we're in group a with the following teams....i've put down the best players of each team to give you an idea of what we're up against.... Croatia: modric, kranjcar, ratikic, mandzukic, srna, jelavic Serbia: vidic, krasic, kolarov, ivanovic Belgium: hazard, vermaelen, kompany, dembele Scotland: miller, fletcher, morrison FYR Macedonia: pandev Wales: allen, bellamy, bale, ramsey, williams as you can see no elite teams but the top 3 ranked in that group are all strong. scotland and macedonia (no toshack now) are there for the taking and 3 wins from those 4 games are vital. for me 4th is progress, but top half of that group better as we have the team to give any one of those teams a shock in a one off match. as you can see we are placed as the bottom seeds of that group. we can thank toshack for that, but can also thank toshack for playing his part in having a team with young players who have significant international experience for their age. i think we'll finish 4th. any lower and coleman should bow out as we are better than that, any higher and the ranking will continue to rise (37th at the moment). first match is Belgium on September 7th and then Serbia on September 11th
Belgium will be really tough. Where have all their stars suddenly sprung from? And you forgot Felliani and Vertongen. Having stuffed Holland 4 - 2 recently they must be favourites for the group. Croatia we can shock if we get them on one of their lethargic days and if they have an absence or 2. The rest are beatable provided we have our best team available, they perform to their abilities and Coleman gets them up for it. Need to be careful though as even Scotland are showing some signs of improvement. However, it could all go belly up and we could sink like a stone. We will have a better idea after the first 4 games.
From what I've seen so far under CC its been pretty uninspiring. Hopefully competitive games will give them the kick up the arse most of them seem to need. I want to be proved wrong but I cant see higher than 4th at the moment.
I've gone for 2nd but we must have all our players turning up, if we start well won't be a problem but a bad start and we could end up last.
I'm hoping the Olympics will have had some effect on our guys ambition, and that they can feel the pride of pulling on the famous red shirt. Much will depend on the older and established players inspiring and motivating the others. Of course, CC is going to have to win respect from the very off. For us to stand any chance of making second place, we are going to treat every game as a cup game and go for the role of giant killers. Tactically, I think we should take note of the "Swansea way" and try and play a cultured game. I think we can make second, but as always with a Wales campaign, there are too many ifs and buts to negotiate (mostly instigated by clubs).
Sadly can't see us qualifying, winning is a habit CC and indeed Wales don't have at the moment but I'm willing to eat my words, 4th.
It should be a really competitive group. I've gone for 5th but wouldn't be surprised to see a finish as high as 3rd.
