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Hey there my English brothers.....just a quick (deep breath, compose yourself and.....) "congratulations" on qualifying for the World Cup - and in such comprehensive fashion. Didn''t see the game or even the highlights, but heard enough from the phone-in fans on 909 (a few were quite Barry-esque!) to know that it was a dominant performance all round. Unfortunately the Green and White Machine finally stumbled at fortress Windsor Park - prior to tonight, our last 9 competitive home games bore 8 wins and 1 draw. The moral I suppose, is that you need to win away from home to qualify for the major championships.

Anyway, to try and stop this developing into a pointless rant, I wanted to mention Slovakia who have now qualified from our group for the World Cup. This team mean business; organised, disciplined, tight at the back (Skrtel is a beast - Healy didn''t have a sniff, which is rare), pacy and creative going forward and the team probably average about 6ft 4. Frightening! A particular mention to some guy called Weiss - a 19year old Man City winger apparently - ripped Jonny Evans to shreds, including a nutmeg en route to the first goal, looks a real prospect.... I''m sure if drawn with England, you guys will probably have too much in the tank for the Slovaks, but I very much doubt that they will be the whipping boys in South Africa.....  

So, well done and good luck for next year.

A down-hearted but proud "wee Norn iron" supporter!

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Was pretty gutted to see you stumble last might (N)IC - always root for you lot; perhaps because of the amount of City players that have played at WP, Worthy and I have quite a few mates in the Belfast region - well, Craigavon actually but you know what I mean.  

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In an alternative universe, yes....we need to win in the Czech Republic and San Marino to get a draw against Slovenia.....so it''s goodnight from us.....

 

MacDougall: Craigavon, eh? About the same size as San Marino and as potent a footballing force, methinks. It was also an olden day attempt at Milton Keynes, but just didn''t happen hence its desolation and roundabouts with only one entrance/exit!

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[quote user="Northern Irish Canary"]

In an alternative universe, yes....we need to win in the Czech Republic and San Marino to get a draw against Slovenia.....so it''s goodnight from us.....

 

MacDougall: Craigavon, eh? About the same size as San Marino and as potent a footballing force, methinks. It was also an olden day attempt at Milton Keynes, but just didn''t happen hence its desolation and roundabouts with only one entrance/exit!

[/quote]

Yeah, not the most attractive/thriving place in the world (to say the least[:)]) but I''ve always had a good time when I''m over there - good company and all that [:)]

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[quote user="Beauseant"]

At last a bit of perspective!

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/sep/12/england-ireland-world-cup-qualification

[/quote]That''s a good article which certainly does introduce a sense of perspective. The FIFA seeding policy is a farce clearly designed to keep certain teams perennially qualifying and reaching the latter stages of competitions.Scotland managed to beat World Cup runners up France twice in qualifying for Euro 2008 only being pipped by a single goal in the final match by World Champions Italy. Strangely their FIFA ranking fell from 13 to somewhere in the ''30''s'' as a result whilst teams like Croatia shot up the rankings on the back of victories over some really poor teams. England will be drawn in a group with one ''quite good team'' and two ''not very good teams'' and all things being equal will progress to the Quarter finals before being knocked out by the first half decent team they will have played competitively since, since, since well technically Euro 2008 as all other Engerland matches have been meaningless friendlies or ''Gimmee''s''.Although the seeding does pretty well guarantee the attendance at the major tournaments of all the favoured teams it''s arguable whether making it so easy for them actually does them any favours when the going does get a little tough at QF stages or later.Still a good result in a pre-finals warm up against the Cayman Islands or Antartica should get the flags waving and the nation believing in the boys once again.......

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[quote user="Beauseant"]

I find it amazing that problems that appeared insuperable under previous managers ( successfully playing Gerrard and Lampard in the same midfield, the lack of a genuine left sided midfield player etc) have been resolved without any fuss by Capello. This is the first time in many years that we''ve had a side with such a common focus and an acceptance that the collective is more important than the individual (since Venables, I would suggest) and the manager deserves huge credit for that.

With 8 months to go I''m sure that he will be working hard to eliminate the problem areas that Shack correctly outlined above, but his biggest problem will be dampening down the hype. As usual the media''s "feast or famine" fixation has kicked in and we are being presented as likely winners. Despite Capello''s best efforts to play things down he''s going to have his work cut out as the redtops rack up the pressure of expectation while sharpening the knives for failure.It seems to be a peculiarly English disease (well, maybe British, given Ally''s Tartan Army in Argentina!) but it does little for our international popularity, nor does it help our players.

Oh, and best of luck to the ladies tonight!

[/quote]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/8253063.stm - whilst i agree that is what needs to happen he isn''t doing himself any favours with this news article in my opinion.

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