Cymru v Iceland

[barneycat1]

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

[underwood]

I don’t think that’s quite fair, ticket sales are at least on a par, if not maybe a little further advanced at the same period, than the previous two games.

The game is still well over 2 weeks away & I estimate the crowd will be larger than the Montenegro game, which for a Monday night against unattractive opposition, was really good.

Should we happen to win out in Turkey, the top tier will need to be opened & we’ll get over 30,000.

[dai]

At the risk of upsetting a few on here, the Ladies Ireland game IS more important. It will be a massive accomplishment if they qualify for the finals.

[dragon64]

Nov 2, 2024 21:09:38 GMT dai said:

At the risk of upsetting a few on here, the Ladies Ireland game IS more important. It will be a massive accomplishment if they qualify for the finals.

with you 100%

[jbt95]

Nov 2, 2024 20:52:02 GMT barneycat1 said:

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

This is unfair!

Iceland tickets will fly out if we win out in Türkiye. 

The women's team are trying to build a following. It would be nice if they could get 20k there for it, being a Friday night and their biggest game so far.

[dragon64]

Nov 2, 2024 21:31:08 GMT jbt95 said:

Nov 2, 2024 20:52:02 GMT barneycat1 said:

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

This is unfair!

Iceland tickets will fly out if we win out in Türkiye. 

The women's team are trying to build a following. It would be nice if they could get 20k there for it, being a Friday night and their biggest game so far.

That should be the target and I hope we can get that they deserve it 

[dragon64]

Nov 2, 2024 20:52:02 GMT barneycat1 said:

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

That is totally disingenuous

[barneycat1]

Both games are equally important. Promote both.

[CrackityJones]

Nov 2, 2024 20:52:02 GMT barneycat1 said:

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

Get a grip. The women have just got to the play off final. Expect the Iceland game to be the focus soon enough, nothing to see here.

[welshdan1927]

Nov 2, 2024 22:06:51 GMT barneycat1 said:

Both games are equally important. Promote both.

I remember my first pint. Hope you're feeling better this morning lad.

[barneycat1]

Hope you all have your tickets for both games, and are able to get them for Ireland away.

[scoop76]

Look at the national newspapers - Wales and UK- on both Wednesday & Thursday last week and you'll find next to no coverage of Wales Women's win over Slovakia on Tuesday. The FAW is right to push ticket sales for Wales v Ireland, while the live TV coverage of the SF is still fresh in people's minds. The final won't automatically get mainstream coverage from the likes of the London-based press (which a majority in Wales still read) and Sky Sports News. Not until the day of the match, anyway.

Wales should attract a record crowd for Ireland - but (as used to be the case with the men's team) advance sales are an enormous help.

Wales men v Iceland will get plenty of mainstream coverage, both when Bellamy announces his squad, and over the weekend that we play Turkey.

[melynwy]

Nov 2, 2024 20:52:02 GMT barneycat1 said:

The FAW are promoting the women’s game against Ireland so much that they are forgetting that the men have a crucial game against Iceland beforehand. With about 8000 empty seats still to be sold, they don’t seem keen to shift tickets.
Yet they are mad keen to get seats sold for the Ireland game.

Err… yes, obviously. The women’s game is likely to sell less tickets, so needs more promotion. Isn’t that very obvious and very sensible?

[jimexotic]

The women's game is absolutely massive, it's a knockout game, winner takes all. In stark contrast, the Iceland game is likely to be another Bellamy experiment.

[barneycat1]

Nov 4, 2024 19:05:16 GMT jimexotic said:

The women's game is absolutely massive, it's a knockout game, winner takes all. In stark contrast, the Iceland game is likely to be another Bellamy experiment.

Are you going to both?

[morg]

Looks like Logi Tomasson the sub left back who was involved in both goals against us won't be in Cardiff. Booked in last 2 matches.

