There was always the chance, make that likelihood, that Wales’ proud unbeaten home record in competitive matches, which I believe stood at nineteen games, would not survive the June internationals in the Europa League especially when the World Cup Play Off Final was moved to this month from March as a consequence of the war in Ukraine.
It would have been a very testing pair of fixtures against the Netherlands and Belgium even if we’d been able to put out our best team, but the absolute priority had to be the Ukraine match, so it was close to a reserve team that played against Poland, a slightly more experienced side tonight and I daresay it will be more squad rotation for the weekend visit from a Belgium side that recovered from their surprising 4-1 home defeat by the Netherlands in their first game by thrashing Poland 6-1 tonight after they’d gone a goal behind.
All of the real excitement in tonight’s match came in the five minutes of added time which began with the Dutch leading by a goal by Koopmeiners on fifty minutes with a shot from just inside the penalty area with Adam Davies, who played the second half after Danny Ward had played the first, perhaps feeling he could have dealt with it better.
I thought the Dutch were just about worth the 1-0 win they looked like getting until Rhys Norrington-Davies, Wales’ man of the match for me, arrived at the far post to powerfully head in a cross from Wales’ other wing back, Conor Roberts with ninety two minutes played – it was our first attack worthy of the name in the second half after some easy saves for visiting keeper Flekken and headers which flew wide and over from Harry Wilson and Rhys Norrington-Davies respectively in the first period where we enjoyed a very good fifteen minutes or so where we were dictating things.
It looked for all of the world like Wales had kept that unbeaten home record going, but one hundred seconds after we equalised, the visitors scored a fine counter attacking goal as Frankie de Jong ran about forty yards with the ball, fed Malacia who pulled a cross back to Burnley’s Wout Weighorst who sent a great diving header past the helpless Davies from fifteen yards.
It needs to be said though that Gareth Bale pointed out in a post match interview that Wales need to learn about the “dark arts” of the game – both Harry Wilson and Chris Mepham had chances to foul DeJong as he crossed the half way line on his lung bursting run.
So, instead of the expected 1-0 loss, it proved to be a 2-1 one. Wales therefore face a likely relegation from Group A, but even if they were to lose their four Europa League games during this international period, it must be acknowledged that the main object of the exercise was achieved when the final whistle was blown against Ukraine.
There is plenty of age group international football being played at the moment, but the only result I’ve seen so far came at Under 18 level where Wales are playing in a four team tournament in Croatia and a side featuring City players Joel Colwill, Cian Ashford and James Crole, who were all in the starting line up as the Welsh surprised their hosts by recovering from 2-0 down to win 4-2 – Morgan Wigley, another City player who had come on as a sub, scored one of the goals.
On the Cardiff City front, Callum O’Dowda, the twenty seven year old winger released at the end of the season by Bristol City, has signed for us on a three year contract – O’Dowda, who has won twenty three caps for the Republic of Ireland, has had his fair share of injury problems in recent seasons, but, apparently, there were other Championship clubs after him (it’s being claimed by Wales Online’s Glen Williams that Swansea and Sheffield United wanted him) – it must be said though that the what do the fans at his former club think of him test results are not great, but that might be partly explained by the fact that he chose to sign for us – with derbies against Rovers all bit non existent these days, we’re their biggest rivals currently.
It was a largely disappointing evening, which shows just how far we’ve travelled over past 10 years or so, but what I hope will be seen as one of the more productive evenings when we review this period in a few years.
Juve, Inter, Atalanta, Bolgna, Feyenoord made up the bulk of the Dutch side with Barcelona and Spurs representatives coming in off the bench – they might have made 11 changes from Belgium outing but still plenty of experience at high level within their group.
Our team was probably close to what we’ll see after the World Cup so, apart from fact that intensity wasn’t massively high due to UEFA’s ridiculous 4 games in 11 days, having players in that 20-30 age range get a workout together against quality opposition hopefully will be beneficial. We probably have too many players wanting to do the Ramsey and Bale role at the moment – who would have foreseen Harry Wilson becoming one of our hardest workers off the ball? – when we need a Joe Allen/Joe Ledley but it will take a bit of time to get close to that level before matching and hopefully surpassing it. Levitt showed promise against Poland which was missing a little here and we know Morrell can do a job as a water-carrier/terrier in the middle. If we’re honest though that need for time to get to level we want isn’t just about the individual players: Bale Colwill, Matondo and Wilson being protected by Smith probably cost us the game and suggests Page has some lessons to learn as well.
Disappointing to lose at the end, disappointing that we didn’t look that much a threat attacking wise and disappointing to pick up knocks to our keeper department. I want us to stay in League A if possible so the 20-30 year old’s can develop against a higher standard – this Saturday and Poland at home best chance of picking up points really – but these are ultimately games that no one in Europe wants due to how much football has been played already. We got the wins against Austria and Ukraine which were vital so these games are important but need to be seen within that context.
Thanks for your recent messages DJ. Firstly, on the subject of midfielders, after being a little sceptical at first, I’ve been increasingly impressed by Dylan Levitt in his appearances for the national side in the past year or so, or I was at least until Wednesday when he fell some way below the standards he’s been setting lately. Nevertheless, given his form for Dundee United as well, I think his sub par showing against the Netherlands can be treated as a one off at this stage and, for me, he represents our best hope in the short and medium terms of someone coming through to do the Allen/Ledley job to a decent standard – I agree with you that we have a surfeit of players wanting to fill the Bale/Ramsey type roles and it must be said that out of all the number ten/winger/forward types we have, it’s Aaron himself who could probably become the best of them in a holding role because the term fish out of water springs to mind with the rest.
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of side Page picks tomorrow – if he is going to pick as close to a first choice team, or as close to one as injuries allow, in our next two matches (I agree, there’s far too many games being played in June), then it seems to me that it will be tomorrow because it offers a better chance of getting some points on the board so that we can go into the home match with Poland with the possibility of finishing in third place. I think Belgium are a bit more flakey than they were a year or two ago and we won’t be intimidated by them.
Regarding Dan James, maybe Brennan Johnson’s quiet contribution on Wednesday will make people realise that, promising though he is, he’s not the huge upgrade on James that some think he is. There was a lot of talk after the Ukraine game from people saying they knew a goal was coming as soon as Bale had a dead ball chance so close to their goal, but it needs to be said that so many of the free kick chances Bale gets when playing for Wales come about because of a foul on James – he’s still one of the first names on the team sheet as far as I’m concerned.