These are the confirmed pots?

 

They were in an ESPN article so I believ they are.

 

Thanks Sac.

 

Not really a fan of predicting groups, so I'll just narrow it down to who I don't really want from each pot.

Pot 1

Would only want to avoid Germany or Spain there. Belgium, Romania, and Wales are definitely beatable sides, England would be interesting as we've never played them before and the games would make for some great atmospheres, Holland and Portugal are going to be going through transitional periods with their best players ageing and likely gone after the Euros, and Italy now are probably as weak as they've been in decades so not impossible to cope with them either.

Pot 3

Obviously avoid Serbia because of fan trouble, maybe Poland and Ukraine too who are tough. Wouldn't mind playing this Greece or a Sweden without Ibra though. The rest are doable.

Pot 4

Wouldn't want R. Ireland because their playing style doesn't suit us or Turkey who we've played plenty of times in recent years. Don't really mind the others. Faroe Islands would be a dream obviously.

Pots 5/6

Most of the teams there we should really be beating so don't really care who we get. Armenia and Finland can be tricky so if there's anyone to avoid from there it's them. Maybe not Kazakhstan, Georgia, or Azerbaijan as they're long distance travels but it's just one game anyways so that's only a minor issue.

---

Thank goodness we changed coaches when we did and that the results this week went in our favor otherwise we'd be in Pot 3 and potentially looking at a group pitting us with Spain/Germany and France or Italy which would have been a disaster. Hopefully we'll get a good draw, but just by looking at the pots alone we should at least have a decent chance of making the playoffs regardless of who we get so qualifying again isn't too unrealistic.

Still, this isn't all that important right now. More important to focus on the Euro qualifiers which aren't over by any stretch and we still have hopes again to make it thankfully.

 

I think England from pot 1 would be great for us, the attention the game would receive would be enormous. Like wise from pot 3, Scotland. We have avenged losses to Izrael, Romania, Mexico, Greece, Iran. Next Scotland!

Pot 4 and below, no preference. Any team is below our standards.

 

Best case scenario:

Wales/Romania
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Albania
Faroe Islands
Moldova
Irrelevant

Worst case scenario:

Germany/Spain
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Serbia
Turkey
Armenia
Irrelevant

 

England would be quite bad imho, they are the team with the best record this qualifiers having not lost a single game (or even drawn one).

 

So, we may not end up in Pot 2 after all.

Long story short, the reason we were gonna be in the 2nd Pot was because Poland had a friendly against Greece and no matter the result, they were going to drop in the FIFA Rankings, allowing us to move ahead of them into the 2nd Pot. Well, the referee got injured during the match howler and it is not clear if FIFA will count that as an official friendly, so they may stay in the 2nd Pot.

That would be hilarious.

 

Here is my mock draw. I did it using Random Number generator for each pot.

 

Very undesirable. As usual, it would fall on us to stop a bad run of results for a team (in this case Serbia). I think it would be in UEFA interests not to pair us with the Serbs.

 

According to football-rankings Austria failed to secure Pot1 due to recent draw vs Bosnia-Hezegovina (while at the same time BIH secured pot 2 with draw with AUT and win vs Izrael):

http://www.football-rankings.info/2015/06/2018-fifa-world-cup-preliminary-draw.html

Austria

Elo Pot: 2
September simulations Pot: 3

Very similar to Slovakia. Won all their competitive games, with the exception of a home draw against Sweden. However, they decided they needed a glamour game vs. Brazil in November 2014. I assume they've paid a hefty appearance bill for Brazil and, of course, lost the game. Without that loss, or without the March 2015 friendly draw vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina they would have been in Pot 1.

Sorted in correct order as per football-rankings.info on 26 June 2015:

Pot 1: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, England, Wales, Spain, Croatia

Pot 2: Slovakia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Iceland, Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot 3: Ukraine, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Albania, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Greece

Pot 4: Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Estonia

Pot 5: Cyprus, Latvia, Armenia, Finland, Belarus, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova

Pot 6: Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Malta, San Marino, Andorra

 

Maybe BiH not playing any friendlies prior Izrael in June was a good thing, preventing us from missing out on pot 2 (regardless of result / someone explain)?.

 

yes it probably was.

 

Maybe it was competence on their part, and we were the ignorant ones this whole time?

 

Doubt it, with their track record. Will we get a September friendly?

edit: Never mind. The only free slot for us is in November if we qualify direct or fail to advance to playoffs.

 

FIFA Rankings just released and it's official, we'll be placed in Pot 2 for the draw.

 

Great news. Hope we get Wales. as does everyone else outside of pot 1. LOL

 

Looking at Asian qualifiers, Iran is struggling in a group with 150th plus ranked nations (July 2015) of turkmensitan, guam and india. Even Oman ranked 100 plus. Yet they will no doubt qualify from this group (and next which for mine will be similar for most part). where as we have to deal with 2 nations in top 10 just to make it to Euros (July rank). How about FIFA throw us a bone damn it!

It was a pleasure teaching those Iranians a lesson at the World Cup.

/end rant

 

Because it's the World Cup, not Euros + Brazil & Argentina. Of course we can open up qualifying a little, but then would you like your NT constantly making trips to Bolivia, Vanuatu, Iraq and the DRC just to qualify for the tournament?

Also Iran have played only 1 game which they drew away to Turkmenistan. It's not like they're struggling when the competition has barely begun.

 

Oh, boy...

 

Just having a bit of fun.

Speaking of Albania, Right now they are best 3rd ranked team. I suppose I should move this to Euro 2016 Q thread.

What pot are they in for WC draw? 4th?

 

The draw takes place this Saturday, here are the pots:

 

I hope that we can finally get England or Netherlands for once, and hopefully avoid Balkan nations as that ends up in trouble more likely than not.

 

Expect worst case scenario from pot 1 so there are no big disappointments later.

Having never played Holland or England, I would be expecting one of those. Or Germany even, though we faced them in friendlies and to be honest I'd rather play others such as England.

 

Imagine this:

Wales
BiH
Northern Ireland
Faroe Islands
Moldova
Andorra

:eekani:

But if I got to choose, I'd keep that group but replace Wales with Netherlands or England, just to give us tough competition and keep us prepared.

 

Found a draw simulator to toy around with until the real thing. http://nurp.se/draws/wc2018q.php

First time around, I got a great draw:

Belgium
BiH
Scotland
Estonia
Moldova

 

Very nice find.

My first draw:

England
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Northern Ireland
Israel
Moldova
Georgia

Exactly what I am hoping for!

 

Group I
Croatia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine
Slovenia
FYR Macedonia


All you need is Serbia from pot 3 instead of the Ukraine.

 

Slovenia and Macedonia would likely finish in the top two due to Croatia/BiH/Serbia fines and point deductions.

 

Draw is about to happen. It's currently live on Fox Sports 1.

 

Draw is underway, it is live on BHT1 for those of us in the Balkans atm

 

It is also free to air on their website.

For those people internationally, there is a live stream here: http://streamsport.eu/soccer/preliminary-draw-for-2018-fifa-world-cup-sp37ldg

 

Oh wow. We couldn't have wished for much better. Maybe Group B.

Belgium again!

 

Full group:

Belgium
BiH
Greece
Estonia
Cyprus