Tonight Bohemians put in a really hard fought display beating new boys Sporting Fingal by just a single goal to nil, Bohemians were handed a massive lifeline late on when referee Derek Tomney proved the FAI have no good referees and pointed to the spot after it appeared Anto Murphy was taken off the ball in the box, this was not the case. Killian Brennan stood up and put it in the net and gave the champions a nervy 3 points in front of a capacity crowd in Dalymount Park.

After the game Sportspeak’s chief soccer hack Daniel “Pitchside” Pitcher caught up with Sporting Fingal manager Liam Buckley, Goal scorer Killian Brennan and Bohs manager Pat Fenlon.

Champions Bohemians and new Premier side Sporting Fingal provided the main event of tonight’s Airtricity League of Ireland opener at Dalymount Park even though the went out 10 minutes before everyone else. Management at Bohs would have been delighted to see the whole Jodi Stand packed to the brim and half of the Des Kelly stand full too.

Not even a minute into this massive game and there was a moment of madness when the knee of Mark Quigley introducing itself to the head of Fingals Lorcan Fitzgerald, thankfully all was well with him and the game went on. Bohs had the first opportunity and really should have been on the board in the opening 10 minutes when Quigley provided a lovely ball for Killian Brennan who found nothing but air with his boot and there was no doubt that the keeper would have been beaten had Brennan connected with the ball. Fingal later had a moment of their own in front of goal minutes later when a class shot from Fingal’s leading scorer Conan Byrne was fingertiped over the bar by Bohs new net stopper Barry Murphy and out for a corner, but noting came from that, so on opening night in the opening half plenty of entertainment to keep the RTE camera men awake and alive.

As time went on in the first half the new boys on the block were piling the pressure on the champions and a massive mistake from Glenn Cronin with a dangerous foul almost set it up for Fingal, Conan Byrne had a good curl and it was heading goalbound but Conor Powel’s good defensive skills put it away for a corner which was cleared by Bohs captain Owen Heary. Bohs had 1 or 2 more chances as well to their credit, a nicely delivered corner on the 34th minute reached Paddy Madden but his shot denied by Fingal’s Ger O’Brien. As the first half wound up it was just a case of cat and mouse chasing and the half finished scoreless.

The second half started with a little more consistency from Sporting Fingal and only seconds had gone in the half and Fingal should have been ahead when Gary O’Neil not only caught Bohs on the hop but the rest of his team mates too, a shot out of nowhere went centimetres wide but had Barry Murphy well beaten as he dove across the wrong way. That moment of madness was followed my 24 minutes of pure boring football and suddenly didn’t seem like a massive game and those camera men looked out for the night, this surely wasn’t champions football from Bohs which certainly did not make Pat Fenlon look like a happy man, on the other side of the coin Liam Buckley looked really impressed at his sides first performance in the Premier Division.

There were a few stupid tackles from both teams but the most costly came on 75 minutes when Keith Quinn pulled down Anto Murphy in the area and referee Derek Tomney was quick to point to the spot. Killian Brennan stood up and took a cool penalty to give Bohemians the first goal of their season which left the full Jodi Stand buzzing. It just wouldn’t be a League of Ireland match without totally feckless decisions from the FAI’s “bright spark” referees this proved when Kenny Browne brought down Conor Powel with a rather rough challenge. Ref Tomney saw it the other way and not only awarded Fingal a free kick but booked Coner Powel, leaving the Bohs fans rightfully angered and rather confused. After 4 minutes of added time the ref finally blew the final whistle and Bohemians took all three points in their first game of the season leaving fans singing “Are you watching Rovers scum”.

