ROIs playoff for 2010 World Cup.. teams to avoid?

~Rebel~

sugarman wrote: »

After, rankings are published on the 16th Oct AFAIK.

Interesting, Portugal could find themselves shunted into the 2nd tier pot.

m@cc@

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Interesting, Portugal could find themselves shunted into the 2nd tier pot.

Unlikely considering they beat Hungary at the weekend and face Malta at home on Wednesday.

ShooterSF

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Interesting, Portugal could find themselves shunted into the 2nd tier pot.

Is Fifa's algorithm transparent? If not, it ain't happening

ditpoker

A Primal Nut wrote: »

Switzerland only need a draw at home to Isreal to qualify. Greece are our only hope...realistically.
Not sure Russia are as good as everyone says...they lost twice to an average German. We wouldn't have much chance against them.

Even to beat Greece we can't depend on set pieces we need to score from open play against a good team for once.

And I wonder if we will ever beat a good team away from home in a competitive fixture.

the germans are FAR from average...

the majority of their players play in germany so perhaps people over here know less about them. Also, from the irish squad I'd say only shay given would get into the german team. they really are quality... if russia were able to push them that close then i want ireland to avoid russia.

i think i'd prefer to get france or portugal, if we're gonna get there, we may aswell get their at ronaldo's expense, or that french shower that cost us last time out (sure its pretty much the same team just older).

ElaElaElano

The general consensus is Russia and I agree completely. Laugh if you want but assuming they qualify, they're my outside bet to win the World Cup. Guus Hiddink is the best manager currently working, he'll go down in my mind anyway as one of the greatest of all time. An absolute genius. They have fantastic technical ability, are well drilled in their system of playing and will cause problems. So a definite no to them.

Have to say I'm not in agreement with the general feeling about France though. They're going through a poor run at the moment and yeah, Domenech is a bit of a nutter but as someone said they have so many big game players who can grind out wins when absolutely necessary. Ribery, Anelka, Henry, Benzema, to name but four. No, wouldn't fancy that at all.

I think against Portugal there's a real chance of an upset. They have a number of tempermental, primadonna type players who I can see crumbling at Croke Park with 80,000 people roaring and urging Ireland on. Their home form is poor as well, and Quieroz is a very good coach but far from brilliant as the main man. Throw in that Ronaldo is apparently out for a month and I think the pluses outweigh the minuses. It probably sounds absurd but I really would fancy this one.

Greece or Switzerland would be ideal though. They're both lacking in quality but are quite scrappy like our good selves, and I think with Trap's experience of seeing out tight games this would be perfect. Actually Switzerland would be absolutely perfect in every way. Not gonna happen then!

civis_liberalis

thomond2006 wrote: »

teams to avoid?

Teams that play football.

loyatemu

Definitely would want to avoid Russia, I don't think there's any way in hell we would beat them over 2 legs.

All the others I think we'd have a chance, though Greece are clearly the weakest of the top ranked sides.

BTW - just looking at all the group tables and remaining fixtures, the current 2nd-placed teams are likely to remain the same - Slovenia and Slovakia might swap places, but that makes no difference to us. Portugal, Greece and Ukraine are all playing minnows in their final games.

GavRedKing

id like to avoid Russia as has been mentioned they are nearly unbeatable at home, cold weather, astro pitch great fans hard to travel to in numbers.

Give me Greece or France and we can go to the world cup on high.

Nalz

1) Russia - pitch, weather, atmostphere, players
2) Portugal
3) France
4) Greece

I doubt Croatia and Switzerland will be in the playoffs, you never know though. Swiss and Greece would be my favourites to get

Rekop dog

The thoughts of Ireland vs Greece as a footballing spectical makes me get sick in my mouth! The two most negative teams in Europe if not the world collide in a winner takes all clash! They may as well skip to the penalty shootout straight away because two 0-0 draws are as about as inevitable as possible!

