These are dangerous times.
The Sunday Independent's Tommy Conlon recently chided Heimir Hallgrimsson for speaking too freely about the benefits of pulling a home play-off final, given that Ireland still have to go to Prague and get something.
In that context, speculating excitedly about the World Cup draw feels like brazen fate-tempting, which could only make the disappointment of missing out all the worse.
The doom-mongers will point out that we are getting so far ahead of ourselves, we are hardly a speck in our own rear-view mirror at this point.
World Cup FOMO can be acute enough at the best of times. It could be worse again if Ireland's regular travelling contingent have spent Christmas and New Year's scoping out Airbnb's in Guadalajara or scanning the visiting hours at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
This sort of blithe assumptiveness has a poor track record in Irish sporting history, the most commonly cited examples being the 2007 Rugby World Cup and Euro 2012 (when many supporters had pencilled in a draw at worst against Croatia before the start, purely on the basis that we needed it).
But maybe Heimir has changed the dial on all that. His airy announcement that he was resting players for the June friendlies on the basis that they'd be busy next summer springs to mind. Perhaps we're into a new era of manifesting success.
The benefit of Troy's late winner in Hungary is that it maintains our interest in this jamboree until well into next year at least.
The fact remains that this is the first World Cup draw at which Ireland have been name-checked since late 2001.
Ireland have been involved in notable draws before, the most novel occurring slap bang in the middle of Italia '90, when neither they nor the Netherlands could be separated in Group F by any of the traditional markers. Level on points, goals scored, goals conceded, the whole shebang.
Both teams progressed as it was a 24-team World Cup, though the order in which they emerged was pivotal, given that second place would face Romania, while the West Germans awaited whoever finished third.
Perhaps, nowadays they might apply some wonkish formula like xG or deploy possession stats in order to separate teams in such circumstances. (Ordinarily, Ireland would have been screwed on the latter metric but Bonner did pick up an awful lot of back-passes that evening).
Back in 1990, the only thing for it was the drawing of lots, which for transparency's sake took place on live TV after the conclusion of the group phase.
Sepp Blatter, then the mere general secretary of FIFA, asked one of the ladies standing behind him, a woman called Monique, to step forward and draw the balls from the bowl.
Monique did us a solid, George Hamilton jubilantly announcing that "Ireland will play Romania!" after she had performed her duties. The European champions ran into the Germans in a spittle-flecked last-16 game and were sent packing. Ireland went on.
Our other favourite draw was the play-off for Euro 2012, when the Gods of fate made it up to Ireland after the Thierry Henry business two years earlier.
Regular listeners of the Guardian's Football podcast back then might recall that they recorded that day's pod while watching the draw in real-time, with Barry Glendenning's ear-splitting cry of 'YAAASSSSSS!' alerting those who weren't already aware that we had drawn the golden jackpot ball of Estonia.
Cue a 4-0 away win over our nine-man hosts in Tallinn, at which the FAI's future Executive Vice-President sent his tie windmilling into the away section in a fit of euphoria.
Certainly, the Republic of Ireland have never been involved in a draw as surreal and distasteful as the one that took place in the John F Kennedy Centre two days ago.
Friday's spectacle was a good argument for running off World Cup draws on the Morning Ireland sports bulletin going forward, ideally with Feargal McGill doing the honours rather than Gianni Infantino.
The run-time was stated beforehand to be in excess of two hours, making it clear that the preamble was going to be even more drawn out even than your average FIFA draw.
Infantino's talent for grovelling remains a sight to behold, as does the pleasure he seems to derive from it. His notorious predecessor is in danger of becoming a byword for dignity at this point.
The FIFA chief clocked more screen-time than Daniel Day Lewis did in 'There Will Be Blood' over the course of the evening, causing people to wonder why they'd bothered hiring Kevin Hart and Heidi Klum.
The US President's need for sycophancy is not just a personality quirk but an unfortunate geopolitical reality these days. However, even he might have thought Gianni was laying it on a bit thick on Friday evening.
Trump recounted his days watching saccer in the ill-fated NASL, where he caught sight of 'Pay-ley' in action for the New York Cosmos and concluded that the boy had some game.
Trump being Trump, he almost painted himself as being akin to Billy Behan spying a young Johnny Giles on the playing fields of Stella Maris, though Pele was in the twilight of his career at the time, collecting a handy payday.
You had to feel for the managers forced to sit through it all. Asked his thoughts on the show by the BBC's Dan Roan, Thomas Tuchel responded delicately that "I do not, not like it."
"I was very well aware that it's not about the deep insight of football today," he added, rather superflously.
In footballing terms, the draw is a good one, and certainly no harder than the play-off schedule that awaits Ireland in March.
It did throw up an unanticipated curveball in terms of location. Given the USA's dominant presence within the three-country bid, most had anticipated something like a repeat of the '94 trip.
Instead, the UEFA Path D team have been dropped into the Mexican group, with matches in Guadalajara and Mexico City, with a hop over to Atlanta sandwiched in between.
Ireland missed the two World Cups already held in Mexico by a very wide margin. For the 1970 qualifiers, they were very definitely swimming with the minnows and shipped a series of frightful beatings. The miserable '86 qualification campaign ended with the now infamous 4-1 home loss to Denmark and Eoin Hand slinging a glass of wine in Eamon Dunphy's face in a Dublin nightclub.
The possibility of Ireland facing the hosts at the Azteca Stadium - a venue which has played host to some of the most famous football matches in history - is an intoxicating one, though being located in Mexico would bring the heat factor into play in a major way.
Heimir noted in his post-draw Zoom conference that the Azteca doesn't offer air conditioning, which leaves open the possibility it will make Orlando '94 look like an O'Byrne Cup game in early January.
The heat was so severe in that '94 group game that there were reports of Irish lads fainting in the crowd. After the game, Jack Charlton snapped "next time we'll play the Mexicans in winter and see what happens!"
Ireland's history with the South Korea is a blank canvas, though they did once play an important game in Suwon where no one realised that the opposition were down a man.
The head-to-head with South Africa is confined to a couple of friendly wins in the 2000s, one of which was in New Jersey and one of which was in Limerick. A limited sample size though one assumes their supporters can't be any more disagreeable than their rugby compatriots.
Ireland's history with that pair might be no more extensive by July. It's still a half chance though given the lay of the land two months ago, it's a thrill enough to be bothered with these things.
