Wales’s footballers show rugby compatriots the way to go

A disinterested observer would have assumed the two results would conjure up the opposite emotions.

In rugby, Wales sneaking a narrow win, their first of the autumn. In football, Wales hanging to a goalless draw on by their fingernails.

Wales v Fiji at the Millennium Stadium

But the rugby at the Millennium Stadium was a huge disappointment. Words like diabolical and disastrous were bandied around in the aftermath of the 17-13 win over Fiji, in which Wales remained pointless against the 14-man South Sea islanders.

It wasn’t quite the 2007 World Cup defeat to the same opposition – that really was a diabolical disaster – but it was typical of Wales’s persistent inability to put weaker teams to the sword. It started fairly well, with George North and Alex Cuthbert crossing for well-worked and ultimately straightforward tries.

But then, a pair of dubious disallowed scores aside, Wales took their foot off the gas. Whether it was complacency, a tendency to over-complicate matters, or a combination of the two, the game turned turgid. The healthy crowd of 60,000+, attracted by a welcome WRU decision to lower ticket prices for the game, quickly got bored. I’ve never been so inclined to join in with a Mexican Wave than the one sweeping the stadium on Saturday (obviously I still ignored the hateful thing). It said it all about the way the game was going.

By contrast, the Welsh footballers’ 0-0 draw in Belgium was a superb, wholehearted display. Facing the team (unrealistically) ranked fourth in the world, Wales were under the cosh for much of the game at the Koning Boudewijn Stadium in Brussels.

But – from what I could gather listening to the superb Five Live commentary feat Robbie Savage – Wales were far from outclassed. They got a result, maintaining their unbeaten record at the start of this Euro 2016 qualification campaign. A special shout out to James Chester, who seemed (from a radio listener’s perspective at least) to be everywhere.

With two games against Israel to come – they may be group leaders, but they’re also eminently beatable – Wales are in a cracking position, and certainly their best since the Euro 2004 qualifiers. We’ve also got Cyprus and Bosnia away, with Andorra and Belgium to visit Cardiff.

But the theoretically toughest game has been and gone, and it’s 0-0 final score is hugely positive for Welsh football. Let’s hope the rugby players can draw some inspiration from their success.

Jambos win Hearts during thrashing of Cowdenbeath

In the last couple of years I’ve come to dread the start of the football season.

The relaxing off-season allows the focus to be switched on to the Commonwealth Games, World Athletics Championships, the Olympics, test cricket, Super Rugby – whatever. Come the start of August, though, and the sports pages are once again dominated by news of petty spats, crowd violence, referees taking a battering, obscene wages etc.

The view from the Roseburn Stand

On the other hand, I can’t wait for the football season, and it having gone off the boil for me over the last couple of years is probably not simply coincidental to me, a Newcastle United fan, having moved away from the North East of England.

After all, nothing quite catches the imagination like football. Even speaking as, predominantly, a rugby fan, I get swept away every Saturday by the round-ball game.

And so it was that, last Saturday, I found myself at a Scottish Championship game between Heart of Midlothian and Cowdenbeath at Tynecastle, arguably not one of the weekend’s glamour ties in British football. But, being in Edinburgh, I couldn’t not go and get my first taste of the Scottish leagues.

In any case, I’ve always had something of a soft spot for Hearts. After a bit of head-scratching, I’ve come up with three possible explanations: a career with them on Football Manager was one of my most successful ever; Tynecastle reminds me of Tyneside; and their nickname (the Jambos) makes me hungry for doughnuts. An alternative nickname is the Jam Tarts, which is even more explicit.

The football was, at times, dubious. The first 45 minutes, in particular, had quality in short supply, and I made my own entertainment by munching merrily on my Scotch pie. Behind me, the conversation soon turned to the Scottish independence referendum, held two days earlier.

The excitement levels ratcheted up after the break, though, with Hearts knocking in four to secure an emphatic 5-1 win and extend their lead at the top of the second tier (a league which also includes Rangers and Hearts’ city rivals Hibernian). After a turbulent decade which culminated in relegation last season, Hearts’ luck has perhaps changed since they exited administration over the summer.

These fans in the main stand were in no doubts as to whether they agreed with the No vote in the Scottish independence referendum

I hope that is the case, because, cheesily, the club won my Heart. The atmosphere at and outside the ground was excellent; the 17,529-seater stadium attracted almost 15,600 fans for a tie which can’t have jumped off the page when the fixtures were first released.

The crowd around me in the Roseburn Stand was friendly, knowledgeable and was at the opposite end of the spectrum to the reputation of the Old Firm clubs. Even 90 minutes was enough to make me feel at home.

