A precious Away Win for Ireland

It was an unconvincing win, but a win none the less and Ireland are now 6 wins from 6 against the often dogged and stubborn Georgian side.  Both Scotland and Poland have come to Tblisi and left defeated (Scotland in Euro 08 Qualifiers and Poland in WC 98 Qualifiers).  Let's not be negative about it, it is a good start and a statement of intent.

 This is two wins in a week for Martin O'Neil who has gotten the Euro Qualifying campaign off to a good start and is building a team and a platform that can climb up the World Rankings and hopefully once again be regular qualifiers for the main tournaments.

 In order to do this he must halt Ireland's slide down the rankings.  Yes, I know the FIFA Ranking points are flawed, and largely irrelevant 90% or the time.  But when it comes to seeding for the major tournaments they can determine what pot you are in.  Last time out in World Cup Qualifying Ireland were in Pot 3 as a result of their lowly ranking and were drawn a tough group with Germany, Sweden and Austria.  They are now looking at Pot 4 or even Pot 5 unless they halt their slide in the Rankings.  For example Ireland are currently ranked 33 in Europe and if they were to slip to 37 then they should be in Pot 5 and could be drawn with teams like Germany (likely to be Pot 1), England (Pot 2), Sweden (Pot 3) and Poland (Pot 4). Now is the time to start building up the ranking points.

 The seeding for the World Cup Qualifying draw will probably be based on the Aug 2015 Rankings.  Every match from now (and since the Oman game) will be fully weighted towards the points used to calculate the Aug 2015 rankings (games more than a year before Aug 2015 will get 50% weighting, then 30% weighting and finally 20% weighting for matches up to four years before the date).  So as you can see the matches from now really count.

 That is why the game against Oman was the perfect friendly fixture.  Oman are ranked side by side with Ireland at the moment but it was always going to be an easy win for the Boys in Green.  Italy and Germany suffered by picking tough opposition and their ranking points will suffer for this.  Both get zero points from their mid week friendlies.  Ireland's 367 points for the win against Oman came much easier than England's 437 points for their win against Norway.

 We will keep a close eye on Ireland's FIFA Ranking points with a focus on WC 2018 Qualification.  At the moment the below points would be good enough to drop Ireland into Pot 2.  There are a lot of teams left to play this week and they will displace Ireland when they do play.  Defeats will come for Ireland that will lower their average (there is a friendly scheduled against England next year and some tough games against Germany).  Ireland should be aiming for Pot 3.

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