So, the 21/22 season, which did not include a World Cup or Euros tagged on to the end of it yet still dragged on for what seemed like ages (the Cardiff City part of it did at least) comes to an end about ten days before what is currently a pretty small City squad reports back for pre season training for the 22/23 campaign.
The season ended with the two sides which contested the finale of the 20/21 campaign, England and Italy the finalists in last summer’s Euros, being thrashed in the Europa League – England were beaten 4-0 at home by a set of not so marvellous Hungarian Magyars and Italy 5-2 in Germany.
For Wales, their learning process in the A tier of the aforementioned Europa League continued with a third defeat in four by a single goal margin with the decisive scores coming five minutes from time in the first of them and in time added on at the end in the other two.
Indeed, in a freakish repeat of what happened six days ago, Wales equalised against the Netherlands after the 90th minute, yet still found a way to concede after that.
If the first winner at Cardiff last Wednesday was more down to Dutch good play than anything else, the same did not apply tonight as the defence was caught dozing by nothing more sophisticated than a long high ball out wide to our left and then flooding the Welsh box with runners for the knock down. Sadly, while this was going on, no one was tracking the four men in black (not sure why the Dutch seem so reluctant to play in orange these days) and so we were left with three defenders trying to cope with four attackers.
Being honest, the way we defended that situation was pretty typical of what I thought was an unusually careless Welsh showing and if we had been able to come away with the 2-2 draw we looked like getting, then it would have been an undeserved point.
It wouldn’t be fair to be too critical of the team for this loss though, coming as it does at the end of a block of five matches in a fortnight when all of the other sides in our group have only played four – four’s too many for June mind when there’s not a major tournament taking place and so the Welsh carelessness I mentioned earlier can be put down to tired bodies and minds I believe.
Dan James started his fifth match of this group of fixtures alongside Brennan Johnson up front with Sorba Thomas and Wes Burns at wing back and Harry Wilson in the number ten role. Ethan Ampadu and Matt Smith were sitting midfielders in front of captain Ben Davies, Joe Rodon and Chris Mepham – Wayne Hennessey was in goals.
The first quarter of the game was controlled by the Netherlands, who were their usual mixture of artistry and thuggery throughout. By the time twenty three minutes had passed the Rotterdam crowd had seen their team score twice with Wales doing nothing to justify the volume of support they were getting from the travelling Red Wall.
Wales were struggling at wing back in particular and Burns was punished when he carelessly lost possession on the halfway line in the seventeenth minute and a couple of quick passes set up Noa Lang on the edge of the penalty area who, despite having Rodon close by with Mepham just behind him managed to turn the pair of them left, then right before shooting past Hennessey.
Six minutes later, it was 2-0 and it felt like Wales could be facing a thrashing. This time, Wales had reason to curse a lucky rebound of a blocked shot which served as a perfect assist for Cody Gakpo to shoot impressively past Hennessey from just outside the penalty area.
Wales had done little to suggest they could come back from these setbacks, but, then, out of nowhere, they responded with an impressive goal which owed something to James for a good tackle on Teze, who struck me as something of a weak link in the Dutch side last Wednesday, and Wilson for his quick pass to Johnson. However, it was the quality of the Forest man’s finish which really took the eye as he coolly placed his shot from the same sort of distance the two earlier goals had come from beyond home keeper Cillessen and just inside the post.
The rest of the half seemed to be taken up by some of the home side’s players testing how far they could go before the Romanian ref waved a card at them – the answer was a long way.
Apart from Johnson’s goal, the only thing for Welsh fans had to get excited about was when a casual Cillessen almost allowed Johnson to charge down his clearance, but at 2-1 down after a half where they had gradually improved following a poor start, Wales were still in the game.
Burns had struggled after his impressive showings against Poland and Belgium and it was no surprise to see him replaced by Conor Roberts, with Thomas switching to the left where he coped better than he had done on the right in what was an uncomfortable first forty five minutes for him.
Although the Dutch were no longer enjoying the superiority that marked those opening stages of the game, Wales were struggling to get their dangerous looking forwards into the game enough because a combination of effective Dutch pressing and the limitations of a midfield lacking Joe Allen and Aaron Ramsey meant there was little quality possession in good areas for them to work with.
When Johnson in particular was given a chance, he worried the home defence, none more so than when a rare good passing movement from Wales enabled him to get past a couple of defenders and force Cillessen into a good save.
The introduction of Ramsey for Smith and Gareth Bale for James played a part in enabling Wales to gain some controlled possession and their best move of the game saw Thomas find Wilson, whose well struck shot was transformed into a simple save by a deflection off a defender.
