Wales 0-1 Sweden (friendly)

Wales 0-1 Sweden – The Match
It’s not that bad. Sweden are a big country and not a bad footballing side. Wales are kind of playing away rather than home as only the Swansea City players will have played there regularly and they do have a lot of injuries. Ashley Williams and Jack Collison were declared fit to start but there’s a difference between being fit to start and being at your best.

It was suggested there might also have been some tired legs, with James Collins (Aston Villa, Carling Cup Final), Simon Davies (Fulham, Premier League) and Gareth Bale (Tottenham, Premier League) playing on Sunday. If either had gone to extra time, this could well have been the case. But Gareth was Man of the Match and a very lively player, running up and down the wing, putting crosses in, and generally making life difficult for the Swedes. James was looking solid at centre back. And if Simon perhaps looked a little rusty, Fulham also played on Thursday and Simon is only recently back from injury.

Wales actually looked good in the opening stages of both halves. Gareth was a big threat, it was just a shame that Simon Church and Ched Evans couldn’t put away any of his crosses. When Robert Earnshaw came on after half-time, Wales again looked threatening and they made sure Sweden didn’t get the ball into the net again. But, as I’m sure was recently revealed by one of football’s greats, it’s impossible to win if you don’t score (unless of course the match is played over two legs and you win the other one). And Wales didn’t.

The rest of the time, Wales were pretty poor. Maybe I should be depressed like all the other Wales supporters but I’m actually pretty happy Wales can play that badly and still only lose 1-0 to a big country like Sweden. But they can’t afford to play like that in the qualifiers. I still believe Wales aren’t significantly worse than any of the sides except England – and as that’s a derby, anything could happen. But they will have to be at their best, and this really wasn’t, even taking into account all the missing players.

Boaz Myhill played the first half in goal with Wayne Hennessey, who hasn’t played for Wolves for some time, coming on for the second half. Both made some good saves - Wayne hasn’t played for Wolves for a while and wasn’t at his best but you wouldn’t necessarily have guessed he hasn’t been playing. Bo if anything looked less certain than Wayne but there wasn’t much in it and he hasn’t played many games for Wales and won’t be as used to working with the defenders.

David Vaughan was very active and tried hard but he couldn’t create much and Simon Church, as usual, only stopped running when he was substituted but the goalscoring wasn’t happening for him. Jack Collison wasn’t at his best either but that’s unsurprising considering he’s nowhere near 100% fitness. Jack was playing in the ‘Aaron Ramsey’ role which I don’t think he’s played before but it wasn’t a bad performance at all and he nearly scored. Substitutes David Cotterill and Sam Vokes at least managed to frighten Sweden a bit.

Ashley Williams struggled in the holding role he’d played so well against Scotland but maybe he was feeling the injury that had prevented him from training on Monday. Chris Gunter, Craig Morgan and substitute Lewin Nyatanga struggled a bit in defence although they still only let in one goal and that was really another player’s fault. Ched Evans and Andrew Crofts weren’t at their best at all but with Ched not playing much for Sheffield United and Andrew used to playing against League One sides, it’s understandable, if a real disappointment.

Neal Eardley, Andy Dorman and Andy King were the only unused substitutes. Neal hasn’t played for Blackpool for a while due to injury and disobedience but Andy has been a regular for Leicester and he’s recently started scoring again. So it was a surprise not to see Andy but he is another young player and maybe John Toshack wanted to bring on a more experienced midfield player, Simon Davies having already left the field.

I don’t want to criticise the starting line-up too much but I’ve got a feeling I might do it anyway. There’s not a lot Toshack could have done about the midfield, they were seriously short. They could have played Gareth and Chris as wingbacks and had only three in midfield but this is not a formation that worked well for them in the World Cup qualifiers.

Ashley Williams was possibly not the best choice for the holding role but he did do a good job there against Scotland and perhaps he hampered by his injury. Besides, who else could you play there? Simon Davies or Jack Collison could do it but Jack, who was arguably West Ham’s best attacker in the first half of the season, was the best choice for the attacking midfield role. Simon was the best choice for right midfield. There wasn’t obviously another midfielder who could play the holding role. I haven’t seen Andy Dorman play and Andy King seems more of an attacking midfielder. So why not pick the player who did so well at it last time?

I can also see why Simon Church and Ched Evans were preferred up front. They did look good together against Scotland and a lot of managers prefer to play a tall player with a smaller player. I definitely agree with the selection of Simon. Ched is a hard worker but he’s struggled to score goals for Sheffield United and hasn’t played many minutes lately.

But the problem isn’t for me that Ched didn’t deserve to start. As far as Wales was concerned, he probably should have started. He played really well against Scotland. But Robert Earnshaw did deserve to start. He’s been brilliant for Nottingham Forest this season. You could see what a difference he made coming on at half-time. You could argue that Rob did play and he didn’t score. But if he’d started, he’d have had more time to find the net and maybe he would have made something of the early chances. Maybe not but considering his form for Nottingham Forest, I really thought he deserved to start. He is quite a small player but Simon Church is only an inch smaller than ‘tall’ Ched Evans…

Well done to all the players though. I’m not depressed and I’m not frustrated. I’m actually very proud and I wish I’d been there.