WALES WALES

Games or camps?
By Mike Hughes

SPEAK AND SPELL
Here comes the hype again. It might be an away match and it might be somewhere you probably couldn’t find on a map. Indeed, you might not be able to even spell it? Nevertheless, the next Wales game could prove to be the most crucial game of the whole campaign. At least that’s from a media point of view! In reality, our group will take shape over the next three games. Defeat might be bad news but it wouldn’t be fatal. A draw wouldn’t be the disaster that some pundits would undoubtedly want to paint it as being either. I can’t get my head around why people don’t understand that, in the same way three points for a win means you’re better winning one and then losing one rather than drawing two in a national league, the same actually applies to qualifying leagues of this type. Just look at Arsenal and Leeds (if you really have to!) in the Champions League. Dead and buried after one game according to the pundits and look at where they are now!

SPANISH DANCE TROUPE
One of the more intriguing aspects of our preparation for this next stage of qualifying has been the noticeable lack of games and the adoption of the foreign training camp idea. I always thought La Manga was some sort of comic series! I might yet prove to be right! More seriously, this does open up an interesting debate with some difficult questions. Team spirit for a team like Wales is vital, so a trip away is a brilliant idea; however, it kind of loses some of its point if players then begin to drop out. It could then create cliques of the sort that exist at all levels of sport and make it even harder for young players to come through from the Under-21s and feel part of the set-up. I’m not really sure that there’s any great advantage to either idea in that the real issue with these games is to what extent the manager benefits from them. That really depends on the manager and what he’s looking for. An unadventurous manager will learn nothing and will just put out his main team but then an unadventurous manager probably wouldn’t take his team away to Spain! 

FITTER HAPPIER?
Anyway, let’s hope that all concerned benefited from their trips and that the players are ready for a long and difficult journey followed by what is potentially a very tricky match. Above all let’s hope for victory!