fifa WC draw

Time Magazine

We've a decent team:

Given

Finnan----Dunne----O'Brien/McShane----O'Shea/Kilbane

McGeady----Carsley----Reid----Duff/Hunt

Doyle---Keane

Are all Premiership players (McGeady and Reid would get their games at some Premiership clubs). There's no reason to suggest we can't come in ahead of Montenegro, Cyprus and Georgia. Whether we can beat Bulgaria is debateable, but it's certainly not unachievable.

Mint Sauce

is any one still watching the rte link, whats the story with this german fella, does he not relaise he's live to ireland

opr

copacetic wrote: »

lol at opr who thinks we could have hoped for better. if anything we got the second easiest draw of all the 3rd seeds, i'd prefer our group to every one except group 2.

Which one would you have preferred on wise one?

I look at that group and i think oh god look at those away night in eastern europe against really hostile crowds when it will be required we put in massive performances to get results. Ok so lots of other teams will need to do this in other groups i hear you say ......... we may as well set up camp in eastern europe for the quailtyfing campaign.

Anyone who watched the Bulgaria(u21) game against Ireland would know what a good side they have emerging. They are technically very very good with some really good individual players coming through.

People are saying look at cyprus they are no great shakes. Do you think cyprus are looking at us and shivering in their boots ??? !!! They will show us no respect and no fear and you can expect more tough games from them with lots of history now in the mix between the two sides to make it even more difficult.

Italy .... enough said.

I think that on paper it looks ok but if you actually know anything about football and look at the group as a whole will all the long difficult away journeys we will have to make couple with the fact that i think most of them will give us a decent game its a really tough group.

IMO i hope we still can quailfy all i was trying to point out is that some people seem to think we are a shoe in for second which is not true IMHO.

Opr

Mint Sauce

dbnavan wrote: »

Anyone watching it on RTE.ie there is some german bloke waiting to be interveiwed and he is going mad, doesnt realise its being broadcast!

**EDIT I think RTE are using fifa link

he's being dying live on TV for about 5 minutes

estebancambias

''think that on paper it looks ok but if you actually know anything about football and look at the group as a whole will all the long difficult away journeys we will have to make couple with the fact that i think most of them will give us a decent game its a really tough group''

I accept the point of the difficult away journeys, but people will try to examine the negatives too closely.

The Montengro crap is annoying me.

dbnavan

LMAO He is whistling at someone he wants to interview, I am LMAO here

Mint Sauce

Unearthly wrote: »

Am I right in saying there will be atleast 1 runner up that won't make the playoffs and will be out?

looks like that, only the best 8 runners up from the 9 groups go to the play offs

ps, the german fella is now discussing something with his production crew and still going live on rte.ie

estebancambias

Link?

Pigman II

Yeay! We're gonna win the group. Or at least come joint first.

What? Not allowed say that? Isn't that the same mindless/groundless optimism I ususally read here every two years after a group stage is drawn. Look how far we've come!

Mint Sauce

dbnavan wrote: »

LMAO He is whistling at someone he wants to interview, I am LMAO here

its brilliant, although starting to wish i tried harder at german GCSE

_blank_

Is that Klaus Topmuller?

Wonder what he's doing now...

estebancambias

No what I hate is the people on here who believe the crap. We have way better players then the three teams behind us...bettter players than Bulgaria, and inferior to Italy, but that does not mean we cannot beat them.

dbnavan

estebancambias wrote: »

Link?

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/live/26gb/rsw2-450.asx

_blank_

Brian Barwick on now...hope we get to hear this anyway.

tdv

Well Loose to Georgia (maybe get a point), Bulgaria & Cyprus away from home. I'm not sure about the Monty's, thats entering the unknown zone.

There's a very realistic chance we could finish bottom. I wouldnt be suprised one bit if we did.

dbnavan

English interviewer now.

leninbenjamin

irish-stew wrote: »

is any one still watching the rte link, whats the story with this german fella, does he not relaise he's live to ireland

what was he saying? i stopped watching to make tea and now it's over

estebancambias

Will you stop.....

MisterAnarchy

I hope that the FAI in their wisdom do not try to play Italy the top seeds in the first or second game of qualifying ,a strategy that has horribly backfired in the last 2 qualifying campaigns.

