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.

Trade-in Standards

I was lucky enough to receive a Nintendo Wii for my birthday last week. The gift, from my girlfriend Laura, came as a complete surprise. I’d been eying them while on holiday in New York back in July so she obviously had taken note. At 28 I’m perhaps a bit too old to be getting this excited about a new video console but it’s sort of justified with the Wii.

The console comes with the Wii Sports game which is great fun. With it you have the choice of playing Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Bowling or Golf, each game utilising the unique Wii controls. Basically they all get you swinging around like a nutter. My personal favourite at the moment is the Tennis. If it’s a good workout you want you’re best going with the Boxing. The way the game demands you to move is not far off actual sparring. In fact I reckon Wii Sports Boxing is harder than real Boxing. At least when Amir Khan gets a bit tired when he’s pummelling his latest opponent he can lean on him for a few seconds. What am I meant to do when I’m knackered half way through round three? Lean on my 32 inch flatscreen? That’s not happening. I find myself getting quite involved during these bouts, baiting my digital foes with offensive tauting. Mind you, I shouldn’t really take such a cutesy, child friendly game so seriously, many of the characters you fight are wearing sunglasses or beanie hats. I can’t see the British Boxing Board of Control sanctioning that one. I also got a copy of Resident Evil 4. I’ve never really been into the ‘Survival Horror’ genre but the reviews I’d been reading on the internet suggested this was the best game available on the Wii. I haven’t been let down. I would definitely recommend it although you might want to buy a few spare pairs of underpants for the journey.

Anyway I felt this would be a good time to trade in most of my Playstation 2 games and get a new one for the Wii. Most of my PS2 games I haven’t touched since getting stuck on a level or a boss so I thought I might as well get rid of a bit of dead weight and free up some money. Firstly I took the ten games to Game where a staff member offered me £9.00 for them. He then kindly suggested I should try Gamestation as they have a good reputation for Trade-ins. There a staff member offered me a slightly higher offer of £10.03 but said two of the discs (Grand Theft Auto 3 and Pro Evolution 4) were slightly damaged so therefore needed to be repaired before resale. I thought ‘whatever’ and accepted the trade. It wasn’t until I got home that I studied the breakdown of the receipt. They’d paid me a total of £1.50 for both Pro Evo 4 and GTA 3 but then CHARGED ME £3.98 to repair the two discs so they’re ready for sale. THEREFORE I PAID GAMESTATION £2.48 TO TAKE TWO COMPUTER GAMES OFF ME!!! What the hell is that about?! What a rubbish system and what a bloody useless member of staff for not working out the best offer for me. I don't know why he just didn't kick me up the arse on the way out and have done with it. Needless to say I’ll think twice before using them in the future. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who have had a similar thing happen to them.

Town Walls for Goalposts

To keep us with a post in each month, i'm just posting this piece i rattled off from a group on Facebook the other week, a group setup by David... a bit of a reminisence of primary school football on my behalf.

I think the "year 4 pitch" we used jumpers for goalposts (could include Campri Ski Jackets too - guilty as charged) for one goal, and the medieval town walls of a world heritage site as the other goal - ye, we were just that cool! The "town wall end" goal, as i remember, was roughly marked out by steps up to the archway leading to 'y canolfan' and some old signpost or something... crossbar, as always in such jumpers for goalposts situations was decided by the height of the keeper (sometimes by a certain stone in the medieval world heritage site town walls). Common sense amongst us to agree or disagree to calls of "POST!" or "BAR!" were always fun, and often ending in an agreeable 5 yard penalty, of which was probably going to be 'pelted' at the goalie full in the face. This situation could however end up in a call of "its my ball!" where a new rule is inserted: Agree with the ball owner. That, or simply kick the blue plastic fly-away ball into..whatever...that was... was it a garden? an orchard? overgrown wasteland with steps going down to 'the sports field' - deadly steps or what?! Many a ball met it's end in there, and so too the school roof. The demolition company must have had enough footballs to diversify their business entirely. Other situations saw you running out of the "bottom gate" (barging a dinner lady out of the way first) and running down Rosemary Lane chasing this thing, the punishment for leaving the premises forgotten about, retrieving that ball was all that mattered!

The wall of 2 goals side-by-side still stands, i think. 2 goals side by side and a 45 degree slope of a pitch (I say pitch, I mean tarmac with chippings to really graze your knees up) fantastic! A ball lost on this pitch was pretty much irretrivable... St Agnes Road, or over the wall/fence into "that guys" garden / plantation.

Not many people can describe their 'playtime' primary school football the way we could!