Ishmael Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 The Scots have their best chance of qualifying in a while. That's a very even group indeed. Hope Belgium return to a WC myself. Group G looks very even too. Belgium and Croatia will most likely be battling it out for the top spot. Scotland will probably do well to get 3rd imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza ladra Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 The ESPN folks immediately declared Group I the"group of death". Ok, Spain yes. And France, but after that? Belarus, Georgia and Finland? Two horse race. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RupertCommunicator Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I can see how this will go. England will play turboshite but still scrape through. Come the finals, the media hype machine will go into overdrive, only to be followed by 11 total pricks putting in gutless displays against shit teams and bombing out again. Happens in four year cycles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 The ESPN folks immediately declared Group I the"group of death". Ok, Spain yes. And France, but after that? Belarus, Georgia and Finland? Two horse race. Clearly discounted the Ketsbaia factor when weighing up this group. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stifler Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Group C is the group of death. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 The ESPN folks immediately declared Group I the"group of death". Ok, Spain yes. And France, but after that? Belarus, Georgia and Finland? Two horse race. Clearly discounted the Ketsbaia factor when weighing up this group. Has he lost a game yet? He was 8 unbeaten or some shit? [/expectsthistobewildlyuntrue] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan_Taylor Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 The ESPN folks immediately declared Group I the"group of death". Ok, Spain yes. And France, but after that? Belarus, Georgia and Finland? Two horse race. Clearly discounted the Ketsbaia factor when weighing up this group. Ketsbaia at the World Cup Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Why do we always draw Iceland? They're our fucking bogey team, we always fuck up against them. Other than that I don't think the draw could've gone much better for us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segun Oluwaniyi Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 All these random African Nations are fantastic. Lee Evans: "Gonorrhea... Herpes... Madeupistan!" Aye, it wasn't far off that like. Some Scottish lad on another forum: The whole confederation system is bullshit. I know we want representation from all over the world and all that but UEFA is ridiculously stacked. Scotland will end up losing out again from being in pot 4 despite being able to win pretty much any of the African or Asian zone groups. I doubt that, tbh. Until your playing in 40 degree heat on a dirt pitch in some God-forsaken country, while feeling genuinely in danger, it is difficult to say what you would do. Away matches are difficult everywhere for everyone. Anyway, Africa and Asia's groups also appear easier because of the format. Asia's best teams go into a much more difficult group, while Africa's top 10 are subjected to ridiculous two match aggregate ties. I also don't understand what makes Brazil and Qatar especially difficult for Europeans. Qatar especially is only 7-8 hours away, which is just a night. Anyway, fairly happy with Nigeria's group. Malawi really shouldn't be an issue, nor should the four other teams that could possibly constitute our group (you never know with these jokers tbf though). The real challenge should be the playoff matches as you should expect. Looking at the rest of the groups, I fully expect Mali and Guinea to qualify above Algeria and Egypt respectively. Morocco have a fairly good team, and they will give Cote D'Ivoire all it can handle I believe. Zambia could provide a stern test for Ghana based on their 2010 ACN showing (I think Ghana should still walk that group, though). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtype Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Scotland They wouldn't even qualify out of Asia. Seriously. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segun Oluwaniyi Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Why do we always draw Iceland? They're our f***ing bogey team, we always f*** up against them. Other than that I don't think the draw could've gone much better for us. FIFA rankings are really annoying me at this point. How are Norway 12th? They haven't qualified for any major tournament in recent times, so they have accumulated nothing from the World Cup or Euros. They have nice wins over France and Portugal, but this is really all there is. Same with Burkina Faso. Why are they ranked above Nigeria and Cameroon? They qualified for 1 out of the last three ACNs and tallied 1 point in their 2010 showing. It reminds me of when Nigeria's ranking shot up to 12th around the 2006 World Cup because we didn't qualify and got to beat many rubbish teams. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
