Finally!

Posted on October 11, 2015 by The other Bob Wilson

CoymayWhen England hosted the European Championships in 1996, what I think of as one of the better football songs reached number one on the wave of optimism which swept through that country at the time.

In saying that, “Three Lions” was unusual for a football song because it’s lyrics spoke of failure and the “thirty years of hurt” England football fans had suffered since their country had lifted the World Cup  as hosts of the event in 1966. Even so, every time I heard about their three decades of hurt, I used to think “you don’t know the half of it, try supporting the Welsh football team, then you’ll find out what suffering really means”.

For a start, I’m 60 in four months time and, as far as I’m aware, Wales have never qualified as hosts for a World or European international football tournament at any level or age group in the men’s game in my lifetime – although the fact that we hosted the UEFA Women’s Under 19 competition in 2013 offers the hope that I may still see it happen in my lifetime.

The luxury of pre qualifying for a tournament has never been open to Wales’ senior teams in either gender. No, we’ve always had to pre-qualify and, in the men’s game at least, this process has a history for which the term “long suffering” might have been invented.

It didn't take long for the Welsh players and management to learn of Israel's defeat - when Gareth Bale was asked if it would take a while for what the team had achieved to sink in, his answer was a short and sweet "no"!*

It didn’t take long for the Welsh players and management to learn of Israel’s defeat – when Gareth Bale was asked if it would take a while for what the team had achieved to sink in, his answer was a short and sweet “no”!*

It might have have hurt for Baddiel and Skinner back in the mid nineties, but these things are relative – they didn’t have a clue what real hurt is!

Try being denied a World Cup Finals place twice by Scotland, first thanks to a blatantly wrong penalty decision, and then, eight years later in 1985, by a distinctly dodgy one.

Try listening to Yugolslavia and Bulgaria both going hammer and tongs for a winning goal while knowing that a draw would see Wales through to the European Championship Finals in 1984 (of course, Yugolslavia scored the goal to send them through at our expense in added time at the end of the game) and try being denied a place at the 1994 World Cup by a missed penalty against Romania.

Even when we have “qualified” there has been only heartbreak. In 1976 we topped our European Qualifying group, but that only brought a two leg Quarter Final to earn the right to go the main event and this was lost amid more penalties of the dodgy and missed kind, disallowed goals, an eccentric referee and crowd trouble which led to “home” matches in the following qualification procedure being played in England.

With four games to go in our group, qualification for the 2004 European Championships look assured, but just one point from those matches meant that we had to face Russia in a two leg Play Off to get to Portugal. It was typical that Wales raised hopes first by drawing 0-0 in Moscow in the first match, but a single goal for the visitors in front of a packed Millennium Stadium only meant more deflation and angst.

What needs to be remembered here, is that what I have set out in the last few paragraphs are the times when Wales have at least looked like they could be there competing with the best in the world or their continent. However, for every time this happened, there were another two or three where any optimism soon disappeared as the early losses mounted up – these were the campaigns exemplified by results such as Netherlands 7 Wales 1, Georgia 5 Wales 0 and Wales 1 Slovakia 5.

Now, you can argue, as I do, that reaching a European Quarter Final in 1976 means that it was not correct to assert that our qualification drought dated back to 1958 (even then, we only made it to Sweden as a “lucky loser”), but the truth is that this was how it had always been reported.

The general feeling among Welsh and non Welsh people was that we had gone fifty eight years without qualifying for anything, but, now, the rights and wrongs of that statement are no longer important – it’s just academic, because last night we did it, Wales will be there in France for Euro 2016.

Who cares that our 2-0 defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica meant that I couldn’t help thinking of the film Mike Bassett England Manager where England’s desolation at not getting the home win they needed against Slovenia, turns to joy when they hear they have qualified anyway because rivals Turkey have lost at home to Luxembourg.

I’m not sure if rumours that the Gareth Edwards statue in Cardiff City centre is to be demolished and replaced by one of Walsall’s Jason Demetriou are true. However, he should be elevated to the position of Welsh footballing legend after his goal that enabled Cyprus to snatch the win in Israel which meant it didn’t matter how we did last night – we already had enough points in the bag.

