Danes and beat the Danes like this is just it's it's absolutely running the gauntlet and if we get to North America for the World Cup in a few months time we will absolutely deserve it but the excitement is unbelievable so just to give you an idea this team the National Soccer team in Ireland since probably 1988 are the biggest show in town so you meet a lot of people out here who get into the Irish rugby team because they're top ranked nation they've been you know number one at some points they're always a favorite going into the World Cup never win it but you know they won the Triple Crown recently and so there's a sense you know from outsiders

7:45well Ireland's more of a rugby nation now it's just it's just not true the national team is everything when the Irish Soccer team is playing well we've got our own indigenous sports of Harling and Gaelic football we've got a rugby which is a big sport but nothing nothing comes close to what the national team does to the Irish psyche to excitement to hype to people jumping on the bandwagon we have yeah we got great supporters but we also got a lot of bandwagon supporters as most countries do but it just changes everything it's the biggest show in town when they're doing well and they haven't done well in so so long and they became this almost afterthought like people wouldn't know when the games were on people wouldn't really watch and I'm talking about the period after Marriott Noreal's soul kind of

8:49supposed Stephen Kenny era there was there was hope at the start of this Stephen Kenny era that rapidly dissipated because the results were bad the defeat to Luxembourg and Dublin and a lot of the Kenny era was played in in in in Covid times when people couldn't go to the game and it just felt like it just the team wasn't playing well and we were supposed to be turning the corner into this new progressive passing style and it never materialized and we didn't get really get the results I would say the Scotland game where we beat them 3-0 in the nation's league was probably as good as it got for for Stephen Kenny and then it's just kind of been a wilderness since I say since Marriott Noreal it was turning very sour from 2017 on that playoff defeat for the World Cup against Denmark

9:51was 5-1 in Landzone Road after a nil nil in Denmark like that sucked the life out of the team and from then on it was we were hanging on with Marriott Noreal and Roy Keen and the football was wretched like it was genuinely I will always watch this team this team is my number one team but it got hard it got very very hard to watch and honestly it's not like it's been brilliant under Hamir so so much has changed because of the way the qualifiers were re-jigged that momentum was built from the win against Portugal and then four days later or five days later the win against Hungary and the manner of the win and everything the drama and so the hype train is going everybody is just excited and suddenly this team is back in a position that it hasn't been since probably the first game of Euro 2016

10:59and I'm not diminishing what Marriott Noreal or Roy Keen did in qualifying the team but like we finished third in our qualifying group that time and we went into a playoff against who was at Bosnia and Herzegovina to get to the Euros and we dealt with them home and away this will be like I said already a deserved qualification if we get through this campaign because just a very nature of it pulling it out of the fire with six points in the last two games prago way Dublin at home to a very strong Danish side or would I say a strong Danish side? a Danish team that traditionally is held the upper hand on us a Danish team that traditionally qualifies so yeah the hype and excitement is just through the roof and the team is for the moment back

11:59lots of issues that I was soccer, the association being in death but the country is back for these few days and it just feels as fickle and as quickly as we got back against Portugal and Hungary it could go away tomorrow and so the nerves are just intense like I can't think about anything else I've, when the Troy Parrack goal went in the security cameras at the bar I was in a small little local neighborhood bar I'm not even mentioning the name of it because I don't want people to turn up and change the vibe this is how insane I am I don't want anything to change but the security cameras captured when Troy Parrack goal went in and all of us going going crazy in the bar and so I know from that video what I was wearing on the day

12:59so I'm going to wear exactly that for this game again Howdy Howdy Ho and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson and I'm Stephen, your bookish internet goofball but you can call me the smash daddy and we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic Miss Born but here's the catch Stephen here has not read Miss Born before That's right, hey hey so each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single chapter and along the way we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers and Stephen will even try to guess what's next spoiler alert, he'll be wrong news flash, I'm never wrong episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts you I was brought up, I was spoiled so I was only 6 when Euro 88 happened so I don't know, I can't really remember much about that outside of the England game

14:00where we won 1-0 but Italian 90 was everything, USA-94 Japan and South Korea in 2002 you know, those things were just defining moments in your life as a young soccer supporter and yeah, I don't even think about those those are the things that led you to the team but now this team you hope has built its own what would you say? it's built its own legacy or story but for most people that'll end tomorrow if we lose in Prague but for me those two days in like I think we've done exceptionally well considering where we were in September after the defeat in Yerevan like it's amazing to get to the place where we are now, where we're talking about being at a World Cup

