The suspicion remains that off field blunders made qualification for the last under 21 Euros so much harder than it might have been and now, with them starting the current campaign with 6-2 and 7-0 home defeats, those mistakes are looking very far reaching in their consequences.
Similarly, nothing will convince me that the FAW made things tougher for the senior squad for their World Cup qualification campaign by arranging friendlies against the likes of Canada and England with the negative consequences for Play Off draws that defeat in those games brings.
So, what was a tough ask to top the qualification group anyway becomes all the harder when what I’ll call dubious decisions made by administrators, and maybe on field management staff get added t the mix.
Truthfully though, despite the efforts of the media after the game, to make tonight’s 4-2 home loss into something that I don’t think it was, I felt Belgium had their easiest game against Wales since their 2-0 win here when James Collins was sent off in something like 2013.
Being frank, it was more evidence of two things. First, Wales’ four games this season – Kazakhstan, Canada, England and Belgium, have been pretty disastrous individually and collectively and to me they offer all of the proof you need that we’re playing worse now than when the group started.
Ben Davies captained his country on the occasion of his 100th cap and drew the short straw of having to mark Jeremy Doku who had shown over in Belgium in June that there aren’t many tougher wingers to face in world football currently.
Davies had a tough evening of it which ended early when he went off injured around the 65 minute mark and I’d say appreciation of his contribution was probably raised a notch or two as we struggled to contain the Man City winger in the captain’s absence with Sorba Thomas and Jay DeSilva both having, a largely unsuccessful go at containing the Man City flyer..
Second place now becomes our priority and there was a little bit of good news on that score as Kazakhstan went to North Macedonia and drew 1-1, so, assuming were able to beat Lietchtenstein, we will need to beat the North Macedonians to get second and an easier Play Off draw.
For eight minutes, all went better that any one could have hoped for as balls rolled about a foot wide of either Belgian upright for corners that came to nothing. Ben Cabango might have scored from one of them, but when the energetic Mark Harris earned a third set piece, Joe Rodon powered in Sorba Thomas’ delivery with a firm header from eight yards.
Unfortunately, Wales were then pushed back as much through their habit of giving the ball away in dangerous areas, but when Belgium were presented with a way back into the game, it was via what I’ll call a typical modern day VAR penalty decision for handball after the sort of ball to hand incident at very close quarters which never used to be given before they started looking at incidents from about fifteen different angles.
There seems little point in getting annoyed at such decisions as they are usually given these days and I would have been very upset not to have got a penalty for the incident if it had struck a Belgian defender, rather than Ethan Ampadu, on the hand.
Kevin DeBruyne took the chance to add to the what seems to be huge number of goals he’s scored at the Canton Stand end of the ground and, having, not been too convincing until then, the visitors got on top to the extent that about fifteen minutes after falling behind, they had the lead.
So, while North Macedonia base their hopes of winning the group on a defence that only conceded once against the Belgians, we continue to hand out early goals like presents – we conceded three times over in Belgium in the first thirty minutes, England also scored three in twenty minutes on Thursday and now it was against Belgium again in the first quarter of the game.
Although all of the early goals conceded could not be put down to our desire to keep a high line, the room Doku got as he moved on to what was little more than a long ball into our left channel was pretty damning as the winger was able to pick out Meunier who shot high beyond Karl Darlow from fifteen yards.
Belgium wasted chances to add to their lead and there was a great block by Rodon to keep it at 2-1 before a Welsh improvement saw Jordan James and Harry Wilson both go close before half time.
The first half had been an open affair with Wales looking capable of scoring a second or even third goal even though they were generally second best, but we struggled to create much after the break as the chances tended to dry up whereas the visitors continued to threaten.
In the end, Wales conceded a total of eight goals to the Belgians, but three of them were penalties for handball. If two of the spot kicks could be deemed to be bad luck, James could have no complains about the third one as he instinctively reached for the ball for an award nobody argued with – if anything, it was the shoddy defending beforehand that was more to blame.
DeBruyne scored his second penalty to all but end the game as a contest and, fool that I am, I began to think Bellamy may bring Rubin Colwill on. He didn’t of course, but just as the game went into it’s eighty ninth minute two, belated subs, Kieffer Moore and Nathan Broadhead combined for the latter to make it 3-2.
Indeed, with the fourth official signaling seven extra minutes to be played, Belgium broke straight to the opposite end of the pitch through a very lightly manned Welsh defence to kill any excitement as Anthony Trosard made it 4-2 to virtually ensure Belgium’s qualification.
