Wales make a Giggs ear of it
Even Oliver Kahn would have kept a clean sheet!
Consider the evidence:
A multi-millionaire who plays for arguably the best team in the
world (that's Man U not Wales, in case you were wondering) plops
three corners in 15 minutes onto the head of Armenia's No 7 Petrosyan.
Mr Petrosyan who just happens to be standing on the six-yard line
in front of the near post has nobody near him and is unerringly
picked out by Giggs with the accurancy of a smart missile.
He gleefully heads all three corners to safety and Giggs is roundly
condemned in Cardiff pubs as being incompetent/unmotivated etc
etc. Guy can't take a corner, earns millions, too much nightclubbing
in Monaco etc etc.
Talk in the pubs afterwards was about how useless Giggs was and
he certainly had a poor game.
But in the interests of fairness, I watched the game on the video
(do I get free tickets for the Belarus match for being the only
person in the world to watch the entire match twice?) and the
corners fiasco was really just the tip of the iceberg.
Twice Giggs laid on free headers for Iwan Roberts who should have
buried the second-half chance he had. It was such a bad miss Roberts
should have been subbed straight away - you could tell he was
still thinking about minutes later. He had a good first half and
set up Giggs's lovely chance but he didn't deserve the man of
the match award from the Beeb's Ian Walsh. His misses were the
main reason we drew the game.
Others had a poor game too - Carl Robinson and Steve Jenkins were
subbed ten minutes too late and the midfield missed Pembridge
and Speed. Never thought I'd miss Speed in the team - especially
after recommending his exclusion earlier in the group, but he
would have made a
difference.
But Giggs's incompetence summed up the match - a stomach-rotting
purgatory which has knocked thousands off the gate of the Belarus
game in October.
Easily the worst performance of the eight games so far. At least
in Belarus - the other shocking performance - we showed a bit
of fight in the second half.
And it was Sparky's worst game too though admittedly injuries
and John Hartson's suspension had an effect. But the Armenians
were missing three guys sent off in their last match and managed
an efficient performance. Sparky probably should have started
with Darren Barnard at left back.
Looks like we'll always have a defensive problem in this position,
so why not play a player who can provide an attacking option with
his crosses?
About the only kind thing you can say about Bobby Gould is that
he got Barnard in the side and our last week of success - in Denmark
and at home to Belarus in 1998 - came largely on the back of his
wonderful crossing/corner-taking ability.
How about getting Barnard to give Giggs tuition on taking corners
Sparky? Or would our morose 'world-class' skipper get the hump
about being given advice by a Division One player?
Highlight: Yes, there was one. The singing area was a qualified
success. Gwyr Harlech's gallant army produced a spirited first-half
performance before being undone by fluent second-half Armenia
passing and those corners.
Lowlight:
Where do you start?
Celebrity bust-up:
David Collins, the FAW secretary rapped Welsh fans in the
Western Mail with a ridiculous outburst about ticket sales. It
reeked a little of an organisation worried about losing cash on
the day.
Mr Collins is a patently decent man - he was very nice in Minsk
when he loudly commiserated with the down-in-the-mouth fans as
we trudged out hoping the local coppers would shoot us. - but
to alienate some people in the manner he did was appalling PR.
He should have taken a different tack - "Wales have the best
fans in the world, top five in the attendance league, getting
more at home than Argentina etc etc. Be part of the experience."
Instead we got a slagging and a negative back page lead which,
when you take the result into account, set the tone for the whole
experience.
Make no mistake, thousands at this game will not be there on October
6. And it wouldn't surprise me if that match was moved to a smaller
stadium.
Fan of the day:
Has to be the indefatigable efforts of the bloke who took
a three-foot diameter drum skin into the singing section and kept
up a barrage of beats for the entire first-half.
Second: My butty Martin from Barcelona. First Wales game for 15
years, I buttered him up big time ("We're gonna win by two
goals at least , it'll be a fantastic atmosphere in the new singing
section, one of the greatest stadiums in the world"). After
65 minutes he said: "I'm never coming again."
Best player:
Agonised for two days before deciding it may have been Mark
Delaney. Certainly wasn't Iwan Roberts I'm afraid Mr Walsh.
adecolley@hotmail.com