Cymru 2 Belgium 4
Why do we do this eh? Maybe I like the misery…
Wales’ self styled swashbuckling high press was simply no match for the genuine quality of our Belgian counterparts. Despite an early Joe Rodon goal which got the Cardiff City Stadium rocking, Wales were rocked by a tough penalty call before Belgium pressed on and never looked back.
Another breathless rendition of the anthem led to a brilliant start from Wales. This is clearly what Bellamy ball is, and it was looking so effective. A super ball onto Rodon’s head, with sprinklings of Williams in Lille, set us up for another special night. Wales moved the ball so well and played exciting and risky football. Whilst we couldn’t capitalise on it, despite decent chances, the air was let out of the Welsh balloon with a penalty call, which now the emotion of the game has died down, was a penalty in today’s football. KDB was never going to miss.
The stadium felt silent, and six minutes later, as the ball hit the back of Darlow’s net again, the only sound you could hear was the scuttling around of the newly famous Welsh rat.
Embed from Getty ImagesWales needed half time as the confidence evaporated from us and Cymru did little to cause Courtois concern, until the final five minutes of the half. We seemed to plug back into the swelling atmosphere and the exciting manner in which we started the game, was matched by the final 5 minutes of the half, with Wilson having two great chances to level.
We’d probably have been worth the draw at that stage, but it’s easy to forget how many clear cut chances Belgium had and spurned in that middle spell of the half to kill the game off too.
The second half began with some consistent Wales possession but not much in the way of goal mouth action. Some teasing crosses but no saves for Courtois to make. The referee was a source of frustration with some inconsistent decision making as he seemed to fall for the unconvincing Belgian theatrics every time, whilst also finding it hard to give Wales much.
When Wales gave him another decision to make, later in the game though, he had no choice. A mindless ball from Sorba Thomas to Darlow, who couldn’t handle the ball, before Jordan James decided to do so anyway. Mindless on all fronts. That feels harsh on James who had been effective in midfield with Ampadu (who I thought was probably our best player) but I don’t think there is another word for what he did sadly. KDB did what he always does, and scored and that seemed to be it.
Wales created some half chances but the final touch, or pass, never quite came off. Some jeopardy was created with a goal made in Wrexham with some bullying by Moore, before a super cut inside by Broadhead and a finish to match it.
Grandstand finish? Shouldn’t have thought so. Within seconds of Wales setting up a thrilling climax, the infuriating Trossard scored. Game well and truly done this time. And this was Bellamy-ball in a nutshell for me. Capable of brilliance, but all too easily exposed at the back. Game over, chances of a direct flight to California over, and now we are playing for second place. A handy 1-1 draw for North Macedonia against Kazakhstan means that 6 points in the final two games sees us enter the playoffs, almost certainly amongst the top seeds.
If we step away from the match for a moment, and look at the now 14 games Bellamy has been in charge for, we have conceded 17 goals and scored 22. When you consider that 15 of those goals scored have come in 5 games (two defeats against Belgium in there too) including against Liechtenstein and Kazakhstan, that leaves 7 goals scored in the remaining 9. For a team to be as open as we are, that’s simply not good enough. We have played two top nations in that time and conceded 11 goals in three games. That leaves us with 6 goals conceded in the remaining 11 which is decent and 5 clean sheets.
This tells me Wales are completely unbalanced as a team, and for all the learnings Bellamy has talked about, he can’t seem to address our biggest issues. We struggle to break teams down who sit in, where we (for the most part) don’t concede, or we look way too open against any team who have a go at us. That is not sustainable and tonight is a perfect example of that. We have got 5 goals against the top seeded team, home and away, and got nothing from it. I’ve looked back at results from 2000 and we have never done that “well” before against the top ranked team in a group. But it’s brought us no reward.
For a country like ours, we have to over perform against the top seeded team to qualify. That’s how we have had success in qualifying for previous tournaments and to do that, sometimes you have to adapt and play the way which the game requires, not how you want the game to go. Bellamy has talked a lot about learning from these experiences against top sides. From this moment on, this cannot be a platitude, it has to mean something. Otherwise, the closest we are going to get to New York is the Subway on St. Mary’s Street.
Words by Dai @Colmans_Dream and photos from Andrew, Stephen & James