World Cup Draw!

Dustaz

Germany
Ireland
Saudi Arabia
Cameroon


Not bad at all:) could have been a lot worse really. The more i think about it, the more i like that group, compared to:

Argentina
England
Sweden
Nigeria

ROFL

PiE

We're sooo going through... as long as the Players aren't as cocky as I am

gandalf

Hehe Irelands group is fine. But man listening to all the English commentators on TV, they are whinging like biaaattcches at the moment.

Better check the times of our matches during the summer.

Gandalf.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Super draw for the boys in green...

Poor Old England- HA !!!
____________________

Did anyone else notice the navy design all over the back of the set(as in tv studio) of the draw had this navy & teal weave design w/ SWASTIKAS all over it !!

Was this an indication that Japan are still an Axis Power after all these years?? Interesting!

mike65

Originally posted by PiE
We're sooo going through... as long as the Players aren't as cocky as I am

You said it PiE,

I while de republ-er-lic is capable of beating all three, loosing to all three is'nt out of question either!.

As for eng-er-land, its a group of death stich-up, even if they
qualify second they'll meet France!
Early flights home then....

DS

Originally posted by gandalf
Better check the times of our matches during the summer.

From FIFAWorldCup.com
Group E
Match Date Time Teams Venue
2 01 Jun 15:30 Republic of Ireland : Cameroon Niigata
4 01 Jun 20:30 Germany : Saudi Arabia Sapporo
17 05 Jun 20:30 Germany : Republic of Ireland Ibaraki
19 06 Jun 18:00 Cameroon : Saudi Arabia Saitama
35 11 Jun 20:30 Cameroon : Germany Shizuoka
36 11 Jun 20:30 Saudi Arabia : Republic of Ireland Yokohama

With that group we really have a great chance of reaching the quarters again. If we come out of the group on top, we'll probably play Slovenia (2nd Group in the last 16. The funny thing is, if we beat them, Italy will most definitely be waiting for us in the QF. But they don't have Scillachi this time...
Should we achieve revenge successfully and dispatch Italy, we'd meet either Spain or Portugal in the SF, assuming they overcome Germany.

Our other possible route out of group E (2nd place), will give us Spain in the last 16, and then most likely Portugal for the QF, followed by Italy in the Semis.
The nice thing is, those 3 big hitters are the ONLY big hitters in our half of the draw! We can't meet any of the top 3 rankers until the final. That's Brazil, Argentina and France.

On the other hand, as mike mentioned, England won't be going anywhere past the last 16 if the french have anything to do with it...

b20uvkft6m5xwg

That looks like local Korea/Japan Times Discharger.

The times for our games- Local Irish Time are as follows....

Ire -v- Cameroon- 8.30am
Ire -v- Germany- 12.30pm
Ire -v- Saudi Arabia- 12.30pm

Not too bad in comparison w/ other European teams & their KO times:)

DS

Yeah 2 of Englands are on @ 7.30, I thought the Cameroon match was too, no?
I'll be in Majorca until June 3rd, hope the bar opens early :cool:

Morrison

Why is everyone so sure that Ireland stand a chance? Germany,Cameroon and Saudi Arabia are not teams to be overlooked-their good teams,if they could make it this fair they have to be.

PiE

Originally posted by 80project
That looks like local Korea/Japan Times Discharger.

The times for our games- Local Irish Time are as follows....

Ire -v- Germany- 12.30pm
Ire -v- Saudi Arabia- 12.30pm

Excellent. Just as I'm sitting down to my Maths Exam :rolleyes:

Morrisson, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia both qualified from 2 very poor qualifying groups. We *should* beat them, on paper as they say.

Dustaz

Well, if we cant beat Saudi then theres no point being there. Germany will be very very tough. They may have been hammered by England, but remember they beat Ukraine in the playoffs. I know very little about Cameroon, but i assume Roger Milla is defintly, absolutly, positively retired this time (one can never be sure tho)

I wonder what odds i would get in betting on a win, a loss and a draw (a la USA 94)now. Oh and its nice that we are playing Saudi last, well know what we need by then and its nice to be playing the weakes team in the group for that.

DS

Originally posted by Morrison
Why is everyone so sure that Ireland stand a chance?

Well of course we stand a chance! Remember we drew level on points with one of the top seeds, and knocked out a potential favourite for the competition, without losing a single match.
The point is, we are well capable of beating all 3 teams in our group, and if that's not a reason to be optimistic waht is?
Dustaz makes a good point in that the order of our matches is also favourable. The first match against Cameroon should put us in a nice position for the inevitable crunch game against the Germans.

