France and Switzelrand are not the only teams in the group!

[gspain]

The bottom seeded in the 7 team groups aren't taken into account when calculating the best 2nd place teams. Group 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 have no chance of the 2nd place team getting 23 points. That leaves it between groups 3, 7 and our group.

And anyone that would have said we'd have taken 24 points (7 wins 3 draws) from a group containing Portugal and Holland would have needed their head examined.

Agreed though 23 points would probably be enough to qualify automatically but points will be dropped everywhere.

We've looked great in friendlies but we looked great in friendlies when Kerr took over too and then flopped in our 2 big ones - Russia H & Swiss away - in between we were great v Turkey.

The Faroes drew with Scotland last time out and almost caught the Germans - Cyprus will pick up points too and Israel will be very dangerous particularly in Tel Aviv (if they play there).

[Slash/ED]

Switzerland beat us home and away in the qualifiers and will expect at least 4 points off us.

There's no way Switzerland should get near 4 points off us. If they do, again, there will be questions asked about the man in your name.

[Paulie]

Definitely agree. I actually think we have a good chance of beating the French at home. Our home record for qualifiers is fantastic, 1 defeat since McCarthy took over in '96 and that was his last game against Switzerland. This time the Swizz are without 3 of their previous first team, who retired, and probably also Frei. We shouldn't lose at home in any game.

Lets say we get 22 points from the the Swizz, Israel, Faroe's and Cyprus and 1 point from the French. That means, if we come second we will most likely qualify automatically with 23 points (the 2 best 2nd place teams automatically qualify). The second place teams in the last WC qualifiers got the following points:

Slovenia - 20
Ireland - 24
Czech Rep - 20
Turkey - 21
Ukraine - 17
Belgium - 17 (5 team group)
Austria - 15 (5 team group)
Romania - 16 (5 team group)
Germany - 17 (5 team group)

No 2nd place team has ever got more than 23 points in a 6 team WC qualifying group (other than Ireland in the last Q's).

Have a look at the qualifying groups this time:
http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/wc2006/q-groups/

The bottom seeded in the 7 team groups aren't taken into account when calculating the best 2nd place teams. Group 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 have no chance of the 2nd place team getting 23 points. That leaves it between groups 3, 7 and our group.

This lad has to be a civil servant.

It takes one to know one.