Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind

Am I going to be sued by Paul McCartney (and/or Yoko Ono) for the title of this post?

I feel slightly calmer - but only slightly - for seeing Georgia's squad for Wednesday's game. No Shota Arveladze, who has retired from international football. No Kakha Kaladze, who is injured. Also missing through injury (or "trauma", as the Georgian Football Federation translates it, to my amusement) is Kobiashvili, their playmaking midfielder who is a regular in the Bundesliga. Interestingly, the first choice keeper, Lomaia, has left the squad after having a bit of a mare in the defeat by Italy; it has been implied that this is because his confidence is shot. So Georgia's starting keeper against us will apparently be a 17 year old called Makaridze, who I don't think has ever been capped. My spider-sense tells me we might stick a lot of crosses in the six yard box.

So the only Georgia player known to even the most well-informed Scottish fans who will be out on the park is Khizanishvili - lets hope he plays like he did under McLeish at Rangers, and we'll be all right.

I'm delighted to see that Wednesday's TV schedules allow me to watch the most exciting match-up of the evening - Russia v England - before the Scotland game. With England in form, it's hard to see Steve McClaren's side not picking up the point that all but puts them through, but Russia will be at home and should prove a pretty stern test. I'm sure the effect of the plastic pitch on the match will be purely psychological, but if it upsets the mindsets of a few English players, then it could be pretty interesting stuff.

As for the other Home Nations, surely even Wales in their current state can't mess up in San Marino, can they? Out of curiosity, has John Toshack actually ever achieved anything as a manager, apart from a Permatan and morbid obesity from lying in the Sociedad sun? He's had two, yes, two spells as Real Madrid manager, but how? Northern Ireland's defeats in Latvia and Iceland blew the best chance of qualifying for a tournament that they'll get in the whole 21st century, so now they need to beat Sweden, in Sweden, to keep even the slimmest hopes alive. The words "when hell freezes over" come to mind, as after this they finish with Denmark (H) and Spain (A).

It's the last chance saloon for Ireland, who are probably screwed anyway even if they beat Cyprus in Dublin - the Czechs need only one more point from their remaining games.

To be honest, I don't really give a monkeys about these other games though. The only two sides I want to see do well are us and Lithuania. Nothing else matters. Period.

L.

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