I've thought about it for a bit and predict that we'll beat Cameroon and Saudi, draw to Germany, winning the group on goal difference. Then in stage 2 we'll send Slovenia home with a 2-0 win in the last 16, beat Italy after penalties (Given with the winning save). We should dispatch Portugal 2-1 without much bother, then with a bit of luck we'll bring the World Cup home after a 1-0 win over Argentina.

We might as well start celebrating now....

<edit>Slight change in predictions </edit>

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Doh!!
Disregard this

Morrison

Cameroon have such talent-Remeber they did beat France in a friendly during the year. What makes me worry is they play such a different game to what were used to.

Yes they did have a rough ride to the World Cup,but they made it in the end didnt they? As for Saudi Arabia-I feel we can beat them. Germany worry me too-but if we have all our best players present for the matches against Cameroon and Germany we can do ok.

I hope for a top slot place in our Group-if we get 2nd we face the number 1 slot team(Spain probably)and I dont fancy our chances their. Still-getting to first place...

Morrison

Originally posted by Discharger Snake

Well of course we stand a chance!

Sorry for being the pessimistic realist then...:D

Mills

They had to have it at the same time as the leaving cert didn't they, there goes my chances of doing well, I'm not going to miss these matches for anything .

b20uvkft6m5xwg

I sympathise there Mills!

I had to forego most of France 98 'cos of the LC.
[Jaysus doesn't seem like 4 years ago!]

Take solace that the matches are generally repeated ad nauseum!

Dustaz

I hear ye mills, I did my leaving cert during Italia '90, and while the only exam that clashed was a Matric exam and the Romania match (oh yeh, real tough choice there - who needs those fancy colleges anyway:) ), the hangovers and pre-match soirees did put a dent in my already lax study timetables

Baz_

Originally posted by 80project
Did anyone else notice the navy design all over the back of the set(as in tv studio) of the draw had this navy & teal weave design w/ SWASTIKAS all over it !!

Was this an indication that Japan are still an Axis Power after all these years?? Interesting!

swastikas are actually a symbol for protection (the right way round of course), they are also a symbol for some form of karate (shotokan I think), so it would be fairly safe to say the swastika is an important symbol to japan, and even before Hitler it was important.

But getting back on topic, I cant help but feel all optimistic about our chances after reading this, all I can say is GO ON MY SON!!!

mike65

I heard some guy who writes on sport in South Africa
saying that Cameroon not Nigeria are Africas best team,
and that they have 5 players from the national squad playing
Champions League footie this season, oh and they have Africas'
player of the year too!.

Mike.

klong

I also noticed the swastikas all over the wall.
Good thing Israel didn't qualify, so.
I'm thinking of being an examiners slave during the Leaving/Junior Cert exams, so a portable radio will come in handy:

Examiner: Put your pens down please...Ireland have beaten Germany 2-1...please continue writing......

Easiest bit o'cash I'll ever make!!

Bottle_of_Smoke

Swastika's represent good luck or protections or something I think the Nazi thing is to do with the symbol being black red and white, I dunno not a hundred per cent on it but Swastika on it's own not bad.

Anyway lets not get too over optimistic the lads are heroes if they get outta the group, come to think of it heroes already.
Lets hope they score more than 2 goals tho this time eh!?

Anyone know what the story is with Pubs opening early?

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Just as a point of clarification above on the time of Irelands match
-v- Cameroon. Its 7.30 am not 8.30am as previously stated by ME:o

Sounded very Irish Timesy there didn't I:)

gg_666

I dont think its a walkover at all. Certainly easier than Englands group and could have been worse BUT.

Germany are an experienced tournament team, no Argentina I'll admit but they will rise to it.

Cameroon ARE the best team in Africa and have some great players. Only thing is they need to stop fighting over money which ruined their previous World Cup appearances except 1990 of course when they thrilled us all.

Saudi's? well yeah we'd expect them to be crap but they do have the advantage of playing in High humidity all the time which we don't and will have to deal with in Japan.

I'm not saying we won't go through, I believe we have a great chance and if deserved rub of the green continues who knows how far we can progress?

DerekD Goldfish

Cameroon have a lot of good players about the same no of players in top leagues as us. they are great going foward but they do give away a lot of frees which should give harte a few chances to score

Yeats County

Damn Leaving Cert.......Sure, I get to see 2 of the matches but I'll miss the Germany match thanks to English Paper 2.
Damn.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Maybe they will do what they did for Ireland and Iran...set up Tvs in the rooms.....

Yeats County

Not during an Leaving Cert paper they won't.........
I got to go home early for the Iran match, which was nice.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Think yourself lucky, I go to a comprehensive school and got to listen to some girl complain about football from 5-90 or so minutes of the game!

Yeats County

Urgh, that would have been unbearable. I just sat at home and watched it.