Right now Ireland is in a great position to make it into the World Cup.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=476&cc=5901They are in first place with 8 points. France has 8 and so does Israel, but Ireland has the higher goal differential. They tied France 0-0 already in Paris and they tied Switzerland 1-1 in Basel. Now we all know that the Irish home advantage is insane. The only real challenges I see are Israel at Israel. They have two games against Israel on march 26th and June 4th. If they can sweep those two games, it's straight onto the cup unless the Swiss start winning like mad. I'm so pumped for 2006!