Final Score Bohemians 1 Sporting Fingal 0

Bohemians: B.Murphy(GK), O.Heary(C), C.Powel, G.Cronin, S.Gray, B.Shelly, A.Murphy, P.Keegan, P.Madden, M.Quigley, K.Brennan

SUBS; R.Cretaro, M.Rossiter, R.Higgins, G.McGlynn, C.O’Connor(GK)

Sporting Fingal: B.Clarke(GK), G.OBrien, L.Fitzgerald, S.Williams, S.Mahar(C), K.Browne, C.Byrne, R.Finn,G.O Neil, K.Quinn, S.Mc Faul

SUBS; S.Paisley, C.James, G.Crowe, D.Quigley, A. Kirby

 
Brazil produced a breath-taking second-half performance as they ran-out 2-0 winners over the Republic of Ireland in their friendly international at the Emirates Stadium. Giovanni Trapttoni’s side upstaged their more illustrious opponents for the majority of the opening half, with Robbie Keane, Damien Duff and Kevin Doyle all forcing good saves from Julio Cesar. But the South American giants took the lead just before the break when Robinho was adjudged to be on-side and his low cross was deflected past Shay Given by Keith Andrews. Ireland were second-best for the rest of the game, with Kaka, Dani Alves and Robinho running their opponents ragged. They created a number of goal-scoring chances, but only manged to convert one of them as Robinho bagged the man-of-the-match award when he applied the finish to a scintillating attacking move. The only silver-lining for Giovanni Trapattoni was the international debut for James McCarthy, who came off the bench in the second-half to win his first cap. After the game Glen Whelan and Kevin Doyle gave their opinions on the match.

Robinho marked his return to England with a stunning goal as Brazil defeated Republic of Ireland, but the World Cup 2010 favourites did little to strike fear into the watching Fabio Capello at the Emirates.

Manchester City forward Robinho, currently on loan at Santos after failing to impress at Eastlands this season, created Brazil’s first and scored their second in a hard-fought victory against the Irish. Despite his goal, Robinho also highlighted his frailties by spurning a series of chances. And Capello, whose England team cannot face Brazil until the semi-final stages in South Africa, will have left the Emirates believing that the South Americans are anything but invincible. For all the kudos that comes with facing the five-time World Cup winners, Ireland would much rather be playing the Brazilians in Nelspruit in June than in north London in February.

But the left arm of Thierry Henry has ensured that the Irish will not be in South Africa this summer, so this glamour fixture is pretty much as good as it is going to get for Giovanni Trapattoni’s team. A Dublin friendly against Algeria in May will give Ireland a first-hand look at England’s Group C opponents, but it will be no substitute for the real thing. The priority now for Trapattoni is to prepare his squad for the Euro 2012 qualification campaign, when Ireland will have to overcome Russia and Slovakia if they are to play in their first major tournament since the 2002 World Cup. The fact that veterans of that World Cup campaign, such as Shay Given, Kevin Kilbane, Robbie Keane and Damien Duff, started this fixture emphasised that the Italian will be relying on the same old faces in the Euro qualifiers.

But they showed in the early stages against the Brazilians that they retain the ability to trouble more celebrated opponents. Ireland were certainly not overawed by the World Cup favourites, with Keane and Paul McShane testing goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

Brazil, in contrast, flattered to deceive, but in Robinho and Adriano they possess perhaps two of the most over-rated forwards in world football. Little wonder that Dunga’s team continues to rely heavily on Kaka. Robinho, now attempted to resurrect his career in Brazil with Santos after fading from the scene at Manchester City, can at least claim an assist on Brazil’s opening goal, however. Having sprung the offside trap to latch onto Maicon’s 44th minute pass, the £32.5m forward crossed into the penalty area, only to see Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews divert the ball into his own net with his attempted clearance. Despite handing them the lead, Brazil showed little charity to Andrews.

Early in the second-half, the usually placid Kaka became embroiled in a shoving match with the Blackburn midfielder, who he perceived to be operating rough-house tactics to stem his creative flow. Andrews was doing nothing of the sort. His tenacity was merely frustrating Real Madrid’s £56m signing, who was not having one of his better nights. Maybe Ireland were taking out their lingering World Cup frustrations on Brazil. They certainly did enough to suggest that they would have merited a place in South Africa and, on this evidence, the leading nations will be relieved that they will not have to overcome the obdurate Irish this summer.

As the missed chances began to stack up, with Kaka, Robinho and Adriano all guilty of spurning opportunities, Ireland appeared destined to escape with a one-goal defeat. But Brazil took advantage of tiring Irish legs in the closing, with Robinho rounding off a slick three-man move with Kaka and Grafite to double their lead on 76 minutes.