Pride of place in a none too successful international break should probably go to our under 19s who aew nma=king a decent fist of a mini tournament involving Switzerland, the Netherlands and England. A 5-2 loss to the Swiss in their first game did no9t represent the best of starts, but this was followed by a fine 2-0 vistory over the Dutch with Mannie Barton scoring a enalty in both matches.
Thanks Paul for your report.
Where to begin on last night’s horror show?
Let me follow Dylan T’s advice and ‘begin at the beginning’.
Yes, I know it was his 100th cap, but it was nauseating to see Ben Davies carrying his nipper on to the pitch. God help us please to decide whether we are at a serious sporting event, or a ‘most beautiful baby show’ at Butlin’s.
We then start off impressively, and score from what Tom Coleman called a ‘glorious’ corner from Sorba. Eh? It was his third corner in almost as many minutes… the previous two did not beat the first man… and the third succeeded in putting the ball into the crowded penalty box… something that should be de rigueur for a professional corner taker. Nothing fantastic about that corner at all.
We then give away an unnecessary penalty… I choose that word because Ampadu knows well the crazy new handball laws… and thus just HAS to keep his arms by his side… but did not.
Their second goal was the goal of the game… a thrilling goal, the type I love. No silly tiki-taka, but a long pass into green space for the player of the match to make a mockery of our absurdly high line and get to it before our huffing and puffing defence and then expertly lay the ball back for a colleague arriving at 100 mph to smash the ball the ball high into our net. What a fabulous goal…!! Worth the price of admission in itself.
Their third goal came from a penalty CRIMINALLY given away by Jordan James (a player both you and me urged Bellamy to select), and in a sane world, James would ge fined his match fee over it.
Their 4th goal saw DaSilva lose his man… a fitting end to a game where every Wales player turned in a ‘losing’ performance.
Questions like ‘why were the Wrexham pair brought on so late?’, are obvious. Also why-oh-why is Bellamy obsessed with tediously playing out from the back? So ponderous… and I lost count of the number of square passes between Rodon and Cabanga. ‘No, you have it Joe’, ‘No, you have it Ben’. ‘No Joe, I insist you please play a forward pass, as I lack the confidence to do so’.
Truly terrible yawn-inducing stuff. A good 5 minutes of playing time must have been taken up with these ‘No, I insist, after you!’ square passes. And here is the rub: all the time the big Belgian keeper put two fingers up to us by wonderfully indulging in the traditional British long goal kick.
I note Paul you call Mark Harris ‘energetic’. Yes he was. But alas he is still the player he was when he played for us. Immensely frustrating. The Wrexham two should have come on at half-time.
But what the heck… FIFA are determined that virtually every team qualifies for the World Cup in the American continent, so I fully expect us to go there… if only courtesy of our Nations League eventual standings.
So no need to be downcast… Craig will be able to select his mate Aaron who will rise from his sick bed Aeneas fashion for our opening game, and be off with a pulled hamstring by half time.
TTFN,
Dai.
Thanks Paul.
Appreciate the reference to the under 21’s as not sure I know the back story there? Just know the results have been very poor, but no meaningful media coverage or analysis so need to better understand what’s going on there.
Re the game last night. You and Dai spot on with observations. Totally outplayed – given the colour of Belgium’s shirts it made me feel like we were playing against Man. City! With Doku unplayable and Kevin DB strolling through the game it sure felt that way.
However, we could not have asked for a better start. Lively and pressing from the off – but then things took a downward spiral with the dodgy penalty before Doku et al proved there is no substitute for sheer pace and technical ability.
Agree that we seem to be slipping backwards in our performances of late and confidence and energy taken from the whole squad with the Canada and England games unwelcome distractions from the real business at hand.
Last season the Bellamy effect had us playing at pace, with good energy and pressing and a general air of confidence, particularly at home. Now we seem unable to defend against quality teams ( too many individual errors) and, if Wilson is not on it, lacking in attacking quality too.
Appreciate we only have a small number of top players in the squad and need them all to be available and on form for us to play well. Also understand the need to try and keep everyone engaged, but some strange selections in this seasons games.
Fully agree with Dai re Harris selection and late late introduction of Moore and Broadhead who at least created something and, arguably, would have done more with more time.
Not sure what the answer is, but just hope we can smuggle ourselves through qualification with a couple of decent performances next month and in whatever play-off match is needed after that.
