fifa WC draw

leninbenjamin

irish-stew wrote: »

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

i stopped watching it at about 5 and started again 10 minutes later. it's still there running away. their camera man has a real fetish for zooming in real close to people's faces when they're not transmitting.

"are they hearing me in turkey?"

random.

_blank_

We're a shíte team tbh.

Unearthly

I think 2nd is achieveable, but we have to learn how to keep leads. In the past it has killed us going 1-0 up or whatever then losing it and vital points.

Best posible outcome would be to win all our home games(ok Italy draw then), beat Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro away from home, a draw with Bulgaria, and a defeat at Italy

that leaves us with 23 points which should get us 2nd and qualify for a playoff

Vokes

estebancambias wrote: »

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.

I think you're confusing the words team and squad, perhaps?

Bulgaria actually play like a proper team. Playing good football and get results.

Ireland eh... dont. (Fingers crossed the new manager sorts that out)

estebancambias

Your saying that because you live here, I bet on boards.bulgaria they are saying the same thing.

_blank_

estebancambias wrote: »

Your saying that because you live here, I bet on boards.bulgaria they are saying the same thing.

Yeah, and on Boards.it and boards.cyp too.

It's becasue Ireland are shíte, and everyone knows it.

tdv

estebancambias wrote: »

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.

He must have forgot about that day in June of 1994 when he had a shocking game & blew Italy's best chance.

To be fair compared to Italy we don't have much of a History.

estebancambias

No I bet on the Bulgarian boards they are saying our team is crap..we need a better manager..etc. etc.

Unearthly

DesF wrote: »

Yeah, and on Boards.it and boards.cyp too.

It's becasue Ireland are shíte, and everyone knows it.

Most international teams are

Daysha

DesF wrote: »

We're a shíte team tbh.

Judgin by what? A qualifying campaign led by a totally clueless manager and without two of our better players (Duff and Reid) for the most of it?

Pigman II

On boards.mon they're saying "when did we get a football team?"

estebancambias

Remember we had an awful competition and got 17 points with a better group, Bulgaria played above themselves and got 25 points.

_blank_

estebancambias wrote: »

No I bet on the Bulgarian boards they are saying our team is crap..we need a better manager..etc. etc.

Our team is crap, and we need a manager.

deise59 wrote: »

Judgin by what?

Er, results, first and foremost.

It's what most teams are judged on.

deise59 wrote: »

A qualifying campaign led by a totally clueless manager

Agreed

deise59 wrote: »

and without two of our better players (Duff and Reid) for the most of it?

So, we are a shíte team then, because Duffer won't be playing every game in the next campaign either.

DSB

tdv wrote: »

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.

You should work for The Sun.

_blank_

Pigman II wrote: »

On boards.mon they're saying "when did we get a football team?"

Source?

Link?

Nunu

darkman2 wrote: »

Good draw so far part from Cyprus.

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

So we get Italy, the rest of the group is alright though. Croatia vs England & Ireland vs Cyprus talk about history repeating itself

luckylucky wrote: »

Yeah but all the top tier teams are tough, other than Italy, it's not a bad grouop at all imo.

Ibid wrote: »

Group 8
Italy
Ireland
Cyprus
Bulgaria
Montenegro
Georgia

We should get second place. Easy enough group?

deise59 wrote: »

WTF with all the negativitiy!?! Apart from Italy that group is fantastic.

Had to stop reading through at page 5....you guys are deluded as ****!!!

We have a shocker of a group - the best team in Italy,

a really good young up and coming team like Bulgaria(they could be like a Croatia in Euro08 qualifying),

I don't need to say anything about Cyprus,

Georgia are easily the best team in Pot 5,

And to top it all off we get the kick in the balls of the unknown quantity that is Montenegro!! They will show that they are at least 2 tiers higher than where they are starting.

Ah well ,at least i won't get heartbroken this time around, like in every other campaign when I think we have a chance because this time we really do not have a hope. If we do well it will all be a bonus to me.

estebancambias

Nunu have you been watching Sky Sports News?

tdv

DSB wrote: »

You should work for The Sun.

And you should work for The Examiner.

Vokes

estebancambias wrote: »

Remember we had an awful competition and got 17 points with a better group, Bulgaria played above themselves and got 25 points.

Huh ?

Bulgaria were third seeds, they played as expected and finished third.

And Ireland were 4th seeds, yet we finished thrid - technically we played above ourselves in the qualifiers

Daysha

Ok DesF you're basing our "shíteness" on results and a poor manager. But that same manager wont be in charge come September 2008!!! And the results obviously came about by his horrible managing. So I fail to see your logic that we are still "shíte" when both of those reasons wont be factors for the WC Qualifying

tdv

SofaKing wrote: »

Huh ?

Bulgaria were third seeds, they played as expected and finished third.

