Asunto: »World Cup V

We have been drawn in a group with

Spain currently ranked 4th
France currently ranked 16th
Serbia currebtly ranked 23rd
Scotland currently ranked 25th

First thoughts are that Spain are a very good team, France haven't been the force this season that they once were and have slipped down the rankings a bit this season.
Serbia were drawn in France's qualification group and managed to beat them recently 2-0 after previously losing 3-1 in week 1.

The group could have been much worse but i guess that we'll get a better idea of how we might fare after this morning's friendly with France :)

Full Draw

Group A
1. Italia
2. Hrvatska
3. Chile
4. Polska

Group B
1. Česká republika
2. Romania
3. Turkiye
4. Canada

Group C
1. Eesti
2. Lietuva
3. USA
4. Portugal

Group D
1. Suomi
2. Schweiz
3. Slovensko
4. Island

Group E
1. England
2. Denmark
3. Brasil
4. Peru

Group F
1. España
2. France
3. Srbija
4. Scotland

Group G
1. België
2. Deutschland
3. Argentina
4. New Zealand

Group H
1. Nederland
2. México
3. Magyarország
4. Österreich

Group A is for sure the group of death :p

Chile will win Group A, they've got a good striker. ;)

mister pyro is going to kill them all? ;)

Todays matches involving our WC opponents

Spain 4 Poland 2 7805646

France 3 Croatia 11 ! 7805372

Serbia 5 Albania 0 7805270

The World Cup starts this week and we kick off our group with a match v Serbia. Bad news with the early week player updates see's us struggling a bit to find an in-form striker. Of the main guys, McDermot at solid is looking the strongest. There are a couple of B team strikers sitting on divine form so we'll wait untill Thursday's updates before confirming which striker we will go with.

Can anyone with a NT player please send me an update if there has been any recent changes and again on Thursday should it be required. Thanks

langhe (or a.n. other) please could you change the thread title to World Cup V. Thanks.

done

We open our World Cup campaign tomorrow with a match against Serbia, currently ranked one place above us in 23rd.

Serbia qualified for the WC behind France and also beat them in the last group match so we should expect nothing less than a very tough match.
Defensively they look very strong and it could be very difficult for us to break them down. Hopefully we will be able to compete with them in the middle and come away with at least a point. Unfortunately, with so many first team players missing due to terrible form and injury then this could prove to be very difficult indeed.

Game kicks off at 12.00 local time.

I know from my time as Scotland NT. We had a small squad. So missing 2 or 3 big players is a real blow. Their replacements will probably be sub standard in NT terms. But its all about doing what you can with what you have.

A point would be great to start with.

hmmm... sounds rather worrying. hey, why don't we give old Derek James a run out... knowing him, he'd love to get his 93rd cap and prove to the punters that he's still got what it takes.

Come on SCOTLAND!!!

Just under 10 minutes to kick off.

Spain have started as i thought they would with a 4 - 2 victory over France 7801993
I'd expect Spain to pick up another 6 points so it should be a right old scrap for 2nd place whatever happens in the next few minutes.

Fingers crossed.....

the finger crossing worked. you scored a 100% of your chances, and they only did 50% :p

Scotland 4 Serbia 2 7801994

Dont know how we fluked that but i'll take it :)

Biggest pleaser was 4 goals from 4 shots, but how McDermot managed to score 2 from 1 shot is beyond me :)

Sadly, 2 injuries, Souness will miss out next week but hopefully Lappin, who is key (especially with McColligans form) should make it.

With Spain favourites to beat Serbia next week, we should be looking to keep the scores down in our remaining fixtures and maybe 3 points will be enough to go through on goal difference, so a big two weeks for the defence coming up. I doubt they would have got that 2nd goal had Lappin not been injured :(

Still, Nice Start :)

yep noticed that stat :)

It's not quite true though. Baldwin had a header saved after he just arrived on the pitch and somehow McDermot scored 2 goals from 1 shot :). I'll have to watch it again as i cant remember how those goals came about.
(editado)

anyone else notice offsides given when the player was onside ??

seen it a few times in my last game and also at least 2 times in that game , Great win ally !!!!