Typically Welsh.

Posted on September 7, 2015 by The other Bob Wilson

CoymayThe title I’ve given this piece following the anti climax of the 0-0 draw with Israel at a packed Cardiff City Stadium yesterday sounds critical, but, although I will be having a bit of a moan about a few things later on, it’s not meant to be. It’s more that anybody who has spent a few decades following the Welsh football team will believe that the way the whole day panned out had a familiar feel to it.

The difference to all of the other occasions yesterday recalled though is that we are going to qualify this time. There, I’ve said it now and I just cannot see those words coming back to haunt me in the middle of next month, However, with it being Wales, there has to be that extra bit of frustration and feeling of glory being snatched away from you before the promised land can finally be reached.

On a personal level, I’m not so much talking about us only drawing yesterday there – yes, that was a bit disappointing, but I always had the feeling beforehand that we might have to fall back on the buffer of the games with Bosnia and Andorra to get over the line. What I’m referring to more is the game which followed ours that saw Belgium visit Cyprus.

The point we gained yesterday confirmed that, at the very worst, we will take part in the Play Offs for the sides who finish third in the groups with six sides in, but, with Belgium due to host Israel in the final round of games, it meant that at least one of the only two sides who can now overtake us are going to drop points in that game – therefore, anything but a Belgian win last night would have seen us through anyway.

I’ll admit that I had virtually no hope of Cyprus doing us a favour and waited for the inevitable Belgian goal which would signal that they were on their way to a comfortable win, but half time arrived without it having turned up and I began to get a bit more interested as the second half wore on with the score still 0-0.

As the match went into it’s final ten minutes still scoreless, I was beginning to think, could it be? Could we really end up being confirmed in the Finals tonight? It was then though that my memory recalled an occasion which never really gets a mention among the agonising close misses like Scotland (twice), Romania and Russia, but, in truth, represents the closest we have come to making it to the Finals competition of a major tournament since 1958.

After his heroics throughout the qualifying process so far, it was a strangely subdued Gareth Bale who turned up yesterday - he seemed to lack his usual acceleration and I'm not sure he was fully fit.*

After his heroics throughout the qualifying process so far, it was a strangely subdued Gareth Bale who turned up yesterday – he seemed to lack his usual acceleration and I’m not sure he was fully fit.*

Before Yugoslavia entertained Bulgaria in the final match of qualifying group Four for the 1984 European Championships, Wales stood two points clear of those two sides at the top of the table. Therefore, a win for either team would deny Wales, but a draw would see us finish a point in front of them both.

All anybody in Wales could do was listen to the game and hope for the draw. Under the circumstances, it was never going to be a cagey affair, both teams had to win and this was reflected by the four goals which were scored as the game moved into added time. The thing was though that those goals had been shared and so it was that Wales were just those few added minutes away from a tournament which, coincidentally, was also going to be held in France.

Those minutes made for agonising listening as both sides went hammer and tongs for a winner with the close misses at either end piling up, but, of course, just as you were allowing yourself to think we’re going to do this, Yugoslavia went and scored and so, there was what has become that all too familiar feeling of desolation again.

So, with Yugoslavia v Bulgaria now firmly locked in my mind, I went straight back into I just know Belgium are going to score mode and, although it took them longer to break down the Cypriots than it did us, they duly did so when Eden Hazard netted in the eighty sixth minute. In my case, that goal was not greeted with desolation, more resignation – the footballing Gods want to have a bit more fun with us yet before allowing us to celebrate!

Anyway, back to the Israel game. The first thing to say is that it was a game we could and should have won. Our opponents defended well and it’s a compliment to the team we have become that a side who were seeded above us when the draw was made felt that the only way they could get anything out of the game was to, in modern parlance, “park the bus”.

Even so, Wales came very close to blowing Israel away in the first twenty minutes. The big chance came when fine pressing by Jazz Richards and an excellent pass by Hal Robson-Kanu put Andy King through on goal, only for visiting keeper Marciano to make the second (he had earlier denied Aaron Ramsey) in a series of good saves. Even then, the rebound gave Ramsey a clear sight of goal, but, having scored so well with his head in the first game between the sides in Haifa, this time the midfield player couldn’t keep his effort down and it flew over the bar.