Joeyjoejoe43

Id take Greece, Portugal, France, Russia in that order. I'd give us a fighting chance against 3 of the 4, but if we get Russia we're in serious trouble, therefore, I reckon we'll get Russia. This decision to use seeding at the last minute is a discrace, Platini pulling as many strings for his homeland as he can..

cournioni

I personally think that Greece and Russia are the ones to avoid. I would take France and Portugal in that order opposed to the other two.

Ireland need to play a big team that are slightly soft. If Ireland get stuck into either France or Portugal I think we would have a really good chance. It wouldn't rattle the likes of Greece or Russia.

Ireland, like the Scots and Northern Ireland nearly always play well against the bigger teams, and underestimate/under perform against the half-decent sides.

briany

PORNAPSTER wrote: »

I personally think that Greece and Russia are the ones to avoid. I would take France and Portugal in that order opposed to the other two.

Ireland need to play a big team that are slightly soft. If Ireland get stuck into either France or Portugal I think we would have a really good chance. It wouldn't rattle the likes of Greece or Russia.

Ireland, like the Scots and Northern Ireland nearly always play well against the bigger teams, and underestimate/under perform against the half-decent sides.

I think it's probably true of any team though. I mean look at the confederations cup. Spain dumped out by the USA, Italy beaten by Egypt, Spain pushed all the way by South Africa, Brazil almost being beaten by the USA. Maybe it's just human nature- people will do what they think is enough to get by but sometimes what they think is enough isn't. This hopefully will work in Ireland's favour come the time of the playoffs. I think it's important for Ireland not to score to early, if they score at all, because it seems that if they score an early goal it's only matter of time before they implode and give one away again- as we all know. What is it about teams from this part of the world that they always seem to bottle it? Even England do but at least their bottling is usually in the quarters or the semis.

Nalz

Russia will definitely be the worst

Fr Tod Umptious

This may be stating the obvious I know but no matter who we get we have a problem with conceding goals

So on our home leg we cannot allow the oposition get an away goal, pretty impossible I reckon

loyatemu

PORNAPSTER wrote: »

Ireland, like the Scots and Northern Ireland nearly always play well against the bigger teams, and underestimate/under perform against the half-decent sides.

when did we last beat a "bigger" team though...

Pighead

loyatemu wrote: »

when did we last beat a "bigger" team though...

Can't remember any since Roy Keane beat Holland in 2001.

Nalz

Pighead wrote: »

Can't remember any since Roy Keane beat Holland in 2001.

didnt we beat them again after that? Was a friendly though

sslazio11

Greece, Greece, Greece, Greece, Greece. They're far and away our best chance of qualifying for the WC.

As noted by others, we haven't beaten an international team of high quality since 2001. Russia are a really, really good team who would handle us with ease in Moscow.

France and Portugal might be inconsistent, but we're a limited side who are incapable of defending a lead, and France have enough quality players to take advantage of that, while the thought of Ronaldo v Kevin Kilbane makes me wince.

Greece might be even more limited than we are, and therefore represent our best chance of winning over the two legs.

If we draw any of the other 3, I fear winning on away goals is our best case scenario. Still, the fact that we're ina play-off is more than I thought we would achieve this time round, so we're in bonus territory as far as I'm concerned.

sslazio11

Trilla wrote: »

didnt we beat them again after that? Was a friendly though

Beat them in Amsterdam on the eve of Euro 2004 with a cracking Robbie Keane goal.

briany

The more I think about it, the more I think maybe it shouldn't be Greece. I mean Ireland are most likely to bottle it against similar opposition and Greece are the most similar of the top seeds.

cournioni

loyatemu wrote: »

when did we last beat a "bigger" team though...

True, but then again Stan has been over us for a large chunk of that time!

noodler

PORNAPSTER wrote: »

True, but then again Stan has been over us for a large chunk of that time!

Ah here its been over eight years since the Dutch game. We can't blame Stan for everything!

Stan was only in charge for around 18 months.

Rondolfus

noodler wrote: »

Ah here its been over eight years since the Dutch game. We can't blame Stan for everything!.

We can sure try

joe123

Ronaldo is out for the next 4 weeks...If he wasnt back in time for the qualifiers I wouldnt mind getting Portugal.

