WC 2014 qualification draw

Chips and Chocolate · Post by **Chips and Chocolate** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:58 pm

Well chuffed about the draw! No way I'm going to Glasgow & Cardiff though. Belgian away fans are a fuckin' pain in the arse: jester hats, face painting and all

safcftm · Post by **safcftm** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:02 pm

1989 wrote:England's group is not as easy as it looks.

It is like- Montenegro, Ukraine and Poland are all okay, without being anything special, and the good thing is that they will all take points off each other so I think England can afford a few slip ups along the way and still be fine

Mind the best games of the qualifying will be the Serbia v Croatia ones

Post by **Chippy** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:11 pm

1989 wrote:England's group is not as easy as it looks.

6th best team in the world.

Irish Gooner · Post by **Irish Gooner** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:16 pm

England will piss their group I think. Poland and Ukraine are poor.
Montenegro are good but only a 2nd place side at best.

Scotland, and Wales got no chance I feel. N. Ireland have an outside chance their group is quite poor.

Rep Ireland tough enough group I feel, 2nd at most and another play off.....

ThomasMitchell · Post by **ThomasMitchell** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:18 pm

International football =

Just means our players getting injured. Ban international football.

safcftm · Post by **safcftm** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:21 pm

ThomasMitchell wrote:International football =
Just means our players getting injured. Ban international football.

Nope- would hate to be left with nothing but a boring "which of a few ridiculously well funded corporate shitebags are going to win the premier league this year". At least you cant just buy your way to success in international football

ThomasMitchell · Post by **ThomasMitchell** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:24 pm

safcftm wrote:
ThomasMitchell wrote:International football =
Just means our players getting injured. Ban international football.
Nope- would hate to be left with nothing but a boring "which of a few ridiculously well funded corporate shitebags are going to win the premier league this year". At least you cant just buy your way to success in international football

Fair point. Well then lets have a team that does not consist of anyone who plays for the moaners, tottingham or the Chavs. Can never cheer on anyone that plays for that lot.

LDB · Post by **LDB** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:25 pm

safcftm wrote: At least you cant just buy your way to success in international football

As English football proves time & time again

SpanishJoe · Post by **SpanishJoe** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:31 pm

I don't think we could have had a better draw if we'd been allowed to choose. I bet every other top seeded country would gladly swap their group for ours.

How many of us can our Brazilian member cater for?

1989 · Post by **1989** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:15 pm

safcftm wrote:
1989 wrote:England's group is not as easy as it looks.
It is like- Montenegro, Ukraine and Poland are all okay, without being anything special, and the good thing is that they will all take points off each other so I think England can afford a few slip ups along the way and still be fine

Mind the best games of the qualifying will be the Serbia v Croatia ones

Montenegro are not to be underestimated they're leading their Euro 2012 group which has England in it. Poland and Ukraine are very decent teams. We are favorites as always but we've a habit of mucking things up so you never know.

safcftm · Post by **safcftm** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:31 pm

1989 wrote:
safcftm wrote:
1989 wrote:England's group is not as easy as it looks.
It is like- Montenegro, Ukraine and Poland are all okay, without being anything special, and the good thing is that they will all take points off each other so I think England can afford a few slip ups along the way and still be fine

Mind the best games of the qualifying will be the Serbia v Croatia ones
Montenegro are not to be underestimated they're leading their Euro 2012 group which has England in it. Poland and Ukraine are very decent teams. We are favorites as always but we've a habit of mucking things up so you never know.

[pedantic twat] England are actually leading the group on goal difference [/pedantic twat]

I know what you mean though but lets be honest, we'll qualify from that group- Poland are fairly shite, they managed to finish 5th in their world cup 2010 qualifying group and it contained the mighty powerhouses of Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland (yes, they finished below Northern Ireland) and San Marino. In 10 games they got 11 points, 6 of which were against San Marino so 5 points from 8 games against mediocre sides, I think we can safely assume they wont top the group.

Then theres the Ukraine who we finished 6 points ahead of in the 2010 qualification process (losing over there but only when we had already won the group and it was thus a dead rubber for us) and who have gone on to have medoicre friendly results since. I think its safe to assume them and Poland will take points from each other. Montenegro are decent but again, we should easily enough finish ahead of them and they're good enough to take points off Ukraine and Poland. I'm not one of the cocky England fans, but there's 3 teams who will take points off each other and that will mean we wont need to do too spectacularly to top the group. We'll get to 2014 at a canter imo, its just a pain in the arse that we'll lose to the first decent team we play when we get there

northbankbren · Post by **northbankbren** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 1:01 am

Ireland got a nice easy group

RaM · Post by **RaM** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 7:36 am

Tough group for Ireland.

At least Australia should be there.

In a group with Indonesia, Oman and Saudia Arabia...have to progress through that into another draw/group but should be ok.

Magic Hat · Post by **Magic Hat** » Sun Jul 31, 2011 8:37 am

Decent group. The danger is Montenegro as we are already witnessing, Poland aren't very good... Ukraine at best will be gambling on young players breaking through so maybe a transitional period. Or not be very good.