Between them King and Ramsey should have been able to put Wales that early goal up and, if that had happened, I’m sure we would have gone on to win comfortably, but for all of the pressure and possession we enjoyed, the Israeli backline was never opened up so incisively after that.

That’s not to say we never looked like scoring – King’s header from a Ramsey corner was one of those that was so powerful that it fell into the yard either side of the keeper and it’s a goal category, instead it flew straight at Mariano, Dave Edwards’ near post flick from another corner drew a smart save from Israel’s man of the match and he also denied Gareth Bale (who wasn’t too far away with a free kick from the edge of the penalty area) late on with a sprawling save.

Besides that, Wales could, justifiably, feel aggrieved with what I thought were a weak set of officials. I’m not talking about the correct offside decision which denied sub Simon Church a headed winner deep into added time, but for the pretty obvious handball which Tibi got away with when putting a Bale cross out for a corner under pressure from Robson-Kanu.

If I may be allowed to go off on a tangent here, my redundancy money is going to run out in a year or two and I’m going to need to find a way of earning a few quid to supplement my monthly pension in the four or five years before I qualify for the state pension. One of the jobs I’m considering applying for is to be one of those blokes who wears a referee’s uniform and stands to the side of the goal during some games. They’ve been around for years now, but I’ve never ever seen them do anything – seems like money for old rope to me.

Not sure why I felt like putting that last paragraph in where I did, but back to weak officials. Right from the very first goal kick he took, Marciano was blatantly time wasting and referee Ivan Bebek chose to book him and one of his colleagues for this pretty early on in the game.

However, having done this, the ref seemed to think he had done all he needed to do on that score. Bebek then proceeded to allow Marciano in particular to waste as much time as he liked and with injuries and substitutions to be taken into account as well, the four minutes added time he allowed at the end of the match was in no way a true reflection of how much extra should have been played.

Israel’s time wasting was another clue which showed that they weren’t really interested in winning the match. They did push forward a little more in the second half when they were able to deny Wales possession for quite long periods, but I’m mystified as to how the BBC’s stats show them having seven goal attempts because the only ones I can remember are a shot which ended up even further back than row Z and a header which the ref credited Wayne Hennessey with tipping over when it seemed to me that he had let it go, safe in the knowledge that it wasn’t going in.

So, Wales were never in danger of losing the game and there’s no doubt which of the teams deserved to win it, but, even so, the ninety minutes confirmed weaknesses which had been apparent despite the excellent results we’ve enjoyed.

For a start, nine goals from eight games is a poor return for a side which tops their qualifying group. Worse still, it’s now only three goals scored in four games at Cardiff City Stadium and although allowances need to be made for what was largely a defensive effort against Belgium and the fact we played with ten men for a significant part of the Cyprus match, it’s hardly as if there have been chances aplenty in the other three matches where we have gone out with a positive attitude.

As to why this should be, I can make a few suggestions. The first of these is a pretty obvious one – we don’t have a true international class striker. Hal Robson-Kanu works tremendously hard for the cause and I don’t believe central defenders enjoy facing him, but he seems to always play in a different role for his club compared to his country and I’m not sure the position he plays for Wales is his natural one.

Robson-Kanu wasn’t on the pitch when Bale had that late effort saved which I mentioned earlier, but we did had two strikers on at the time, yet neither showed the type of instincts which natural goalscorers possess when the ball rolled free a few yards from goal after Marciano has pushed the shot away.

As I’m not aware of any high quality Wales qualified natural goalscorer out there who isn’t being picked by Chris Coleman, I don’t believe there’s much we can do to correct this particular weakness, but maybe something can be done about some of the others.

I think it’s significant that Joe Allen has been absent from three of our home matches, he’s our best sitting midfielder and one of the reasons for this is that his passing can open up defences (Joe Ledley is less likely to do this, but I also thought we missed his ability to give and take passes quickly yesterday). Without Allen, we don’t have many central midfielders who can pick out a pass to open up a defence – King and Edwards’ main strengths lie elsewhere, David Vaughan can do it on occasions, but, with Bale quiet, we didn’t have a great deal of guile on display yesterday.