In truth though, the home side were the more likely scorers as Hennessey was forced into some fine saves, but, while the margin was just one, there was the chance Wales could get something from the game and, with the clock going into the ninetieth minute they did so after another slick movement ended with Roberts being fouled as he challenged for a cross. After an interminable delay for a VAR check which came to nothing, Bale nervelessly placed the ball into the side netting giving Cillessen no chance of saving despite him going the right way.
Sadly, Wales had not learned their lesson from last week and it couldn’t have been more than fifteen seconds after the restart that the ball was in our net with sub Memphis Depay scoring from eight yards out.
In the other game in the group, Belgium won 1-0 in Poland, so there is still a chance Wales can avoid relegation with a win over the Poles in Cardiff, but it has to be seen as a long shot now.
Elsewhere a Wales Under 21 side featuring Eli King and James Connolly beat Gibraltar 2-0 at Llanelli, but it was a miserable finish to the under 18s tournament in Croatia as we were hammered 6-0 by Austria to leave us with three points from our three games.
Playing games against the best in Europe will expose where we need to improve and, as the message came out, it’s better this happens now rather than in a more significant fixture. That being said I thought there were a number of interesting things to take from the game:
– It was a bad football pitch and a ref who was willing to let an awful lot go, several more Dutch players could have been booked really, but that’s sometimes what international football is about.
– Sorba’s had one season of Championship football where he’s played as RW in majority of games. He’s an excellent character, and I’m looking forward to seeing him develop, but at the moment I’m seeing a RW not a RWB when Wales so rarely play with wingers as wingers. There was a spell from 70-90 mins where he was targeted and stood up well so extremely disappointing for him that 90-94 saw him get beaten so easily. Is he better than Burns as a RWB? At the moment I would say no, but obviously has more time to grow.
– Who would have thought that the nation of Giggs and Bale would be so desperate for left-footed players to emerge?
– Netherlands have deserved to win both games but to come within 90 seconds x2 of two massive points with a team largely free of our most famous names is so gutting. I think if we could have brought on Cabango (and he had the right boots on) then we come away with a point. Staying in League A would be very pleasing so these players can continue to test themselves against Europe’s best.
– James tracking back to win the ball, Wilson playing such a well weighted ball, James’ pace giving defenders another player to think about and Johnson coolly slotting the ball away – have we just seen the future? Man City and Liverpool are moving away from three smaller men upfront but that’s probably our future so pleasing to see it work well in this move.
– We played 5 games this international window within space of 2 weeks minus one day. That’s ridiculous! We won the big one, we’re right to be disappointed not to pick up 3-5 more points in the Nations League and some players needing games got that bit more experience/minutes under their belt. It’s been largely a positive international window even if it’s also been very disappointing Nation’s League campaign so far.
Hi Paul,
Couldn’t agree more with your comments and DJ’s analysis.
Been a testing few matches and we have to take some comfort from the emergence of some exciting new talent. Feels like a changing of the guard – after the World Cup. However, will be really hard to keep Johnson out of the starting line up now. He has taken to international football like the proverbial duck to water!
No point over analysing things, other than to say a shame we conceded late goals after clawing our way back into the games against the Dutch. Lots to learn from there and better do it now rather than at the World Cup.
The last couple of weeks have been really enjoyable as a fan, but I do feel a drag for the players with such a short turnaround now for the new season. Hope they are all packing their bags now for the beach and a well deserved break.
Thanks both for the replies, strange to think that we’re already about halfway through the close season and City will be starting to play pre season matches three weeks today.
DJ, I’d say Williams is fine at left wing back and, if pushed, Davies could go there as a more defensively minded wing back with Ampadu dropping into the back three, but I would not favour that because I think left centre back is now Ben’s best position – I don’t think there were many better there than him in the closing weeks of the Premier League season. Therefore, I’d say yes, we could do with a left footer to play wing back – Burns struggled on Tuesday, but has done enough overall to be persevered with, but this lad seems to be the stand out player in an albeit not very successful Wales under 21 side currently and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go out on loan to play some first team football and, possibly, called into the Wales senior squad during 22/23.
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/team/academy/player/owen-beck
I wouldn’t rule Keiffer out yet, Rob Page seems to have a lot of faith in him and I can certainly see him starting games in the World Cup. He’s a Premier League player now and, if Solanke struggles as much as he has done in the past at that level, he could end up starting a lot more games for Bournemouth than many would expect.
Regarding the last five matches, the Ukraine game went the right way and so that’s all that matters really, but I think the game in Poland, where I would say we were slightly the better side on the balance of play, especially was very encouraging, Belgium was good as well.
Huw, I much prefer the Nations League to the friendlies we used to play and have also enjoyed these last five matches. Having spent the last three or four seasons supporting a team that I do not usually enjoy watching, it’s been nice to watch a team I’m backing play in the more attacking way that Wales have adopted in the last year starting with their very good performance in drawing 2-2 in the Czech Republic in what was a pivotal match in our qualification for Qatar.