Who would beat us/Who would we beat?

**tetsujin1979** · 20/06/2006, 2:29 PM

With the second set of games behind us, I think we all have a handle on who's decent (Spain, Argentina, Ukraine), who are underperforming (England, Brazil), who are better than we thought (Germany) and who are just plain unlucky (Ivory Coast), so the question needs to be asked: If we were here, how would we fair against what are the best 32 teams in the World, according to FIFA anyway?

Here's the list of qualifiers, sorted by seeding, reply and add your comments for each team. Or just the ones you feel like commenting on:
01 Brazil
02 England
03 Spain
04 Germany
05 Mexico
06 France
07 Argentina
08 Italy
09 USA
10 Netherlands
11 Korea Republic
12 Japan
13 Sweden
14 Croatia
15 Paraguay
16 Czech Republic
17 Portugal
18 Costa Rica
19 Saudi Arabia
20 Poland
21 Iran
22 Tunisia
23 Ecuador
24 Serbia and Montenegro
25 Switzerland
26 Ukraine
27 Côte d'Ivoire
28 Australia
29 Trinidad and Tobago
30 Ghana
31 Angola
32 Togo

**DmanDmythDledge** · 20/06/2006, 4:28 PM

Ivory Coast and Ghana are far better than their seeding. We would struggle against them. I don't think we would beat any of the top 10, bar USA, but we always seem to do well against the top teams. Czech Republic and Portugal are ridiculously low seeded and they would beat us. I don't think we would have a problem doing well against any of the other teams.

**The Stars** · 20/06/2006, 5:09 PM

we would be lucky to beat Togo and shoul dbeat Iran and Suadi but thats it.
Bottom Line is Ireland werent good enough.

**eirebhoy** · 20/06/2006, 5:39 PM

Iran are far from the worst team in the world cup. From that list I'd put us on par with Croatia or Australia.

**Soko** · 20/06/2006, 6:08 PM

Being on my sick bed I've seen every team twice. You've got to narrow this down to whether we can compete with teams i.e. beat them on a given day or should be expected to beat a team

Compete with
02 England
04 Germany
05 Mexico
06 France
09 USA
10 Netherlands
13 Sweden
17 Portugal
25 Switzerland
14 Croatia
16 Czech Republic
23 Ecuador - bar today, they didn't give a ****
27 Côte d'Ivoire
30 Ghana
26 Ukraine

Should beat
11 Korea Republic
12 Japan
20 Poland
24 Serbia and Montenegro
15 Paraguay
28 Australia

Expect to beat
18 Costa Rica
19 Saudi Arabia
21 Iran
22 Tunisia
29 Trinidad and Tobago
31 Angola
32 Togo

Only 2 teams have really stood out to me so far - Spain and Argentina, both of whom would wipe the floor with us. The rest have been so so and we would always put up a fight against the bigger nations like Italy and Germany. Its just a pity we couldn't do it against Israel.

As for someone claiming we couldn't beat Togo? They are without in the bottom 5 teams in this WC

**superfrank** · 20/06/2006, 6:52 PM

Originally Posted by The Stars

Bottom Line is Ireland werent good enough.

Glad someone else could say it.

**Closed Account 2** · 21/06/2006, 11:41 PM

If we met the following in group stages I'd predict

01 Brazil - Draw
02 England - Win
03 Spain - Defeat
04 Germany - Defeat
05 Mexico - Draw
06 France - Draw
07 Argentina - Defeat
08 Italy - Draw
09 USA - Win
10 Netherlands - Draw
11 Korea Republic - Win
12 Japan - Win
13 Sweden - Win
14 Croatia - Draw
15 Paraguay - Win
16 Czech Republic - Draw
17 Portugal - Defeat
18 Costa Rica - Win
19 Saudi Arabia - Win
20 Poland - Win
21 Iran - Win
22 Tunisia - Win
23 Ecuador - Draw
24 Serbia and Montenegro - Draw (unless they went down to 10 men)
25 Switzerland - Draw
26 Ukraine - Defeat
27 Côte d'Ivoire - Defeat
28 Australia - Draw
29 Trinidad and Tobago - Win
30 Ghana - Draw
31 Angola - Win
32 Togo - Win

**Reality Bites** · 22/06/2006, 7:46 AM

Get real Edmundo, the current crop are not yet a team, as poor as brazil and england are a draw and a win is just not realistic at the moment against either! As for win against Sth Korea, Sweden, Poland, Paragauy.. Don't see it i am afraid. at best draw against those four would be our standard

**Dublin12** · 22/06/2006, 8:27 AM

Originally Posted by The Stars

we would be lucky to beat Togo and shoul dbeat Iran and Suadi but thats it.
Bottom Line is Ireland werent good enough.

Thats it in a nutshell really,no need to say anymore.

**eirebhoy** · 22/06/2006, 11:36 AM

This would just be my expectations based on our current set of players and how well we usually do in major tournaments...

01 Brazil - Defeat
02 England - Draw
03 Spain - Defeat
04 Germany - Draw
05 Mexico - Draw
06 France - Draw
07 Argentina - Defeat
08 Italy - Defeat
09 USA - Draw
10 Netherlands - Defeat
11 Korea Republic - Win
12 Japan - Draw (Still can't believe how underrated they are - on form they'd rip any defence open - a decent striker and they'd be playing Brazil tonight for top spot)
13 Sweden - Draw
14 Croatia - Draw
15 Paraguay - Draw
16 Czech Republic - Draw
17 Portugal - Defeat
18 Costa Rica - Win
19 Saudi Arabia - Win
20 Poland - Win
21 Iran - Win
22 Tunisia - Win
23 Ecuador - Win
24 Serbia and Montenegro - Draw
25 Switzerland - Draw
26 Ukraine - Draw
27 Côte d'Ivoire - Draw
28 Australia - Win
29 Trinidad and Tobago - Win
30 Ghana - Draw
31 Angola - Win
32 Togo - Win

**OwlsFan** · 23/06/2006, 10:23 AM

Well bearing in mind we've only won 2 games in open play in the World Cup, I don't think we'd beat many of those teams. That said we wouldn't lose many either. Probably 4 wins, 4 defeats and 24 draws