[cogancoronation31]

As this is actually the Wales -v- Iceland thread, I propose now to concentrate on that fixture (and no others - although all the best to our Cymru women's team later in the month). Regarding this Tuesday night in Cardiff, am I right in thinking that the only semi-realistic way for us to end up top of our group - with all its associated advantages - is for Turkey to only draw in Montenegro and for us to win 4-0? Clearly, any Wales win against Iceland, by any score, will do the trick if Turkey lose to Montenegro; but that's not going to happen, is it?

[winsumluzsum]

Well, Montenegro are generally good at home, as they showed against us. The match stats against Iceland were pretty even. Jovetic didn't play. Was he injured or suspended? If he plays on Tuesday Montenegro have half a chance. Realistically we just need to make sure we finish second by not losing against Iceland.

Any news on Harris yet? If he's out with concussion then it would be a misstep not to call up Evans or Mullin, given that Cullen would be our only recognised striker. They might not play, but there's never a better chance to get them in camp and see how they fare in training, surrounded by a better calibre of player.

[cogancoronation31]

Probably too late and disruptive to call up Evans or Mullin or anyone else at this stage, even if we have accumulated further injuries/absences - if CB did so, the players would need to be on their way to camp tonight (just to get in some training on Monday and maybe Tuesday morning). Hope in fact that Mark Harris is OK, as he did sustain a hefty blow to his face - the injury seemed worse than Rodon's in the end, even though Joe was initally 'on the deck' for longer.

[steveh]

There's been a lot of discussion around how much better or worse are we in different areas since Bellamy took over. I think performances aside if you'd said 2 pts v Turkey, 6 from Montenegro and 1 away in Iceland in his first 5 games the majority would have been happy with that.

Tuesday is now a HUGE game so early in the new setup, a loss puts us in a relegation play off despite the previous 5 games, not being negative at all but it puts a different slant on the pre match discussion as everyone is talking about permutations to get promoted.

[winsumluzsum]

Nov 17, 2024 19:30:42 GMT cogancoronation31 said:

Probably too late and disruptive to call up Evans or Mullin or anyone else at this stage, even if we have accumulated further injuries/absences - if CB did so, the players would need to be on their way to camp tonight (just to get in some training on Monday and maybe Tuesday morning). Hope in fact that Mark Harris is OK, as he did sustain a hefty blow to his face - the injury seemed worse than Rodon's in the end, even though Joe was initally 'on the deck' for longer.

I can't see why it would be too late or disruptive to call up additional players, especially as the game is at home. It would be foolish to not have a striker on the bench, even if they're not eventually called upon. Once World Cup qualification starts there will be limited opportunity to experiment, so now is the last chance to blood players who could play in the qualifiers, or at least get a look at them in camp. I also think it would be a bad signal to send to effectively say "I really don't rate you at all, that I don't want to call you up even when the cupboard is bare". Especially when we have league one Sheehan starting games, and the likes of Savage on the bench. It effectively says that Evans and Mullin are considered to be of a much lower standard than either of those two.

[talyfan]

I think there's roughly a squad of 30 odd players Bellamy prefers. Obviously a degree of context comes in for some but just look at the withdrawals from this squad and their replacements, they don't generally line up in terms of like for like. For instance we've called up two central midfielders in Crew & Savage without any central midfielders withdrawing.

I'd say 23 man squad Bellamy ideally could call up if there were no injuries.

Darlow, Ward, Davies (3)

Rodon, Davies, Mepham, Cabango, RND, Beck, Roberts, Neco (8)

Ampadu, JJ, Cooper, Burns, Sorba, Broadhead, Wilson, James, Brooks (9)

Moore, Brennan, Harris (3)


Now beyond that 23 on standby excluding goalkeepers. Cullen, Sheehan, Allen, Koumas, Colwill, Crew, Savage, DaSilva, Luke Harris.

That standby list more often than not will either be used to bulk the squad out or call up a like for like replacement.

I think Bellamy would call up the likes of Mullin, Evans, Vaulks, Andrew Hughes, Bradshaw etc. if they were pulling up trees domestically. Which lets face it they're not currently. Otherwise, I think we'll probably see youth favoured as they come through break into the squad before that list.

