World Cup Qualification ???

gandalf

Ok as we are in the middle of Euro 2000 it might be time to speculate on whether Ireland will make it to the next world cup. I have listed our group below in case you don't know whose in it

My personal feeling is if we do not get a manager with some proper tactical awareness in the job we will be watching from the sidelines again.

Gandalf.

GROUP 2
Team
Netherlands
Andorra
Republic of Ireland
Cyprus
Portugal
Estonia

TwoShedsJackson

Cyprus, Andorra, and Estonia should no problem, but knowing us we're bound to lose at least one of those and draw another that we should win. I can't see them (the above) posing any threat to Holland or Portugal.

Since we'll be lucky to get four points out of the possible twelve in the four games v Holland & Portugal, I rate it most unlikely that we will be participating in the next World Cup.

Bard

Curious... What do ye think of Joe Kinnear for Ireland manager?

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Bard

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johnor

I can see Ireland winning our first game vs portugal just like we did vs croatia. Estonia are decent they played alright agaisnt Scotland in qaulifiers for euro2000 i think im prolly wrong but i reckon unless u can qualify from 3rd place (which i doubt) i reckon we is out of the running. even with a new manager who can find new players somehow.

johnor

Illkillya

i think people are being abit pessimistic again - ireland were winning matches a few months ago, had some nice wins over Yugoslavia and stuff, and we're not a bad team looking at some of the stuff going on in Euro 2000 atm - some really bad teams there. Holland are the only team there that are way better than us, they have not played well in e2000 so far, but i thought they should have won the world cup a couple of years ago.

There is no excuse for not beating all the other teams, but i think we'll draw with estonia anyway, and we will not get maximum points, it always happens
That leaves Portugal - and its up to the manager i'd say, because a good manager could get us to get 3 or 4 or 6 points, a bad manager will let us get 0, but i think we will qualify anyway

Bard

At the end of the day, it'd be nice if they DO qualify, but I'll still be at every home match regardless, rain or shine.

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Bard

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ButcherOfNog

tbh portugal are not that good, they scored 3 against england due to the fact that keegan forgot to put anyone in midfield. the fact that they managed to concede 2 goals says it all. against romania, portugal were more like their old selves, lots of lovely build up play, sod all at the end of it.

i think we'll scrape through, and we always give the dutch a good game.

BossArky

After seeing Portugal rape Germany last night I think that they shall bugger us backwards...even tho that German team was crap....Holland shall proably kick us around also.

Looks like another soccerless world cup for us.

Bard

...soccerless world cup...

don't you mean "Ireland-less world cup"?

I still wouldn't write them out completely... when do the qualifiers start anyway?

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Bard

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gandalf

Heres the complete list of fixtures as nicked from the FIFA website

02-09-00 [82] Netherlands vs. Ireland
07-10-00 [84] Portugal vs. Ireland
11-10-00 [87] Ireland vs. Estonia
24-03-01 [90] Cyprus vs. Ireland
28-03-01 [93] Andorra vs. Ireland
25-04-01 [242] Ireland vs. Andorra
02-06-01 [94] Ireland vs. Portugal
06-06-01 [96] Estonia vs. Ireland
01-09-01 [99] Ireland vs. Netherlands
06-10-01 [104] Ireland vs. Cyprus

Gandalf.

Mills

How many from each group goes through? 1? 2? and what about playoff places? Cant remember for the life of me......

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I am inflatible !

gandalf

Again nicked from the FIFA website

13 or 14 teams to qualify + France
The UEFA qualifying competition consists of four groups of five teams and five groups of six teams, playing a home-and-away round robin. The nine group winners qualify directly for the final competition.

The nine runners-up of UEFA will be put into one pot. Four European play-off pairings (home and away) will be drawn. The winners qualify for the final competition. The remaining European runner-up will contest a home-and-away play-off against the third-placed AFC team. That winner will also qualify for the final competition.

There ya go at best we can hope for another playoff and with our history in those !!!!

Gandalf.

TwoShedsJackson

AFC team?