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A fixation shared to an even greater extent by many others on this thread/ forum. Including yourself, unsurprisingly...Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Meanwhile, as excitement grows before the big game at Parkhead. Last week, an old friend of mine from Naas was at her son's wedding to a local girl in Aberdeen. Most of the Irish male friends and relatives worse kilts.
Really? Other than WC draws, this doesn't really mean anything anymore. Eng.been 'top ten' for decades and they're still extremely mediocre, in the main.
And no idea about the kilts thing, beyond it being on a par with a certain N.American poster.
There are Irish kilts and tartans too. Being symbols of Gaelic-Celtic identity, they were adopted by nationalists in the late 19th and early 20th century as part of the wider Gaelic cultural revival in Ireland.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gather round
From Wiki, here's a photo of an Irish Defence Forces pipe-band wearing saffron kilts:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Pipe_Band.jpg
To be fair, Northern Ireland has always been above us...Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
Depends on your perspective...Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeirish
http://moyakarta.ucoz.ru/rastr/anti-world-map.jpg
The inhabitants of Malin Head might also beg to differ. :)
Or most of Donegal too?
Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeirish
Did some work on this today. We don't really need to be in Pot 2, its possible that N. Ireland, Scotland, Greece, Denmark will be all in Pot 2 and I don't think we should be overall scared of those. But ya on the other hand France, England, Netherlands, Spain might be in Pot 2 - so that would be a top team from among these as well as the top group seeds (maybe Germany?) to overcome - which would be a problem.
If we did want to make Pot 2:
We hope Russia raise in the ranking, as automatic qualifiers if they are in top two pot positions then it will open up another spot.
Don't arrange any more friendlies. (Maybe cancel the one's we have!)
Win every game between now and July (all at home which is nice - USA, Poland, England and Scotland).
Hope that the top 10 teams start to pummel the rest of the nations (except us) and hope the overall points target lowers. Upsets like (Poland beating Germany, everyone beating Netherlands etc) are hurting us by giving our competitors for a berth in Pot 2 high ranking points.
http://fog2014.blogspot.ie/2014/11/l...o-wc-2018.html
Also good for us would be for Scotland, England and Poland to go up in the rankings (and they all probably are moving up) so that when we beat them we get more points!
Pretty sure scotch (whiskey), bagpipes & kilts were all introduced to the Scottish by the Irish and ended up becoming symbols of "their" culture. Open to correction on that one though.
There's no evidence kilts have Irish origin, bagpipes were first recorded in Scotland, but I think whiskey is probably Irish.
Axl Rose is the only man that ever looked sexy in a kilt, claim some on here.
Italy scoring a brilliant overhead kick there.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
Where will the last two results leave us? The US are ranked pretty highly (23rd), although friendly victories aren't as lucrative as competitive games.
Leaves us 519 points:Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranki...prognosis.html
Probably drop 3 places to 64th based on this but will know tomorrow.
http://www.football-rankings.info/20...obable_31.html
Is it sad that the first thing I thought of when the win was secured was how it would affect our ranking?
No, I thought the same.
I thought the same. I came straight for this thread. :(
Except it's how international football works now. People seem to blindly accept FIFA/UEFA when they are both clearly flawed organisations...
Uefa has nothing to do with the rankings. Without uefa the clubs would **** all over international football.
Despite fifa corruption they do a reasonably good job actually running the game. That's the strange message that gets lost.
Still sad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Sorry, meant they make use of those rankings, but you can almost understand the clubs, given UEFA's double standards and general stupidity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Flawed certainly, but what's the alternative if one wants to see organised and competitive professional football?Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Start a new body. Something the Eng.FA were suggesting the other day by boycotting FIFA. Probably the only sensible thing they've ever said.
The English FA said no such thing.
Sorry, only their former chairman...
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...s-9864536.html
You don't consider that to be an important distinction?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
Same.Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
We'll crack 50 yet.
Not especially.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Fair enough. I think most of us who live in the real world know it's the easiest thing in the world for somebody with no power and no skin in the game to propose something completely implausible than even he knows can't and won't happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Except Bernstein is no mug, still active in the game and the Eng.FA undoubtedly sanctioned this. A bit of politics after their latest WC bid fiasco, but most things that currently undermine FIFA/UEFA are undoubtedly a good thing.
For once, as I said, they deserve credit.
And as FA's go, they are more influential than most.
So you reckon the FA police the thoughts and public speech of former employees? I'm sure there are many in the FA who do want to get out of FIFA (I'm guessing most of them are still ****y about not being able to bribe their way to hosting the World Cup) but Bernstein does not represent them any more than Trapattoni represents the Irish football team. Once you're out of the job you're a private citizen with your own mind and your own opinions on things.
Clearly you have no idea how politics(of sports) works....
Anyway, The Eng.FA/Bernstein et al are still flying a worthwhile kite, nothing will come of it, but every seed of doubt re.FIFA /UEFA is a good thing IMO.
