No luck o' the Irish in Monday's FIFA World Cup playoff draw

by Steve Davis on Oct 19, 2009 10:47 AM EDT Comment 7 comments

It's going to be Ireland or France ... but not both

As you scheme and schedule your next, uh, “sick day,” you might want to book Nov. 14. And then you might want to schedule a, uh, “follow up doctors visit” for Nov. 18.

Those are the playoff dates coming up for the remaining World Cup berths. And now we know the European matchups, which were drawn Monday in Zurich.

Here’s how it shook out. (If you’re an Ireland fan, brace yourself:)

Ireland vs. France

Portugal vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina

Greece vs. Ukraine

Russia vs. Slovenia

(The teams listed first will host the Nov. 14 leg.)

This is a huge blow for Ireland, as France and Portugal were always seen as the teams to avoid. It’s especially irksome to Ireland’s Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni, who was not happy with FIFA’s decision to seed the playoffs. Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Slovenia went unseeded, which meant they could not play each other.

Ireland played in the 2002 World Cup but missed Germany 2006.

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Comments

that decision to seed the playoffs was iffy.

it was so obviously made to try to ensure portugal(ronaldo) and france would make the finals. it’s fine to have such a seeding plan, but to not make the rule until just before the playoffs is outrageous.

capital letters suck.

by soccerfreak on Oct 19, 2009 2:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

no argument here

… and i couldn’t have said it any better

by Steve Davis on Oct 19, 2009 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The decision isn't the problem

The fact that they didn’t make it until two or three weeks ago is.

by SpartanDan on Oct 19, 2009 8:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well I have a problem with the decision

but I’d be willing to let it slide had they decided prior to qualifying.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Oct 19, 2009 10:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What would you have preferred?

Random draw? Teams are seeded for the first draw, why not for this one? Only other option that makes sense is to seed based on results within the WCQs (four highest finishers are seeded, next four get drawn against one of them, ninth is done), which would have been fine with me too (and might have made things more interesting for teams that had already guaranteed a trip to the playoffs on the last day).

by SpartanDan on Oct 21, 2009 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs