Originally Posted by
Kind of Blue
Proud of these lot, can’t fault the effort. We’ve waited a long time to qualify for tournaments, I’ll take this type of disappointment over Bodin penalty near misses every day of the week.
We’ve been living through a halcyon period for us the last 8 years or so. Consistent top 20 in the world with a foray into the top 10 at points. I’ve tried to savour it whilst it lasts. The anomaly of Uruguay aside, not many countries our size get to this place let alone maintain it.
Few things conspired against us for this tournament. The Giggs situation couldn’t have helped in terms of our preparation. I do think a savvier tactician would have gotten more out of this squad for these games but we’ve limited resources and that was sadly the hand we got dealt.
The obscene imbalance where we had to criss cross Europe and travel the equivalent distance of Wales to Argentina whilst the Danes, for example, only had to contend with a comparatively short hop from Copenhagen to Amsterdam. This tournament and the time we’re living through condemned us to playing “away” games the entire time, a situation worse than our non-tournament away games over the last few years as we’ve regularly taken thousands.
And frustratingly, in a tournament where I think generally the refereeing has been of a good standard, we didn’t get the rub of the green with some decisions not going our way.