Despite the at-times turgid first half, I walked back to Edinburgh trying to remember when it was the last time I enjoyed a football match this much. Great stuff, Jambos.

FIFA World Cup: final prediction

Germany 1-0 Argentina

I picked Argentina to win the tournament before the start, but I’m abandoning them at the final hurdle (and not just because I want to be wrong).

Germany will be too strong – not just because of what they did to Brazil in the semi-final but because of their efficiency (ahem) throughout the whole tournament. Argentina have misfired on their way to the final – they are about to get their comeuppance.

Blühe, deutsches Vaterland!

FIFA World Cup: semi-finals prediction

I’ve shied away from any World Cup predictions since my appalling record with my group stage guesses: only nine of the 16 teams I said would progress actually did so. Not great.

Possibly my worst prediction was that I would regret having Mexico in the sweepstake. Not a bit of it! OK, they only made the round of 16 (yes, as I said would happen!) but in Miguel Herrera, Mexico’s head coach, I have a new hero. And it’s not just me.

On the other hand, I did predict Argentina to win the whole thing, and while I would love to be wrong, I see no need to change that based on the tournament so far – yes, they’ve won every game by a single goal, but so did Spain in 2010 (apart from their loss to Switzerland, something the Argies avoided).

Anyway, with only three (meaningful) games left before the World Cup is over for another 47 months (shudder), it’s time to commit to another prediction or two:

Brazil 1-1 Germany (Germany win 2-1 in extra time)

No team in this World Cup has been convincing all the way through, which is part of why it’s been such a great spectacle (even if it’s ended up with probably four of the top five favourites pre-tournament in the semi-finals), but Germany have been most impressive.

Yes, they might have struggled to see off Algeria – Joachim Loew must be grateful to sweeper keeper Manuel Neuer – but they totally nullified a previously impressive France team in their quarter-final and they will have just enough to do the same to a Neymar-less, Thiago Silva-less Brazil.

Germany are my favourite of the four teams left standing, and Brazil my least favourite. Partly because of the penalty they got against Croatia in the curtain-raiser, partly due to their tactics against Colombia and James Rodriguez in particular, partly because I’m a contrarian and mainly because of the sycophantic afforded to the hosts by the BBC and ITV, but I really hope Germany win. And I’ve always had a soft spot for Die Mannschaft – I can remember the seven-year-old me being delighted with Oliver Bierhoff’s winner in Euro 96.

Netherlands 0-1 Argentina

After that performance by the Dutch against Spain, the Netherlands (NOT Holland) have flattered to deceive a bit. Newcastle United’s Tim Krul broke the hearts of hundreds of millions of adoptive Costa Rican fans in the quarter-finals, while I still feel sick with the injustice at seeing my sweepstake team Mexico dumped out of the tournament by Arjen Robben and goals in the last seven minutes of the round-of-16 encounter.

The Dutch, of course, have their own match winners, but Argentina have Leo Messi, who has single-handedly dug them out of a couple of holes already this tournament. I still think the rest of the team has more to give – as I said above, I hope I’m wrong, but for now I’m sticking with my pre-World Cup pick of Argentina to win it all.

FIFA World Cup: group stage prediction

No analysis, no reasons given, but I’ve decided to put down my predictions for the group stage of the World Cup. If I’m pretty much spot on I’ll look like a genius and so will be linking to this for a while; if I’m wrong then this post can be filed carefully away to be forgotten about.

My hastily assembled fantasy team

Anyway:

Group A

Winners: Brazil (losing finalists)
Runners up: Mexico

• A David Luiz free kick to kill a pigeon outside the stadium
• To take less than 20 minutes of their opening game for me to regret drawing Mexico out of the sweepstake pot

Group B

Winners: Spain (losing semi-finalists)
Runners up: Netherlands

• A bit of me to die inside every time I hear Netherlands being referred to as “Holland”
• Chile to miss out on the round of 16 on goal difference
• Many people to berate, erroneously, the Spanish players on Twitter for not singing their country’s anthem (it has no words)

Group C

Winners: Colombia
Runners up: Cote d’Ivoire

• Yaya Toure to celebrate his 33rd-minute goal against Japan by blowing out an imaginary set of candles on top of an imaginary birthday cake

Group D

Winners: England
Runners up: Italy

• England to beat Italy and Costa Rica and draw with Uruguay
• Roy Hodgson, on the touchline in a questionable polo shirt, to emulate Jack Charlton’s 1994 discomfort in the heat
• At least one commentator – probably Jonathan Pearce, if applicable – to try to crowbar some sort of “purring Pirlo” reference