Actually, it’s that which means that my Mike Bassett analogy was not a very good one. Wales were never in the sort of position England found themselves in the film – I fully expected our qualification to be confirmed in a few days time after we had beaten Andorra (I think this is the only match about which you’ll ever read me saying “we will win” on this blog and, to be frank, I’m not remotely bothered now if I end up being proved wrong!).

I always had our match in Bosnia down as a defeat and, although I became a bit more hopeful when I learned that we would be able to field what was virtually our strongest team, I couldn’t get the fact that we were going to a part of the world where we never do well out of my mind.

You will see the name Yugoslavia among the list I produced of teams to deny us in the past and it is was also them who put us out in “the  Rudi Glockner match” in 1976. We didn’t do well in that part of the world when it was called Yugoslavia and our record in the Balkan countries which replaced it is appalling – I think I’m right in saying we’ve lost every single game we’ve played in old Yugoslavia since that country’s break up.

The mistake I made was in assuming that Israel would beat Cyprus. Israel had defended well in Cardiff last month, but we were comfortably better than them in Haifa even before the sending off and this gave the clue that they are not a team who find it easy when it is they who have to force the pace. Combine this with how Cyprus took us and Belgium right to the wire a few weeks ago, and it was never really the banker home win I took it to be.

As for our match, the funny thing was that Bosnia were nowhere near as good as I believed they’d be – I thought they played better in their game in Cardiff a year ago. For me, we looked pretty comfortable until our long run without conceding a goal ended at 575 minutes in very disappointing fashion.

To concede from what was a pretty basic kick was poor and it was criminal that the ball was able to bounce in our penalty area before Djuric headed over Wayne Hennessey. Ashley Williams should have dealt with things better, but, given his performances over the course of the qualification process, I’m not going to be too critical of him, and his fellow defenders, now – if this Welsh squad has a problem area, it’s certainly not our defence.

A record of just a goal a game in our nine matches in this group so far tells it’s own story – we’ve failed to find the net in nearly half of our games. Tuesday night’s home game with an Andorra side who have conceded thirty four times in losing all of their games so far offers an ideal opportunity for Wales to improve what is a dismal scoring record given how successful they’ve been. Although I accept that it’s not going to be an occasion where they will be going full throttle, I hope a few of our players who are due a goal are able to take the opportunity the game gives them.

I’m thinking in particular here of people like Aaron Ramsey. When you consider how he was finishing two years ago, it was strange to see him miss a pretty easy chance so poorly in what was still a good individual performance by him in Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Man United last weekend and he could have done better with a chance he had last night – if he can start feeling confident in front of goal again, he is good enough to make a significant difference to our scoring rate.

Chris Coleman goes through what has become a traditional celebration with sides which achieve some sort of success - like quite a few of his players (including Champions League winner Gareth Bale) , the manager rated Wales' qualification as the highspot of his career.*

Chris Coleman goes through what has become a traditional celebration with sides which achieve some sort of success – like quite a few of his players (including Champions League winner Gareth Bale) , the manager rated Wales’ qualification as the highspot of his career.*

Hal Robson-Kanu could do with a goal and it would be a great reward for what has been a very good individual campaign if Neil Taylor’s efforts to get into more attacking positions could see him finding the net.

I’m sure any big win on Tuesday will be greeted with the words “it was only Andorra”, but we need more players to show that they have it in them to score for us at international level and, to that end, I would be tempted to give Tom Lawrence a first cap.

I was also pleased to see England qualified Harry Wilson get a few minutes to confirm him as a Wales player at the end of our previous qualifying campaign and, if something similar could be done with a youngster in a similar position on Tuesday (West Brom’s Tyler Roberts springs to mind), then  all the better.

Also, a personal thank you to the squad for what they have achieved and the manner in which they have done it. It’s quite common for players to trot our a line about the great spirit in a team which then goes out to prove in their next game that this is anything but the case , but it’s manifestly true of this Welsh side. Post match interviews with team members nearly always referenced this point, but it was classy of Neil Taylor to ask that team group photos taken after the game be taken with the supporters ,who have followed them to some pretty far flung parts over the last year or so, in the background.

