alphabet_king
Vital 1st Team Regular
No i'm not talking about Kevin Keegan's hair. It's this time in every world cup that we start to look at who we might get/want to get in the next round.
Now some will not be interested in working out permutations. They'll say "it doesn't matter who you play, if you want to win it you have to beat the best at some point" - i'd say back to that i really don't think we're in with a chance with winning it. Of course anything could happen, but I am more interested in trying to progress as far as as possible if I am honest. If we could get past the quarters it would equal the best we'd done in 28 years! Any semi final appearance would put to bed the 'always go out in the quarters' chat that we always get. Sorry but the history books don't really remember who you went out against either. How far we got will be repeated for years on years, so for me that's what's important now.
A favourable draw in the 2nd round and quarters could be vital to this - something we always seem to miss out on (although admittedly it didn't do us much good vs Iceland 2 years ago).
Of course by the point of the knockout, no one's an easy win, and we need to be careful not to get carried away with a couple of wins against poor teams either. We always have the potential for another 'Iceland', but I would prefer to play a lesser team who may be playing well, than have to blindly hope one of the big guns has an off day. Even on an off day they can beat you. Looking at it though, there's actually a chance there could be a fairly 'favourable' draw to the Semi's.
To me the most likely and actually most favourable option at the moment after today's results is that we end up playing Columbia in the next round and then we play Mexico in the quarters. All very very winnable on paper which if we did the unthinkable, this would actually take us to the semi's!
This would require us to come 2nd in our group - so lose against Belgium (we can do that, right?), and then for Mexico and Columbia to win theirs. All very possible after today's results.
If Germany somehow won that group though (with a big win and Mexico losing), then we'd be in line to get them in the quarters, so that would suck.
Win our group and we'd most likely end up with Japan then Brazil in the quarters (so out at the quarters again then!).
Desperately hoping then that the first permutation is the one that happens. Would love to remember us getting to the semi's and being in a position to dare to dream.
The good thing is that we are the last of the group games to play. We'd actually know all of the results before we play. So we'll actually know what result will be 'more favourable'. It'll be weird if ourselves and Belgium are desperately trying to lose the match to try to end up in the potentially easier half of the draw.
Of course this will all go to pot. We'll almost definitely end up vs Germany or Brazil in the quarters, or even screwing up against Japan or Columbia in the next round.
Now some will not be interested in working out permutations. They'll say "it doesn't matter who you play, if you want to win it you have to beat the best at some point" - i'd say back to that i really don't think we're in with a chance with winning it. Of course anything could happen, but I am more interested in trying to progress as far as as possible if I am honest. If we could get past the quarters it would equal the best we'd done in 28 years! Any semi final appearance would put to bed the 'always go out in the quarters' chat that we always get. Sorry but the history books don't really remember who you went out against either. How far we got will be repeated for years on years, so for me that's what's important now.
A favourable draw in the 2nd round and quarters could be vital to this - something we always seem to miss out on (although admittedly it didn't do us much good vs Iceland 2 years ago).
Of course by the point of the knockout, no one's an easy win, and we need to be careful not to get carried away with a couple of wins against poor teams either. We always have the potential for another 'Iceland', but I would prefer to play a lesser team who may be playing well, than have to blindly hope one of the big guns has an off day. Even on an off day they can beat you. Looking at it though, there's actually a chance there could be a fairly 'favourable' draw to the Semi's.
To me the most likely and actually most favourable option at the moment after today's results is that we end up playing Columbia in the next round and then we play Mexico in the quarters. All very very winnable on paper which if we did the unthinkable, this would actually take us to the semi's!
This would require us to come 2nd in our group - so lose against Belgium (we can do that, right?), and then for Mexico and Columbia to win theirs. All very possible after today's results.
If Germany somehow won that group though (with a big win and Mexico losing), then we'd be in line to get them in the quarters, so that would suck.
Win our group and we'd most likely end up with Japan then Brazil in the quarters (so out at the quarters again then!).
Desperately hoping then that the first permutation is the one that happens. Would love to remember us getting to the semi's and being in a position to dare to dream.
The good thing is that we are the last of the group games to play. We'd actually know all of the results before we play. So we'll actually know what result will be 'more favourable'. It'll be weird if ourselves and Belgium are desperately trying to lose the match to try to end up in the potentially easier half of the draw.
Of course this will all go to pot. We'll almost definitely end up vs Germany or Brazil in the quarters, or even screwing up against Japan or Columbia in the next round.
. I see no reason why we should fear coming up against them, other than their reputation.
