' Gareth Bale and Wales can deliver a lasting legacy '
Wed Sep 02, 2015 5:05 pm
' Gareth Bale and Wales can deliver a lasting legacy for Gary Speed ' 
By John Brewin
Wales are two games from destiny. The chance to qualify for a first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup is here. First, on Thursday, a trip to Cyprus, and then on Sunday, at the Cardiff City Stadium, they host Israel. Two wins will take them to the Euro 2016 finals with an unassailable 20 points from qualifying.
After only narrowly beating Andorra 2-1 in their opening match, and drawing 0-0 with Bosnia, a 0-0 draw with group favourites Belgium in November set the tone. Winning 3-0 in Israel in March and then beating the Belgians 1-0 in Cardiff in June has a nation believing decades of agony can finally be ended. With two automatic qualifiers to go through, World Cup quarterfinalists Belgium are three points behind leaders Wales' 14, with Israel back on nine.
Real Madrid's Gareth Bale is the key. The Real Madrid forward has scored five goals and contributed two assists in six qualifiers so far. He is ably supported by Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey and Liverpool's currently injured Joe Allen in midfield with Swansea's Ashley Williams and Neil Taylor alongside James Collins, of West Ham, in defence.
The rest are either Premier League reserves, or Football League players, but manager Chris Coleman has slowly melded a unit that gives Bale a platform. "When playing a team that wants to kick us they need to understand we're going to kick them back," said Leicester midfielder Andy King this week, when asked about opponents targeting Bale.
Should the Welsh prevail, it would be a triumph to soothe generations of near-misses, and the tragedy of the November 2011 death of former manager Gary Speed. If France is reached, then 58 years of hurt have passed since Sweden in 1958, when it took a teenage Pele to score Brazil's winner in 1-0 quarterfinal against a Welsh team denied the legendary John Charles by injury.
That was Wales' only finals appearance so far and Welsh international football history is littered with hard-luck stories since Charles' day. The side have previously been past the qualifiers in the Euros, back in 1976, when they reached the quarterfinals but lost a two-legged home-and-away tie to Yugoslavia before a four-team finals was staged in Yugoslavia itself.
Since then, serial and frequently painful disappointment. A 1980s golden generation failed to make a finals, losing out on goal difference to Scotland to make Mexico '86, despite featuring three British greats in a strike pairing of Liverpool's Ian Rush and Mark Hughes, of Manchester United and Barcelona, ahead of goalkeeper Neville Southall, the Everton stalwart.
A country of just 3 million people, where rugby union is undoubtedly the national sport, has always struggled to support such rare superstars with talented enough colleagues. It was a state of affairs made most infamous in qualifying for USA '94. In November 1993, with victory over Romania required to seal progress and the scores tied at 1-1, up stepped Paul Bodin, an undistinguished full-back from Swindon Town, a team doomed to relegation from that season's Premiership, to take a penalty.
Bodin's kick rattled off the crossbar and a British TV audience of 12.9 million -- including in England where BBC bosses had chosen to switch from the Three Lions' pointless thrashing of San Marino as they were already unable to qualify -- grimaced as Romania stole an 83rd-minute winner through striker Florin Raducioiu.
The closest-run thing since was under Hughes' management, in reaching the playoffs for Euro 2004, only to lose to lose 1-0 on aggregate to Russia, a result that was appealed -- in vain -- when it emerged that Russian midfielder Egor Titov had failed a drugs test. That disappointment meant Ryan Giggs would never get to play at a European or World Cup finals for his country.
Welsh football plumbed plunging depths in the years following Hughes' subsequent departure to become a club manager with Blackburn Rovers. By 2011, the country was 117th in the FIFA rankings, behind the likes of Guatemala and Guyana.
Speed, who played 85 times for his country from full-back to the wings to central midfield, wherever his managers had asked him, took the national coach job in February 2011 From Flintshire, North Wales, Speed had played out a 22-year career for Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United. He had raised his country to 45th in the world by November 2011 through nine months of positive results, save for two qualifying defeats to England.
Speed was a popular character but could be quiet and distant. His press-room presence was different to the greater majority of managers in that he sometimes asked journalists their opinions. He was not given to brash pronouncements, but stated "we can take a lot of positivity for the future" after a decent performance in a narrow 1-0 defeat at Wembley to England in September 2011.
His death in the small hours of Nov. 27, 2011, was a moment to freeze football. Swansea City, a club whose rise has been significant in Wales' climb from the doldrums, faced Aston Villa that afternoon.
Two teams featuring players who had either played with or played for Speed, eked out a goalless draw. There were on-pitch tears from Villa keeper Shay Given, close friends with Speed from Newcastle days together, while James Collins, then of Villa, bravely spoke afterwards to measure the loss to the country Speed had left behind. "We were on the verge of great things, so everyone who's been involved or who has ever met him is going to be devastated," he said.
The Welsh football team's continuing rise has kept Speed's memory to the forefront. Coleman had been a teammate of Speed's since the pair were youth players and, after a difficult start that produced a single victory from his first year in charge, has roused Wales to the brink of history. Having climbed 108 places, they now sit ninth in the FIFA rankings, a status which yielded a top seeding for World Cup 2018 qualification.
Victories on Thursday in Nicosia, and Sunday in Cardiff, can take Wales beyond a boundary its football team has failed to breach for almost six decades and deliver a lasting legacy for Speed.