Group E

Winners: France (losing semi-finalists)
Runners up: Switzerland

• The French squad to demonstrate a stereotype-busting sense of unity
• Highlights of Honduras v Ecuador to be introduced by a stern-faced Adrian Chiles deploring what will go on to be remembered as the Battle of Curitiba

Group F

Winners: Argentina (winners)
Runners up: Bosnia

• An Iranian player – anyone – to score the goal of the tournament, a van Basten-esque volley in the first half against Nigeria

Group G

Winners: Germany
Runners up: Portugal

• The camera to cut to German chancellor Angela Merkel looking positively regal at least four times a game

Group H

Winners: Belgium
Runners up: Russia

• Belgium to have the best goal difference of any team after the group stage
• Belgium to be given the “dark horses” tag by so many pundits that they can’t continued to be called dark horses

My other, equally hastily assembled fantasy team

 

Vincent Tan has antagonised fans, but Cardiff City just weren’t good enough

When Swansea City were promoted to the Premier League in May 2011, I remember some Cardiff City fans joking that they thought their South Wales rivals would be there for four seasons – summer, autumn, winter and spring.

Three years later, Swansea have again secured their Premier League status, with Cardiff’s own top-flight experience lasting just four seasons (one year) since cruising to the Championship title last year.

Cardiff City lose 2-1 at home to Newcastle United in October 2013

It’s easy to feel sorry for Cardiff fans. Not just because I know so many of them, but also because of the way a campaign which started so gloriously against Manchester City is ending with such a whimper.

Vincent Tan finally managed to change Cardiff from blue to red pic.twitter.com/StphWxTQEM

— The FOOTBALL Bible (@TFBible_) May 3, 2014

On the field, City have taken 13 points from the 19 Premier League games since Malky Mackay was sacked on December 27. It’s a miserable return, but it wasn’t as if all was rosy with the Scot in charge. During his tenure, Cardiff picked up 17 points from 18 matches, so on course to miss the traditional safety target of 40 points.

Mackay, who guided Cardiff to the Premier League for the first time, was treated pretty poorly. But although Fulham and (probably) Norwich, the other relegated teams, have also ridden on the managerial merry-go-round this season to little or no avail, the job done by Gus Poyet at Sunderland, Tony Pulis at Crystal Palace, and even Garry Monk at Swansea, shows a managerial sacking is often worth the risk for a team mired at the bottom.

But the Mackay affair was another stick with which fans could beat the Vincent Tan regime. If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had kept the Bluebirds up, the appointment would have been a masterstroke. As it is, the whole episode has become another entry on the ever-growing list of shoddy decisions.

Tan – an enigma in driving gloves, a moustachioed cartoon villain – might not have been entirely responsible for Cardiff’s relegation, which was sealed by a 3-0 capitulation at Newcastle. But he has robbed the club of much of its identity since his red makeover of the Bluebirds at the start of the 2012-13 season.

I’m not a Cardiff City fan – although I want to see them do well for the sake of football in Wales, and because I’ve enjoyed watching two versions of El Llasico this season – so I can’t say whether the majority would prefer to play in blue but perpetually stuck in the Championship, or in red as an established Premier League side. Obviously that debate has been rendered academic for at least a couple more seasons – Cardiff will be back in the second tier next year, and probably still in red.

I’ve had a similar issue as a Newcastle United fan. Mike Ashley has never been popular, although he hasn’t (yet?) demanded a change away from the black and white kit. His rebranding of St James’ Park was generally ignored – it’s easier to do so with that than with kit colour – but criticism usually only flares up properly when the club is doing badly (i.e. since Christmas. It’s tough for Cardiff that Newcastle’s first win in seven condemned them to relegation).

Two years too late from a paper that at times operated as cheerleaders for Tan when the rebrand was implemented pic.twitter.com/iyPkzD50G5

— Spirit of Mirko (@mirkobolesan) May 4, 2014

And so it is with relegated Cardiff. Tan’s first season at the club saw promotion, now he has overseen relegation. Where will Cardiff be this time next year? If there is an immediate return to the top flight, the grumbling will be more muted. Mid-table mediocrity, or worse, could see things come to a head.

But justifiable though criticism of Tan may be, at least Cardiff haven’t been swallowed by debt. In any case, this season ended in relegation not because of red strips but because Cardiff simply have not been good enough. On the pitch, the season hasn’t been an abject humiliation – they picked up famous wins against Manchester City and Swansea – but it did prove that the Bluebirds just didn’t have a squad of sufficient strength to compete in the Premier League.

Someone has to be relegated, and at least Cardiff haven’t “done a Derby”. The challenge for Cardiff City is for bounce back without the club’s owners further antagonising the fans, the lifeblood of any club and without commercial interests riding roughshod over the club’s history.