 
This Friday night the new Airtricity League will begin with games taking place right across the country, among the games taking place is a massive clash between League and EA Sports Cup Champions Bohemians and FAI Cup Champions and new Premier side Sporting Fingal. Today Bohemians manager Pat Fenlon Spoke Exclusively to Sportspeak’s chief Soccer Correspondent Daniel “Pitchside” Pitcher on how his preparations are going for Friday’s big opener.

France legend Zinedine Zidane ‘would rather die’ than apologise to Marco Materazzi, who he headbutted during the 2006 World Cup final.World football was left stunned when Zidane, in the last game of his career, attacked Materazzi in extra time – an action which saw the France captain duly dismissed. Italy went on to win the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out and while Zidane admits he regrets what he did, he insists he will never apologise to Materazzi because of the insults against his mother which he claims provoked the headbutt.

‘Of course I reproach myself,’ Zidane told El Pais. ‘But, if I say “sorry”, I would also be admitting that what he himself did was normal. And for me it was not normal. ‘Things happen on the pitch. It’s happened to me many times. But I could not stand it there. Because moreover…it is not an excuse. But my mother was ill. She was in hospital. This people did not know. ‘But it was a bad time. More than once they insulted my mother and I never responded. But there…and it happened. ‘But to him I cannot. Never, never…it would be to dishonour me…I’d rather die. ‘There are evil people. And I don’t even want to hear those guys speak.’

Zidane’s actions stunned the world as not only was the France captain a footballing icon but he had also steered well away from controversy during his distinguished career. The 37-year-old lists two Serie A titles with Juventus and two Primera Division titles and a Champions League with Real Madrid as well as the 1998 World Cup among his trophy haul. Zidane, who joined Real Madrid in their first ‘galacticos’ era, is now special advisor to president Florentino Perez. And the former midfielder has hailed Madrid’s latest crop of expensive players – including world record buy Cristiano Ronaldo.He said: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo wants to be the best. And he says so.’It’s one thing to say it and another to do it. He says it and then gets up early to go to training at eight in the morning, two hours before scheduled. And he stays there six hours.

Richard Dunne is the latest player to withdraw from the Republic of Ireland squad for Tuesday’s  utterly pointless friendly against Brazil at the Emerates Stadium. Dunne took a knock to his knee in the 2-1 Carling Cup final defeat to Manchester United and will miss the clash with Brazil as a result. The defender joins captain Robbie Keane, who withdrew from the squad on Sunday  also with a knock to the  knee so Dunne coming in too late with that excuse, and Trappatoni has resisted calling up any more players after calling up Anthony Stokes as cover for Keane.

Trappatoni also named his team declaring he would liked to have started the team which drew with France last year, although he cannot do so in the absence of Keane and Dunne. Trap says he can make six changes in the game and will almost certainly give a run to new caps James McCarthy, Greg Cunningham and Marc Wilson. McCarthy who qualified as a result of the granny rule, is carrying a leg injury into the game, but Trappatoni is confident that he will be fit to come on at some stage.

Republic of Ireland team to play Brazil at the Emirates Stadium, Tuesday at 8.05:

Shay Given, Stephen Kelly, Paul McShane, Sean St Ledger, Kevin Kilbane, Liam Lawrence, Glenn Whelan, Keith Andrews, Damien Duff, Leon Best, Kevin Doyle.

Cork City is to be wound up after the deal to buy the club by the Quintas Group fell through following the Independent Club Licensing Committee’s decision to deny the club a Premier Division licence.

The decision of the licencing committee means that the deal to buy Cork City FC from Tom Coughlan will now not go ahead and the club will be wound up by the High Court on Tuesday at 2pm.

Peter Gray, Michael O’Connell and FORAS, the Cork City Supporters Trust, made up the Quintas Group.

A spokesperson for the group said: ‘With the decision of the Licencing Committee not to grant a Premier League licence, we’re unable to proceed with our bid. ‘Unfortunately, this means that the club will be wound up, with devastating consequences for staff, players and creditors. ‘This is a sad day for us, the FAI and Cork City, as we are now left without top-flight soccer in the country’s second city.’

Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington has been dealt a blow after defender Shane Duffy changed his allegiance to the Republic of Ireland.