Of course, there is Aaron Ramsey and, that headed miss, apart, I thought he was our best player yesterday, but I wasn’t convinced by the decision to drop him deeper and use King in a more advanced position. For me, Ramsey is the only central midfielder we had available yesterday who could operate in a number ten role and have the capacity to play those short, clever passes which can find the gaps in a massed defence – I couldn’t see what we gained really by using Ramsey like he was yesterday.

Just for a few seconds, it looked like SImon Church had scored a fairy tale late, late winner, but a correctly raised offside flag stopped the celebrations in their tracks.*

Just for a few seconds, it looked like SImon Church had scored a fairytale late, late winner, but a correctly raised offside flag stopped the celebrations in their tracks.*

This takes me on to the formation we used. Now, I don’t think that there can be much argument that the three centrebacks, two wing backs system has been a success. I make it that it’s now 504 minutes since we have conceded a goal. However, that defensive stat rather proves the point that all of the wing backs we have used are, essentially, full backs (i.e. players who feel more comfortable at the opposite end of the pitch to the one we needed them in yesterday).

Now, in much the same way as I don’t mean this as a criticism of Edwards and King in central midfield, Richards, Taylor, Ben Davies and Gunter have done fine as wing backs for us and it should not be forgotten that the first named provided the cross for Bale to score in Cyprus. However, hopefully, we are going to be faced by more sides which set up like Israel did because that will mean we are continuing to develop along the lines we have done, but I reckon we need to be able to use wing backs for whom attacking comes more naturally when the onus is on to break opponents down.

To be fair, looking at the bench we had yesterday, I’d say only David Cotterill falls into the sort of category I’m talking about, but we could do with a couple of players a little like Declan John (i.e. able to perform as a full back, but with a winger’s instincts). When George and Johnny Williams are available again, this will help give us the options we lacked – understandably, we tended to play through the middle yesterday and, apart from that opening spell when we got in down the right a few times, we didn’t make as much use of the flanks as we could have done.

Still, despite the feeling of anti climax, our chances of qualifying, already strong after Thursday, are even stronger today, because, in terms of our relationship with one of the teams who can still overtake us, we, to all intents and purposes, gained a point on them yesterday – after all, that’s what our “aggregate” 3-0 win over Israel means.

We now won’t have to beat Andorra if it goes down to our last game, we only need to draw with the team who, after their 3-0 loss in Bosnia yesterday, still haven’t picked up a single European Championship point in their history – yesterday turned out to be typically Welsh, but we’ll still be celebrating at our next home match!

One last moan – what was all of this about? We were lucky, we got there at half past four and managed to get in just as the national anthems started, but the queue was already about two hundred yards long at that point. From what I could see, it was entirely caused by stewards wanting to search people as they got to the turnstiles. Now, if this was down to security fears because of the pro Palestine demonstration being held nearby, then this is understandable I suppose, but that protest has been known about for weeks, so why couldn’t there have been something put out advising people to come to the game early because there may be delays caused by related security measures?

*pictures courtesy of http://www.walesonline.co.uk/

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Wales come through their “cold, wet Wednesday night in Stoke” test.

Posted on September 4, 2015 by The other Bob Wilson

CoymayIt was Andy Gray, Sky’s voice of the Premier League at the time, who ludicrously suggested when Barcelona were at the peak of their powers that Lionel Messi and co would “struggle on a cold night at the Britannia Stadium”.

That pompous comment offered a glimpse into the arrogant and antiquated outlook which brought about the subsequent fall from grace of he and his “partner in crime”, Richard Keys. However, what Gray was doing with his Stoke analogy was merely rehashing a cliche which had been used in the game before that for years, or probably decades, before he “upgraded” it in his effort to do down the greatest club side I’ve seen (presumably because they weren’t in the Premier League).

Previous entities of the line had seen Wednesday night changed to a Tuesday and the venue changed to some unfashionable footballing outpost like Grimsby or Carlisle, but the thought process behind it was always the same – let’s see how good this bunch of fancy Dans are when they are at taken out of their comfort zone (they don’t like it up them you know!).

Now, although I’ve tended to be critical here of the type of thinking behind these generalisations, I have to admit that you cannot truly measure the worth of a team unless they have been through a test provided by an inferior or hardly glamorous opponent whose aim is to make up for the talent they lack with a very high work rate and an in your face attitude. Throw in a pitch which negates much of any technical superiority the visitors may have and some dodgy officiating as well and you have a set of circumstances which have seen many a fancied team come a cropper.