Does a win over montenegro mean anything wednesday now regards seeding or....well yeah seeding? Even the slightest chance it will cause something good to happen?

Zonda999

joe123 wrote: »

Ronaldo is out for the next 4 weeks...If he wasnt back in time for the qualifiers I wouldnt mind getting Portugal.

It would certainly help our chances, Portugals attack force aint up to a whole lot without him.

ArmaniJeanss

joe123 wrote: »

Does a win over montenegro mean anything wednesday now regards seeding or....well yeah seeding? Even the slightest chance it will cause something good to happen?

For the World Cup, No.

For UEFA 2012, possibly.

51 teams chasing 14 qualifying slots so they are likely to go 9 groups (some with 5 teams, some with 6 teams) with the 9 winners, best Runner Up and 4 playoffs to decide the 14. This is similar to the system used for 2010 and is preferred by M Platini to the previous system which was larger groups with top2 qualifying and no playoffs, which was used for Euro 2008.

So being in the Top 18 in Europe would mean we would be in Pot2 of this draw, effectively seeded to at least get a playoff place. Currently we are ranked 21st if you ignore Poland and Ukraine (hosts), with apparently every chance of overtaking NornIron, Turkey and Scotland in next months list.

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=27275&rank=185

So a win on Wednesday is still important to our long term health.

ArmaniJeanss

^^^^^^^^
Is a bit wrong according to UEFAs website. As I guessed there will be 9 groups with 9+1+4 qualifying but apparently they won't be using Fifa World rankings but something called the UEFA National Coefficent.
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro2012/news/newsid=901647.html
We are ranked 20 (ignoring Poland & Ukraine) so could really really do with being in the top 18 after our games against Montenegro and the Playoff.

UEFA National team rankings as at 29th September 2009 from UEFAs website (this is a pdf file).
http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/Download/uefa/KeyTopics/90/14/55/901455_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Boskowski

Been watching Russia-Germany the other night and I think Russia would be trouble. I know Ireland usually don't concede much but Russia has serious playing abilities and Ireland hasn't exactly looked rock solid under pressure lately. As for the pitch I wouldn't overrate that as its one of those top class new astro turf pitches, not like the crap we've been playing on years ago. The German players didn't find it much of a factor. If anything its kinda too good, as the perfect surface would def'ny suit a playing team like Russia.

Greece could be awkward because Ireland might be tempted to run the show against them.

Haven't seen much of the other two teams lately but for some strange reason I think Portugal might suit.

briany

Will this draw be televised? Will it be on the radio? Will there be a webcast of the draw? Would it be in their interest give live media coverage to it? They could get ratings from at least 8 countries, no? Give it a half an hour to an hour of pointless ceremony for a 2 minute draw and there you go. I think we'd all prefer to see the draw live.

greendom

Brian Kerr has just been on Radio 5 Live saying how France were the best team in his group and he can't understand how they are in the play-offs. Not suprisingly he reckons that Greece would be the best opponents for Ireland.

He did say though that the fact that France were unable to beat off opponents they were so superior to does point to a degree of vulnerability there

JerryHandbag

I still have nightmares about our last trip to Russia.....4 goals conceded and a comedy cameo own goal from Phil Babb! :eek:

shanec1928

Greece would be the best team to get,the Russians lost their first game at home against the Germans

ArmaniJeanss

Whats the best conspiracy theory?

Roman uses his oil billions to bribe his way to get Bosnia.
Then M Platini uses his political contacts to get whichever is second in the Slovenia/Slovakia group.
Which leaves us with Portugal or Greece.
It would be nice if we were the benificiary of a tin hat this time.

briany

Did anyone see the back of today's Evening Herald? The headline says "We're the team no-one wants" How true do you think that is? And also, like i asked earlier as I'd love to know, does anyone know if the playoff draw will be televised or not?

ArmaniJeanss

briany wrote: »

does anyone know if the playoff draw will be televised or not?

I'd be 99.9% sure it will be, every other FIFA draw/shindig has been televised as it gives the sponsors exposure.

