the need for… ah Top Gun… the need for Gary Speed. How Wales have missed him. Often the unsung hero, working away in the boiler room, midfield engine, solid full back, weighing in with some mighty headed goals…
Walking through the Hampden Crowd the other day, there was an air of disappointment after Scotland only managed a 1-1 draw with the supposedly mighty Italy. Our expectations on these isles are always high. We lost 1-0 at home to our local rivals, but the gulf in squad and FIFA rankings (although who believes those?) surely alludes to an easy away win.
Wales and Scotland, realistically, are both diddy teams, but we always place great expectations on their shoulders. Wales has only a handful of professional teams. We just happen to be neighbours with one of the best leagues in the world, so our fortunate our players can play there. We are a small country, ranked 83rd, not that those rankings account for much – Haiti are challenging us strongly at 87th! So, realistically, with no professional league, a population who play many other sports, we shouldn’t be that good…
But when we played Italy at home, we beat them 2-1. Since that day hopes soared. Unfortunately we never had the same starting 11 throughout that campaign. Now we are rebuilding looking towards 2008. We were good in 2004. Before that we were good in 1994. A missed penalty cruelly denying us a trip to the USA. Let’s hope it’s not 2014 before we are good again…

Wales Line Up v Italy 16-10-2002
Paul Jones
Mark Delaney
Gary Speed
Andy Melville
Danny Gabbidon
Mark Pembridge
Robbie Savage
Craig Bellamy
John Hartson
Simon Davies
Ryan Giggs