Robert Page described tonight’s friendly against South Korea at Cardiff City Stadium as a game he didn’t want, but the current rules seemingly state that when you’re only playing one competitive game during an international break, you must also play a friendly so you do not get an advantage in terms of fitness over a side that is playing twice in a few days.
Little wonder really then that a match between two out of form teams that at least one of them didn’t want ended up as a goalless draw with not much to commend it.
That said, I find that the usual way international friendlies tend to pan out is that the game can be quite competitive and interesting for maybe an hour, but then you get what seems to be a never ending stream of substitutions and the game meanders to a quiet finale which quite often sees no goals scored.
This time though, the match became more lively following the raft of substitutions with its fourth quarter seeing most of what goalmouth action there was.
Robert Page said after the game that Wales had looked more like what I’m sure he sees as their normal selves, he made a point of mentioning that his team had been better without the ball. It’s true to say that apart from a cross which flashed dangerously across the Welsh goal and a couple of long range efforts by Son (who, surprisingly, stayed on for the whole ninety minutes – there was no added time played at the end of the match!) that were easily dealt with by Danny Ward, South Korea had little to offer going forward and generally looked like a side that has not won in six matches now since the World Cup.
Wales were hardly full of menace themselves, but I think most would agree that they would have been declared winners if football contests were decided on a boxing style points system.
Going in with a selection that contained more senior players than I was expecting, Wales were unable to record what would have been only their second victory in thirteen matches, but this was an improvement on what was seen in that calamitous season ending pair of comfortable defeats by Armenia and Turkey which has left us needing a win in Latvia on Monday to maintain what will only be a very faint chance of qualification through the group phase even if we were to get the three points.
Harry Wilson was Wales’ most dangerous attacker in the first half with keeper Kim forced into a good early save from the ex City loanee after he had been neatly set up by Nathan Broadhead and then the South Korean number one made an easier save from Wilson just before the break.
Kieffer Moore and Joe Morrell, both suspended for Monday, replaced Brennan Johnson and Ethan Ampadu at half time, but it was the introduction of Wes Burns, Josh Sheehan and Aaron Ramsey for Jordan James (who was perhaps our best player in the first half in what was his first start for his country), Wilson and Neco Williams that led to Wales’ slight upping of the attacking intent.
Moore came closest to breaking the deadlock when Chris Mepham did very well to get to the bye line and then picked out a fine cross which the target man reached with a looping header from six yards which came back off the upright with Ramsey unable to knock in the rebound as the ball hit his arm.
Kim made saves of varying difficulty from Joe Rodon and Ben Davies, while Broadhead saw his well struck effort from the edge of the penalty area deflected just wide and the reality is that this game will not be remembered long, it’s Monday’s visit to Latvia that will shape Wales, and possibly their manager’s, destiny.
Paul compadre,
Like I always stress… if we humans were not prone to mistakes, they would not manufacture pencils with erasers stuck on top. And I also have said that I make ten times the number of errors that you make. Which is true, incidentally, and not just me trying to appear non-petty, (given me nitpicking in what follows).
And I am conscious of the fact that back in the day, you got me out of jail many times when I clicked ‘send’ without proofreading… and then, when reading what I wrote appear on your blog page, instantly spotted a howler… and wrote you an urgent private email to ask you to make a correction to save my blushes.
But I don’t know what it is, but since I passed 75, I have become far less concerned about spelling errors. As I have said many times, within a couple of generations, ‘good spelling’ will be seen as a fifth rate skill, since txtspk will rule, OK…
My late eldest brother Graham, a lifelong City fan still going on the City Supporters Club coach to away games at 89, used to have a big thing about grocer’s apostrophes… and I used to tell him to lighten up, since the apostrophe was – when seen in historical terms – a modern invention… having only appeared for the first time 5 centuries ago in the 16th century… whereas written language has been going over ten times longer in this world… first appearing in present day Iraq.
Me rabbiting on here is just a way of saying you have had a bit of a ‘Weston Super’ here in this report… (no, not in your actual match detail and analysis – which as usual is outstanding and thus welcomed by all your readers – but in your spelling).
Please do not correct the errors and here is for why…
1. My contribution will seem drug induced if I point out errors that you have since cleared up…!!
2. Much more importantly it will show all MAYAns that you are ‘only human’ and that this is just an ever so slightly ‘bad day at the office’, as normally your editorial standards are impeccable. This was just an aberration on your part.
Here are the typos…
Ethan Ampadu… not Etah;
Joe Rodon… not Chris
Neco Williams… not Nico*
…and of course Kieffer, not Keiffer… which you will know, is a spelling that often trips you up.
