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SLG · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject: World Cup 2010 Qualifying

Decent draw for Scotland IMO. In the five team group 9. Some tricky games, but if we play like we have done recently, should have a very good chance of getting at least a play off spot.

Holland
Scotland
Norway
FYR Macedonia
Iceland

Other groups:
Group 1 Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta
Group 2 Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg
Group 3 Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino
Group 4 Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein
Group 5 Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia
Group 6 Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Group 7 France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands
Group 8 Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro

sgmillerton · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:29 pm Post subject: Re: World Cup 2010 Qualifying

agentmancuso · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:22 pm Post subject:

So did Ally McLeod.

We could hardly have hoped for a better group all the same.
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azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3792

Of all the pot 1 teams for us to get, I would have chosen Holland or Spain.

I'm happy we avoided Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine and Serbia from pot 3. We have form against Norway.

Happy we avoided Bosnia, Belarus, Slovakia and Cyprus from pot 4. Macedonia are no pushovers though.

The only ones that worried me in pot 5 were Georgia (obviously), Austria, Slovenia and Iceland. Iceland have been on the slide over the last few years though and this gives me a reason to visit the place when we play there.

All in all, an infinitely better group for Scotland than the Euro 2008 qualifying. I'm confident we can finish in at least 2nd.
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Reluctant Hero · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:35 pm Post subject:

Was listening to the draw on the radio. The last three first seeds in the pot were Italy, France and Holland, so I was glad when they came out of the hat.

Pretty decent group, although don't know how it works when it comes to calculating the best second-placed teams. We will only be playing 8 games when all other groups will be playing 10. Is it tough luck and it goes on points alone, or does it go on a ratio of points per game. Think whichever way, we are slightly disadvantaged as we don't have the "guarantee" of 6 points against the bottom seed.

Hopefully we will finish top though and not need to worry about that Smile

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sgmillerton · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 7:37 pm Post subject:

macnumpty · Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:04 pm Post subject:

If the last World Cup is anything to go by, they'll calculate teams' performances against the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th placed teams, so the other 8 teams don't get the 6 point start. On the other hand, for this to happen again requires a level of consistency that I'm not convinced either FIFA or UEFA are capable of.

Could well be worse. Group 6 wouldn't be all that pleasant against Croatia and Ukraine, along with a trip to Kazakhstan, and neither would Group 7 with France, Serbia, Lithuania and Austria. Group 2 would have been nice though.
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Morph · Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 1:02 am Post subject:

ah Macnumpty

Group two has too many teams Scotland would have struggled with, just due to the fact that we thin we should beat them
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Rinty · Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:43 am Post subject:

Group 2 looks like 'the group of merde' There's Greece, Israel, Switzerland, the Vatican, Guernsey and Burntisland, and one of them will definitely go through and one in the play-offs. That should our target, getting in to the play-offs and drawing the runner up in that group.

We should get in the top two in this group on current form. The only players that will change in our squad in the next year or two is Weir, Alexander, Dailly and Pressley dropping out and, hopefully, some promising young players like Naismith and Webster and Kennedy improving and adding to the squad.

We got humped from Holland the last time but remember we won the home leg, that was no good to us in a knockout situation but I'd settle for 3 points from the matches against Holland. We are a lot better than we were back then and Holland are not as good. It will be about doing better against Iceland and macedonia than Norway do, and matching them in the head to head, or matching their results against the other two and beating them in the head to head.

When do the the fixtures get announced?

kevin04 · I Love 'Our Scotland' Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 347

Pretty good draw for us in my opinion.

I seen the 3 teams left France, Italy & Holland and feared the worst with us getting either one of France or Italy.

Fixtures are announced hopefully in Dec Rinty, all the teams will meet up in Amsterdam to discuss fixtures etc and if everyone agrees then it should be announced mid december if not like our last group, UEFA will do the fixtures on the computer.

Macedonia scare me the most from this group, I'd fancy getting that away game out of the way first or second.