But everyone's obsessed by rankings, so who cares what they do otherwise...
:roll:
Yes, Ardee, I don't have a clue about anything but you have the politics of sport all figured out.
I think I have it figured out. So long as no more friendlies are arranged. And noting that FIFA have not yet confirmed Jul 2015 rankings will determine pots, but they usually have been determined this way in recent past. And of course there is no static target, austria are currently 18th (UEFA team) with 810 fifa ranking points but by July 2015 the 18th placed team could have more or less points.
Its pretty simple.
We already have 214 rankings points in the bag for matches that would count toward July 2015 seeding ie matches from July 2011 to July 2014. The average from July 2014-2015 is all thats left to be decided.
Option 1
Win next three home games = Pot 2 (this would give us a total of about 5033 pts from July 2014 to Jul 2015 so average = 629 + 214 (already in the bag) = 823 total which is more than 18th placed european team at mo (austria))
Option 2
Beat either Poland or Scotland at home and screw up the rest of the games (or some other combination of results that gives us another roughly 1158 more pts) = Pot 3 (this would give us about total 3288 pts which is average 411 + 214 (already in the bag) = 625 which is more than 27th placed european team at mo (israel))
We are kind of lucky that German game and Poland away fall after July, the WC2018 draw qualifying will be in July.
http://fog2014.blogspot.ie/2014/11/s...endly-win.html
Except I didn't say that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
No way. We landed on the moon! CD lives in the real world!Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
That's just too much for me to take in for one day.
so did that win do much for us last night??????????????
Currently up to 60th in the World but that could change after the Africans play tonight
Unchanged in Uefa World Cup Seedings (33rd, groups of 9)
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Pot 5 Germany Romania Russia Serbia Armenia Belgium Czech Republic Israel Northern Ireland Estonia Netherlands Croatia Iceland Turkey Cyprus France Slovakia Wales Albania Lithuania Portugal Austria Scotland Montenegro Latvia Spain Greece Poland Republic of Ireland Belarus Italy Ukraine Sweden Bulgaria Macedonia Switzerland Bosnia and Herzegovina Hungary Norway England Denmark Slovenia Finland
If you are talking about pots then you should look at it from the perspective of July 2015 rankings. Here are estimated points so far for that point in time (by then WC2014 will have a weighting of 0.5 so Netherlands will really suffer, France also suffering from not playing competitive games, I can see both these ending up in Pot 2 by July).Quote:
Originally Posted by joe_denilson
Obviously alot of games to play but I think at this stage enough games played in July 2014-July 2015 period for the averages to start to settle. Imagine Leichtenstein in Pot 5? wouldnt it be nice to get them and San Marino in the same group!
Pot 1
1 UEFA Germany 1306
2 UEFA Romania 1262.5
3 UEFA England 1253.3
4 UEFA Czech Republic 1236.9
5 UEFA Italy 1155.5
6 UEFA Portugal 1136.9
7 UEFA Belgium 1125.6
8 UEFA Slovakia 1091.1
9 UEFA Austria 1028.4
Pot 2
10 UEFA Iceland 996.7
11 UEFA France 989.1
12 UEFA Spain 988.6
13 UEFA Croatia 966.6
14 UEFA Netherlands 938.1
15 UEFA Switzerland 896
16 UEFA Ukraine 873.4
17 UEFA Denmark 858.9
18 UEFA Scotland 788.6
Pot 3
19 UEFA Poland 786.8
**** 20 UEFA Russia 766.5
21 UEFA Wales 765.9
22 UEFA Northern Ireland 762.3
23 UEFA Slovenia 739.1
24 UEFA Albania 729.1
25 UEFA Israel 703.7
26 UEFA Hungary 693.8
27 UEFA Bosnia and Herzegovina 681.2
28 UEFA Sweden 657
Pot 4
29 UEFA Republic of Ireland 640.2
30 UEFA Serbia 628
31 UEFA Greece 617.3
32 UEFA Turkey 554.3
33 UEFA Norway 551.9
34 UEFA Montenegro 495.6
35 UEFA Estonia 469.2
36 UEFA Cyprus 435.8
37 UEFA Finland 435.2
Pot 5
38 UEFA Bulgaria 424.7
39 UEFA Lithuania 404.9
40 UEFA Armenia 396.5
41 UEFA Latvia 380
42 UEFA Belarus 322.8
43 UEFA FYR Macedonia 317.7
44 UEFA Faroe Islands 284.4
45 UEFA Moldova 240.8
46 UEFA Liechtenstein 232.2
Pot 6
47 UEFA Azerbaijan 226.6
48 UEFA Kazakhstan 204.6
49 UEFA Luxembourg 198.4
50 UEFA Malta 153.7
51 UEFA Georgia 142.2
52 UEFA San Marino 55.4
53 UEFA Andorra 8.5
So... Slovakia, Iceland, FATDAD, Liechtenstein and San Marino... That would be amazing. Truly amazing.