Boskowski

forza rovers wrote: »

Greece would be the best team to get,the Russians lost their first game at home against the Germans

And while we were not bad - the goal was pretty neat - we needed Rene Adler to have a fantastic day and the ref not to give a clear cut penalty to come out there with a win. Not totally undeserved but lucky all the same. Russia were just as dangerous as everybody expects them to be.

dannydiamond

joe123 wrote: »

Does a win over montenegro mean anything wednesday now regards seeding or....well yeah seeding? Even the slightest chance it will cause something good to happen?

As far as this campaign is concerned,this is about as much a nothing game as one could imagine.
The FAI certainly knew what they were at making people buy tickets for this if they wanted to go to the Italy match.

Portugal without Ronaldo would be my first choice in the draw,but if he's fit,the little fkkers that good we'd want to avoid them.

Greece would be a scrap but I'd back Ireland over the two legs.

Russia would be tough,Ireland would be significant underdogs.I noticed a few people mentioning the weather conditions over there,not much to worry about on that score,there shouldn't be any harsh conditions at that time of year,no worse than here or England really,the 'home' pitch would be much more a concern.


France would be a disaster imo,over two legs Ireland would just get outplayed,they are way too good for us and this would be my team to avoid.

Penalties could be a huge concern no matter who we play,also playing at home in the second leg is just as important.

I really hope it's dawned on every single member of Irelands squad to get the finger out and start practising their penalties and asking for help and advice from their club keepers,no matter who we draw we have to be prepared for this not unlikely eventuality.

Btw who do you think would be our pen takers and in what order?

The_B_Man

Keane
doyle (if not subbed after 65mins)
hunt
lawrence
JOSH

---

mcgeady
rest of midfield
defenders
given

BaZmO*

Russia imo are the ones to avoid. It's a tough place to travel to and get a result, I think Germany were the only ones to beat them there.

Portugal haven't been great at home, terrible in fact.

France would be a difficult to get a result from away from home but I would love if we got them and beat them just to wipe the smile off Platini's face!

After that I don't mind who we get but one thing I can guarantee is that none of the seeded teams will want to get us either.

helimachoptor

from BBC Sport

"I know enough about British football to know that I don't want to be drawn against the Republic of Ireland," said Andrey Arshavin on Monday.

Dancor

helimachoptor wrote: »

from BBC Sport

And apparently the French media are hyping us up as the one's to avoid.

everdead.ie

There was some talk on bbc sport about Ireland possibly being seeded if results go there way but looking at the table i can't see how we could possibly make up the gap.

Latest rankings
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=27275&rank=185

We're 13 places behind the Ukraine who just beat England over 80 points already

Actually just looking at the tables and if sweeden qualify at the expense of potugal we would be seeded but portugal play malta next i think

BaZmO*

There ya go!

It's not surprising really when you look at our record in the group.

Prufrock

Nobody wants to play a team like us. We are a terrible banana skin for one of the seeded teams. Also the fact that we played Italy twice and didn't lose will raise a few eyebrows. I'd like to get Greece, would like to avoid Russia.

griffdaddy

when are the play off draws and play offs themselves?

briany

Yeah I was looking at some forums in the countries of the seeded teams using a translator the other day and the general feeling was that the order of teams from one they'd least like to most like is: Ireland, Bosnia, Ukraine and Slovakia/Slovenia.

Dancor

griffdaddy wrote: »

when are the play off draws and play offs themselves?

Draw is Monday, I think and Games mid November..........................I think.

briany

Yeah, draw's next moday. Not sure what time though. Hopefully there'll be some form of live coverage on it if only to make sure the FIFA heads aren't cheating although if they really wanted to I'm sure they would find a way in any case.

killwill

Dancor wrote: »

Draw is Monday, I think and Games mid November..........................I think.

That is correct. the dates for games are 14th and 18th I believe. I read somewhere that there is a possibility of these games clashing with rugby internationals. If Croker was not available, where would the games be played?
Semple Stadium? Pairc Ui Caoimh?????