That was just a complete guess by me. Iād say Iām wrong though because pot 1 has a group of teams who all won Nations League A.
Thereās a few teams in pot 4 we would struggle to beat
Slovakia for me. Iāve a connect over there who worked for the Slovak FA.
This is some pile of shite. World Cup qualifying used to start the September after the Euros. Now itās starting the September a full year later?
Are the GAA running this?
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Its brutal.
Thereās nothing sacred anymore.
Should be around 8 teams in a qualifying group and it should be run something like this.
Sept - 2 match round
Oct - 2 match round
Nov - 2 match round
Mar - 2 match round
Jun - 2 match round
Sep - 2 match round
Oct - 2 match round
Nov - Play Offs
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Ya and we want a big team at home in Dublin in September who stunk the place out at the previous major tournament.
Everything has to be ruined nowadays.
The 2002 World Cup qualifiers were the benchmark of how you ran a proper UEFA World Cup qualifying competition. It was like watching an acorn slowly growing into a magnificent oak tree.
We started off with the acorn planting ceremony. A showdown away qualifier in Amsterdam. Saturday night. The first Saturday in September. We were building up to this for eight months. It just so happened it was on the same day as the Kerry-Armagh All-Ireland semi-final replay. By the time the association football started I was already sunburnt and had at least four or five pints down me. Irelandās superlative performance seemed to match with this. It was the Dutch who were hungover. Then it sort of went to shit, but still, a good point.
Then you were building up to the next showdown five weeks later, Portugal away. Again, it coincided with a Saturday Gaelic football blockbuster replay. And one of the great 1-1 victories. The hard yards were done, the planting a great success, but it was still very early days.
Four nights later the anticipation for Estonia at home on the fabled date and venue of Wednesday October 11th at Lansdowne Road (we always played on Wednesday October 11th at home) was off the scale. The job was done, and Richard Dunne scored. There was something symbolic about that.
The acorn was growing into a sapling. It still needed tender loving care, but it would prosper over a mild winter. The air was good. The conditions were ripe.
The Orange on the other hand was shrivelling as we grew.
Then into the spring, and the optimism continued to surge. Professional victories away to Cyprus and Andorra and at home to Andorra. The points were racking up and this sapling was steadily growing. The Orange continued to shrivel.
Then the big test. Portugal at home. Our budding young oak tree got some battering, but it stood, and then it started to flower in earnest Estonia four days later.
We had three months to prepare for the storm that we all knew would determine whether this flourishing young oak would stand or be blown over, and we all knew the time and the date and the venue of this storm, this hurricane.
The hurricane blew from the first whistle, and the oak teetered, looking set to be blown over at any time. It somehow continued to be held up by 11 men, and then were only 10, and then the wind suddenly abated. You could see the oak strengthening by the minute in front of your eyes. The wind whipped up again, but the roots were firm, there was one giant root planted in Dundalk and another in Killinarden and another in Cork. Our Holland was better than theirs. You are NOT coming through us. You are NOT blowing us down. The oak stands. The oak grows. The oak lives.
The wind was not over. There was one final wind to withstand. But it was a gentle wind, a middle eastern wind, an Iranian wind. Iranians do not blow down oak trees.
The acorn had finally reached full maturity. It was now a magnificent oak. A Mick McCarthy grown oak. He tended to it, nurtured it, pruned it, watched it grow, we watched it grow, and now here it was. The time was well spent.
Stand you mighty oak, and now we transport you, always standing, to your final planting place in Japan, with an army to carry you there.
7 Likes
8 teams is a bit excessive in the one group. 6 is perfect really. Particularly when you have 3 or even 4 teams in the upper echelons taking points off each other. The World Cup qualifying campaign with Wales, Serbia, Austria, Georgia and Moldova in our group was a classic of the genre.
The 7 team qualifying group for Euro 2008 was a fucking slog. 8 points collected against the Slovaks and Welsh that were basically meaningless. An extra team on top of that wouldāve been too much.
I might go to Armenia. I know a few girls who used to work in the airport from there
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We came through a group with 2 of the semi finalists from the previous euros then. Be like us getting out of a group with Germany and Holland for 2026.
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Germany didnāt reach the semi-finals of the last Euros.
My apologies it was France. Somehow thought the Spain-Germany game was a semi and not a quarter
I think no less of you, Germany were clearly the second best team in the tournament.
It had more of a feel of a big game. Thereās something meh about the French soccer team, even when they are class
The four true powers are Germany and Italy in Europe and Brazil and Argentina in South America.
Outside that England are the box office perennial failures, but theyāre box office.
Holland have a cachet.
France and Spain are a bit meh alright. France at least have a few big rivalries. Germany, Brazil, and now Argentina. Spain donāt even have that. France are probably their biggest rivals.
England, Holland, France and Spain are the Tier 2 powers.
Beyond that, Uruguay will always have cachet, a cachet Portugal donāt have.
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Iād add spain to the powers
Historically and in terms of box office they are not. Theyāre a bit like Limerick whereas Italy are like Tipp.
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Bulgaria in play offs
Second leg at home, donāt think weāve ever won in Sofia
What happens if the beat Bulgaria in the playoffs?