Mint Sauce

estebancambias wrote: »

Link?

rte.ie, although scared to close window incase link doesn't come back up, links been a bit patchy for the last few minutes

http://www.rte.ie/live/index.html

english FA up now

estebancambias

tdv wrote: »

Well Loose Georgia (maybe get a point), Bulgaria & Cyprus away from home. I'm not sure about the Monty's, thats entering the unknown zone.

There's a very realistic chance we could finish bottom. I wouldnt be suprised one bit if we did.

Will you stop.

Daysha

estebancambias wrote: »

No what I hate is the people on here who believe the crap. We have way better players then the three teams behind us...bettter players than Bulgaria, and inferior to Italy, but that does not mean we cannot beat them.

100% agree.

What I hate is mindless pessimistic fans who only assume the worst out of their country. With a new manager and more mature players, every team in that group is beatable.

Mint Sauce

leninbenjamin wrote: »

what was he saying? i stopped watching to make tea and now it's over

dont know to be honest, long time ago since i done german GSCE, most of it was him chating with his camera/production crew,

tdv

Stop what? It's very realistic it could happen.

leninbenjamin

irish-stew wrote: »

rte.ie, although scared to close window incase link doesn't come back up, links been a bit patchy for the last few minutes

http://www.rte.ie/live/index.html

english FA up now

rte can't be accessed from their site anymore.
http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/live/26gb/rsw2-450.asx

Bounty Hunter

wouldent imagine it would change but are we still going to play Italy in a friendly, is that game set in stone?

estebancambias

Its not realistic, its impossible. Cyprus do not have a good team...Montonegro are not good either(1-0 win against Estonia)

Daysha

tdv wrote: »

Stop what? It's very realistic it could happen.

Stop talking crap. Coming last in a WC qualifying group means less than 5 or 6 points. Are you assuming we wont beat Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro at home?

DSB

tdv wrote: »

Well Loose to Georgia (maybe get a point), Bulgaria & Cyprus away from home. I'm not sure about the Monty's, thats entering the unknown zone.

There's a very realistic chance we could finish bottom. I wouldnt be suprised one bit if we did.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Unearthly

lol this feed, no-one knows its always live

ecoli

i think it not so much bout the group rather are long line of under performing against the lesser teams like if we sort that i reckon we can take 2nd thou i wouldnt out it past bulgaria to be a dark horse but yea it is a good chance of us makin it

Bounty Hunter

ecoli wrote: »

i think it not so much bout the group rather are long line of under performing against the lesser teams like if we sort that i reckon we can take 2nd thou i wouldnt out it past bulgaria to be a dark horse but yea it is a good chance of us makin it

wouldent call Bulgaria dark horses they are seeded above us

leninbenjamin

Unearthly wrote: »

lol this feed, no-one knows its always live

yeah wtf is going on? i think someone forgot to select the stop transmitting button. it looks like it's just a camera station that's used for interviews for various different stations.

evad_lhorg

not a bad group at all.

The Volt

We CAN finish second yes. But the one that worries me is that only 4 of the best 2nd placed teams go through. We're bound to drop points along the way and It'll be tough to get into that best quartet.

Vokes

estebancambias wrote: »

No what I hate is the people on here who believe the crap. We have way better players then the three teams behind us...bettter players than Bulgaria, and inferior to Italy, but that does not mean we cannot beat them.

That's a bit of an over-generalization.

I would argue that Bulgaria have, at least, better attacking players than us in Berbatov, the 2 Petrovs and Bojinov. They are a very experienced team and only narrowly missed out on the Euros.

PHB

How good are Bulgaria?

_blank_

PHB wrote: »

How good are Bulgaria?

No doubt you'll become an expert when Berbatov signs for Utd.

Erin Go Brath

Do we really have better players than Bulgaria? I have my doubts, and am wondering what people are basing than on Bulgaria have had an impressing qualifying campaign, and are very unlucky not to be going to the euros. They only lost to Holland away, and took 4 points from Romania. Think boardsies are underestimating Bulgaria big time!

cregser

deise59 wrote: »

Looks lets put things in perspective. Heres what the groups would look like if we were in the other groups

Group 1:
Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Hungary, Albania, Malta
LMAO Horrible group. We wouldnt have a hope

Group 2:
Greece, Israel, Ireland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
The only other group easier than ours.

Group 3:
Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino
Tough. Any of those first 5 could do well

Group 4:
Germany, Russia, Ireland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
Very tough. Azerbaijan away, Wales improving and we didnt do well at all against Russia in 04 qual. or Germany in 08 qual.

