Cyprus Kill

I've left writing this blog for a few days to allow time for me to calm down. Had I of written it on Saturday night it would have been a drunken rant held together with profanities. Truth is even though I left it a couple of days I still am unable to understand what the hell happen in Cyprus on the weekend. Well I do understand to some extent, Wales were embarrassed. Never at any point of the game did we look in control. Never have I seen Wales gifting the ball to their opponents so frequently. I spent the entire game willing us to keep the ball for any significant length of time. Our defense was a shambles to boot and Cyprus exposed it ruthlessly.

Limping in at half time with a 1-0 advantage I imagined Toshack was going to rally the troops for the second half . I had great confidence in this happening but it was more of the same. There was a sense of inevitability about the equaliser. Some times you can ride your luck with a great goalkeeping performance but poor Danny Coyne wasn't up to the job. Much like the Germany and Ireland games we rolled over. Heads dropped, then came the second closely followed by the third. And the horrible truth is the scoreline could have been worse. Dreams of third place shattered, another campaign dead in the water riddled with more humiliating memories.

The last few days I've been reading everything I can in the media on the situation. Post match, Toshack seemed to blame himself. Statements such as "I must be doing something wrong" and "I need to take a long hard look at myself" suggested he was going to walk away from the post. The FAW came out in his defense, "Give him more time" they requested. This was followed by what is becoming a fixture of Toshack's reign, a Robbie Savage rant calling for him to quit. I use to think Savage was great but his continuous attacks are becoming extremely boring. When he originally fell out with Toshack I think he had everyone on his side but I don't know what he's trying to achieve with these outbursts, all he's achieving at the moment is the loss of the respect of most Welsh fans. Then yesterday Toshack comes out and lays into the players, which wasn't the best display of man management. I worry another squad member will make himself 'unavailable' soon.

Anyway San Marino tonight and only a big win for Wales would do. I was reading earlier that Eastwood and Vaughan are doubts for tonights game which is a shame. I'd have loved to see Bellamy and him both on the attack tonight. On the plus side it's available to none Sky Sports subscribers again. Although tonight it's on BBCi rather than S4C. There was a weird 80s retro thing going on with the S4C coverage on Saturday. The studio set up was bizarre, they had a full on buffet laid out on the coffee table in front of the pundits. Various random people were sat behind them such as the Llanelli FC chairman who would offer observations when asked. The match coverage was equally strange. The way Malcolm Allen's head kept on popping up on the pitch during the game was like something from 'The Day Today' or 'BrassEye'. I kept expecting him to shout "Back of the net!!!" in Welsh. On one occasion the on screen phone in graphics were so big they covered the goal mouth action. Don't get me wrong though, I loved it. The more games on S4C and BBC the better.

Euro 2008: Wales - Looking ahead to Cyprus and San Marino.

I don’t if you’ve read the articles about possible scenarios that may unfold in the Euro 2008 qualifying Group D. Since we gave Slovakia a deserved beating last month Welsh mathematicians have been working out what it would take for Wales to take the race to second place right to the last game. I know how highly unlikely it all is but it’s been nice to be able to still talk about qualification at such a late stage no matter how unrealistic it is. Qualification may be out of reach but third place is tantalisingly lined up for us. On form Wales can beat Cyprus and San Marino over the next few days and that would leave us to face Ireland at home next month with a lot to play for.

Cyprus away will be difficult. Their mauling of the Republic of Ireland back in October 2006 surprised pretty much everybody in football but they’ve followed it up with a win against San Marino and an impressive 1-1 draw with Germany. To date it’s the only points the Germans have dropped in the group. Combine this home form with their convincing friendly victory over us two years ago and you realise you cannot take anything for granted. In an interview this week Toshack mentioned that when teams go to play Cyprus there is almost a holiday, training game feel to it and this has been the undoing of certain national teams. He attributed our 2005 loss over there to this strange complacently, a game he recognised could have cost him his job. Hopefully he’s pinpointed what went wrong for us last time and we can have a similar performance to the one during our 3-1 victory at home last year, where we pretty much walked all over them. The fact of the matter is if we are to show progression and development under John Toshack only a win will do. Our task isn’t helped by the loss of Hennessey, Koumas and more importantly Bellamy. That said providing we don’t lose anyone else we should have enough about us to complete the job. It’s a similar squad to the one we sent over to beat Bulgaria in August. Obviously the lack of first team football on offer for many of our squad is a worry, our strikers in particular. But you hope the likes of Bale, Ledley and Davies (all playing well at present) will get us through. Score prediction? The way results are going in world football at present I wouldn’t even want to try and guess.

As for our mid week game, no disrespect to San Marino but anything but a win for us against them would be a disaster. Again they gave Ireland a tough game at home but we really shouldn’t be too worried. A win and a good one at that is what’s expected. If we do stutter against Cyprus the possibility of a returning Bellamy should liven things up.

I won’t be going to either game. I was planning to go to San Marino but it fell through because of various reasons. I’m hoping to be going to Frankfurt in November though. Luckily for a none Sky subscriber as myself the Cyprus game is being shown on S4C and the San Marino game is apparently being shown on BBCi so red buttons at the ready.