World Cup Draw

colster

It looks like ireland will be a 2nd seed for the WC draw in December.
The WC qualifying looks like being made up of 8 groups. 5 groups of 6 teams and 3 groups of 7.
I think the top 2 teams go thru from each group.

The pots will look something like this

Pot 1
France, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Spain, England, Italy, Turkey

Pot 2
Holland, Poland, Croatia, Belgium, Russia, Denmark, Ireland, Bulgaria

Pot 3
Slovenia, Romania, Scotland, Serbia & Montenegro, Switzerland, Greece, Ukraine, Slovakia

Pot 4
Austria, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Israel, Bosnia, Latvia, Wales

Pot 5
Hungary, Georgia, Belarus, Estonia, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Lithuania, Macedonia

Pot 6
Albania, Moldova, Armenia, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Malta

Pot 7
Luxemburg, Andorra, Kazakstan

What group woud you like Ireland to end up in

eirebhoy

We were in 8th place the last time the rankings were published and we have dropped to 15th. That could have been a drop from 1st seed to 3rd if we dropped an extra 2 places so we are lucky to be 2nd seeded. Anyway I'd go with this group:

England (I think we would have the easiest chance of beating these home and away)
IRLELAND
Slovakia (Easiest?, the Scots are too risky ATM)
Iceland (the other smaller nations are getting better)
Northern Ireland (No goals in about 12 games and they would probably cos an upset agaisnt England)
San Marino
Kazakstan(I didn't even know they were European)

dsab

A challenging one, and probably worst case scenario:

FRANCE
IRELAND
ROMANIA
NORWAY
Lithuania
Albania
Luxemburg

manic_monster

Turkey
Ireland
Serbia
Israel
Cyprus
Faroes
Andorra

Heres one you wouldn't want

France
Ireland
Greece(improving rapidly)
Norway
Hungary
Albania

colster

Originally posted by eireboy
We were in 8th place the last time the rankings were published and we have dropped to 15th. That could have been a drop from 1st seed to 3rd if we dropped an extra 2 places so we are lucky to be 2nd seeded. Anyway I'd go with this group:

England (I think we would have the easiest chance of beating these home and away)
IRLELAND
Slovakia (Easiest?, the Scots are too risky ATM)
Iceland (the other smaller nations are getting better)
Northern Ireland (No goals in about 12 games and they would probably cos an upset agaisnt England)
San Marino
Kazakstan(I didn't even know they were European)

Looks good to me. But we could end up with England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland. The 5 nations!!!!
If we got a group like that and Croker was to be used you'd fill it for all the home games against them.
Also you would imagine it would be a very unpredictable group as England Scotland Wales and Ireland will all take points of each other.

We could end up in the absolute group from hell if we got this
Turkey,
Ireland,
Ukraine/Slovenia/Serbia,
Latvia
Georgia
Albania
Kazakstan

I couldn't see us getinng out of that group.

Imposter

Have switzerland retired from international football?

eirebhoy

Originally posted by manic_monster
Turkey
Ireland
Serbia
Israel
Cyprus
Faroes
Andorra

Serbia would be one of the teams I wouldn't want and also Turkey, I can't see us getting anything out of both the Turkey matches but I think if we played England it would be a hard one to predict. Although, i we are playing our home games in England next year I can't see us qualifying with any teams in the group.

colster

Originally posted by Imposter
Have switzerland retired from international football?

Thanks. Editted my original post.

woosaysdan

holland in pot 2? is that right?

eirebhoy

Originally posted by woosaysdan
holland in pot 2? is that right?

Well they didn't qualify for World Cup 02 and they are going to have a hard match against the Scots to qualify for Euro 2004 so, yes it is right. The seedings are done by how well teams have done in competitive matches.

The_B_Man

Originally posted by eireboy
Kazakstan(I didn't even know they were European)

why is it that russia got into the Euro '04 competition? shud they not be in with Asia?

Holland are 2nd seeded so we wont be in their group but we'll probbaly get them in play offs as usual!

smemon

Originally posted by colster
But we could end up with England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland. The 5 nations!!!!
If we got a group like that and Croker was to be used you'd fill it for all the home games against them.
Also you would imagine it would be a very unpredictable group as England Scotland Wales and Ireland will all take points of each other.

that would be football at it's very finest, never seen before. there are no better fans, no more passionate teams than those 5. it would be a mini-tournament itself. tickets would be like golddust and it would grip all the nations for a year.

this would be a dream group for me, im not too bothered about how easy the group is, if you get an easy group things just get harder in the actual tournament, if you get a tough group, you can knock out good sides and have a real go in the wc if u qualify.