I shouldn’t forget Chris Coleman either, who, just as he has done throughout the campaign, got things right with a dignified post match interviews in which he went out of his way to mention the influence of his predecessor Gary Speed – I hope that somehow, somewhere, he is aware of what happened last night.

Finally, a quick word about the Under 21 side who maintained their promising start to their latest Euro qualifying campaign with a 0-0 draw away to top seeds Denmark on Friday. They have a couple of home games in North Wales next month during the International break set aside for the Play Offs for Euro 2016 – their seniors won’t have to bother with them, but it would be good to see them try to maintain their momentum with a friendly somewhere.

Pictures courtesy of http://www.walesonline.co.uk/

 

 

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Late, late, late Baker goal sees Under 21s scrape derby win.

Posted on October 6, 2015 by The other Bob Wilson

CoymayOn 14 April 1945 City entertained Bristol City in the second leg of a Second Round League North Cup tie. With a 2-1 advantage from the first game at Ashton Gate, City were well placed to make the next round, but the Wurzels managed to turn things around with a 2-1 win of their own.

Thirty minutes of extra time couldn’t settle the tie and with war time restrictions meaning the game had to be played to a finish (penalty shoot outs were still twenty five years or so away), two more thirty minute periods were played without either side scoring.

The game’s fourth period of extra time was nearing it’s end when City’s Billy Rees scored the goal which decided the tie – the match had lasted 202 minutes.

Well, yesterday’s U21 Premier League Cup Second Qualifying Round match against the same opponents at Leckwith yesterday afternoon probably represented the closest thing I’ll experience to what those hardy souls in the crowd went through on that day seventy years ago!

Of course, there was always going to be a penalty shoot out after 120 minutes yesterday, but I believe there must have been similarities of a sort between the two games because the time spent between the visitor’s seventy second minute equaliser and Ashley Baker’s very late winner for City saw two already tired looking sides flogging their guts out in the search for a goal which barely ever looked like coming.

It was pretty poor stuff at times in a game in which, to put things on a basic level, the defenders and destroyers on show were generally better than the attackers and creators.

Yet, City’s start to the match suggested that they would win comfortably. The first five minutes saw Eli Phipps move on to a poor back pass, but then put his cross from the bye line too close to keeper Jojo Woolacott as an unmarked Tyler Roche waited to pounce and then Roche’s excellent cross was just about to present Matt Kennedy with an easy looking headed chance when a last ditch intervention by a defender put the ball out for a corner.

City were far sharper than their opponents at this stage though and it only took seven minutes for them to score. The build up to the goal contained what was, by far, the best individual moment of the match as Theo Wharton beat six opponents (I’m not exaggerating there – Cardiff City World subscribers can watch it on the club’s website) in a thirty yard run which took him from a left wing position on the half way line to a central area on the edge of the penalty box.

It was an outstanding piece of play by the midfielder which, in an ideal world, would have ended with a shot into the top corner. However, Wharton’s effort, though well struck, was straight at Woolacott and the keeper will have been disappointed that he could only knock the ball into the path of Phipps who put away the chance as comfortably as he did so consistently for the Under 18s over the last two seasons.

If Robbie Patten had been able to reward another fine individual run by a City player when Roche’s pass after a mazy dribble presented him  with a shooting chance about ten yards out, then I’m pretty sure the game would have followed a different pattern, but another good defensive block saw the home team gain nothing more than another unproductive corner.

Effective last ditch defending notwithstanding, the Wurzels couldn’t really be as bad as they had looked in the opening half an hour. Clumsy in possession, lightweight in attack and, seemingly, slower in thought and deed than their opponents in the middle of the pitch, the opportunity was there for City to settle the match once and for all in the first thirty minutes.

Yet, for the remainder of the first half, all you got from City were “nearly moments” when they were a poor pass or wrong decision away from the chance to double their lead.

