FT: WALES 1 - 1 U.S.A. Match thread

The negativity in this thread is incredible when you consider that we’ve just played our first match at a World Cup Finals in sixty four years and we got what in the end was a deserved draw against a team which was slightly above us in the world rankings. I think people get spoilt because we’ve qualified for the knock out phase of the three major tournaments we’ve been in before now and are expecting, not hoping for, the same again from what, according to the rankings is the hardest group in this World Cup.

For years we had a team that people would look at and say we had a good, young squad with a lot of potential and in 2016 especially, they fulfilled that potential. Now that “golden generation” are old in football terms, the two best talents from that era are,understandably given the injuries they’ve had and the passing of time, not the same players any more and last night we were missing a very important central midfielder who is also not the player he once was.

Apart from Ben Davies, we don’t have any truly top class performers who are “the right age” for this tournament- we’re a team with a nucleus of great and good players on their way down or promising young ones on the way up. We may not have another golden generation coming through, but they’re, potentially, good enough to ensure that we don’t go so long without qualifying once the trail blazers we have now have retired. We’re a very small country in comparison to most who are here and we’re not as strong as we were six years ago - that’s the reality of our situation.

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Originally Posted by Harry Paget Flashman

But you've never seen a manager change it in the first half when playing as badly as we did tonight.

If Page changed his mind as often as you we'd have won.

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He didn’t have to substitute, switching players around would have helped. Especially moving Dan James as he didn’t get to touch the ball

We could have gotten more out of that game but Page messed it realistically.

So proud though

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

I think there’s are a few on here who were expecting us to win the whole thing. It was quite similar to Switzerland in the Euros, not a bad point at all.

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Yes, that game came back to my mind too. Lots of pre-tournament expectation and then disappointment of 'only drawing with Switzerland' (a team that went on to knock France out of that tournament). I would say though that Switzerland in that game were much better than USA last night, and whilst we were second best against the Swiss, we played better then than we did last night.

I see some expect us to stuff Iran. I think it could be more difficult than people expect.

The first thing is to beat Iran. That really should be easy. However we probably need to get a comfortable win.

While I think talking of Page out and us being the worst side in the tournament , Iran slaughtering us was way over the top they are not excluded from criticism either.

Its not a holiday they are a bunch of highly paid pros and the fans should rightly expect better than the 1st half yesterday.

Bale and Ramsey and Bale in particular look way off match fitness but both somehow got us a result which in my opinion puts us in a great position.

If we put in a good performance Friday we will beat Iran with ease.

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Originally Posted by Divine Wright

Messi, Lewandowski, Thiago, Perisic ....the list goes on. All players who have a year or two (or four) on Rambo who are still doing the business, in some cases playing the best football of their careers.

You can be 90% the player you are at 35 as you were at 25 nowadays.....unless you are injury prone.

With Rambo, I know he's had knocks but for the type of position he plays on the field It doesn't make sense to me, on the face of it, that he should be "done" at this level. Seems a bit melodramatic.

I got the feeling the players didn't believe in themselves much at the last euros and you get the vibe they are just kind of winging it , or muddling their way through games with a bit of guts and moments of inspiration. My suspicion is that the coaching and tactical side of the game is probably not up to the standard as opposed to the players....or at least that this part of the setup contributes a fair bit to our shoddy displays.

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Every player looked an island last night, and to compound it Ramsey and Bale were giving simple passes away just when they should have been showing some leadership. I hope Allen's fit for Iran because I'd def. play him for 45 mins, his energy alone would be an asset.

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Originally Posted by A Quiet Monkfish

Every player looked an island last night, and to compound it Ramsey and Bale were giving simple passes away just when they should have been showing some leadership. I hope Allen's fit for Iran because I'd def. play him for 45 mins, his energy alone would be an asset.

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No. He hasnt played for months.

That will be 3 players lacking match fitness.

Wales recover from self inflicted selection wound to stay in running for last sixteen place.

Sixty four and a half years since Wales' last World Cup goal and point.

https://mauveandyellowarmy.net/

lets be honest, Pagey got it wrong in the 1st 1/2, but fair play to him, he made the changes, gave them a talking to, and the 2nd 1/2 we were by far the better team and would have gone on to win that game

at 1/2 time I would have loved a point, at full time with our 2nd 1/2 performance I couldnt help but think we dropped 2 points

in the last few minutes Bale lost the ball in midfield and sprinted back to Cover and win the ball back, he has kept himself fit enough to play

what was worrying was the USA team Flopping down and the ref stopping the game, the ref didnt know how to deal with it when it happened for the 3rd or 4th time, it was fine the 1st time, Wales gave the ball back to the USA, but it kept happening and the ref was lost, in the end he gave Wales a dropped ball in our 1/2

oh and how the hell was that foul on Bale when the keeper was way out not a red card ?? ?

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Originally Posted by blue matt

lets be honest, Pagey got it wrong in the 1st 1/2, but fair play to him, he made the changes, gave them a talking to, and the 2nd 1/2 we were by far the better team and would have gone on to win that game

at 1/2 time I would have loved a point, at full time with our 2nd 1/2 performance I couldnt help but think we dropped 2 points

in the last few minutes Bale lost the ball in midfield and sprinted back to Cover and win the ball back, he has kept himself fit enough to play

what was worrying was the USA team Flopping down and the ref stopping the game, the ref didnt know how to deal with it when it happened for the 3rd or 4th time, it was fine the 1st time, Wales gave the ball back to the USA, but it kept happening and the ref was lost, in the end he gave Wales a dropped ball in our 1/2

oh and how the hell was that foul on Bale when the keeper was way out not a red card ?? ?

