Group D - how things stand

Saturday's and tonight's results have left us with possibly the tallest order we have ever had in a group.

The home game against the Czech Republic is crucial. Anything less than a win will leave us playing catch-up, assuming of course we can beat Cyprus (away), San Marino (home and away) before we ever set foot in Croke Park.

Unless the Germans and the Czech Republic suffer a run of set backs by both us and Wales beating them at home and/or either of them take six points off the other, we are looking like we will need to win a minimum of five of our next six games, of which 4 are at home and 2 are away, to have any chance going into the last five games next Sept/Oct/Nov. This has to include beating the Czechs in October.

It was always going to be a tall order to get out of this group and really our best hope was for us to nick a point off the Germans and to see the Czechs drop a point in one their opening games before they came to Dublin in October. As neither has happened, our only hope now is that we get at least 15 points out of the next 18, before going into the last five games, out of which, theoretically, only the Cypriots at home in October 2007 looks a 'banker'.

Without stating the obvious, the first requirement of winning is to score, not our strong point at the moment!

Depressing, isn't it.

I am 100% convinced if we have Andy Reid and Steven Reid in midfield we will win our next 3 games

Dont really agree....Just one game fown and Wales pushing The Czechs close means that they will drop points against alot of teams...We lost our hardest match by a single deflected goal and are already talkin about not qualifying. I dont think so. I can see this become a stroll for the Germans and us and the Czechs fighting it out for 2nd. 3 nil for the Czechs tonight...I have to say I didnt expect that but theres a hell of a long way to go...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by onenilgameover

Dont really agree....Just one game fown and Wales pushing The Czechs close means that they will drop points against alot of teams...We lost our hardest match by a single deflected goal and are already talkin about not qualifying. I dont think so. I can see this become a stroll for the Germans and us and the Czechs fighting it out for 2nd. 3 nil for the Czechs tonight...I have to say I didnt expect that but theres a hell of a long way to go...

---

That's exactly why we have to beat them in Dublin in October. No matter what way you look at it, they are already at least three points ahead of us. We have to make up ground on the Czechs and the only way of doing that is beating them at home. If we don't beat them and then go on to drop any more points in the other 5 games between now and the end of March, we will be too far behind the Germans and the Czechs, who play each other on 24 March, the same day we play Wales at Croke Park.

We need to beat the Czechs and we need the Germans to beat them as well.

We've just got to do our job and not worry about anybody elses. If we do our job, we're through. If we don't, we're out(or lucky).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Superhoops

Unless the Germans and the Czech Republic suffer a run of set backs by both us and Wales beating them at home and/or either of them take six points off the other, we are looking like we will need to win a minimum of five of our next six games, of which 4 are at home and 2 are away, to have any chance going into the last five games next Sept/Oct/Nov.

---

tbf, absolutely nothing has changed for us since the draw was made. We always did have to win our home games (considering our record away from home) and beat the smaller teams away from home.

Cyprus (a)
Czechs (h)
San Marino (h)
San Marino (a)
Wales (h)
Slovakia (h)

I'd be going all out for 6 wins out of 6 here. Without getting too complacent, forget about San Marino and we need 4 out of 4. ;) I haven't worked it out but if you think we can get away with 5 out of 6 then that's even better.

The Czechs have to play Germany (h), Ireland (a) and Wales (a) from their next 5 games so we could easily catch them by March.

Let's not get carried away. You can dress it up as saying only 4 days into the campaign we're 6 points behind the leaders and we've zero points if you want, but we have 4 games coming up all of which are winnable.

It's like syaing Arsenal blew a 10 point lead or whatever a few years ago, when United actually had 3 easy enough games in hand!

But it does already look like this is a group where drawing games will leave you trailing, unlike the last group we were in. I'll accept that much!

Hmm, I expect to see a lot of empty seats in Croker come March.

Yeah I always felt we needed to beat the Czechs at home and I think we do. I will take 12 points going into the 2 games at Croker.

I think we need to get confidance boosting win against cyprus. we need to play them off the pitch and get ball to guys who are proven goalscorers. might have a chance agaisnt czechs then.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Billsthoughts

I think we need to get confidance boosting win against cyprus. we need to play them off the pitch and get ball to guys who are proven goalscorers. might have a chance agaisnt czechs then.

---

we need a proven playmaker to get the ball to get to the proven goalscorer. It was too easy for the Germans, they figured out looking at the team in Stuttgart that the only creative threat was going to come from Duff, so they double and tripled marked him and clipped his heels if he looked like he was going to go on a run. We need someone who can pick out a pass in the middle .. main candidates are Andy Reid and Stephen Ireland, if he can get a regular came for City this season. Of course, its all about balance .. if you are going to play one of those two, then you would have to probably play a defensive right midfielder .. as Duff, Mc Geady and Ireland would be a receipe for disaster in midfield

So basically the ask/demand of Stan is to beat the Czechs, something which a team under Kerr couldn't achieve in 4 games against decent opposition at home. In fact the somewhat fortunate Holland game aside it's way back to the archives, to the Yugoslav game for our last merited competitive victory against a decent side.
If we pull it off it will be a stunning reversal of fortunes since 8 years or so and maybe a whiff of the old days when regardless of what team we could put out at home we won with regularity.