{"id":379854,"date":"2026-04-03T11:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379854\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T11:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T11:17:10","slug":"our-ryan-giggs-brad-friedel-hails-ireland-legend-outlines-world-cup-fan-regret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379854\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our Ryan Giggs\u2019 – Brad Friedel hails Ireland legend, outlines World Cup fan regret"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland won\u2019t be at this summer\u2019s World Cup, but the former USA goalkeeper remembers their 1994 appearance.<\/p>\n

Ireland fans during the USA ’94 game against Italy(Image: Eric Renard \/ Onze \/ Icon Sport)<\/p>\n

Former USA goalkeeper Brad Friedel has described one of his old Irish teammates as \u201cour Ryan Giggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedel<\/a> spent almost two decades in the Premier League<\/a>, chalking up almost 500 appearances for Liverpool<\/a>, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Tottenham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During that time he lined out with a handful of Irish<\/a> stars, including Richard Dunne<\/a>, Jason McAteer, Phil Babb, Mark Kennedy, Jeff Kenna, Jonathan Douglas, Alan Kelly and Steven Reid.<\/p>\n

But one player stood out above the rest. Friedel spent three seasons at Ewood Park with Damien Duff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Irish Mirror via Gambling.com, that helps people find the best IE Casinos online<\/a>, the Ohio-born star said: \u201cI played with a few, but the best Irish player I played with was Damien Duff. I thought he was our Ryan Giggs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was incredible for Blackburn during my time there and his performances were up there with the best wingers in the Premier League at that time for sure. That is how good he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Damien Duff lifts the ball over Brad Friedel(Image: Ross Kinnaird\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Friedel played three times against Ireland during his 82-cap USA career. He was involved in the US squad the last time the World Cup was held Stateside, when Jack Charlton\u2019s Boys in Green made it to the last-16.<\/p>\n

Ireland won\u2019t be involved this time around. A penalty shootout defeat to Czechia in Prague ended their play-off hopes.<\/p>\n

According to Friedel: \u201cThe fans more than the teams I think will be missed. The Irish fans are brilliant wherever they are and if they were to play in Boston or New York then the streets would be full of green.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a brilliant atmosphere and one the USA will miss out on as I know how great the Irish fans can be. They would have brought a fantastic fun environment to the States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland won\u2019t be at this summer\u2019s World Cup, but the former USA goalkeeper remembers their 1994 appearance. Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8938,91986,55717,169705,169704,23531,61,60,161574,169708,1547,105169,43,169707,1102,85353,57217,169706,123943,169709,15010,169703],"class_list":{"0":"post-379854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-alan-kelly","9":"tag-aston-villa-fc","10":"tag-aston-villa-football-club","11":"tag-blackburn-rovers-fc","12":"tag-brad-friedel","13":"tag-damien-duff","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jason-mcateer","17":"tag-jonathan-douglas","18":"tag-liverpool-fc","19":"tag-mark-kennedy","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-phil-babb","22":"tag-premier-league","23":"tag-republic-of-ireland-fans","24":"tag-republic-of-ireland-national-football-team","25":"tag-richard-dunne","26":"tag-ryan-giggs","27":"tag-steven-reid","28":"tag-tottenham-hotspur-fc","29":"tag-usa-football-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}