Soccer 2006 World Cup draw The eight winners of each group and the two best second-placed teams qualify directly. The other six second-placed teams are drawn against each other for three play-off matches (on home and away basis) to determine the other three qualifiers.
France REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Switzerland Israel Cyprus Faroe islands
For the FAI a week of politically expedient poormouthing came to an end yesterday. It's a cliché by now that there are no easy games or easy draws at international level; there are lucrative draws, however, and coming out in the same group as France represents a nice piece of business for Merrion Square.
Not only will the TV revenue be sweet and much needed but the game (if February's fixtures meeting goes well) should stand as the sort of milestone event which will ratchet the pressure on the Government to come up with a venue worthy of hosting it.
The prospect of 22,000 people and a sea of empty terraces presiding over a clash with one of the great teams of our time puts the entire stadium debacle in perspective.
The men who wear the blazers travel to events like that which unfolded in Frankfurt with a brave face and a stiff upper lip in their carry-on luggage. Nobody comes away from a World Cup draw screaming: "Abandon ship! Abandon ship!" Yet one suspects the smiles on Irish faces were genuine. Brian Kerr's team have ended up in a six-team group, which is good, with a little bit of glamour, which is good, and the prospect at least of a play-off place, which is very good.
The trips are interesting but not arduous with no venue likely to threaten the comfort zone of the modern player.
Kerr seemed happy with his lot stressing that the six-team group gives him more time and provides extra opportunities for friendly games. To have started in the late spring at the end of an arduous English season would have been difficult for an Irish side still in transition. Instead Kerr has the chance to work through a couple more friendlies and, more than likely, an American summer tour.
By next Autumn players like Liam Miller, Andy Reid, John Thompson and one of two others drawn perhaps from those whom Kerr is currently watching in the United Arab Emirates will have gained an extra layer of maturity. The team needs that.
What lies ahead is interesting. Group Four contains one exceptional team - the French have just qualified for Euro 2004 with a perfect record - two decent teams, Ireland and Switzerland, and three sides (Cyprus, Israel and the Faroe Islands) who are beatable but can't be taken lightly.
France struggled to single-goal victories in their away fixtures with Israel and Cyprus, conceding the only goals of their campaign in those fixtures.
Kerr's team will not want for motivation against the Swiss. Despite having lost both games in painful circumstances during the recent Euro qualifying campaign there will be a feeling that an Irish team playing well would be capable of beating the Swiss, especially now that the international careers of Stephane Chapuisat and Jorg Stiel are ending.
Those departures will leave the Swiss with the talents of Hakan Yakin, Ricardo Cabanas and others but the impression left from the European championship campaign (points dropped in half of their games) and in particular a mauling towards the end by the Russians, is that the Swiss punched well above their weight to win the group and next summer in Portugal might just be a final high point for them.
The Israelis have similar troubles but a more lightweight version of them. The squad is ageing and manager Avraham Grant has been under pressure to fill it with young blood. His difficulty is in finding the young blood. The high point of recent Israeli history was the defeat of France on French soil in 1993 to keep the French out of the 1994 world Cup. Since then the Israelis qualified for the play-offs for Euro 2000 but fared disastrously and their last campaign suggested a fair amount of depreciation on the squad. Haim Revivo and Eyal Berkovic remain the big names in a squad short of experience in European football (if like the rest of the world you don't consider Israel to be a part of Europe.) The Israelis in Frankfurt yesterday were inclined to talk up their chances of being allowed to stage their home games in Israel but their European qualifying games all took place in either Italy or Turkey and that pattern is likely to continue.
The Cypriots will be familiar to some of Kerr's team. Ireland beat them home and away while progressing to the last World Cup but it took an extraordinary performance from Roy Keane to steady the ship on the away leg.
Since then the Cypriots have continued to progress. They took eight points during the Euro 2004 campaign and a pattern of making visitors to their island work hard culminated in a surprise draw with Slovenia in the last round of matches. They won one and drew two of their four home games.
As for the Faroes? A nation which once drew one-all with Liechtenstein can ill afford to be discounted. It should be enough for Brian Kerr's men to study videos of Germany's games with the Faroes in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. The Germans huffed and puffed to a home win and then needed two late goals to secure an away win. Sure the Faroes ended up with just one point but conceded just 18 goals in their eight games. No easy touches.
That leaves France. Brian Kerr isn't the type but the thought is that we might as well just lie back and enjoy it. World champions in 1998, European champions two years later and only now are the talents of Henry and Trezeguet (stars in the World Youth Cup of 1997) coming to full flower.
Perhaps an old style, passionate, blood and bandage, getting in among them effort is called for. Summon the memory of Roy Keane's tackle on Overmars in the last truly big soccer international this city saw. A lot has happened since, a lot to come but perhaps that thread can be lifted again.