By John Brewin
Wales are two games from destiny. The chance to qualify for a first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup is here. First, on Thursday, a trip to Cyprus, and then on Sunday, at the Cardiff City Stadium, they host Israel. Two wins will take them to the Euro 2016 finals with an unassailable 20 points from qualifying.
After only narrowly beating Andorra 2-1 in their opening match, and drawing 0-0 with Bosnia, a 0-0 draw with group favourites Belgium in November set the tone. Winning 3-0 in Israel in March and then beating the Belgians 1-0 in Cardiff in June has a nation believing decades of agony can finally be ended. With two automatic qualifiers to go through, World Cup quarterfinalists Belgium are three points behind leaders Wales' 14, with Israel back on nine.
Real Madrid's Gareth Bale is the key. The Real Madrid forward has scored five goals and contributed two assists in six qualifiers so far. He is ably supported by Arsenal's Aaron Ramsey and Liverpool's currently injured Joe Allen in midfield with Swansea's Ashley Williams and Neil Taylor alongside James Collins, of West Ham, in defence.
The rest are either Premier League reserves, or Football League players, but manager Chris Coleman has slowly melded a unit that gives Bale a platform. "When playing a team that wants to kick us they need to understand we're going to kick them back," said Leicester midfielder Andy King this week, when asked about opponents targeting Bale.
Should the Welsh prevail, it would be a triumph to soothe generations of near-misses, and the tragedy of the November 2011 death of former manager Gary Speed. If France is reached, then 58 years of hurt have passed since Sweden in 1958, when it took a teenage Pele to score Brazil's winner in 1-0 quarterfinal against a Welsh team denied the legendary John Charles by injury.
That was Wales' only finals appearance so far and Welsh international football history is littered with hard-luck stories since Charles' day. The side have previously been past the qualifiers in the Euros, back in 1976, when they reached the quarterfinals but lost a two-legged home-and-away tie to Yugoslavia before a four-team finals was staged in Yugoslavia itself.
Since then, serial and frequently painful disappointment. A 1980s golden generation failed to make a finals, losing out on goal difference to Scotland to make Mexico '86, despite featuring three British greats in a strike pairing of Liverpool's Ian Rush and Mark Hughes, of Manchester United and Barcelona, ahead of goalkeeper Neville Southall, the Everton stalwart.
A country of just 3 million people, where rugby union is undoubtedly the national sport, has always struggled to support such rare superstars with talented enough colleagues. It was a state of affairs made most infamous in qualifying for USA '94. In November 1993, with victory over Romania required to seal progress and the scores tied at 1-1, up stepped Paul Bodin, an undistinguished full-back from Swindon Town, a team doomed to relegation from that season's Premiership, to take a penalty.
Bodin's kick rattled off the crossbar and a British TV audience of 12.9 million -- including in England where BBC bosses had chosen to switch from the Three Lions' pointless thrashing of San Marino as they were already unable to qualify -- grimaced as Romania stole an 83rd-minute winner through striker Florin Raducioiu.
The closest-run thing since was under Hughes' management, in reaching the playoffs for Euro 2004, only to lose to lose 1-0 on aggregate to Russia, a result that was appealed -- in vain -- when it emerged that Russian midfielder Egor Titov had failed a drugs test. That disappointment meant Ryan Giggs would never get to play at a European or World Cup finals for his country.
Welsh football plumbed plunging depths in the years following Hughes' subsequent departure to become a club manager with Blackburn Rovers. By 2011, the country was 117th in the FIFA rankings, behind the likes of Guatemala and Guyana.
Speed, who played 85 times for his country from full-back to the wings to central midfield, wherever his managers had asked him, took the national coach job in February 2011 From Flintshire, North Wales, Speed had played out a 22-year career for Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United. He had raised his country to 45th in the world by November 2011 through nine months of positive results, save for two qualifying defeats to England.
Speed was a popular character but could be quiet and distant. His press-room presence was different to the greater majority of managers in that he sometimes asked journalists their opinions. He was not given to brash pronouncements, but stated "we can take a lot of positivity for the future" after a decent performance in a narrow 1-0 defeat at Wembley to England in September 2011.
His death in the small hours of Nov. 27, 2011, was a moment to freeze football. Swansea City, a club whose rise has been significant in Wales' climb from the doldrums, faced Aston Villa that afternoon.
Two teams featuring players who had either played with or played for Speed, eked out a goalless draw. There were on-pitch tears from Villa keeper Shay Given, close friends with Speed from Newcastle days together, while James Collins, then of Villa, bravely spoke afterwards to measure the loss to the country Speed had left behind. "We were on the verge of great things, so everyone who's been involved or who has ever met him is going to be devastated," he said.
The Welsh football team's continuing rise has kept Speed's memory to the forefront. Coleman had been a teammate of Speed's since the pair were youth players and, after a difficult start that produced a single victory from his first year in charge, has roused Wales to the brink of history. Having climbed 108 places, they now sit ninth in the FIFA rankings, a status which yielded a top seeding for World Cup 2018 qualification.
Victories on Thursday in Nicosia, and Sunday in Cardiff, can take Wales beyond a boundary its football team has failed to breach for almost six decades and deliver a lasting legacy for Speed.