*the problem is that Neco has allowed people to mispronounce his name from the get-go.
Neco… is a Mediterranean first name especially popular in Portugal and also in its linguistic diaspora, especially Brazil. It is never pronounced ‘nee/ko’… but always ‘neck/o’.
TTFN,
Dai
Well, well, well. I think I’ve mentioned before on here that the biggest sign of declining mental powers as I get older that I’m aware of is when it comes to remembering and, occasionally, spelling names. So, it’s become quite normal for me to be told of mistakes I’ve made (typically, I’ll give a current player the first name of a player from my youth that I saw about half a century ago). This time though, there was more than advancing age at play, there was also complete boredom. I mentioned on a messageboard that I found the review of Thursday’s match the most difficult to write of any reaction piece I’ve done on here. After all, this was a dull 0-0 draw that one of the managers involved wished had not been played – I found it almost impossible to write anything on the match. Therefore, I think I have an additional excuse for my errors in the piece, I was writing on something I had barely any interest in and I’d add as well that, as I wrote it straight after the game, I was almost nodding off for much of the time I was writing. I’m sure I must have read what I’d typed back the following morning before publishing as I always do, but I cannot recall doing it.
As for the mistakes, the Ampadu one is an example of what I think of as just a computer being, in reality, some sort of AI which has a mind of its own when it comes to things like spellchecking = I know some of the gobbledegook I read back after typing is not down to my sausage fingers and this was one of them. Chris Rodon is a typical example of what I talked about earlier – Chris Rodon was a mediocre centre forward who played about three times for a mediocre City side from almost forty years ago (I’m also told that he is Joe’s uncle). Neco Williams, I can never remember if it’s an E or an I and always have to look up the spelling, clearly I was too bored to do so on Thursday and guessed wrong when it came to the spelling.
Finally, we come to the really interesting one – I mentioned on the messageboard yesterday that I’ve been aware of the player in question for around a decade or when he was playing for Yeovil whichever one was first. During that time, I must have typed his name hundreds, if not thousands, of times and in every one, he was Keiffer Moore. This was not a name I had to check the spelling of, I knew exactly how it was spelt, so there was no point. When I read what Dai had claimed, I went straight on line to get the evidence to prove him wrong, only to find that he was right! I don’t think I’ve ever typed out the name of Donald Sutherland’s actor son before, but, if I have done, I’m sure it was Keiffer Sutherland that I typed, yet it turns out that it’s Kiefer with a single f. This morning, as I’m typing Kieffer, the computer spellchecker is telling me it should be Keiffer – evidence of how often I got the spelling wrong. My only explanation of why I thought it was spelt that way is that I must have been influenced by how the name Keith is spelt.
No, doubt Etah Ampadu, Chris Rodon and Nico Williams will make return appearances on here in the weeks, months and years to come, but, unless my spellchecker starts changing it without telling me, Keiffer Moore has been substituted and announced his retirement!
Buongiorno, Paul…
What a wonderful response from you. Your witty last para in particular was classic MAYA Blogmeister. You are indeed a noble soul.
As for last Thursday’s international, I am with you entirely on its total lack of entertainment. It has been suggested to me that a major factor in the lack of atmosphere was the sparse attendance… but my response to that is that I saw some quite thrilling games televised during total lockdown, so the Welsh players cannot use that as an excuse.
Talking of the poor number of fans: I was astonished to hear – just 3 days before the game – my fellow Rhondda native, Robert Page, be so disparaging regarding the fixture… thus unwittingly doing his bit to kill dead any last minute ticket sales.
Will sign off now… knowing that I have committed lots of hostages to fortune with my mention of spelling errors. Fellow MAYAns will be on my case like a swooping eagle if I err in the spelling department…
Quite right too… folks think there is nothing worse than a hypocrite, (as a certain Jordan Henderson is now finding out).
And don’t get them started on my otiose exclamation marks, my penchant for ellipses, my sometimes broken parentheses, my occasional BLOCK CAPS making my contributions appear like a kidnapper’s crude ransom note…
I sometimes think that I lower the tone here…!!
Oh, before signing off… would all MAYAns please read my comments amongst others re the death of that fine player Brayley Reynolds, here… see comments 5 to 8 re Brayley…
https://mauveandyellowarmy.net/end-of-he-honeymoon-period-for-erol-bulut/#comments
And to answer your request in your comment there… of course, I would be honoured if you choose to put my memories of Brayley in your special RIP section.
TTFN,
Dai.