View Full Version : Playoffs
Citymark
31/08/2001, 9:25 AM
If Ireland finish second (touch wood!) in their group they will face a play off with a team from the Asian Qualifiying group. Possible opponents include China, Iran and Thailand!
The draw to decide which qualifying groups will be paired together took place at FIFA's headquarters in Zurich on Friday morning. The results were:
2nd placed Group 6(Croatia/Scotland) V 2nd placed Group 3(Bulgaria/Czech)
2nd placed Group 5(Belarus/Ukraine) V 2nd placed Group 9 (England)
2nd placed Group 7 (Austria/Isreal)V 2nd placed Group 4(Turkey/Slovakia)
2nd placed Group 1(Slovenia/Switzerland) V 2nd placed Group 8.(Romania)
The runner-up in Group 2 (Ireland/Holland) will play off against a team from the Asian confederation AFC.
UEFA has announced November dates for the matches.
There is a play off between the 2 second place teams from the 2 asian groups & we play the winners.
Currently Iran & Iraq are joint 2nd in Grp 1 while UAE & Uzbekistan are joint 2nd in Grp 2
oh yea and we have no home venue for the game as Lansdowne is being used to complete the 6 nations matches that were called off due to F&M
Schumi
31/08/2001, 9:31 AM
Isn't there a rugby match on that weekend?
james
and we have no home venue for the game as Lansdowne is being used to complete the 6 nations matches
Schumi
isnt there a rugby match on that weekend
hmmm what are they teaching you up there in UCD.
Isnt that what i already said.:D
If we finish second in the group we face the 3rd place team in Asia.
The draw was made this morning.
We could play Iran, Saudi Arabia, China among others
The home leg is on November 10th and the away leg is on the 15th
Schumi
31/08/2001, 9:43 AM
I was distracted by work (I know) and only posted that about 5-10 minutes after clicking on reply.
Schumi in "distracted by work shocker" !
you should get your priorities right man and give up that work lark and go full-time professional on the web like me:D
Brine
31/08/2001, 10:23 AM
You see, these are the advantages you get when you are drawn in a group with 2 Nike teams! Good ol' corrupt FIFA.
Good point Brine. It's all clear now.
Whatever now though, a draw will be enough tomorrow to get us through to the finals next summer.
Martystapo
31/08/2001, 10:46 AM
Great news but where will that home game be played?
This is the stroke of luck we need . It will still be a draw tommorrow but a word of caution. Ye all rem France 98 playoff between the Auzzies and Iran and you saw what happened. Aussies thought they had to turn up to win.
A nice trip to Bangkok for Martystapo:D
Schumi
31/08/2001, 10:56 AM
Originally posted by Martystapo
Ye all rem France 98 playoff between the Auzzies and Iran and you saw what happened. Aussies thought they had to turn up to win.
Yes but Australia are $hit.
Martystapo
31/08/2001, 11:38 AM
Mind you it is a bad idea having this draw. I reckon Mc Carthy will play for the draw which will result in losing. Rem Croatia?
Schumi
31/08/2001, 11:47 AM
How does this draw change that? He would still have played for a draw to get a play-off. Let's be realistic, we can't win the group so a draw is as good as win.
Obviously getting ahead of ourselves a bit but with the 1st leg of the playoff scheduled for 10th Nov (Ireland Rugby team scheduled to play Samoa) we could face the ultimate national nightmare of playingt he game in Old Trafford or Anfield. Wouls be so sickening if happened.
Could be possible alternative of moving the rugby to limerick or belfast as wouldn't be huge crowd at anyway & the rugger buggers could get extra cash cos of the sold out FAI game?
Possible playoff opponents would be from; Iran, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, China, UAE.
BTW i'm not sure if thsoe playoffs HAVE TO BE played on the allocated dates as FIFA just says they have to be played before the 25th of november or something.
Ireland could get a draw tomorrow but can't see it happening unless we can snatch a goal from somewhere.
lansdowne is available after all. I hear the rugby game is on in Limerick
Schumi
31/08/2001, 2:51 PM
All we have to worry about now is getting there.
