IT WASN’T PRETTY, BUT IT’LL DO (FOR NOW)
Photo by Lewis Mitchell [lewismitchellphoto.photoshelter.com]
Sam Southall
What a year for Welsh football. Wales have made it another set of World Cup playoffs. Yes, another.
This time it’s the women who’ve made it to the playoffs, with a less than convincing performance against Slovenia enough to see us through to the next stage of qualification. Much as it was on that stormy night in June, it seems the footballing gods will only bestow us historic progress if it comes with an absolute stinker of a performance.
Expectations were high going into the last international window. We’d scored 21 goals through the previous eight games having won three of our four home games, with 6-0, 4-0 and 5-0 score lines. High scoring, free flowing football had become the norm under Gemma Grainger. The team’s only competitive losses were expected losses against global powerhouse France, although the performances in those games were more than promising. The only other blemish on the record was a 1-1 draw out in Slovenia, an acceptable result given the conditions and Kayleigh Green’s red card.
This last international window was not like the rest however. Our games against Greece and Slovenia saw us take just 21 shots – 10 fewer than we took against Kazakhstan in the first game of qualification. In fact, only two games in Gemma Grainger’s competitive tenure have seen fewer shots, which were the two losses to France. As a result of fewer shots, goals dried up too, with the young Carrie Jones’ lone international goal being the one to send us to the playoffs. The game against Slovenia also saw a substantial drop-off in terms of passing too, with a worrying pass accuracy of just 67%.
Whilst these performances have been chalked up to nerves or the fact players are still in pre-season (despite us scoring seven in two dominating fixtures in the corresponding window last year), they do need addressing by Grainger and her team. If this is how Grainger’s tactical system works without Jess Fishlock then maybe it’s time to develop a plan B, or at least an indication that Grainger should make substitutions earlier than the 85th minute when things aren’t working out.
Negatives aside, the team have achieved history. It’s not automatic qualification for the World Cup but it’s the first time we’ve ever made it to the playoffs, the first time a qualification campaign has ever gone past the qualifying group stage. And the team have done this in a campaign that has seen record home crowds (twice), a bespoke kit for the women’s team, a lot of goals and has been an awful lot of fun.
Grainger’s tenure has, on the whole, been successful so far. The transition to progressive attacking football has been exciting and allowed Jess Fishlock, Tash Harding and Sophie Ingle to play to their strengths. Angharad James, Gemma Evans and Rachel Rowe have reached new levels, all while still being wildly underrated outside the Welsh football sphere. Carrie Jones and Ceri Holland have slotted into the starting XI and look as if they’ve been in the team for years, while the limited glances at players like Liv Clark, Poppy Soper, Esther Morgan, Lily Woodham and Ffion Morgan have been very promising.
Whether or not we actually qualify for the World Cup this time around should not detract from the progress that has been made so far nor dull the prospects of what promises to be another golden generation of Welsh footballers. But we are close, oh so close.