THE PHONEY WAR IS OVER
Trash talk is history, now fierce rivals play for pride
It is almost 58 years to the day since Wales last played a match of this magnitude in an international tournament. June 19, 1958 in Gothenburg, a World Cup quarter-final against Brazil.
Defeated by the first international goal from a 17-year-old prospect called Pele, they returned home. As Mel Charles, brother of Welsh legend John and the man Pele rated as the best centre-half in the tournament, got off at Swansea station, he met an old friend.
‘Haven’t seen you around for a while, Mel,’ said his pal. ‘Been on holiday?’
Wales’ only World Cup appearance had barely registered at home. the day of the Brazil match, the Post led its back page on the second day’s play in a County Championship game between Glamorgan and Essex at Llanelli. It is fair to say cricket won’t be getting much of a look-in today.
Chris Coleman, the Wales manager, made several references to the circus around England, on the eve of their meeting in Lens. His players have certainly been in the centre of the ring this week. Wales have more pride and passion, says Gareth Bale.
Not a single English player would get in Wales’s team. Football doesn’t really indulge in the trash talk that sells payper-view title fights in boxing, but this has been close to it.
If the idea was to rattle England, it may have worked. Wales looked the much more relaxed party yesterday, although results may have something to do with that.
Roy Hodgson sounded a little surprised at the news Slovakia were leading Russia 2-0 at halftime (final score 2-1). He knew it was bad news for his team. Not only did it put England’s failure to hold a 1-0 lead on Saturday in sharper relief, it firmly established Russia as the weak link in the group.
Wales now have a free hit in Lens. Win, and they are through to the last 16. Draw, and a point against Russia on Monday will see them through. Lose, and they will qualify with a final game win. For England, the stakes are considerably higher. they cannot go out today, even with defeat, but the worst-case scenario would leave Slovakia needing a draw in the last game to relegate England to third place, at best. Even a draw would make them vulnerable.
the last time England played a world-class forward in a tournament match, Luis Suarez in 2014, he put them out of the World Cup. Bale cannot make England’s demise certain, but he could shred nerves and egos if he performs at a peak.
‘One player cannot make a team, but one man can inspire a team,’ said his Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane. ‘With the way Gareth is playing his team-mates will believe anything is possible. He is capable of moments of brilliance where he wins games on his own.’
Wales have not beaten England since 1984, but they are a different proposition now with Bale.
‘It’s not England v Bale, it’s England v Wales,’ Wayne Rooney protested. ‘We’ll have to stop a few of their players if we want to win.’
Hodgson has a decent record in his Battle of Britain matches but, as he admitted yesterday, tournament football makes this a fresh proposition. ‘the games with Scotland were about bragging rights,’ he said. ‘they were good games, tough games, but it is different when points are at stake.’
And more, given that this tournament effectively serves as Hodgson’s job application for when Euro 2016 ends. It is hard to see how he can win a new contract without making a significant impression here, and that would include smooth progress, rather than an unedifying scramble, to the last 16.
England’s European Championship record is bizarre. technically, given that the result of a penalty shoot-out is a draw, England have not lost a game in the finals since playing France in 2004 — although they did not qualify in 2008 — and have only lost two since 1992.
Yet in that time, they have made scant impression, reaching the last four just once. Many of the major countries have started slowly here but all — France, Italy, Germany, Spain — have found ways to win.
England, by contrast, found a way to draw having outclassed Russia — a result that has allowed Wales the luxury of heaping on the pressure.
‘the talking? I’m surprised people focus so much on it,’ Hodgson sniffed. ‘Both Wayne Rooney and I have been in football a long time, and if we took into account of what people from the other team are saying and allowed that to influence what we were doing, then we should be ashamed of ourselves.
‘talk is talk and action on the field is different. I haven’t heard anyone in the squad make any reference to what Wales have said.’
Coleman, meanwhile, looked as if butter wouldn’t melt, having gently allowed his players to crank up the tension through the week. those who know him say he comes from the Sir Alex Ferguson school of management, believing the game is afoot once the first red light glows on a newsman’s camera, and it was always his intention to use the England circus as a pre-match weapon.
Asked whether this was his strategy, he grew coy,
‘It’s all about opinions,’ he said, with only the trace of a smirk.
‘the players are grown men, so it’s up to them. We can’t worry about upsetting the opposition and we can’t be afraid to give opinions.
‘It’s about what happens on the pitch now. One or two of ours have said things the English don’t like, but let’s get at it and then it doesn’t matter what anybody has said.
‘there’s a lot more pressure on England, a lot more expectation. But nobody can make you feel bad about yourselves unless you give them permission.
‘We haven’t had the intention to get under anybody’s skin.’
It doesn’t need that, sometimes, with England. the more they try to show how calm they are, the more uptight they seem. And it is hard being them. Imagine if one of Hodgson’s players said no Welshman would make the England team — as Bale claimed no England player would start for Wales. there would be an outcry, a backlash. Arrogant England, they think they’re so superior. Yet a Welshman can do it and it is indulged as all good fun and part of the phoney war. Hodgson wouldn’t be drawn on it, when asked, and said the composite XI was more of a question for journalists and fans.
For the record, mine would be: Joe Hart; Kyle Walker, Ashley Williams, Chris Smalling, Danny Rose; Aaron Ramsey, Eric Dier, Dele Alli; Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, Gareth Bale. So England eight, Wales three. Another reason why all the pressure is on Hodgson.
Pride and passion be damned, man for man, England should win this. Of course, if they don’t, it might even knock Glamorgan off the back page.