Nothing is straightforward watching Wales – or the City – is it?
Huw is right… Bellamy’s team last year were thrilling us by playing forward at pace: this season they are resembling Bulut and Riza’s outfits with their slow approach. Pity that we did not have Lawlor in the back line last night… there is a boy who can see an incisive forward pass.
Btw, I see Bulut has finally got a job managing the team currently 8th in the Turkish top flight… in Antalya on the south coast of Turkey.* He has been out of work for a year… does that mean Vincent can now withhold 11 months of his pay-off? Or did we pay him off in a lump sum?
Finally, Matty Jones looks like he has kept his job… his boys have just won in Linz…!! He clearly has read them the riot act. About time too. I watched it on S4C… and thank heavens they offer an English language commentary… it is after all one of the two official languages of Wales.
*aplos for not calling it ‘Türkiye’… with an umlaut like the Turkish government have decreed to the UN that they want as their new name. But then, I have ‘form’ in this matter… after all, I still call us ‘Wales’…
DW
Paul, Dai, Huw and others, we lost fair and square and I genuinely believe that both penalties were correct, and expertly dispatched. Sadly, we have been exposed over our last three games and our limitations are evident all over the park. Bellamy has some hard thinking to do about future team selections.
Dai I’m with you on this name changing nonsense. Snowdon will always be Snowdon, Brecon Beacons likewise and, by the way, has there been any clamour to rename Splott?
Well done for some interesting comments which I agree with in the main. However, I’m wondering if when TOBW described Harris as ‘energetic’ that he left out ‘but ineffective as usual’. He’s a lad who gives his all but in my opinion frequently achieves very little. Consequently, I was shocked when I saw that he was not only actually starting the game but stayed on for most of it. In my opinion he is a whole hearted lower league player who should be nowhere near the squad never mind starting line up in front of strikers who can actually score goals! I’ve also wondered what Ryan Hedges of Blackburn has done to be constantly ignored despite playing consistently well and scoring goals from wide positions for several seasons. I’m afraid that after a promising start, our manager has been to the Omar Riza school of selection and discovered the habit of picking under achieving players whilst leaving out those more talented. Hopefully, our last two games can reveal some imagination in tactics and selection.
Yes Clive, Harris is a 100% trier… trouble is that he ‘tries’ even his most loyal fans by his poor first touch and his propensity for being caught offside.
Loved Brian’s reference to Splott. Made me LOL… almost as easily as Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg made me lose my marbles in rage at their insistence that signs to taxi ranks in some parts of Wales be replaced by new ones (at some expense) saying ‘safle tacsi’.
As my wife said to me… ‘go to Moscow and in amongst the plethora of road signs in Cyrillic, you will guarantee to see one in the Latin alphabet… and that is TAXI.’
It is a word and spelling adopted virtually all the world over (even in Arabic countries)… but because the Welsh language has no use for the letter ‘X’, they had to insist on their ‘tacsi’, which fortunately many local authorities held out against, it being such an absurdly unnecessary act.
Anyway, time to put my soapbox away… it has been in heavy use tonight. I have just posted this on YouTube comments after watching a pretty Ulster girl sing her anthem at Windsor Park the other night. It was a disappointing night for the boys in green as ‘my’ boy Nick Woltemade scored the only goal, but the highlight of the night was their collective singing of their anthem… singing to put to shame that of England fans at Wembley.
I posted this on the YT comments…
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Great singing, Carly…. Just one regret: please don’t follow the girls in the England rugby team who have no respect for the lyric.
No doubt the England rugby girls know their rugby… but alas they have no grasp on the English language.
They need to get it in their heads that the third line and last line of every verse of our UK national anthem has the lyric ‘God save the King’.
Note please girls that it is THE King, not OUR king.
And if you think, ‘what’s the difference?’, let me tell you…
… that it is ‘our’ King the English team are singing about is a given: it clearly would not be the King of Thailand or King of Nepal.
But the emphasis should be on ‘the’, because whilst clearly Charles is not the ‘king of kings’ (apparently someone beat him to that title when he appeared on the scene circa 2,025 years ago), he clearly seems to be the world’s most famous current king, and seems to have no serious allegations plaguing him… the sort that made King Juan Carlos of Spain now take a permanent place in the shadows.
Please then dear Carly: if Beethoven so loved its melody that he wrote 7 variations on it, please equally always respect its lyric writer.
~ Dai Woosnam, Grimsby, UK
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