Martystapo
31/08/2001, 3:44 PM
Originally posted by Schumi
How does this draw change that? He would still have played for a draw to get a play-off. Let's be realistic, we can't win the group so a draw is as good as win.
Because the Irish will resign themselves to the playoffs considering the sort of opposition they will be facing over there in Asia. If that had not had happened we would have been harpin on about our playoff misery and how unlucky we were. I just think that we might play for the draw instead of playing for the win which is highly dangerous as it happened in the past against the Croats.
gypsydownunder
03/09/2001, 1:09 AM
To the guy above who said that the Aussies lost to Iran because they are ****?... well I don't think so.
I feel I can comment on this one as I perhaps have the unique position of being in Brussels for our 2-1 defeat and then a week later, I was in Melbourne (with 94,999 others) for the Australia 2-2 draw with Iran, which meant Iran went through on away goals.
Australia are NOT **** and were perhaps the unluckiest of non-qualifiers for the last WC. There were 2-0 up in Melbourne, conceded a jammy deflected goal, then play was interupted when a "protester" invaded the pitch and tore down one of the goalnets, leading to about an 8 mins delay. Venables made some crazy substitutions and Iran scored one of the goals of the year. Those are the breaks.
Australia have improved steadily ever since and I think Viduka and Kewell are a handy forward line. They've beaten France and Brazil in the recent Confed Cup in Japan.
Anyway the real point is this - we must be very careful with the Asian team. Mainly because of... The Weather. Yes do we all remember playing the Mexicans in the midday Florida heat. Well that's the sort of weather they are used to every day in Tehran, Bagdad or Riyadh. Except the humidity is even worse
So despite the great result against the Tulips, let's not get too carried away yet with the Sushi order.
Pauro 76
03/09/2001, 12:37 PM
As well as that, these are largely unknown teams, no one knows how good they are. if we get ****y they could capitalise on that.
Pauro 76
03/09/2001, 5:36 PM
About the weather thing, itll be November till the playoffs. Dont know what the weather down there is like in November, but surely we cant use the humidity as an excuse? Have to get our good friend Gerald Fleming onto that one.
Brine
04/09/2001, 12:25 PM
Imagine the Thai/Iraqi national teams freezing their arses off at Lansdowne in November!
Our millionaire footballers spend half their time in holidays in the sun, they should be well used to it by now.
The Legend
04/09/2001, 8:23 PM
Fair point... if its raining that day... the Iraqis wont know whats going on..
it might be a 9-0 onslaught!
Que sera sera,
whatever will be will be,
we’re off to Saddam’s country,
que sera sera!
Pauro 76
05/09/2001, 12:38 PM
How will the Green Army manage for the black stuff over there! We'll have to do things like admire the scenery and take walks and stuff like that.. zz..... Didnt Saddam's son play for Iraq as a goalie at one stage?
World Rankings for our mighty opponents!
from http://www.fifa.com/rank/index_E.html
27 Japan 634 32 5 38 11
*35 Saudi Arabia 609 28 -7 36 1
41 Korea Republic 596 39 -2 40 -1
*46 Iran 585 51 5 36 -10
*62 Thailand 543 61 -1 61 -1
*63 China PR 529 63 0 74 11
*63 United Arab Emirates 529 67 4 64 1
*67 Uzbekistan 523 63 -4 71 4
*69 Iraq 518 74 5 79 10
76 Kuwait 505 72 -4 74 -2
*86 Qatar 474 89 3 102 16
89 Indonesia 471 88 -1 97 8
*91 Oman 461 91 0 106 15
93 Syria 454 93 0 100 7
99 Lebanon 443 99 0 110 11
100 Jordan 440 100 0 105 5
101 Vietnam SR 437 100 -1 99 -2
104 Kazakhstan 421 104 0 120 16
108 Singapore 407 108 0 101 -7
109 Malaysia 405 109 0 107 -2
115 Turkmenistan 380 115 0 125 10
*117 Bahrain 379 118 1 138 21
Come on Bahrain!
Pauro 76
05/09/2001, 3:39 PM
Bah rain! Sounds like someone complaining about the weather there! Sorry.. ill go now....
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