World Cup 2014 Qualifying

[Springsteen]

It takes place tomorrow evening. Here are the European pots.

Pot One: England, Spain, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece
Pot Two: France, Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia
Pot Three: Switzerland, Israel, Rep of Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary
Pot Four: N Ireland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Lithuania, Albania, Austria, Poland
Pot Five: Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands
Pot Six: Wales, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, San Marino

There will be 9 groups. 8 of which will be made up of 6 teams, while the other will have 5 teams. The group winners all qualify with the 8 best runners up all playing each other in two legged games, the odd team out can fuck off. The way that will be determined is the runners up record against the third, fourth and fifth placed teams in their groups.

 

[porterjack]

canada will win

 

[Zorak]

Some of those teams in pot 2 can be very angry they are not in pot 1.

 

[Springsteen]

I hope Germany draw San Marino,the 13-0 in 2006 was fun.

 

[Peter Parka]

England will get an Eastern European former USSR country, a mediocre middle Europe country, a home nation.

 

[skyblue]

watch england get france,switzerland and poland

 

[Zorak]

My ideal group would be

England
Slovenia
Hungary
Albania
Fareo's
San Marino

Worst group:

England
France
Belgium
Romania
Finland
Wales

 

[Peter Parka]

Best group

England
Montenegro
Belarus
Georgia
Faroe Islands
San Marino

Worst Group

England
Turkey
Czech Republic
Poland
Finland
Kazakhstan

 

[Springsteen]

Quick note, Russia and Georgia will not be drawn together because of the tensions politically between them.

 

[Zorak]

Best group

England
Montenegro
Belarus
Georgia
Faroe Islands
San Marino

I rate Montenegro highly, obviously they have their star player Vucivic and Jovetic, but a number of their team play at high levels, usually Italy, but also France and Portugal. They're also very hard to break down, I think only one goal has been scored against them so far in the Euro qualifications.

 

[Peter Parka]

I rate Montenegro highly, obviously they have their star player Vucivic and Jovetic, but a number of their team play at high levels, usually Italy, but also France and Portugal. They're also very hard to break down, I think only one goal has been scored against them so far in the Euro qualifications.

Lets face it, anyone in pot 2 isn't going to be a walkover.

 

[Zorak]

No, the biggest walk over is in pot 1 and they wear white shirts and have an italian at the helm

 

[Peter Parka]

You've definately got a point there though I still see one or two weaker teams than us. Portugal are past their best best now and Greece are nothing special. That said Greece and Croatia still have a far better team spirit than us.

 

[Zorak]

I'd say Portugal are about the same level as us. We've both got one standout attacking player, and one standout defensive player, but the rest...

I can only wonder what things might have been like if we had had a decent manager 6-8 years ago... We didn't appreciate how good our team was back then.

 

[Peter Parka]

I'd say Portugal are about the same level as us. We've both got one standout attacking player, and one standout defensive player, but the rest...

I can only wonder what things might have been like if we had had a decent manager 6-8 years ago... We didn't appreciate how good our team was back then.

Ashley Cole, despite being a complete cunt is our outstanding defender, no idea who our outstanding attacking player is, maybe Rooney a couple of years ago but he's really gone downhill, especially for his country.
The best team we had for a long time was in Japan when we got beaten by Brazil. Whoever won that was going to win the whole thing.

 

[Zorak]

Ashley Cole, despite being a complete cunt is our outstanding defender, no idea who our outstanding attacking player is, maybe Rooney a couple of years ago but he's really gone downhill, especially for his country.
The best team we had for a long time was in Japan when we got beaten by Brazil. Whoever won that was going to win the whole thing.

Yeah that was a brilliant team, Beckham, Scholes, Owen, Hargreaves, Neville, Ferdinand, Campbell, all playing in their pomp.

For all Sven's clear faults, the players seemed to like him at least lol. Not surprising, he understood the playboy millionaire lifestyle

 

[Springsteen]

I'd say the Euro 96 team was pretty special. You had SAS up front, Gascoigne at his best in the middle with Mcmanaman who also enjoyed a very good tournament, heck even Darren Anderton looked good. The defence looked good too. That performance against Holland was their peak, they could have beaten anybody that day. They were a little fortunate against Spain with regards to the disallowed goal but I actually thought they were slightly unfortunate against Germany, and probably would have beaten Czech Republic. 2002 was the last time I actually thought England could do something, sure they had an older team but I thought it was experienced for the better. But in that quarter final against Brazil they just didn't seem to have a clue, especially when Ronaldinho went off. I'm pretty sure Sven was on a WUM in 2006, he took only 4 strikers, one fit one (Crouch), two who were just coming back from injury (Rooney and Owen - and Owen lasted half the world cup) and Walcott, who at that time hadn't played a minute for Arsenal. Since then it's been pretty awful. To me England are pretty boring to watch, it's the same gameplan all the time and while it's fine against teams like Kazakstan etc in the qualifiers, when teams like Spain or Germany come along, they are fucked. They really shouldn't be either, because on paper it's a really good team, but for some reason it never works. I don't know if it's a case of too many ego's or just that the team isn't there, the squad is, but I don't think the team spirit is. And that certainly has to change, however I think it'd take a younger team and a new manager. Looking at the pots I'd say Spain, Holland and Germany are much better than England. Portugal and Italy might be. And there are probably teams in pot 6 with a better team spirit, their problem is the players aren't very good and that's why results like 13-0 against big bad Germany happen. England won't win the 2014 World Cup anymore than they will win the 2012 European Championship because they are awful at the moment and won't improve to the level needed of a World Cup winning team, even with a new manager in 2012. I don't really know what I'm arguing against here, if anything, I think it's just saying what I need to say about England.

 

[Springsteen]

Group A

Croatia
Serbia
Belgium
Scotland
Macedonia
Wales

Group B

Italy
Denmark
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Armenia
Malta

Group C

Germany
Sweden
Republic Or Ireland
Austria
Faroe Islands
Kazakhstan

Group D

Holland
Turkey
Hungary
Romania
Estonia
Andorra

Group E

Norway
Slovenia
Switzerland
Albania
Cyprus
Iceland

Group F

Portugal
Russia
Israel
Northern Ireland
Azerbaijan
Luxembourg

Group G

Greece
Slovakia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Lithuania
Latvia
Liechenstein

Group H

England
Montenegro
Ukraine
Poland
Moldova
San Marino

Group I

Spain
France
Belarus
Georgia
Finland

 

[Springsteen]

Tricky group for England there more than anything, they should win the group but they might not. Spain and France should walk Group I and take points off each other. Germany have a favorable enough draw I'd say. Northern Ireland are sunk, as are Wales and probably Scotland.

 

[skyblue]

i wonder how blatman and his sidekick boy blunder will conspire to help the french this time