It's Coming..

It's been ages since I blogged about football so I'm going to rectify that situation today and you can like it or lump it. I got up at stupid o' clock this morning for the Ireland V Wales Nations Cup opener at Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Trapps can be a bit frustrating with his insistence on always sticking with the same conservative line-up even when younger, more exciting players are coming through. Last night, there were three new caps for Marc Wilson, Seamus Coleman and Ciaran Clark; all very encouraging. The match and the result were more than encouraging. 3-0, all good goals, not much bother at the back, and plenty of players staking their claims for future participation.

The one glitch was the news that James McCarthy may have withdrawn from the squad because he's considering switching allegiance to Scotland, the land of his birth. This guy is a real talent, a claim his goals last weekend against Blackburn only provided extra strength to. He has played for Ireland before, but not in a competitive match, so we haven't actually nailed him down to representing us. Although it would be unfair to complain about the results we've achieved under Trappatoni, it's questionable whether or not he has our long-term welfare at the centre of his thoughts. Surely, making sure McCarthy comes on for a couple of minutes at the end of a competitive fixture that's more or less in the bag, is just smart thinking. Considering the fact that we're already without Premiership-level creative midfielders the likes of Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland, we don't need to be losing another that could well feature under our next, (hopefully) more adventurous manager.

Today, the FC Seoul website have presented our fixtures for the 2011 K-League season. First up, we will be welcoming arch-rivals, Suwon Bluewings, to Sangam on Sunday, March 6th. It's obviously a tough start to the season but, given that they have signed a lot of new players and will probably be very competitive this term, I'm glad we're playing them before they'll have had enough time to gel. We have signed a few ourselves (most notably Molina and Kim Dong Jin) but, with Djeparov signing on a permanent basis, it's much the same squad that won the K-League so impressively last season. It'll be my first match as a season-ticket holder, beeping myself through our own gate: no more queuing for tickets for meeeee!!!

The following weekend I'm hoping a few of us will head down to Daejeon for the match against Citizen. We have a good friend working down there so I'm trying to arrange a gig that night and make a real day and night of it; it'll actually be his birthday then too. The weather is getting warmer, our lad's night out is rapidly approaching, K-League around the corner, Derry City starting off our first season back where we belong in early March, already talk of World DJ Festival: it's coming...