Well, the temperature may have been tens of degrees higher than in the middle of the week in the Potteries and the high humidity may have meant that any moisture dripping from the bodies of the players came from their own sweat rather than out of the sky, but Wales passed their “night in Stoke” test last night as their 1-0 win in Cyprus took them to within touching distance of participation at the Finals of Euro 2016.

Right from the moment the draw was made for this qualification group, Cyprus away struck me as a possible banana skin for Wales and, with three important members (Joe Ledley, Joe Allen and James Chester) of the team which beat Belgium in June ruled out with hamstring injuries, I was not as confident of a good result as I had been for the, apparently, sterner test in Israel last March.

David Edwards, a more than adequate replacement for the injured Joe Ledley heads what should have been a first goal for Wales last night, only for it to be bizarrely ruled out by a referee whose leniency at least meant that we have no suspensions going into the Israel match.*

David Edwards, a more than adequate replacement for the injured Joe Ledley, heads what should have been a first goal for Wales last night, only for it to be bizarrely ruled out by a referee whose overall leniency at least meant that we have no suspensions going into the Israel match.*

In Haifa, Wales looked poised and confident from the first whistle, but in Nicosia they were nowhere near as smooth in the early stages and the home side would have been very encouraged with an opening few minutes which saw some decidedly uneasy defending from the visitors.

What Wales could take some heart from was that there were opportunities for them going forward in those early minutes. Aaron Ramsey narrowly missed from the edge of the penalty area being set up by Gareth Bale and when the latter tried his luck with a free kick from thirty five yards, Cypriot goalkeeper Georgallides’ unorthodox save with his knees presented Neil Taylor with a great chance from the rebound. Unfortunately, but hardly surprisingly, the left back, who has never scored a goal for Swansea or his country, was unable to accept the opportunity as Georgallides redeemed himself by blocking Taylor’s effort.

The initial suggestions were that there would be a few goals in the game, but this proved to be misleading and, instead, it turned into a tight affair with not much more in the way of meaningful goalmouth action in the opening forty five minutes.

The reason for this at one end of the pitch was that Wales’ defenders began to show the qualities which had led to them conceding just two goals (one of them a penalty) in their first six games. Chester’s replacement Ben Davies and captain Ashley Williams had not been their usual composed selves early on, but the former gradually settled into a perfectly acceptable performance, while the latter was, arguably, the best player on the pitch over the ninety minutes.

Watching Williams play for his club in their win over Manchester United last weekend and again last night, you have to ask if there is a better British born centreback in the game at present – I honestly don’t believe there is and to think he was playing for Stockport County when he won his first international cap!

Chris Gunter, the Mr Dependable of this qualifying campaign, was steadiness personified and while Taylor may not get you many (make that any!) goals, he is now a proven performer at this level, while, on the right, Jazz Richards, now has an assist to go with the two fine displays he has produced for his country over the past three months.

So, the back five were their usual selves for ninety per cent of the game, but I’m sure they were grateful for the protection they were given by two midfield players not really known for performing the holding roles the two Joes fill when fit.

Andy King may be more of an all round midfield man now than he was at the start of his career, when his ability to support the strikers made him such a goal threat for club and country, but I had my doubts about his ability to adequately perform the duties he was given last night.

Much the same applies to Dave Edwards who is another who you don’t associate with doing his most effective work in front of his defence, but I thought the pair of them did well, with Edwards giving one of his better performances in a Wales shirt.

Up the other end, Wales certainly carried more of a threat, but promising situations came to nothing because of a mixture of the bobbly pitch and some poor first touches. Even when they did get things right as Edwards headed in Bale’s lovely cross from the right, the poor referee, Szymon Marciniak from Poland, saw an offence which I still haven’t after repeated viewings of the incident and penalised Hal Robson-Kanu for a foul.

Although Wales had not played that well in the first half, Wayne Hennessey had been a spectator throughout it, but he had to shovel away a long range shot within a minute or so of the restart as Wales endured their worst spell of the match up to the hour mark.

Having come through that dodgy period, Wales looked to be well capable of keeping a clean sheet, but there was nothing happening on the attacking front to suggest the deadlock could be broken until, like a hunter who is able to sense a weakness as it stalks its prey, they suddenly upped their game around the eighty minute mark.