Group 5:, Spain, Turkey, Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia
Ouch. One of the toughest possible groups

Group 6:
Croatia, England, Ireland, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Under Bilic Croatia are a v.good team and England are by far the best 2nd seeds.

Group 7:
France, Romania, Ireland, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
Meh. Lithania and Austria would probably be tougher than Georgia and Cyprus.

Group 9:
Holland, Scotland, Ireland, FYR Macedonia, Iceland
Not too bad.

Now all in all our group isn't bad. We could have got England, Sweden or Turkey but got Bulgaria. We have a real chance

All that pales into insignificance when you realise that Italy are bound to finish first in the group leaving us with a playoff place. Now look at all the other teams likely to be in the playoffs and consider our history in those games.

I think we can finish top 2 in our group but the playoffs are the big worry.

Our Group:

Italy - World Champions - says it all. But we are perennial underdogs.

Bulgaria - Finished 3rd in Euro qualifiers but unlike us, were actually close. They seem to have good home and poor away form. They're similar in quality of players to us. Although they have a much more developed national league than us (CSKA Sofia, Lokomotiv Sofia, & Levski Sofia making more inroads to UEFA competitions than our teams) only their attacking players are snapped up by the top European leagues - Berbatov (26), Martin Petrov (28) and Valeri Bojinov (21) being the most notable names.

Cyprus - We should get revenge on these guys. Finished second bottom in Euro qualifiers but got the most points of all 2nd last teams. Hard to now whether this will spur them on next time.

Georgia - Also finished second last in Scotlands group. Star player is Kakha Kaladze of AC Milan.

Montenegro - An unknown quantity really. Previous results with few goals conceded suggest a decently organised outfit.

Pigman II

Well Bulgaria are a hell of a lot better than us if their Euro2008 stats are anything to go by.

Mint Sauce

leninbenjamin wrote: »

rte can't be accessed from their site anymore.
http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/live/26gb/rsw2-450.asx

if you weren't watching it from the start, dont think you can pick it up now, opened rte on a second window and the link was no longer there

getting back to our own draw, and considering the fact that only 8 of the 9 runners up go to the play offs, we are still going to have to play quite well to be one of those 8 teams considering italys in the group, have to rememeber that the irish team is going through a major transition, hopfully by the time the WC qualifiers come around the younger players will have developed, hopfully with the right coaching from who ever the FAI pick

plus, if this celtic nations goes ahead or if ireland are inloved in a home nations competition with england, n ireland, scotland and wales, it will be good practise for the qulaifiers

estebancambias

Quote from Donadoni ''Ireland do not have a football history''.....WHAT!!!! That is so dumb.

Bulgaria good players Bojinov, Petrov, Berbatov and the Petrov off Aston Villa.

genericgoon

Im predicting 3rd or 4th unless the new manager actually makes a decent unit out of our team in which case 2nd seems viable.

Daysha

Pigman II wrote: »

Well Bulgaria are a hell of a lot better than us if their Euro2008 stats are anything to go by.

If those stats are compared to Ireland Euro 2008 stats, then thats no surprise. Irelands 08 stats should be wiped from history

estebancambias

Go on Wikipedia and look at the clubs these players off Bulgaria play for!!! We have a better team. That is not to say we will definetly beat them, but they are no better than us. They had an easier group than us as well.

Vokes

Well, I reckon we'll make a decent go of it, maybe even snatch a draw from Italy at home, compete well with the other big gun (Bulgaria) but probably mess up away to 2 of Georgia / Montengro / Cyprus, thereby guaranteeing us third spot as per our seeding

_blank_

deise59 wrote: »

If those stats are compared to Ireland Euro 2008 stats, then thats no surprise. Irelands 08 stats should be wiped from history

Why? Because they show us up for what we are?

A shíte team.

tdv

deise59 wrote: »

Stop talking crap. Coming last in a WC qualifying group means less than 5 or 6 points. Are you assuming we wont beat Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro at home?

Well Cyprus outplayed us at home last time. Maybe you havent watched Ireland latley but we can't play football. We are worse than England at over-hyping our national team.

Daysha

DesF wrote: »

Why? Because they show us up for what we are?

A shíte team.

No, we're a good team with a shíte organisation and a former shíte manager.

There's a difference