Spud

The Easiest group would be
Spain
Ireland
Slovakia
Iceland
Cyprus Or Nothern Ireland
San Marino
Luxemburg

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Spud
The Easiest group would be
Spain
Ireland
Slovakia
Iceland
Cyprus Or Nothern Ireland
San Marino
Luxemburg

Spain>>>>>>>>>>>>>>England.
We would easily beat England with 80,000 in Croker. BTW, it say's on the back page of the Herald that a few Dublin GAA teams have decided to vote for foreign sports played in Croker.

Tellox

Sorry if Im a bit late on this, but dont we have to use either Croke park or a foreign ground in all WC qualifiers?

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Tellox
Sorry if Im a bit late on this, but dont we have to use either Croke park or a foreign ground in all WC qualifiers?

We can use Lansdowne Road but the capacity will be cut down to 18,000 because we will only be allowed use the East and West stands. Everyone is saying that if the GAA don't let Ireland play in Croker we will have to play in the UK, I think that is out of the question. We are not going to get more than 18,000 fans in the UK and I would prefer to have 18,000 fans in Lansdowne than in Parkhead and Ireland will still be actually playing at home. Saying all that, the GAA will give in as they need the money and they don't want to get on the bad side of the fans, most of whom support soccer too.

Big Ears

my group:

swedan
ireland
romania(there so **** at the moment!!! )
iceland
cyprus ( id pick N ireland but against Rep Ireland it would be risky)
san marino
luxembourg(if there has to be a seventh team )

to me that looks like the easeiest group although it looks a lot harder than

switzerland
russia
ireland
georgia
albania

Dustaz

Group from hell with Turkey in it?

Someone hasnt been watching Turkey lately.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Big Ears

romania(there so **** at the moment!!! )

They were just one point away from coming joint top of their qualifying group and they put up a good fight to get beaten 1-0 away to Italy in a friendly the other day. They also have players like Mutu and Chivu which I wouldn't fancy playing. I think I'll stick with Slovakia.:)

knobbles

Originally posted by colster
The WC qualifying looks like being made up of 8 groups. 5 groups of 6 teams and 3 groups of 7.
I think the top 2 teams go thru from each group.

Unfortunately, that ain't the case and there's only 13 places up for grabs....one less than 2002.

The eight group winners and the best two runners up will qualify automatically for the finals.
The remaining six group runners up will then contest play-offs to decide the remaining three qualifiers.

kamobe

We are not going to get more than 18,000 fans in the UK

Celtic park.

Oswald Osbourne

This is gonna sound weird but I'm hoping Ireland get a TOUGH group (at least in regard to 1st and 3rd seeds). We usually only seem to qualify when we get put in the ubiqutious group of death - Euro88 had Belgium,Bulgaria,Scotland , WC94 had Spain & Denmark, WC2002 had Portugal and Holland.

Also I hope we get drawn in a 7 team group instead of a six as we usually more consistant at dispatching the weaker sides in comparison to other qualification contenders. We qualified for WC94 out of a 7 team group purely because Denmark messed up against the weaker sides.

So heres my choices....

Group 7
=======
1) Spain <- We've qualified twice for a tournament with them so they're a good omen )

2) IRELAND

3) Romania <- just to make it interesting

4) Wales <- have had their once a decade 'close-but-no-cigar' campaign and now only have another ten years of being whipped by all and sundry to look forward to.

5) Cyprus <- Have lost every game they've ever played against to us. We beat them 4-0 home and away during the Wc2002 qualifers. They're victims of RepIrelands SECOND ever biggest win.

6) Malta <- they've lost every match they've ever played against us (7 times) and are the victims of the Republics biggest ever victory (8-0). What more could you want in a whipping boy!

7) Andorra <- they regularily keep scorelines relatively respectible against all sides unlike Luxembourg who teams like Romania/Spain could beat 7-0 compared to us maybe only beating 2-0 - and then maybe causing us to go out goal difference. Wouldn't fancy an away journey to Kazakstan either)

Big Ears

Originally posted by eireboy
They were just one point away from coming joint top of their qualifying group and they put up a good fight to get beaten 1-0 away to Italy in a friendly the other day. They also have players like Mutu and Chivu which I wouldn't fancy playing. I think I'll stick with Slovakia.:)

if u watched that italy game u would know it could have been 8 or 9 nil to italy and should have been.Thier group wasnt that hard anyway.(ours was easier though)

Tellox

England
Ireland
Scotland
Wales
N.Ireland
Faroes
Andorra

It'd be challenging,but it'd be brilliant..there'd be a ton of home and away fans at almost every match..