AARON RAMSEY AND THE DEFINING MOMENT OF WELSH FOOTBALL
By Leon Barton
Friday 10th February 2017
Forgetting two-legged knockout ties, rarely do losing fans come away from a game happier than the winning fans. I can only think of one occasion I was in attendance when that was the case. San Siro, October, 20th, 2010. I was lucky enough to witness the birth of Gareth Bale as a global football superstar. Bale's hat-trick for a Spurs team reduced to ten men after eleven minutes was not enough to get any kind of result following an imperious first half in which Inter Milan had racked up four unanswered goals.
Surrounded by both home and away supporters - thousands of Spurs fans had travelled to Milan ticket-less with the hope of buying much cheaper tickets in the city - on the descent down the steep stairwells from the San Siro‘s top tiers, there was little doubt which set seemed the happier.
The Italians looked aghast that their team, full of hardened serial winners, had come so close to blowing a huge lead against such unheralded opponents. Meanwhile, the Spurs fans were all smiles.
There was a sense that the momentum gained by Bale's extraordinary one-man show, together with the return of experienced playmaker Rafael Van Der Vaart, would lead to a much better showing when facing the European champions again a few weeks later.
It was a feeling that was to prove justified as Spurs won a memorable match 3-1 at White Hart Lane. Both teams progressed to the Champions League knockout stage, though, so neither tie was do or die.
Even rarer is the occasion where fans who have been knocked out of a cup seem happier than the opposition fans.
This proved to be the case on 14 October 2008, when England‘s under 21’s made it to the European Championship in Sweden. They defeated their Welsh rivals 5-4 on aggregate after the second leg ended 2-2 at Villa Park.
Both teams had topped their respective groups to reach the knockout stage. Yet, with only seven places up for grabs, qualification was an arduous process but one that England were well used to. Wales, perhaps, were seen as another stone to step on before facing the big fish at the tournament.
For England's smaller neighbours, however, topping a group containing the likes of France, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Romania was already an unprecedented achievement. The 10,000 crowd at Cardiff's old Ninian Park for the first leg of the playoff was in stark contrast to the 700 who saw the victory over France at the same venue a year earlier. It was testament to the way the Welsh youngsters had turned the heads of their country.
The first leg had finished 3-2 to the visitors but there was plenty to admire in a Wales performance full of spirit and energy. The team was still very much in the tie as they headed to Birmingham for the second leg. On the terraces, there was even talk of thousands of Welsh fans travelling to Scandinavia for the 2009 European Championships.
That may be unprecedented for u21 football; but by this point, the wait to see a Welsh football team play in a tournament had been 50 years long. Such a long drought means being grateful for even the smallest drops. In the end, any such discussion proved academic as the English youngsters progressed. They performed well in the tournament too, reaching the final before falling to a Mesut Özil- inspired Germany.
Football is a results business, but for the Welsh in attendance, the final score seemed irrelevant. The moments seemed to matter most. And one in particular – in the 24th minute – stood out.
24th minute. After conceding a sloppy goal, Wales needed 3 goals and there seemed precious little sign that a very young team was capable of getting them.
Of course, the English were of tender years too, but nowhere near as young on average or experience. The English team contained players with English Premier League experience, like Mark Noble, Steven Taylor and James Milner. In contrast, the Welsh line up was full of teenagers. Darcy Blake and Shaun MacDonald were struggling to make an impact at their football league clubs, despite being key figures over the course of the qualifying campaign.
The stand-out player for Wales was the youngest player on show and it was he who gave Wales hope as the tie threatened to fizzle out in the drabbest manner possible.
At 17, Aaron Ramsey had already made more of an impression at club level than any of his teammates. After helping his local team Cardiff City to that summer‘s FA Cup final, Ramsey had made a huge impact. His performance away at Premier League Middlesborough in the quarter-final, in particular, had neutrals taking note. “How old did you say he was again?” asked co-commentator Mark Lawrenson during the BBC’s live coverage following another piece of intelligent Ramsey play.
He came off the bench against Portsmouth at Wembley to become the second youngest player to play in an FA Cup Final. He made an immediate impact, doing more than anyone to try and get Cardiff back into the game. It was to no avail – Cardiff losing 1-0 – but the young midfielder had already shown an aptitude for the big occasion.
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