And Ireland were 4th seeds, yet we finished thrid - technically we played above ourselves in the qualifiers

That just makes us look even more pathetic.

Nunu

Ibid wrote: »

A lot of doom-sayers here.

Italy will walk the group
Cyprus showed us in Croker they're crap
Montenegro are one of the worst teams in the world
Georgia lost 5-1 to Denmark two years ago (granted, we lost by a similar score to Cyprus a year ago...) but they're no world beaters

Which leaves Bulgaria, who are a decent team but who we'll give a good run for their money. Could be a lot worse.

Oh my good God! This thread really has brought out the clueless:D

genericgoon

Thats assuming Deise that we get a decent manager although the signs are promising compared to last time.

Mental Mickey

genericgoon wrote: »

Thats assuming Deise that we get a decent manager although the signs are promising compared to last time.

It couldn't be any worse than last time now, could it???

Daysha

genericgoon wrote: »

Thats assuming Deise that we get a decent manager although the signs are promising compared to last time.

Absolutely. Our last three managers (Kerr, Staunton and McCarthy) had zero international experience and little or no clue management experience. With Venables that wont happen again.

DSB

tdv wrote: »

And you should work for The Examiner.

Good comeback there. Pity you have nothing to base this on. Haha its hilarious how Irish people are over-negative and predict the worst to avoid being disappointed if we don't succeed. We don't have a particularly good team. But its not a particularly bad 1 either. We'll be favourites for 2nd place in this group and with a competent manager we'll probably achieve this. Eastern European teams are consistently overrated and I'm sure if it was Romania or Israel we'd gotten people would have been harping on about them too the same we are about Montenegro. If Ireland perform to their abilities 2nd place is there for the taking. However, as yet we've no evidence to say they will. But the group has given us a chance.

Nunu

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

i think Irish fans are divided into 2 groups at the moment and this thread shows it.

group a) those who have watched Ireland play rubbish over the past few years and simply think we are rubbish and have no chance

and

group b) those who have seen Ireland play rubbish over the past few years but believe the players at our disposal are capable of far better and probably getting a playoff spot in this group

and group c) those who actually know a thing or two about the wider world of football;)

I honestly can't believe the amount of people who think we got anything other than a nightmare group?!

estebancambias

Exactly..I love Ukraine but we(they) are overrated. I think the ''Eastern Europe factor '' thing has been something built up by the media.

The funny thing is people are talking about the style of Bulgaria, but they are actually a really boring team.

genericgoon

Mental Mickey wrote: »

It couldn't be any worse than last time now, could it???

Perhaps not but being slightly better than absolute idiot will not get us any further. We need a HUGE improvement in the quality of manager to succeed in this campaign. The signs are we may get that but its still not cut and dry by any means

Pigman II

Nunu wrote: »

Oh my good God! This thread really has brought out the clueless:D

In fairness tho he is right. Cyprus were crap at Croker. It's just that we somehow managed to be even worse than them

Montenegro are 172 in the FIFA rankings and this system has been found time and again to be flawless.

estebancambias

D) The people who think they know something about football, and other teams because they know 3 players or less from the team and automatically presume because sky sports says they are good they must be.

Erin Go Brath

Theres a lot of assuming going on:

Assuming we've better players than Bulgaria.
Assuming we're going to start playing much better when the WC qualifiers begin.
Assuming we're going to beat Cyprus, and Georgia home and away.
Assuming a new manager will turn around our fortunes straight away.

None of this assuming is based on anything realistic. We will struggle to finish 2nd if our previous form is anything to go by, and lets be honest what other criteria can we go by?

Unearthly

Nunu wrote: »

and group c) those who actually know a thing or two about the wider world of football;)

I honestly can't believe the amount of people who think we got anything other than a nightmare group?!

I doubt you watched Bulgarias matches throughout the whole campaign, know all their players inside out, know what their managers strenghts and weaknesses are etc Same goes for every other team in our group bar Italy

It's all just speculation at the moment

DSB

Nunu wrote: »

and group c) those who actually know a thing or two about the wider world of football;)

I honestly can't believe the amount of people who think we got anything other than a nightmare group?!

Group 3 Czech Republic, Poland, Norn Iron, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino

Group 4 Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein

Group 5 Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia

Group 6 Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra

Group 7 France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands

Compared to these we've done ok.

Mental Mickey

genericgoon wrote: »

Perhaps not but being slightly better than absolute idiot will not get us any further. We need a HUGE improvement in the quality of manager to succeed in this campaign. The signs are we may get that but its still not cut and dry by any means

I nominate Podge & Rodge.

luckylucky

Nunu wrote: »

and group c) those who actually know a thing or two about the wider world of football;)

I honestly can't believe the amount of people who think we got anything other than a nightmare group?!

I think we've established your opinion(and it is only your opinion) at this stage.

