HEIMIR HALLGRÍMSSON: “This will be the biggest game a lot of these players have played in an Ireland shirt” | Ireland vs Czechia
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Off the Ball Daily, a home for your favourite podcasts from Off the Ball. Saying the meat videos with all the kids in assembly, screaming my name, that fills me with absolute love and pride. I mean, like, nothing else. And I want to inspire them. I'm just a normal boy from Aldi County. Subscribe to the Off the Ball Daily podcast feed right now. Jamie, we're just seven days out now from the game in Prague against Czechia, a game that feels like it's been coming for a long, long time. How excited are you for the week ahead? Yeah, it's tough when you have a good momentum not to play the next day or the next week. It's been four months, so really excited. Hopefully we can use the momentum we had in November and kind of repeat the things that we did well and just add on some areas as well.
But really looking forward to it. These are the games that true professionals like to play. So speaking to the players, everybody is just looking forward to to coming together and take on this big challenge. How do you go about building that momentum back up again? Because you gave the whole country really a lift back in November. Is it hard to maybe bring that momentum back and remind the players of what they did a couple of months ago? No, I think everybody remembers what we did and what happened.
What does Heimir Hallgrímsson feel about the upcoming game against Czechia?
So the feeling is there. It's just showing them the tactical bits that we did good. Just reminding them on the identity we have and just reinforcing the things that we have been doing. It's always going to be a tough match, obviously. It will be played... until we get results. So we can expect 120 minutes and we can expect penalties, etc. So we just need to be prepared for what is coming. You've brought in a couple of new faces into the squad. Harvey Vale has come in, he's switched allegiance from England. How do those conversations go and have you been impressed with his form for his club, Queen's Park Rangers? Yeah, he's been improving at Queen's Park. He's growing fast there. Obviously, he came in there injured and they knew that he would be out for some time when they brought him in.
And I had a talk with him probably over a year ago He expressed his desire to play for us. He already had a passport. I've been watching him since then. I think this is the correct time to bring him in and looking forward to working with him. We need to get to know him a little bit better, show him what we are doing and getting him involved in that one. Obviously, I don't like many players coming in as new players in such an important moment, but he is a match-winner, he is a good attacking player, he's a good engine, good height, hard-working player. I see him as a potentially big player for Ireland in the future. You had a couple of injuries in the attacking area of the pitch. I know Evan Ferguson is out, which is a huge loss for your team and for the nation as a whole to see him up there up top.
I know you had conversations with Sammy Smodics over the last couple of months and you brought him back into the squad. What can he give the team? You know the qualities of Sammy. He's just a hard-working, quick player, really attacking-minded, direct player. So a lot of things that we like in our players. He's done really well when he has played for us. He's been out because of injuries for some time. So just happy to be here. Happy to have him back here. Dave McGoldrick was a player who was in flying form for Barnsley in League One. We know obviously he hasn't played for the national team in a number of years. Were you tempted to give him a call back up? He was in the frame. We were just looking at all our options.
What options do we have? And his name came up when we were discussing. And obviously he's done brilliantly with his career, I would say. A few years back, he decided to stop playing for the national team. So John O'Shea gave him a call and said, what if, would you be ready to come? And he was surprised but delighted to have the call. So it's just we wanted to have a plan A, a plan B, plan C. If something would happen, he was kind of in our thoughts.
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