Nations League Sept ’24

James @GALLOISINFRANCE takes a look back at Friday’s game.

BELLASBALL HAS OFFICIALLY ARRIVED

The best is yet to come. “This is the worst we’re going to be” ; the words from our new manager after we played out a highly exciting game against world-class opposition who we made look average.

What a start to a managerial appointment. Yes, it wasn’t a 4-1 smashing of the Republic of Ireland as we had under a previous tenant of the position, but the way that we made Turkey look distinctly average, forcing them into errors, forcing them into frustration and arguably a red card in the second half, is a testament to the new regime and how Cymru is going to be play.  

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Before kick-off the stadium was a buzz and full of optimism and excitement to see if Bellas was going to wear a suit or not, but also to see the style of play the Cymru was going to play. From the outset it was hard to work out what formation we were playing but without a distinct number nine we were able to harry and really scare our opponents.

I’ll take a performance like that and if what Bellamy has been saying is true, then the only way is up. Though having said that, from 67% possession is frustrating Cymru had only one shot at target the entire game. But the optimism, tempo and forward-looking style of play the Cymru players were able to produce over 98 minutes, to their credit. There’s a lot to be excited about.

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Another frustration was to have only 10 Turkish away fans in attendance when they would’ve expected to have a full corner; I don’t know what Turkish fans were doing on the Friday night but maybe they knew that there was going to be a gargantuan downpour after the game and thought they would keep the hair dry. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the atmosphere that can be created when we’ve played nations like Turkey in the past (at least there weren’t any flares in that corner for a while), but there we go.

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The Turkish performance was disappointing and they were a shadow of their Euro 2024 quarter-finalist-selves. But was that down to the tactical set up from Bellamy and how we were able to really frustrate the opponents? We did well to keep them pinned back in their own half and they didn’t like that they were unable to play effectively even though they seemed content to defend deep and stop us from getting in the final third.

Special mention to Sorba Thomas, who has started the season well for FC Nantes in France and carried this on during last night’s game; looked lively, confident to take players on to force openings and unluckily had his great finish ruled out for offside. More to come from this player!

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The last positive point from last night really was the after-thought of what we could achieve in future, with the missing players at Bellamy’s disposal. So many players were unavailable for selection last night due to injury. Just imagine what it’s going to look like with a fully fit Dan James, Rabbi Matondo and Dai Brooks also in the start lineup, to push opposition under Bellasball.

Just look at that performance after only a few days together on camp (and mostly the same group of players that have played together under Page), with a change in mentality and more daring tactics.  Let’s hope we do the job in Montenegro on Monday. Come on Cymru!

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