The draw for the groups for qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa takes place on November 25th, 2007 in Durban, South Africa. The UEFA qualifying zone will be made up of eight groups of six teams and one group of five. As of last month's calculations and updates, the FIFA men's zonal rankings for Europe are as follow, with each cluster of teams representing lottery pots in ascendign order: Pot 1 Italy France Germany Spain Netherlands Portugal Czech Republic Croatia England Pot 2 Romania Scotland Greece Russia Poland Norway Ukraine Sweden Serbia Pot 3 Turkey Denmark Republic of Ireland Bulgaria Northern Ireland Israel Switzerland Finland Hungary Pot 4 Bosnia-Herzegovina Slovakia Belgium Cyprus Wales Moldova Albania Georgia FYR MAcedonia Pot 5 Slovenia Iceland Armenia Latvia Austria Lithuania Belarus Azerbaijan Liechtenstein Pot 6 Kazakhstan Estonia Malta Luxembourg Montenegro Andorra Faroe Islands San Marino Key Notes Only the top 9 teams of each group go through automatically. Unlike the qualifying round for last summer's world cup, the best 8 of the remaining 9 runners-up in each group will square off in a home and away playoff round. The November FIFA men's zonal rankings for Europe will be released after the draw this weekend and so the above pots are set. This means that Poland cannot hope to be grouped with Romania instead of England as there is no possibility for the former to leapfrog the latter in the rankings. http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=27275&rank=162 Thanks to Wyszkowiak from www.polishsoccer.com for the information! Now the best and worst case scenarios for Poland's lottery draw in my eyes: Best Possible Group: Croatia Poland Hungary Moldova Liechtenstein San Marino Worst Possible Group Italy Poland Israel/Turkey Belgium Austria Kazakhstan
Honestly your worst possible group doesn't look that scary. True, teams like Belgium and Austria will be better than they were in the last two qualifiers when we faced them, and the Kazaks are always somewhat inconvenient. But Israel is very much beatable despite improvments and a one or two good players. My toughest group for Poland: Germany/Italy ROI/Finland Belgium Belarus Kazakhstan Easiest: Croatia Hungary Cyprus Lichtenstein San Marino As it always the case it will be something no one expects, though!
In my opinion Toughest draw: Spain Poland Denmark Slovakia Belarus Montenegro Easiest: Czech Republic Poland Northern Ireland Moldova Liechtenstein Andorra Not that I consider Spain, Denmark or Belarus the best sides in their pots, but I simply think these teams' style of play would be especially hard for our boys. Even when Denmark was in decline, they usually could beat us, Spain has lot of wonderful talent what doesn't suit our team which is rather technically poor and also Belarus used to make a lot of problems for us. On the other side, I think Czechs without Nedved, Poborsky and so on will not be so talented as young Croatian side with Srna, Modric or Eduardo still getting better and better. I also think Northern Ireland will not repreat their good form in next qualifications because they lack quality. However I will take every draw without big optimism or pesimism because Euro 2008 qualification campaign shown us that we can take 4 points against Portugal and 3 against Armenia and 1 against Finland and - how our commentators often say - "they are no weak opponents anymore"
I think you're really underestimating Israel. They have had very positive results in qualifying for both the World Cup and Euro Cup in recent years and they are going to be even better in the next few years with a pretty strong U-21 squad. I would much rather play Ireland than Turkey, Israel or Switzerland. Though I do agree with you on Finland, their defensive style under Hodgson is very effective.
Updated groups Posted 23-11-2007 08:50 AM IP Reply with quote Edit Post Delete post-New post- Pot 1 Italy France Germany Spain Netherlands Portugal Czech Republic Croatia Greece Pot 2 England Romania Scotland Turkey Bulgaria Russia Poland Sweden Israel Pot 3 Norway Ukraine Serbia Denmark Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland Finland Switzerland Belgium Pot 4 Slovakia Bosnia-Herzegovina Hungary Moldova Wales FYR MAcedonia Belarus Lithuania Cyprus Pot 5 Georgia Albania Slovenia Latvia Iceland Armenia Austria Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Pot 6 Liechtenstein Estonia Malta Luxembourg Montenegro Andorra Faroe Islands San Marino
Very good draw for us. Not much traveling, meaning that our fans can fill opponent's stadiums. If we don't make it to the playoffs at least there is something wrong with us, and we'll have a chance against the Czechs as well.