[iot]

Nov 18, 2024 9:34:17 GMT talyfan said:

I think there's roughly a squad of 30 odd players Bellamy prefers. Obviously a degree of context comes in for some but just look at the withdrawals from this squad and their replacements, they don't generally line up in terms of like for like. For instance we've called up two central midfielders in Crew & Savage without any central midfielders withdrawing.

I'd say 23 man squad Bellamy ideally could call up if there were no injuries.

Darlow, Ward, Davies (3)

Rodon, Davies, Mepham, Cabango, RND, Beck, Roberts, Neco (8)

Ampadu, JJ, Cooper, Burns, Sorba, Broadhead, Wilson, James, Brooks (9)

Moore, Brennan, Harris (3)


Now beyond that 23 on standby excluding goalkeepers. Cullen, Sheehan, Allen, Koumas, Colwill, Crew, Savage, DaSilva, Luke Harris.

That standby list more often than not will either be used to bulk the squad out or call up a like for like replacement.

I think Bellamy would call up the likes of Mullin, Evans, Vaulks, Andrew Hughes, Bradshaw etc. if they were pulling up trees domestically. Which lets face it they're not currently. Otherwise, I think we'll probably see youth favoured as they come through break into the squad before that list.

Only obvious ommission I can see there is Rambo. Bellamy's said that he thinks he can get another 2 years out of him so he'll be back involved if fit. 

But I agree with your point. Mullin doesn't even merit discussion given what he's produced in League 1 so far this season (let's see if that changes), but yeah he clearly doesn't fancy the likes of Evans either. I think comparisons between League 1 players in different positions isn't that helpful either. There's much more flexibility in how we line-up up top and we often play without a proper, reconizeable striker. Every team needs a no.6 however, and it's a much more functonal job where you can probably get away with using a lower league player much more. 

[winsumluzsum]

My take on things is that Bellamy is setting the bar high in terms of technical ability. If you're playing at league one level then you're only considered if you're an up and coming player such as Savage or Luke Harris, or you're in a position where we're lacking numbers and you have ability suggesting you could be playing at a higher level, as with Sheehan. I understand and respect that position but personally I'd like to see more flexibility.

Although I don't want to overstate things I still think (assuming Harris is unable to play) he's missing a trick not calling Evans up. Apart from being a clinical finisher (as indicated by the fact his actual goals exceed his xG), and tireless work out of possession, I think he has good technical ability. You can see that in the excellent close quarters control shown in this highlights reel from the 22/23 season:

youtu.be/hRBE8B3EM10

Perhaps I'm just a hopeless romantic but I think it would be great to see someone who'd worked their way up from the Cymru Premier get national recognition.

[winsumluzsum]

Sgorio reporting everybody took part in training today, which implies everybody is available. Bit surprised with Harris, given the knock he took to the head. Still, it gives Bellamy plenty of options. I wonder if Allen will play a part against Iceland?

[morg]

Nov 18, 2024 13:38:46 GMT winsumluzsum said:

Sgorio reporting everybody took part in training today, which implies everybody is available. Bit surprised with Harris, given the knock he took to the head. Still, it gives Bellamy plenty of options. I wonder if Allen will play a part against Iceland?

Given how taxing that match was 2 days ago, I could see Allen starting. He's been getting longer runs out for Swansea of late.

[winsumluzsum]

He missed the first training session out in Turkiye I believe. So perhaps he's not 100 %. My guess is he'll play off the bench.

[dragonsoccer]

Allen was pictured training on Friday 15/11 at the stadium, he sat out a training at the start of the week

[morg]

Nov 18, 2024 14:33:32 GMT dragonsoccer said:

Allen was pictured training on Friday 15/11 at the stadium, he sat out a training at the start of the week

which was sensible given that he'd played for over an hour away to Burnley on the Sunday.

[winsumluzsum]

He had played in the Sunday against Burnley, so that may explain his absence from initial training. I did find it odd that he didn't come on for quarter of an hour or so against Turkiye, if he was fit. I thought Wilson struggled in that DM role, and his positioning was poor in the build up to the penalty award. He was also clearly tired. If Allen was fit to play then it was a misstep for Bellamy not to have fielded him.