Given how comfortable they had been, it probably wasn’t a surprise that City’s intensity levels began to drop and the visitors were able to finally keep possession and suggest that the game could become more competitive as the half drew to it’s close – that said, half time arrived with them not having given Ben Wilson in the Cardiff goal a single anxious moment.

The second half proved to be a dour affair – City had left their first half fluency behind in the dressing room during the interval as failed individual sorties and hit and hope passing took over from the smooth teamwork they had shown during their best moments in the first forty five minutes.

Now, although there was little suggestion of a further goal coming at either end of the pitch, it was the Wurzels who looked more likely to provide one. Wilson was finally called into action when their number seven had a couple of efforts from around twenty yards which drew routine saves from the keeper, but he was in more difficulty when a dipping effort from further out by Bristol’s number eight bounced off the top of the crossbar and out for a goal kick.

I can remember Ashley Baker scoring for City against the jacks in a losing cause in an Under 18 game last season and now he's scored against another local rival and this time it was a match winner.

I can remember Ashley Baker scoring for City against the jacks in a losing cause in an under 18 game last season and now he’s scored against another local rival, but, this time, his goal was a match winner.

By now it was looking as if the only way City would win in ninety minutes was if they could see the game out with their 1-0 lead intact, but they were unable to do so as the Wurzels claimed an equaliser with just under twenty minutes left when a corner beyond the far post was won by one of their players who headed across goal. Patten was able to head clear, but the ball went back to the Bristol man who dinked a good cross in which a group of players went for and it was Shaun McCoulsky who got his head to it as the ball rolled gently over the line.

All City had to show in terms of a goal threat during the second period was a cross from the right that was met on the volley by Roche to draw a good save out of Woolacott. Even so, the keeper’s block dropped into the sort of area I would expect Phipps (who may not look the complete package at this level yet, but has always had the natural goalscorer’s instinct which seem to anticipate where the ball is likely to go) to profit from, but he had got a glancing touch with his head to the original cross and so was in the process of picking himself up from the floor at the time.

I don’t know whether it was because of a pitch which looked more lush and green than the normal one seen at Leckwith, but a couple of players had needed treatment for cramp even before Bristol’s equaliser and tiredness was already a factor as the teams played out the remainder of the ninety minutes with little in the way of goalmouth action at either end.

In saying that, it did show how the match had changed in that it was now City who were being called upon to produce the sort of good defending that had been seen by Bristol in the opening stages of the game – centrebacks Baker and captain Tom James being increasingly called upon to nip possible goal threats in the bud.

The vast majority of the thirty minutes extra time produced little in the way of memorable football. Wilson dealt capably with another long ranger by Bristol’s number eight and Woolacott reacted sharply to grab a low cross from Matt Kennedy (who had a largely frustrating afternoon – Roche on the other flank looked the more dangerous of City’s wingers to me) on the goal line with sub Abdi Noor close by.

Mostly though, the game became a stop start affair as tiredness and frustration led to a series of fouls and, inevitably, the yellow card count mounted. By and large, there was nothing malicious in the majority of the challenges, but that could not be said of the crude lunge by Bristol’s number six which took out Roche in full flight as the game entered it’s final minute – to me, it was the sort of foul which would have been punished by a straight red card in first team football.

The fact it was that foul which provided the free kick from which City won the match provided an element of justice, because, although City had been sloppy in allowing what had been a stroll to become a slog, there was little doubt that they were the better side over the 120 minutes and it was fitting that they were able to come up with another moment of quality which their opponents couldn’t match on the day to decide the game.

Kennedy’s free kick was half cleared to James who produced a chest trap and volleyed cross that a Whittingham or Noone would have been proud of and it was centreback partner Baker who was there to head in from about five yards out to put his team through to the next round.

In setting up the goal, James showed the composure which, for me at least, marks him down as a possible first team player of the future, but, as mentioned before, this was an afternoon where composure and creativity was in pretty short supply and it was more of a game for defending and dogged determination – those were the qualities which made James my City man of the match with the always impressive Robbie Patten not too far behind him.

 

 

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