I think the Nations League has been a good addition to the international football schedule. Okay, I’ve long since given up on trying to figure out the finer points of who qualifies for what and what it does for our seeding for the more important competitions, but it does offer competitive football. In fact, when I think about it, all you need to do to make the case for the Nations League wholly convincing is look at what it replaced!
I’d completely forgotten that Wales were playing tonight until quite late this afternoon because their game with the USA at the Liberty Stadium was one of those “meaningless” friendly matches which, invariably, turn into non events.
Actually, the only purpose these friendlies in the November international break, which have been tacked on before the set of two encounters which will decide the current Nation’s League groups, seem to serve is to ensure that those eight countries who were playing off for the four qualifying places for this summer’s Euros (congratulations to Scotland and David Marshall in particular for making it through) from the previous Nations League competition are not unfairly penalised by having to play a game more during this break than everyone else.
So it was that Wales and America played out a 0-0 draw (a score line that many would have predicted before kick off) on a surprisingly poor looking pitch in miserable, wet conditions with the story being more about how some individuals fared than how close either side got to breaking the stalemate.
Therefore, I’ll get the who threatened to score bit out of the way first – it won’t take long at all! For me, America looked the more likely scorers – they had a couple of shots from distance which drew good saves from the Welsh keeper and wasted what was probably the best chance of the night when De La Fuente blasted high and wide after a poor header by Dylan Levitt had let him in.
Wales, for their part had just two efforts of any consequence, Tom Lawrence’s first half shot from twenty yards was well hit, but visiting keeper and captain Zack Steffen was able to deal with it quite easily and then he made a better save to deny the Lincoln loanee from Forest, Brennan Johnson a goal within thirty seconds of coming on for his international debut after Wales put together what was their best attack of the match by a distance as another sub, Dan James, and Lawrence combined well – Johnson should really have scored, but the fact he’d only just come on offered him a valid excuse for his failure to do so I suppose.
Shot shy Wales therefore maintained their recent tradition of being very hard to score against, but, more concerning is the fact that they have looked so short of fire power in their matches this autumn – it’s now three goals in six matches and it has to be said that, based on the number of opportunities created in that time, they’ve done well to score that many!
I mentioned that the only real benefit of the match for Wales was to give some of their shadow players a game, but the injuries to Wayne Hennessey and Adam Davies meant that it was a very important night for Danny Ward who, almost certainly, is going to be playing in the upcoming matches with the Republic of Ireland and Finland – I said there were a couple of good saves from Ward, these came in the second half and would have helped erase the memory of a couple of nervy early moments somewhat.
At the back, Tom Lockyer showed that he’s now, perhaps a member of Wales’ strongest eleven with an assured return after missing games through injury and James Lawrence, something of a forgotten man these days, did little wrong alongside him.
Levitt and Matt Smith represented a very inexperienced midfield two and they found it hard going in the first half – Smith didn’t reappear after the break and Wales did better in that area with another debutante, Newport’s Josh Sheehan, on his place.
Rather like he did against England on his first Wales start, Rabbi Matondo mixed erratic moments with some that showed off his pace and persistence to very good effect and he seems to be someone who could do well as an impact sub against tiring defences.
The City pair of Harry Wilson and Keiffer Moore had contrasting nights really – Harry didn’t play poorly, but had a frustrating time of it in the number ten role because Wales never had the platform to do much in the area where he could have been most effective, while Keiffer did well (apart from a far post header from a Wilson corner that he got a disappointing contact on) in that he generally had the better of his markers and, unusually, had an official who thought he was more sinned against than sinning in charge.
Finally, a word for captain Chris Gunter who is inching towards the hundred cap mark – he didn’t put a foot wrong in his ninety eighth appearance for his country and, with regular games now at Charlton, he is still a contender for inclusion in bigger games than this one on this evidence.
