The boys at FAI and the other football associations from the other teams are meeting tomorrow in Dublin to discuss the schedule. It might be a good idea to get a crack at the French and Swiss early like when we did against Holland and Portugal last time round. France hopefully will be at sixes and sevens playing without Zidane after he retires after the Euros.
France first match is the ideal one, home or away doesn't really matter that much but prefrebley away.
Kerr said in an interview that getting big teams first is not his priority. He also says he wants to avoid away trips like Abania-Georgia last year (therefore no Isreal-Cyprus away trip). Rumour I read was Cyprus at home first, and France at home last.
Ahh man! http://www.soccercentral.ie/viewstory.asp?id=12012&mainheading=Republic of Ireland&viewstory=yes Yom Kippur is probably the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Can't really blame them. Think of it as not playing on a Good Friday. I wonder if FIFA will be flexible and play before or after October 12.
Doubt it. FIFA/UEFA wouldn't even rule in Wales and Serbia's favour on a rescheduled game when the original game was postponed because of war. The rescheduled game was on a non-FIFA day and I think both teams got their players released but there were serious amounts of begging necessary.
Shouldn't it only affect one other team, though? There's no reason the other 4 can't play on Yom Kippur...
Finally agreed: http://www.fai.ie/FAI/Welcome to the FAI!.htm Ireland's games: September 4 2004 Ireland v Cyprus September 8 2004 Switzerland v Ireland October 9 2004 France v Ireland October 13 2004 Ireland v Faroe Islands March 26 2005 Israel v Ireland June 4 2005 Ireland v Israel June 8 2005 Faroe Islands v Ireland September 7 2005 Ireland v France October 8 2005 Cyprus v Ireland October 12 2005 Ireland v Switzerland notes - another final qualifying game against the Swiss, hopefully we'll have first place sown up by then! - looks like the Faroes were the one who helped out Israel by not playing on Oct 12 2005. - overall looks like a pretty even schedule home and away wise - at the end of the first 3 games we'll have a good indication whether we are facing an uphill battle
I'm disappointed with the timing of France away, the only chance we had of getting a result there was getting the match played first. I don't care what Kerr says about the playing the hardest matches first time being a myth, the 2002 qualifying was built on the 2-2 and 1-1 results.
Here's the full schedule: UEFA World Cup Qualifying Group 4 fixtures: September 4 2004 Republic of Ireland v Cyprus France v Israel Switzerland v Faroe Islands September 8 2004 Switzerland v Republic of Ireland Faroe Islands v France Israel v Cyprus October 9 2004 France v Republic of Ireland Israel v Switzerland Cyprus v Faroe Islands October 13 2004 Republic of Ireland v Faroe Islands Cyprus v France November 17 2004 Israel v Cyprus March 26 2005 Israel v Republic of Ireland Switzerland v France March 30 2005 Israel v France Switzerland v Cyprus June 4 2005 Republic of Ireland v Israel Switzerland v Faroe Islands June 8 2005 Faroe Islands v Republic of Ireland September 3 2005 France v Faroe Islands Switzerland v Israel September 7 2005 Republic of Ireland v France Cyprus v Switzerland Faroe Islands v Israel October 8 2005 Cyprus v Republic of Ireland France v Switzerland Israel v Faroe Islands October 12 2005 Republic of Ireland v Switzerland France v Cyprus The Swiss have it rough, France and Ireland away at the end of the campaign. That can only work to our advantage, I think. Puts added pressure on them. And we're France's first big match (they have Isreal and the Faroes the month before us) so they still won't be quite used to what will be undoubtedly a new system due to retirments after the Euros. Overall a good schedule.
Personally I thought France at home first would have been great, as we may have got them mentally tired after Euro 2004. Similar to Croatia in 98. However Kerr seemed to get the games he wanted so lets see how it works out. I don't think its too bad as we are playing our away games with the French and Swiss first so will know what we need when we get them back in Dublin. Could be a nice opportunity for revenge against Die Schweiz.
It's a similar tactic to what we've tried before. If we get something from the away games to the big 2, Kerr & Rooney will be hailed as geniuses and if we get nothing, it was a crazy idea that will have ruined our chances of progressing. Sounds like the other countries' representatives never came up against a negotiating team like ours before, and all of them left with scowls on their pusses. Got our flights sorted for both trips now, so it's time to start saving for the sundry activities that go hand & hand with such footballing events.
I heard the FAI was terrified to once again end qualifying in Switzerland... Btw guys, your schedule is wrong - we do not finish qualifying with three away games. Our schedule looks like this: Switzerland v Faroe Islands Switzerland v Republic of Ireland Israel v Switzerland France v Switzerland Switzerland v Cyprus Faroe Islands v Switzerland Switzerland v Israel Cyprus v Switzerland Switzerland v France Republic of Ireland v Switzerland You guys got your stadium issue sorted out yet?
Hopefully. We will be playing our home games in Lansdowne Road again. The FAI have received approval from the Irish government to build a new all seater stadium, and hence FIFA are expected to allow us to continue to play at Lansdowne for the 2004 qualifiers.
That's good to hear. You guys really deserve to have your own home... So what kind of Irish side can we expect in September? Are we looking at basically the same pool of players, or is Ireland currently going through a lot of changes?
We have some promising young players who hopefully will be coming through into the senior team over the next 6 months. We have managed to get three good friendlies against Brazil, Romania and Czech Republic. These matches should be used as opportunities to introduce new faces and experiment a little. I would expect (and hope!) the team to play in Switzerland in the autumn to perform a lot better than we did last October. So will we be going Basle again?
Liam Miller and Andy Reid are the two major additions that will come into the side since the last match anyway, possibley more depending on the managers selection.
Most likely... As of right now, we got two stadiums capable of hosting such a game. St. Jakob Park in Basel... ...and the Stade de Genève. I personally expect it to be in Basel, but it could be in Geneva as well. Btw, did any of you go to the last game in Basel? Interesting, are they expected to make a major impact? As for our team, you can expect much of the same. It will be interesting to see how Marco Streller and Hakan Yakin develop in the Bundesliga (they both just signed for VFB Stuttgart during the winter break.)
Yeah, they are. Liam Miller has just signed for Man U, and will be joining them offically in the summer, and Andy Reid is probably the best player in the nationwide leagues and will probably move to a premiership club by the time we meet. They're as exciting a pair of youngsters as we've had since Duff and Keane to be honest, I just hope the Swiss match doesn't come too soon for them to make the kind of impact they can, they've only one cap between them so far.
Well, I can't say I hope the same, but I'll try to keep those two in mind once we play you guys... btw, here is the correct schedule for Group 4: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/match/index.html?zone=eur&ym=all&grp=WC2006PRLCTrpn1stSG4
I didn't make it last time as ironically I had to return to Ireland that weekend. I'm hoping on getting to the game this autumn, away tickets should be easier to get than the last time as a lot of Irish fans will make Paris their away game. Didn't realise they had signed for Stuttgart, hopefully they'll make an impact and help VFB in their title challange. Bad result for them in Berlin yesterday though.
Now if Felix Magath would just play them... Yakin and Streller are both ineligible for the Champions League, so Magath prefers to get the other players ready for the Chelsea tie. But after the Berlin result I don't see how Magath can afford to keep Yakin out - the VFB midfield needs him badly... With that said, a lot of our strength this coming september will depend on how these two develop at Stuttgart. PS: Where in Germany do you live?
Yakin and Kuranyi could be an excellent combination. Currently residing in Munich. Good beer, pretty town but a bit quiet for my liking.
