Pointless wednesday

I spent a whole day in work today doing loads but achieving nothing. Now doing nothing normally fits right into my idea of a perfect day, but today was different. Apart from having so much to do, there were loads of mistakes and errors i happened to stumble across, which led to me attempting to throw a computer out of the window out of sheer frustration. To make matters worse, there was nothing fun to do when i got home tonight.
Football wise, Ireland played georgia. They won 2-1. It was a terrible example of the downfall of international football. No wonder all the fair weather fans have pissed off to watch rugby now. The thing is, even at one down, i couldn't bring myself to give a shit. I love football, but for some reason there is nothing that excites me about this team. Before anyone gets uppity, this is not because the team is shite, far from it, remember i fell in love with Arsenal in the George graham era, so i love boring, utilitarian football. The thing about Ireland is not that they're boring, or untalented, but its the immense void between the men in green and those same men in the shirt of the club that pays their wages. It boils down to effort with international football. Robbie Keane tonight looked like he'd just sat on the toilet to find that the seat was wet, constantly with his legs bent, hunched over, jerking forward but never looking like moving forward further than was necessary, an aimless look of dispair on his face as if he'd just realised that it wasnt splashback from the last flush, but in fact a bit of dribble from his drunken flatmate's last attempt to have a piss. John O'Shea was worse. He looked like the FAI's latest attempt at care in the community. I know the lad is never going to be a world beater, but he's managed to convince man utd to keep him on, so he cant be that awful, unless of course he puts a green shirt on. If United change the colour of their away kit, he's screwed.
I think the real reason for this is that there's a hell of a lot less money riding on it. The champions league is far more important to a wide number of fans than the world cup, and for the players its probably not much different. The world cup is now only a career stage for cheap players, primarily for poorer footballing nations, where as the Champions league and is a massive shop window available on an annual basis. Why should the better players actually care, when there's nothing really in it for them. National pride is not really high on list, especially when only 45,000 people turn up to Croke Park, leaving an embarrassing amount of empty seats for a competitive fixture.
Its not different with other nations either. Critics always say that Lampard and Gerrard cant play together for england, but i'd argue that its more of a case of not being bothered to play well together. England are playing at the moment, and The only people who actually seem to be putting in effort are those non-regulars, who still probably have a point to prove. Even Shaun Wright-Phillips is playing safe balls back to the centre backs. Unheard of at 1-0 down in any club match.
The only shining light was Keith Andrews, who looked like he cared, and for his first competitive cap gave a good performance. The only problem with andrews is that he's just never going to be good enough. In the 2002 world cup we gave Spain a serious run for their money. We were very unlucky to lose out on penalties. But now can anyone honestly see the same happening. With no disrespect to andrews, can you imagine him chasing Fabregas, Iniesta and Xavi's shadows. He'd look like a stoned child in waterloo station. Poor lad.
Anyway, This really gets to me, but the wholly irrational and reactionary examples i've given above aren't the real reason i hate watching ireland. I could really cop out and say that just as you choose you friends, but not your family, you fall in love with your club, your stuck with your country. But no, the real reason is that because i live in ireland, there's no buzz about watching a game, unless of course its a big event like a world cup, but on the basis of tonights game that wont happen soon. In london there's a sense of immigrant solidarity about watching an ireland game. While ryanair has made the immigrant mentality less tribal, they cant take away that buzz of strangers coming together for a reason. You dont pick out the ireland fans in pub in Cork, coz they all are, but away from ireland you have a bond. Its special. You care about something and so does someone else. That bond is created for you, and created bonds are infinitely more special than pre-existing bonds, which arent even real bonds, just more like connections. Its supporting Ireland in Ireland is like going into the dole office. You cant go up to a random person there and say "hi! your in the same shit as me! lets be mates!" where as supporting ireland abroad is like meeting the guy your sharing the lottery jackpot with. I hate to labout the point, but:

GET ME O|UT OF IRELAND!!!!!