Ireland are in the fourth group of seeds for the Euro 2012 finals draw, UEFA confirmed today.
Giovanni Trapattoni's 'Boys In Green', who completed a 5-1 aggregate play-off win against Estonia last night, have been drawn alongside Denmark, France and Czech Republic in Pot 4.
Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland and Ukraine, who have already been allocated to groups A and D respectively, are in the top group of seeds alongside reigning world and European champions Spain and 2010 World Cup finalists the Netherlands.

World Cup champ, Euro champ, Germany 2006 coach, Bayern Munich, blah, blah, blah.

Looks great from 10,000 feet, huh? That's the resume/pedigree trap. Don't fall into it, because it loves to claim victims.

Hopefully it's understood by now that sparkling player resumes don't correlate with quality coaching.

The US National Team is facing a critical period and a possible loss in identity. After being the undisputed kings of Concacaf for the majority of the last decade, Mexico has knocked us off our perch. With stronger competition for World Cup qualification, the path to Brazil will be incredibly difficult.

While the amazing events were unfolding on the pitch in Germany 2006, incredulous events were unfolding off the pitch at home. That 10-letter C-word was being rushed through the "justice" system in Italy. Embarrassed by the juxtaposition of sheer class of the Azzurri and the apparent lack of class of a handful of club teams, the FIGC rushed the trial through, came up with a punishment and tried to move on.

I must admit that due to time difference and media coverage in this part of the world, I have not seen any matches of the 2011 Asian Cup in the future World Cup hosts of Qatar. However, I will have to try to watch the final this next Saturday against two giants that I have found excellent to watch in the last two World Cups: Australia was great in 2006, barely losing to Italy, and fought well in