DSB

Erin Go Brath wrote: »

Theres a lot of assuming going on:

Assuming we've better players than Bulgaria.
Assuming we're going to start playing much better when the WC qualifiers begin.
Assuming we're going to beat Cyprus, and Georgia home and away.
Assuming a new manager will turn around our fortunes straight away.

None of this assuming is based on anything realistic. We will struggle to finish 2nd if our previous form is anything to go by, and lets be honest what other criteria can we go by?

No1 is assuming a thing. People are simply saying that the negativity of how these teams are going to walk over us is ridiculous. We have as much a chance as anyone.

genericgoon

Pigman II wrote: »

In fairness tho he is right. Cyprus were crap at Croker. It's just that we somehow managed to be even worse than them

Montenegro are 172 in the FIFA rankings and this system has been found time and again to be flawless.

Montenegro as a team and state has been in existence for all of a year and a bit. Tbh nobody knows how good they are for sure. Probably another average team who do well at home and dont travel well. (kinda like Ireland)

Pigman II

estebancambias wrote: »

The funny thing is people are talking about the style of Bulgaria, but they are actually a really boring team.

When I hear "Style of Bulgaria" it always makes me think back to Borislav Mikhailov's lovely haircut at WC94.

estebancambias

DSB has it right. The thing that annoys me is that I know Bulgaria are not that good. They are a well organised team, who rely on defence. They are not anything like Croatia.

Nunu

DesF wrote: »

Is that Klaus Topmuller?

Wonder what he's doing now...

manging Georgia...like i said we're screwed:D

estebancambias wrote: »

Nunu have you been watching Sky Sports News?

No, why

estebancambias

Bulgaria knew how to play against the teams below them. Belarus are lower than Cyprus in the rankings. They drew with the might of ALBANIA at home(similar result to some other international team) drew with the ALBANIANS away.

They beat SLOVENIA twice. SLOVENIA are 76th in the world. They scored 4 goals against LUXEMBOURG.

Pigman II

estebancambias wrote: »

Bulgaria knew how to play against the teams below them. Belarus are lower than Cyprus in the rankings. They drew with the might of ALBANIA at home(similar result to some other international team) drew with the ALBANIANS away.

They beat SLOVENIA twice. SLOVENIA are 76th in the world. They scored 4 goals against LUXEMBOURG.

They also beat group-winners Romania but I guess that doesn't count.

estebancambias

It does but we drew with the Czech Rep. Lost 1-0 away. 1-0 away to Germany. 0-0 at home with Germany.

The result against Romania was an exceptional result, but you have to look at things from a balanced viewpoint. Saying they are better than us without seeing them is stupid.

Erin Go Brath

DSB wrote: »

No1 is assuming a thing. People are simply saying that the negativity of how these teams are going to walk over us is ridiculous. We have as much a chance as anyone.

These teams shouldn't walk over us, but by the same token there's little to suggest we are going to walk over them either.

The underestimating of Bulgaria is probably the most dangerous thing anyone can do. Going by recent results we'll do well to get a couple of draws. I'm not underestimating Ireland, I think we've potential, but Georgia, Bulgaria and co have there eyes on 2nd place too. Cyprus are weak 4th seeds, we should do the double over them, dunno if we will though. This will be a tight group, and i think we've been lucky enough compared to other groups.

Italy will be thrilled to bits with this group. Bulgaria should be favs for 2nd place.Its up to Ireland to raise our game, and prove we're as good as these.

~Rebel~

Quite happy with that group. By no means guaranteed qualiication, but we have every chance to get ourselves through. if we dont make it out of this group, we don't deserve to be going anyway.

Pigman II

So in four out of four games we nearly did something but in reality didn't? I'd have been interested to see what those scorelines had been if they were winner-takes-all matches.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

estebancambias

The reality is had we beaten Cyprus twice and managed to hold on against Wales, we would have got more points than the Bulgars.

DSB

Erin Go Brath wrote: »

These teams shouldn't walk over us, but by the same token there's little to suggest we are going to walk over them either.

The underestimating of Bulgaria is probably the most dangerous thing anyone can do. Going by recent results we'll do well to get a couple of draws. I'm not underestimating Ireland, I think we've potential, but Georgia, Bulgaria and co have there eyes on 2nd place too. Cyprus are weak 4th seeds, we should do the double over them, dunno if we will though. This will be a tight group, and i think we've been lucky enough compared to other groups.

Italy will be thrilled to bits with this group. Bulgaria should be favs for 2nd place.Its up to Ireland to raise our game, and prove we're as good as these.

No1 will be underestimating anyone I'm sure. There are no particularly poor teams in the group. We just did well enough to get only 1 particularly good team in the group with us. I haven't actually heard anyone say they think we'll cruise to 2nd place. But personally I would see us as favourites for it.