Few teams have had as long a pause between their first and second World Cup appearances as Wales, so much so that football betting odds listed at these sites still look weird with the team name included. 64 years have passed since a Welsh team played in the finals, and during the intervening time there have been plenty of head-in-hands moments. Anyone who was watching in 1994 can tell you about the horror of Paul Bodin’s penalty against Romania, for one. Since the last time Cymru made it to a finals tournament, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have been to five between them, Scotland have turned up and gone out in the first round multiple times, and England have been to countless finals.
It’s in the blood of a Welsh football fan to be pessimistic; England fans know nothing of “years of hurt”. And yet the national team under Rob Page can set off for Qatar with some confidence: they’re not going to win the whole thing barring some pretty weird occurrences, so the pressure’s off on that front. Instead, we can focus on seeing how far they do get. And there is every reason to believe that that might be further than anyone imagined. Here are just a few of those reasons…
Gareth Bale
Let’s not shy away from what we know to be true: Gareth Bale in the Welsh national team is like some sort of magic spell or secret weapon. Even when he was basically being paid to play golf by Real Madrid, he turned up and was the best player on the field by miles in every international. Any free kick in shooting range is a clear goalscoring opportunity for Wales when he’s there, and that’s huge. Opposing defences will be reluctant to put in tackles in the final third, and if they go ahead and commit a foul there’s a decent chance the ball is ending up in the top corner within a minute. The rest of his game’s pretty good, too – and he’s free of wear and tear thanks to Zinedine Zidane, so that’s lovely.
A decent group
We’ve all seen Groups of Death in major football tournaments, and this isn’t one. Yes, it would be better if Wales didn’t have to face England – although a team that can lose 4-0 at home to Hungary has some weaknesses. However, the other teams in the group are Iran, who are in total disarray, and perhaps the worst USA national team in decades. Famous last words, and all, but Wales are just objectively better than two of the sides in the group – so just an average set of performances should be enough to get to the next round. Following that, it’s probably the Netherlands or Senegal. Tricky, yes, but winnable.
It’s not just Bale
To watch, read or listen to anything about the Welsh national team, you’d be forgiven for thinking the one and only tactic was “get the ball, and give it to the lad with the man-bun”. Notwithstanding that that’s a pretty good tactic, there are other players who can do a bit in this squad. Neco Williams, Ethan Ampadu, Dan James, Aaron Ramsey and others have all featured for some of the best teams in Europe at one time or another. Kieffer Moore hasn’t, but he’s got a scoring record at international level that suggests he could.