I think it's an ok draw. Slovenia was a WC qualifier in 02. Slovakia is an ok side. Northern Ireland is the real darkhorse, who knows how they will play. I do like the fact that we got the Czechs though. It's important to win against the middle tier teams so as to avoid being the one 2nd place team that doesnt make the playoffs. It could be a lot worse though. Here are the other groups: Group 1: Malta, Albania, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal Group 2: Luxembourg, Latvia, Moldova, Switzerland, Israel, Greece Group 3: San Marino, Slovenia, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic Group 4: Lichtenstein, Azerbaijan, Wales, Finland, Russia, Germany Group 5: Estonia, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Turkey, Spain Group 6: Andorra, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, England, Croatia Group 7: Faroe Islands, Austria, Lithuania, Serbia, Romania, France Group 8: Montenegro, Georgia, Cyprus, Ireland, Bulgaria, Italy Group 9: Iceland, Macedonia, Norway, Scotland, Netherlands Greece with a weak group again...Italy also has a pretty weak one.
With Northern Ireland the key will be to neutralize Healy, not an easy task, but I am sure Leo will come up with something. As for Slovenia and Slovakia, their recent form has been average at best, and in a home and home series with the Czechs I realistically think we can split the points.
I can't believe how weak is that Greece group. Not one traditional power, lots of very dark horses and outsiders. But otherwise this is a very balanced draw. I agree NI can be tough, but I don't see them causing us problems. We beat them twice four years ago, we'll do it again. Slovenia is just a shadow of the team they were in 2002, and they weren't that good then either. I'm a little worried about Slovakia, but we should be ready for them.
I think we can even be first in the group Czech isn't the team it use to be, and I believe with Beenhakker and from learning own mistakes from previous qualifiers we should be in World Cup 2010.
a lot of their key players aren't getting any younger, it should be interesting seeing who steps up for them, with that said the Czech squad is still favorites
yea but a lot of U-20 players don't amount to anything... its the ones that do step up and become something. there are so many great u-20 players out there, but only a few actually become something of themselves. so it should be interesting seeing if 2 or 3 of those guys can step it up over the next few years
i love this 'Slav' group not a lot of travel to mess with team preparations and we were bound to have a difficult time with whoever was the top seed
We should have a good chance of qualifying, even a possibility of getting the top seed but thats jumping the gun. Not far off from the Euro 2008 draw now so hopefully that'll turn out well also.
Overall a good draw: - Limited travel for players and fans, which is a good thing - Very strong Czech team, but before Euro qualifying we said the same about Portugal, so the Czech intimidation factor, should be gone Personally, if we have a good Euro 2008, we should be OK; if we play poorly we will have to do some rebuilding very quickly and that can get us into trouble.
there won't be much rebuilding to be honest... we have some good young players that are playing at decent to good clubs everywhere for every position. its perfect though right now because we have the youthful charisma in the younger players and the experienced veterans. it is a perfect blend because in the big games the veterans will be there to calm down the young guys, and in the games that don't mean as much the younger guys will have the energy to motivate the older players in the matches that don't mean as much. i am not worried about not being successful. i don't think we will win the Euro, but i think we will do a damn good job and take some good countries down in the process with the retirement of Sobolewski it allows time for other players to step up for the spot he vacated so there is one less question mark of older players that might not be there for the WC 2010... Krzynowek and Zurawski i think will be question marks that will need to be answered eventually, if their bodies can hold up long enough to compete at the high level they do.
Will Beenhakker be there in 2010? If he's not, they will go out in the group stage even if they qualify......which they should.
I'm pretty sure the contract goes until the end of qualifying for the WC, and if they qualify I am positive that they would extend his contract to cover the WC.
Yes, the contract has been extended through the WC qualifiers. Still, it doesn't mean that someone else with deep pockets can't buy Leo out.
Yea I'd be much more worried about this prospect. Obviously we have to qualify first but hmm I wonder what circumstances would exist that he'd want out with a newly qualified national team? I mean its almost impossible that a nation that qualified would fire their coach and then pursue Leo and it seems like he'd want to spend his time coaching another world cup but I don't know. I should probably slow up on the paranoia for now.