Ireland (Duff and Kelly) V Algeria (in Englands group) on ss1
Did anyone watch this in the end?
-i.e. were Algeria as bad as the scoreline suggests? If the ROI can beat Algeria, surely England can.
I didn't watch -- it wasn't run over here [grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr] -- but I wouldn't underestimate Algeria. They have a lot of talented individuals and, while they might not function as well as a team, qualifying out of Africa these days is more difficult than ever.
I still like England and the USA to qualify out of our group, but The Sun was wrong [hard to imagine, I know] when they devoted their front page to crowing how easy it would be for England. I can't find the "EASY" page on-line, but if someone can find it, it would be an interesting post on this thread.
And well done Ireland. You should be on your way to South Africa right now.
You're right, HatterDon - the group is not as easy as it looks. An embarrassing slip up isn't implausible in our match against the US (especially since it's our first match), and that might just mean we don't get top spot (although even I, an eternal pessimist, think not qualifying at all is unlikely). Worse still, if we only get second place, we have to face Germany in the knockout stages! Even with their injury woes, that is a terrifying prospect!
I echo your thoughts re Ireland and their deserved world cup spot. The consolation is that England (if all goes to plan) will be the team to send the cheats packing (England v France in the QFs, probably).
