The world cup – a Welsh Perspective.

For football fans it doesn’t get much better than a World Cup year.
Having a club at the Finals must be an incredible thing, I get excited enough being a neutral.

You see I’m Welsh and that means that we’ve had no team to cheer on in a major finals since 1958.
Most Welsh football fans know that we made it to the 58 finals in Sweden but most don’t quite know how we got there.

We certainly didn’t qualify and it was generally down to political differences in the Middle East that we got a chance to go at all.

Having finished second to Czechoslovakia in qualifying Group 4, the Welsh thought their chances of appearing in Sweden were over. But the golden generation of Welsh football had reckoned without the politics of the Middle East.

Egypt and Sudan had refused to play against Israel whilst Indonesia had insisted on meeting Israel on neutral ground. As a result Israel were proclaimed winners of their respective group in the Asian/African zone.

FIFA were understandably reluctant to allow a team to qualify for the World Cup finals without actually playing a match and so lots were drawn of all the second placed teams in the UEFA qualifying groups. Belgium were drawn out of the hat but they refused and so then Wales was drawn and awarded a two-legged play-off match against Israel with a place in Sweden for the winners.

Having beaten Israel 2–0 at the Ramat Gan Stadium and 2–0 at Ninian Park, Cardiff, Wales went through to the World Cup Finals for the first and, so far, only time.

The strong Welsh squad including John Charles made their mark in Sweden, drawing all the matches in their group against Hungary, Mexico, and Sweden before defeating the Hungarians in a play off match to reach the quarter-finals. There the Welsh lost 1–0 to eventual champions Brazil, with 17-year-old Pelé grabbing the only goal of the game. Pele went on to be a Legend, Brazil went on from this, there first World Cup victory, to take five in all and Wales . . . . well Wales vanished off the World Cup map forever.

The Welsh World Cup Squad 1958

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Club
1	GK	Jack Kelsey	19 November 1929 (aged 28)		Arsenal
2	DF	Stuart Williams	9 July 1930 (aged 27)		West Bromwich Albion
3	DF	Mel Hopkins	7 November 1934 (aged 23)		Tottenham Hotspur
4	DF	Derek Sullivan	10 August 1930 (aged 27)		Cardiff City
5	MF	Mel Charles	14 May 1935 (aged 23)		Swansea Town
6	MF	Dave Bowen	7 June 1928 (aged 30)		Arsenal
7	FW	Terry Medwin	25 September 1932 (aged 25)		Tottenham Hotspur
8	FW	Ron Hewitt	21 June 1928 (aged 29)		Cardiff City
9	FW	John Charles	27 December 1931 (aged 26)		Juventus
10	FW	Ivor Allchurch	16 October 1929 (aged 28)		Swansea Town
11	FW	Cliff Jones	7 February 1935 (aged 23)		Swansea Town
12	GK	Ken Jones	2 January 1936 (aged 22)		Cardiff City
13	GK	Graham Vearncombe	28 March 1934 (aged 24)		Cardiff City
14	DF	Trevor Edwards	24 January 1937 (aged 21)		Charlton Athletic
15	DF	Colin Baker	18 December 1934 (aged 23)		Cardiff City
16	MF	Vic Crowe	31 January 1932 (aged 26)		Aston Villa
17	FW	Ken Leek	26 July 1935 (aged 22)		Leicester City
18	FW	Roy Vernon	14 April 1937 (aged 21)		Blackburn Rovers
19	FW	Colin Webster	17 July 1932 (aged 25)		Manchester United
20	MF	John Elsworthy	26 July 1931 (aged 26)		Ipswich Town
21	MF	Len Allchurch	12 September 1933 (aged 24)		Swansea Town
22	MF	Tom Baker	6 April 1934 (aged 24)		Plymouth Argyle

Despite some undoubtedly World Class players over more recent years, players like Neville Southall, Mark Hughes, Ian Rush, and Ryan Giggs, Wales just haven’t managed to seal a place at a finals.
John Toshack is certainly making progress in my opinion and Wales currently have a young team that are growing in stature.

Great goals aren’t just in Euro 2008 – they’re in Wales!

I was talking about some of the excellent goals and football that we’ve seen so far in this years Euro 2008 tournament with a few friends and it got us talking about what our favourite goals of all time have been.

That also turned into who the greatest player of all time was etc. etc.

Of course there where the usual candidates of Pele and Maradonna, then peoples attention drifted to British players George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Mark Hughes where all banded about but I mage my decisions and below I have listed them.
Please feel free to comment and tell me your favourites.

Best all round Player of all time – Diego Maradonna (Ruud Gullit is up there for me too)

Best goal scorer of all time – Pele, his record speaks for itself

Best british player – for me Kenny Dalglish was immense

Best british goal scorer / stirker – Ian Rush, Alan Shearer

Best Goalkeepers – Schmichael, Southall, Shilton

Best goal ever seen – well this one gets broken down into a few categories.

• Firstly best I’ve witnessed was a Mark Hughes bicycle kick volley for Wales against Spain at Wrexhams racecourse ground.
• Best goal I’ve scored – from my own half playing sunday league it went between the keepers legs!
• Best goal I’ve ever seen was Maradonnas run through the England team
• Best amateur goal is the one below

Great goals aren’t just in Euro 2008 – they’re in Wales!

I was talking about some of the excellent goals and football that we’ve seen so far in this years Euro 2008 tournament with a few friends and it got us talking about what our favourite goals of all time have been.

That also turned into who the greatest player of all time was etc. etc.

Of course there where the usual candidates of Pele and Maradonna, then peoples attention drifted to British players George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Mark Hughes where all banded about but I mage my decisions and below I have listed them.
Please feel free to comment and tell me your favourites.

Best all round Player of all time – Diego Maradonna (Ruud Gullit is up there for me too)

Best goal scorer of all time – Pele, his record speaks for itself

Best british player – for me Kenny Dalglish was immense

Best british goal scorer / stirker – Ian Rush, Alan Shearer

Best Goalkeepers – Schmichael, Southall, Shilton

Best goal ever seen – well this one gets broken down into a few categories.

• Firstly best I’ve witnessed was a Mark Hughes bicycle kick volley for Wales against Spain at Wrexhams racecourse ground.
• Best goal I’ve scored – from my own half playing sunday league it went between the keepers legs!
• Best goal I’ve ever seen was Maradonnas run through the England team
• Best amateur goal is the one below