matta Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Why do we always draw Iceland? They're our f***ing bogey team, we always f*** up against them. Other than that I don't think the draw could've gone much better for us. FIFA rankings are really annoying me at this point. How are Norway 12th? They haven't qualified for any major tournament in recent times, so they have accumulated nothing from the World Cup or Euros. They have nice wins over France and Portugal, but this is really all there is. Same with Burkina Faso. Why are they ranked above Nigeria and Cameroon? They qualified for 1 out of the last three ACNs and tallied 1 point in their 2010 showing. It reminds me of when Nigeria's ranking shot up to 12th around the 2006 World Cup because we didn't qualify and got to beat many rubbish teams. Norway have also beaten Argentina and Germany since we started climbing the rankinglist. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Why do we always draw Iceland? They're our f***ing bogey team, we always f*** up against them. Other than that I don't think the draw could've gone much better for us. FIFA rankings are really annoying me at this point. How are Norway 12th? They haven't qualified for any major tournament in recent times, so they have accumulated nothing from the World Cup or Euros. They have nice wins over France and Portugal, but this is really all there is. Same with Burkina Faso. Why are they ranked above Nigeria and Cameroon? They qualified for 1 out of the last three ACNs and tallied 1 point in their 2010 showing. It reminds me of when Nigeria's ranking shot up to 12th around the 2006 World Cup because we didn't qualify and got to beat many rubbish teams. FIFA rankings are basically saying what form various national sides are in, nothing more. We're one of the most in-form teams at the moment, hence we're near the top of the list. If you take it as a "THESE TEAMS HAVE THE BEST PLAYERS RIGHT NOW AND SHIT, LOLZ!" of course you'll get annoyed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segun Oluwaniyi Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I understand the fickleness of rankings and fair play to Norway, I did not realise they had also defeated Germany. Still, a problems arises when these rankings are then used to seed qualification tournaments. It just seems absurd to me that a nation can fail to qualify for every major competition in which they are allowed to compete and still be placed so highly by the system. I don't see the logic in that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pata Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Crushing for Finland. Once again qualifiers over before start. Not that we've been any good in couple of years but still. How can we draw Spain and France when there are teams like Greece and Norway (no disrespect) as topseeds. Depressing... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Some of those seedings are a bit of a joke, like. Norway and Wales especially. Also seeing Montenegro in a higher pot than Switzerland is odd. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Some of those seedings are a bit of a joke, like. Norway and Wales especially. Also seeing Montenegro in a higher pot than Switzerland is odd. Wales are shit. They haven't a point in qualifying and I think they've scored 1 goal, whereas the Faroes have four points and were pretty close to having another 3. They've got nobody but themselves to blame for ending up in the bottom pot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Group G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Aye, compare group G to group I. Belorrusia/Finland/Georga will be cursing their luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ketsbaia Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 Some of those seedings are a bit of a joke, like. Norway and Wales especially. Also seeing Montenegro in a higher pot than Switzerland is odd. Wales are shit. They haven't a point in qualifying and I think they've scored 1 goal, whereas the Faroes have four points and were pretty close to having another 3. They've got nobody but themselves to blame for ending up in the bottom pot. Teams would 'fear' Wales more than the Faroes. For a start, they have the World's Greatest Football Ever Gareth Bale © Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sifu Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 So another "relatively easy" group for England. Hopefully, Capello will be nowhere near the England setup by the time the qualifiers start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 So another "relatively easy" group for England. Hopefully, Capello will be nowhere near the England setup by the time the qualifiers start. He's out straight after the current campaign. He was just over in Rio on a jolly I'd assume. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brummie Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 I'm in my mid 40s and most of my international football watching life has consisted of watching England play fucking Poland. It seems to be like Coronation Street ... if you stare at the telly for long enough, England - Poland will come on. Here's what will happen. We'll start really well in the qualifying, we'll have a slight dip (maybe a home loss to Montenegro), but go on to qualify top of our group. When the finals come around, the entire nation will get far too excited about it all, we'll start talking about winning it, we'll play three group matches, one will be convincing, the first two will be deeply worrying, drawing with Algeria and Norway or something. We'll get a shit Latin American country in the next round .. Paraguay, someone like that. We'll beat them. In the QF, we'll get some half decent side, play quite well, but get beaten. The deflation will then start in earnest for the entire fucking saga repeating itself four years later. Boring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sifu Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 So another "relatively easy" group for England. Hopefully, Capello will be nowhere near the England setup by the time the qualifiers start. He's out straight after the current campaign. He was just over in Rio on a jolly I'd assume. Good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BooBoo Posted July 31, 2011 Share Posted July 31, 2011 As a side note was it really necessary for journalists to go on a week long junket to Rio just to see a few balls being plucked out of a bag when they could have knocked out the exact same reports from their desks in London? Ridiculous really. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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