Maybe it’s different for others, but i’ve found that there have been times when it felt like my unconditional love of football has shown signs of waning. This has been down more to the hype surrounding the game and the corrupt and selfish people that can attach themselves to it than football itself, but there are times when the so called beautiful game can be hard work as well.
When I mentioned hype earlier, Sky were uppermost in my thoughts, I’m sure they were giving this weekend’s televised matches the usual hard sell, but it really was a losing battle for them for about ninety nine per cent of the four games I’ve watched some or part of over the past two days.
First up was dodgy Derby County against those other Bluebirds from Barrow in the League Cup. I was able to retain some enthusiasm for this match despite the fact that barely anything of note happened in the ninety minutes, because it was great to see a club which left the Football League when I was a teenager and never really showed much sign of coming back until 19/20 are starting in League Two next week as proof that there is hope for the Bradford Park Avenues, Southports and Workingtons of this world.
Dodgy Derby won the penalty shoot out of course (they probably would have appealed against the result and won if Barrow had scored more spot kicks than them) after a turgid 0-0 draw and it was much the same in Sky’s second offering when shady Sheffield Wednesday ground out a bore draw at Walsall with penalties needed to take City’s opponents next weekend through after another 0-0.
Surely England, with seventeen goals in the last three pre lockdown games, would provide some entertainment and goals, but no, ninety minutes passed with only a red card for that lovely bloke Kyle Walker to savour in their match in Iceland, but then a truly barmy few minutes of added time produced two penalties, one scored by England and one missed by Iceland, and a red card for the hosts – this drama couldn’t hide the fact that it had been possibly the worst televised football day of my life in terms of all entertainment value and goalmouth action.
It was somehow typical that I missed the goal fest that was Brentford 1 Wycombe 1 this lunchtime which provided another penalty shoot out win for the home team to celebrate their first game in their new stadium, but I wasn’t bothered because the best was being saved until last – seven games unbeaten Wales against one win in fifteen Bulgaria at Cardiff City Stadium!
Even though the 1-0 win in Finland on Thursday had not made for great watching, there is an excitement and momentum about Welsh football at present as a stream of fine young prospects break through into the team to the extent that Ryan Giggs is now having to say that, whereas previous managers may have had the odd tough decision to make as to who to leave out of the starting eleven, he is having those same tough choices when it comes to who misses out from his squad.
However, all that was for nothing during a first half which I’d rate as the worst I watched on this weekend of woe for lovers of good football. It needs to be said of course that you tend to react in a more extreme manner when a team which mean a lot to you are involved, but it really was boring with Sky deciding that the highspot of the forty five minutes was a completely mishit volley from twenty five yards by the fit again David Brooks which was about ten yards off target.
Things had to improve and they did – slightly. There was more urgency about Wales and they provided a glimpse of their exciting young talent when Daniel James and Brooks combined for the latter to show excellent technique in getting a shot away which hit junction of crossbar and post before flying out for a goal kick.
If not exactly piling on the pressure, Wales were certainly forcing the issue for the last quarter of the match, but a fussy referee wasn’t helping things and in truth, as a fourth goalless ninety minutes of the weekend was reached, it seemed it would just be a case of looking for consolations like at least we hadn’t lost and a more involved and impressive Gareth Bale had played the whole game amid the gloom of a dismal encounter.
Bale had what I believe was the only on target effort in the opening half when his optimistic free kick from distance bounced through to an unconcerned Bulgarian goalkeeper Georgiev, but a shooting opportunity a couple of minutes into added time looked more promising – it was the sort of situation where Wales’ record scorer has made the net bulge plenty of times in his career, but this time, his well struck effort flew not too far over.
That looked to be the end of it, but in the three minutes that remained, Wales came up with something which excused much of the poor stuff that had preceded it – it was, by some distance, the best piece of concerted play I saw this weekend and it said a lot about what this team have the potential to become.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Wales moved the ball patiently and efficiently to the extent that, at a time when minds and bodies were tired, they had completed twenty two passes when the ball hit the Bulgarian net. Sub Hal Robson-Kanu, who was an improvement on Keiffer Moore who suffered at the hands of an unsympathetic official, played his part in working the ball out to another sub Johnny Williams whose cross was a beauty towards, as the Sky commentator thought, Gareth Bale – it wasn’t him though, it was the third Welsh sub who was closing in on it.
Back in early November, Neco Williams scored twice for Wales Under 17s in a draw with Russia across the road in Leckwith Stadium in what was ultimately a successful qualifying campaign for us. It was the first time I’d seen him play and you could see he had something special even in a team full of good quality players, but I certainly didn’t think he would make anything like the sort of impact he has done for club and country in the succeeding months in the senior game.
Today, coming on for Connor Roberts, Williams added a dynamism and urgency which it seemed to me had a positive impact on his team mates – now, with a sense of adventure reminiscent of Trent Alexander-Arnold, the man he is currently understudying at Liverpool, he got in front of his marker to guide an unstoppable header into the corner of the net.
Finally, this long and frustrating football watching weekend had something to commend it – a move and then a moment to really savour.
One final thought on the goal, the other Welsh player in the six yard box besides Williams was the other full back, Ben Davies – Wales aren’t supposed to do things like that!
Finland have just beaten the Republic of Ireland 1-0 in Dublin in a game which ideally would have ended in a draw, but, with six points, we are three in front of the Finns, while Ireland and Bulgaria have a point each – we visit the teams in third and fourth next month and I’d say even just one more point from those matches would leave us well placed to win the group for the two home games in November.
Yesterday, Barrow and Iceland were happy to play for a 0-0 draw from the early stages against opponents they figured they could not compete with in a game where they went out with a more positive attitude. Bulgaria were exactly the same today, they were scared of us.
There were reasons why today’s game was hard going most of the time – one of them being that, just as in the three other matches, an awful lot of the players were a long way short of optimum fitness, but it’s also true to say that our opponents were almost solely concerned with stopping us playing – we’re getting a reputation for ourselves.
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