15:00so I'm kind of those two days I'm proud of the team whatever happens tomorrow and that's kind of pushes against kind of the culture of the moment where we're so close, so close to this thing but maybe I don't know, I just enjoy those five days of beating the Portuguese beating the Hungarians finishing second in a qualifying group finishing so strongly the team being relevant again like that means more to me than anything because I mean look at some of the results we've had losing away in Azerbaijan, under Kenny losing at home to Luxembourg, under Kenny you know, a lot of results that were just we were just a total of relevance I feel like they went three years where they were hardly mentioned on the podcast and now I'm doing my own part

16:00no because it's no fault of Andrews but he's obviously, he's not into it in the same way I am he's laser focused on the US men's national team and that's the bulk of our podcast yet I can't concentrate on anything but this so yeah that's it's just dominating the airwaves and I think there was once a time as an immigrant where you could be removed from what's happening back in your own country some hot unless it was like major news that dominated the airwaves and dominated international news but now there's no hope because even something like this which is at the end of the day just a football match I don't really mean that but it's a football match and it's just it's on every piece of social media that RTE, the state broadcaster puts out it's someone did a TikTok the other day which is the barricade voiceover from the man United kit launch

17:01from like two years ago and they put that voiceover because it kind of works it's applicable to the Irish team and they put that voiceover over this TikTok edit it's brilliant edit of like great Irish moments, fan moments and the current exploits of this team against Porosha Girl and against Hungary and the buzz, the hype, the excitement I'm a grown man should I really be feeling this way? I have so many other things I should be worried about I'm thinking about this is what I'm thinking about and in the barricade barricade playing a monologue he talks about that first flash that spark this is it, this is what I want to do forever and watching the Republic of Ireland if you'd said to someone after we lost the Luxembourg

18:01this is what I want to do forever it's just laughed in your face but how quickly things can change and no, I was going to say we're on the precipice port gotta get things done and pride before we even get to the precipice what's the thing closer to the precipice just behind the precipice we're there and it's such excitement and I will be disappointed don't get me wrong, I'm not future proof the loss by saying I'm proud of this team already whatever happens I'm not, I'll be good at but I am proud of the team and I am proud of how far we've come so anyway, promise to Andrew I don't need to do a short little piece on this and I don't want to make it sound like he's saying no, I don't want you talking about Ireland as if he could stop me but it just didn't feel like there's a natural place And now we've got some injuries. Josh Cullen in the midfield is a big loss.

19:02How is he going to rejig that midfield? Probably one of the strengths. I would think at the check side. This is a central midfield. But you know, Troy Parr on an absolute tear. Goldkeeper in good form, center backs in decent form. We've got a couple of wild cards there, and Lawell and Harvey Vale. England's Harvey Vale. England captain, Harvey Vale. England European Championship winner, Harvey Vale, lines out for the Republic of Ireland. Could that happen? Could he make a cameo? Hey Mayor says he hasn't been brought without the intention of being used. So yeah, I'm just really excited. And I know we've a few Irish fans who listen to the podcast. And I know we've a few, how would I put it? Hybernol curious.

20:02Hybernol curious listeners. So yeah. Don't know what else to say. How does Bill Barr do this for two hours or an hour? Twice a week. Just talking. Well, Bill's more entertaining than you, which is also a fair point. Right, guys. Podcasts this week. If you happen to hear this before you hear the main part, we have Jeff Caroleil on the US men's national team. We have G.A.J. Giovanni and Andrew Gunnlink on Moosala. What news? We knew it was coming, but wow. Let's talk about Moosala. Big parts coming up. And we've got a plus part. The link is in the description to sign up and subscribe for plus pod. We are doing our bracket of the worst US men's national team losses at a World Cup. We've done the best in terms of the wins. Now we do the losses. So I will sign off here and talk to you guys later.

21:03You've been listening to the Cod Offside Soccer Podcast. Howdy, howdy ho, and welcome to Fantasy Fanfellas. I'm Hayden, producer of the Fantasy Fan Girls podcast and your resident lover of all things Sanderson. And I'm Stephen, your bookish internet goofball, but you can call me the smash daddy. And we are currently deep diving Brandon Sanderson's fantasy epic, Mistborn. But here's the catch. Stephen here has not read Mistborn before. That's right. Hey, hey. So each week you'll get my unfiltered raw reactions to every single Jeff. And along the way, we'll do character deep dives, magic explainers, and Stephen will even try to guess what's next. Spoiler alert, he'll be wrong. News flash, I'm never wrong. Episodes come out every Wednesday and you can find fantasy fanfellas wherever you get your podcasts.