How far will we go if we progress

[FarBeag]

Hi All.
I would love to hear peoples views on how far we will go if /when(showing optimism)we get to the finals in Germany.I hope so much we get there.Portugal suffered from our absence at Euro 2004 and we need to make up for this when we hit Germany. What sort of crowds do ye think we could take over there(numbers i mean).

[barglee]

i think quarter finals is a realistic aim. but you never know with international football... always a few surprises....

[angryant]

I think it would be wrong to go there with anything less than quarters in mind. After that its anybodys guess... a lucky draw and i see no reason why we cant go further. There always seems to be a suprise semi finalist e.g turkey, croatia, sweden,

[carnstien]

I don't know how far we will go but every member of our squad should go to Germany believing we can win the tournement. Anybody who does not believe that should not be in the squad.

[thejollyrodger]

yeah, i think we should be aiming for the semi's. The quarters are very realistic. Hopefully the whole team and public will be aiming for the same and not see how far we will get type attitude. I dont mind aiming high and maybe not reaching there, but its a lot better than just being there to make up the numbers.

[Green Tribe]

we should never adopt the english attitude to tournaments though, always big-headed and boastful, this will be our year blah blah, expecting to win no probs, their media is a big problem. yes, we should be positive, but not over-confident, maybe quietly confident that we can get to the quarter-finals at least, as 12th in the world, why not?

We have a great advantage in that Germany, although can be very warm in the summer, will be nowhere near like the heat of previous world cups.

we also have a great advantage of being so close to Germany. Irish from all over europe and ireland can come so easily. we can make these games like home games and we know how much that helps our team. i think this world cup will see the most ever irish fans travel, tickets or no tickets, i'll be there, like so many others. we would have had an immense support in Portugal but.....

let's just hope and pray during these last games of qualifying and hope the other team's results suit us!! :D

[eirebhoy]

Hopefully the whole team and public will be aiming for the same and not see how far we will get type attitude. I dont mind aiming high and maybe not reaching there, but its a lot better than just being there to make up the numbers.
Ok, the players should set high standards but I'm not for the fans aiming too high. We go into matches expecting to win and its just not the same if we do win. Greece was going mental whenever they won a match in the Euro's while the French and Italians would hardly celebrate a win as they wouldn't expect anything less.

[thejollyrodger]

yeah, I agree. I would hate to turn into England. As long as there is a very professional taken to each match, sense of belief that they can win.

[tricky_colour]

I just hope we progress!!
We need to concentrate on the here and now.

[OwlsFan]

What a stupid thread - we haven't even qualified and we're talking about how far we can go when we get there - Semi-finals minimum someone said. :eek:

Just concentrate on getting there for the moment - in football you must literally take each game as it comes. See what happened in the rugby with all the talk of Grand Slams! You end up with egg on your face.

I would be thrilled to qualify. Then let's examine the options when we see whom we're drawn against. Anything else at the moment is just pie in the sky.

[Green Tribe]

What a stupid thread - we haven't even qualified and we're talking about how far we can go when we get there - Semi-finals minimum someone said. :eek:

Just concentrate on getting there for the moment - in football you must literally take each game as it comes. See what happened in the rugby with all the talk of Grand Slams! You end up with egg on your face.

I would be thrilled to qualify. Then let's examine the options when we see whom we're drawn against. Anything else at the moment is just pie in the sky.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: what is wrong to discuss 'what if'? as i said previously , as long as we don't turn into bigheads like england, there is nothing wrong with harmless chat about how far we can go? have we improved since last wcup, if so, we should go further in theory. :D

[thejollyrodger]

well paddy power has ireland at 50/1 to win the World Cup. It used to be 500.

Were 4/6 to qualify
11 - 10 not to qualify

[FarBeag]

What a stupid thread - we haven't even qualified and we're talking about how far we can go when we get there - Semi-finals minimum someone said.



Why may i ask do you think its a stupid thread??? You appear like a clever bloke but obviously 1) Not very optimistic
2)Cant read properly....How sad..its an open forum and we are all entitled to write what we like within reason.

[OwlsFan]

How leopards change their spots. Above we have jollyrodger saying we should aiming for a World Cup semi-final place. Now in another thread after the French result what does he say:


kerr hasnt done it at international level, I cant see things changing now...

However one improve I can think of tonight is : -
I would like to buy him a Mr Blobby outfit for the next game and make him wear it out in Cyprus - At least then the players would know not to listen to a f*cking word the man is saying :D

Perhaps some people's expectations run away with them :rolleyes: Reality bites. Still think a World Cup semi-final is on ?

I still think we can qualify. If we had to lose to France,a 1 goal defeat was the best. A 2-0 over Swiss and a victory in Cyprus sees us to the play offs minimum. Those scores and a Swiss 1-0 over France sees us win the group :eek: France are still an ordinary side. Other than the save from the free kick and the goal Given was untested. Pity Dunne stood off him and amade no effort to save the shot. Otherwise he would have been my man of the match.

[gspain]

How leopards change their spots. Above we have jollyrodger saying we should aiming for a World Cup semi-final place. Now in another thread after the French result what does he say:



Perhaps some people's expectations run away with them :rolleyes: Reality bites. Still think a World Cup semi-final is on ?

I still think we can qualify. If we had to lose to France,a 1 goal defeat was the best. A 2-0 over Swiss and a victory in Cyprus sees us to the play offs minimum. Those scores and a Swiss 1-0 over France sees us win the group :eek: France are still an ordinary side. Other than the save from the free kick and the goal Given was untested. Pity Dunne stood off him and amade no effort to save the shot. Otherwise he would have been my man of the match.

2 wins will almost certainly do. Switzerland would have to beat France by 2-1 or 3-2 etc and us to beat them 1-0 for us to fail to progress.

Best result possible for us is the Swiss to beat France by 2 goals. Unlikely I know. This means a 1 goal win would give us the playoff and a 2 goal win would win the group.

I'm still cocnerned re Cyprus though. They had a decent young team a year ago and their club sides are getting better. We still should win even without 3 key players but it won't be a cakewalk.

[swinfordfc]

lads,
can we qualify first i think before we talk about this!!!!!!!!!

[thejollyrodger]

we can win our next 2 games if we concentrate on the job in hand.

[keenanboy]

Its a simple as this...must win the last two games. We should actually hope that France beat the Swiss away, that will win them the group with Cyprus at home on the last day...then the swiss would need a win in Dublin, would be one hell of a scrap. But if we can't beat the Swiss (who are shocking, to be honest) we might as well stay at home next June

[Kingdom]

Its a simple as this...must win the last two games. We should actually hope that France beat the Swiss away, that will win them the group with Cyprus at home on the last day...then the swiss would need a win in Dublin, would be one hell of a scrap. But if we can't beat the Swiss (who are shocking, to be honest) we might as well stay at home next June


Good post, was about this on the way home last night. We have to win both games regardless. I would fancy that French team to at least take a point from the Swiss in Basle. No doubts. Which would mean both the Irish and Swiss would need a win to qualify for the playoff's (as Israel will now finish on 18pts).

I think that if the Swiss need only a point to win the group (which would be the case if they beat France) then we won't be capable of beating them as they will be content to sit back and soak up pressure.

As keenanboy says , if we can't beat the Swiss in October then we don't deserve to be in Germany, surely nobody can argue with that.