Both Haim and Badir have played every game for Israel so far. They will be big loses.Originally Posted by Eldad
Yes, I agree.
Another good news from this match is that both Tal Ben-Haim and Walid Badir were booked as the second yellow card in the qualifiers.
They will miss the match in Dublin!
Never eat yellow snow!!
as mentioned before - I really think that whoever wins first against one of the top four will have a major physological advantage - we can do that against isreal - i think if we win that we will kick on and win the group..of course my main priority is ireland qualifying but just to put the icing on the cake I would like to give the swiss a good beating .... i dont know why but for a normally small inoffensive country they have really got up my nose the last 3 years
As one Irish journalist noted a few months ago, little did we think we would become such an enemy of the most neutral nation in the world. Like yourself, I think we owe the Swiss a good hiding. Remember all those nasty late tackles they put in during the game in Basle. Bring 'em on.
"Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe." Dillo
OK, here's arguably the most boring post ever put up on this board, but here goes:
Looking at the combos again, 4 wins and a draw does not guarantee we win the group outright. If the draw is against Switzerland and we both beat France then we tie.
But:
3 wins and two draws could still get us first place if Switzerland and France draw again. 3 wins and 2 draws guarantees second in any event.
Even if we lose to France in Dublin, 4 wins would mean we win the group if its another draw in Basle.
Or if we lost at home to Switzerland, a draw at home to France would still get us second if France doesn't win in Basle (i.e., 3 wins, 1 draw , 1 defeat might still be even enough for 2nd).
Again, even if we only draw one of the Cyprus or Israel games, a draw against each of France and Switzerland at home would get us second if Switzerland beats France, tie us for second if Swiss and France draw, but only third if France wins.
It really is very tight but you've got to feel that we're short odds on coming at least second. I'd love to know what Domenech's astrology charts are saying!
Based on last night's performance the Swiss can't necessarily count on 6 points from Israel home and Cyprus away (not that we can either!).
As said above, drawing first blood in the "mini-league" will indeed be a big psychological boost. At the moment none of the top 4 can go anywhere confident of a win!
Does anyone know the kick-off times on 8th October? Do we play Cyprus before, after or at the same time as the Swiss v France game?
Beating israel will be massive boost to our hopes and it could work to our favour in another way - if we beat them it still leaves them a chance of qualification - so they will have all the incentive to get a result in basle
this team will beat israel
given
finnan
cunningham
o brien
o shea
reid
kavanagh
kilbane
duff
keane
morison
Stuttgart,- You must of put a good bit of time into that post, Fair Play.
I feel that the Swiss & Israel games are the most Vital for victories. No matter how bad France are playing(and its very bad at the moment) they still arent losing games and remain very hard to beat or even score against(barring Barthez howler last nite). It'l be very hard to beat them, even at home.
"it takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen."
Assuming we beat the minnows I'm counting on us winning the group with 2 wins and a draw against the top 3. None of the top 4 have beaten each other, obviously none of us have lost against each other. I just can't see us and the Swiss going down to the last day having both of us won our last 4 matches (a total of 8 wins and no defeats in such a tight group). It is extremely unlikely.
Just did a little check up. Cyprus's two Saturday kickoffs have been at 3.00 GMT and 4.00 GMT. Switzerland's only Saturday kickoff has been at 3.30 GMT. So around the same time it looks.Does anyone know the kick-off times on 8th October? Do we play Cyprus before, after or at the same time as the Swiss v France game?
I think Aiden McGeady is good enough to play for senior team.
The Anti-Kerr brigade will have disbanded, after we've achived the following P7 W4 D3 L0 Pts15 by the summer.Let's nip this anti-Kerr hysteria in the bud lads. For once, can we just get behind people and stop the sniping. We can snipe for two months next summer if we have nothing else to do.
For now . . . BACK THE BOYS!
Never eat yellow snow!!
Despite all the computations and calculations, it will come down to the final game against the Swiss, of that I'm sure, like it did last time.
They have replaced the Dutch as our bogey side. We will need an atmosphere and performance to match the 1-0 at home over Holland. Lady luck, the Irish fans and Duffer will all have to be on their game that day.
I'm a lot happier now than I was on Friday.
Ignoring the last match (against the Swiss) for a second. From our next 4 matches, all we need to do it win 3 and draw 1 (it doesn't matter which one is drawn). If that happens we beat the Swiss in our last match and we win the group. That is basically the minimum be need to do to draw this group.barring any other results and i mean, waht min do we need to secure second place and again bar any other results min we need to get 1st???
The minimum we need to finish 2nd is 3 wins and 2 draws from our remaining matches.
So at the end of the day, if we draw one of our next four games it doesn't really make much difference as all we are still aiming to win the rest of our matches.
Last edited by eirebhoy; 31/03/2005 at 12:20 PM.
Right on BrotherLet's nip this anti-Kerr hysteria in the bud lads. For once, can we just get behind people and stop the sniping. We can snipe for two months next summer if we have nothing else to do.
For now . . . BACK THE BOYS!
I'd like to ask the anti Kerr guys just exactly how they would replace him . There wasnt exactly a plethora of high calibre applicants the last time the job was advertised.
Kicking us out of the last euro competition can do that. At least this time we have drawn in Basel in this qualifier, instead of losing. Now we just need to beat them at home and that would definitely put us in a great position to go to Germany.
I haven't seen the France vs Switzerland game but from what I hear our draw was far more comfortable than Switzerland's or Israel's.
We could have scored a few times - Clinton was through or nearly through a couple of times early on, Clinton missed a good headed chnace in the first half, Duff & Reid both had shots well saved, our set-pieces were decent for once, Robbie misplaced a header, O'Shea's missed by a foot... I saw no evidence of fear or undue caution (as The Guardian hack suggested). I'd say it was a responsible approach to the game and it could easily have yielded more but didn't.
I think mathematically 5 wins is needed to guarantee first place. If the Swiss and us have both won our previous 4 games, if we draw in dublin we'll be tied first on GD. You'd have to think 4 wins and a draw would do it though. Especially now that Switzerland's GD is coming back in line with ours too.
I think 3 wins and 2 draws is enough to mathematically guarantee second and might just sneak first on GD.
I appreciate your faith. It could be all wrong!
Let's nip this anti-Kerr hysteria in the bud lads. For once, can we just get behind people and stop the sniping. We can snipe for two months next summer if we have nothing else to do.
For now . . . BACK THE BOYS!
Have to agree....The understandable knee jerk reaction from Sat should be coming to an end by now...We need to get behind the Team..Bring on June 4th
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