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My first thought was ot should be a red card. He was about to shoot, which is about as close to a goalscoring opportunity as you can get.

Couldn’t wait to get in at half time and didn’t want the game to finish despite 9mins of injury time.

First half made me think “We really could’ve done with a few friendlies” in the run up to this, had it been a normal World Cup. In a way, I feel like we’ve been in an extended “transition” since the high point of the Coleman era. Not complaining with a euros and WC appearance in that time though!

First half looked like the players had never played with each other before. Nerves of the occasion perhaps, who knows. US played their part in that and looked very tidy in possession and are a good striker off being a very decent side.

Bale and Ramsey have become wasteful in possession but they make that moment to get us back in the game. Rodon had one of his worst performances in a Welsh shirt, especially first half. Game passed Wilson by and that midfield combo just didn’t work. Ref was very card happy for both sides as well which I hate to see.

Ampadu MOM followed by Kieffer, who looked very tidy in possession. You’d have to think he starts Friday.

Build up was emotional and a bit surreal, probably added to by where it’s being played. Proud moment to see us line up.

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Originally Posted by The Bloop

My first thought was ot should be a red card. He was about to shoot, which is about as close to a goalscoring opportunity as you can get.

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one of the USA soccer channels did a VAR on it and they said " straight RED "

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Originally Posted by blue matt

one of the USA soccer channels did a VAR on it and they said " straight RED "

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I’ll amend my one comment about the ref being card happy, that probs should have been a red. Even despite the distance you’d have given Bale a good chance of making that with the goalie so far out. It did stop a goal scoring opportunity.

There was no way Bale was scoring that. Booking was correct.

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Originally Posted by Hilts

There was no way Bale was scoring that. Booking was correct.

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Doesnt matter whether he would have scored or not - It was an opportunity to score, so a red card

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Originally Posted by Hilts

There was no way Bale was scoring that. Booking was correct.

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Agreed.

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

My heart sank when Moore came on but I must admit his time at Bournemouth has been beneficial by the look of it. He certainly looked less of a "headless chicken" than he used to do at City.

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Are you on smack? Have you watched him play for Wales, and did you actually watch him play for us?

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Originally Posted by blue matt

1st 1/2

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I've never seen first half written like this :hehe:

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Originally Posted by Hilts

There was no way Bale was scoring that. Booking was correct.

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It was a goal scoring opportunity. Red card.

Too late anyway. I don't know why we're even talking about it.

A good side would have put us away in the first half, we really were there for the taking but despite that the US didn't really create much. We showed them far too much respect

We were far better second half and if Davies or Moore had scored their headers I think we go on to win that one. If we can put in that second half performance against Iran (particularly the first 25 or so minutes of it) then we should be ok.

At the end of the day I imagine the US are absolutely gutted. They're the second seed and should be beating the fourth seed, they're under pressure now

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Originally Posted by City123

At the end of the day I imagine the US are absolutely gutted. They're the second seed and should be beating the fourth seed, they're under pressure now

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Weren't Wales in a bit of an artificial seeding pot due to Ukraine invasion delaying our PO games? We’re only a couple of rungs apart on the rankings from each other too. Don’t deny they’ll be under pressure though and rueing not doing more with their dominance in the first half.

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Originally Posted by the other bob wilson

The negativity in this thread is incredible when you consider that we’ve just played our first match at a World Cup Finals in sixty four years and we got what in the end was a deserved draw against a team which was slightly above us in the world rankings. I think people get spoilt because we’ve qualified for the knock out phase of the three major tournaments we’ve been in before now and are expecting, not hoping for, the same again from what, according to the rankings is the hardest group in this World Cup.

For years we had a team that people would look at and say we had a good, young squad with a lot of potential and in 2016 especially, they fulfilled that potential. Now that “golden generation” are old in football terms, the two best talents from that era are,understandably given the injuries they’ve had and the passing of time, not the same players any more and last night we were missing a very important central midfielder who is also not the player he once was.

Apart from Ben Davies, we don’t have any truly top class performers who are “the right age” for this tournament- we’re a team with a nucleus of great and good players on their way down or promising young ones on the way up. We may not have another golden generation coming through, but they’re, potentially, good enough to ensure that we don’t go so long without qualifying once the trail blazers we have now have retired. We’re a very small country in comparison to most who are here and we’re not as strong as we were six years ago - that’s the reality of our situation.

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what a load of cobblers..why should our football history have any influence on how we play today? look at the saudis they didn't give a toss and won against the favs Argentina. Doesn't matter how many Bales or Davies's we have, we have to show up on the day and play the football we know we can .

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Originally Posted by ToTaL ITK

what a load of cobblers..why should our football history have any influence on how we play today? look at the saudis they didn't give a toss and won against the favs Argentina. Doesn't matter how many Bales or Davies's we have, we have to show up on the day and play the football we know we can .

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When did we last play the "football we know we can"? We deservedly drew against a team above us in the rankings after a horror first half, yet there are people like you carrying on as if it's still 2016 when we had two players selected in the team of the tournament as well as a much better version of Gareth Bale than the current one. As for "showing up", what do you think we did in the second half?