In such humid conditions, tiredness was bound to be a factor, but, surprisingly, it seemed to be affecting the home side more as Ramsey forced Georgallides to beat his shot away to signal the start of a brief period where Cyprus were being forced to hang on.

Unfortunately for a team which still entertains hopes of sneaking into the Play Offs in November, they were unable to do so, because Richards was able to fashion a good cross, after he had been worked into space by a clever Ramsey pass, which was headed emphatically home by the inevitable Gareth Bale.

A great picture of Gareth Bale heading towards the bench after scoring the decisive goal - if anything epitomises the spirit which has helped make this qualifying campaign such a success so far, it was the sight of thirty or so players, management and coaching staff all celebrating together seconds after this photo was taken.*

A great picture of Gareth Bale heading towards the bench after scoring the decisive goal – if anything epitomises the spirit which has helped make this qualifying campaign such a success so far, it was the sight of thirty or so players, management and coaching staff all celebrating together seconds after this photo was taken.*

Although Hennessey was forced into his second moment of concern on the night when he turned aside a shot which may have been going wide anyway and a rebound after Williams’ headed clearance hit a Cypriot attacker and flew too close to the Welsh goal for comfort, the team were not to be denied now. Roared on by the biggest travelling support in years (estimated to be between three and a half and four thousand), they held on for a win which leaves them knowing victory over Israel at Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday will see them qualify for the Finals next summer.

Wales are not sure of going to France yet, but, given that we have just about the biggest banker win possible in this competition to finish off our campaign when Andorra come to Cardiff next month, I’m not going to urge too much caution – it would take an upset of a sort I cannot remember happening on the international stage before to stop us getting to the twenty point mark now.

However, let’s do some worst case scenarioing and assume we don’t get those twenty points, what is likely to happen then.

Let’s start with Andorra who have to travel to Bosnia as well as Cardiff in between entertaining Belgium – they cannot qualify or reach the Play Offs, but let’s say they don’t lose to us while picking up nothing from the other two matches.

If we were to finish on seventeen points, the only way Bosnia could finish ahead of us now is to win all of their remaining matches (they have to go to Cyprus after entertaining Andorra and us). I don’t think it’s beyond the bounds of possibility for them to do that and, in that case, their better record in the games with Wales would see them ahead of us even though we had the same number of points – but we would have to lose to Andorra for that to happen, any other result and they cannot catch us.

Cyprus can get to eighteen points by beating Belgium at home on Sunday and then winning in Israel and seeing off Bosnia when they visit next month. Again, we would have to lose to Andorra for them to finish above us even if they managed a hat trick of unlikely wins, because we have the edge with our wins over them if the two of us finish on the same number of points.

Even if we beat Andorra, Israel can finish above us. They would have to win on Sunday, in Belgium in their final fixture and beat Cyprus at home next month though to get to 21 points. If it finishes as a draw on Sunday and then we draw with Andorra, while losing in Bosnia, even wins for Israel in their other two matches won’t be enough for them because our better record against them would be like an extra point for us in the event of both countries finishing on 19 points.

Belgium can get to twenty three points by winning in Cyprus this weekend, then following that up next month with victories in Andorra and then when they entertain Israel. Again, our better record in head to head matches means that we finish above them at the top of the group if we win our two home matches. However, in the event of Israel being able to get ahead of us with twenty one points, that would have to mean that they had won in Belgium and this then ensures that we would need nothing more than a win over Andorra to finish above the favourites, because, yet again, in effect our record in the head to head matches is worth that extra point.

So, even if we don’t get another point, we may well have already done enough to secure a Play Off spot, one point makes third place virtually guaranteed and second place likely, while two points would only see us not qualifying if Israel were to beat us by at least a three goal margin. Of course, all of this assumes that we can’t beat a country which has not taken a point in it’s previous four World Cup and European Championship campaigns, has not taken one in this qualifying group yet (this means they have lost at least forty nine consecutive qualifying matches in these competitions) and has yet to avoid defeat in the forty seven matches they’ve played in the European Championships since first taking part in it nearly twenty years ago!

All of those years of qualifying heartbreak still mean that I cannot quite bring myself to say we are going to finally make it, but we have to do it now, don’t we?

*pictures courtesy of  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/

 

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