McElhenney left the locker room revelry & greeted those on the pitch: players, players' kids, doc crew, staff. The only A-lister there he didn't act it. 2024/25: the 'real' test. Not everything will be perfect. It's not now. For a moment it felt it could.
With Bristol City relegated it's important to remember the club is w/out the financial might of bigger WSL clubs. No Lionesses. They didn't win a single home game. Is that sustainable/alluring? It shouldn't be. Yet 8749 fans turned out tonight. That's the foundation of a fanbase.
As an American living in Wales, if Biden's US is a slice of what Wales is like, Donald Trump should be on his knees kissing Biden's toes and thanking him.
In 1992, 3 women walked into an office & asked for a national team. 30 years later, Jess Fishlock scored a worldie.
This is the story of that meeting, the 20yrs preceding it & how "three angry, angry women" convinced the FAW to give them a chance.
Unpopular opinion: Shithousing a local rival is perfectly acceptable derby behaviour. What's the point of derbies if you can't rub your opponent's nose in your triumph and get swept up in the moment's emotions?
That 0-0 in the back is a drag but watching my mom yell “WANKER! WANKER!” for 2 whole minutes w/ the biggest, kindest smile on her face & then asking what is a wanker was every bit worth it
1-5: the scoreline of Bale's first goal for Wales against Slovakia.
5-1: the scoreline of Bale's 100th cap for Wales against Belarus.
Hard to imagine a more visible representation of Wales’ evolution with Gareth Bale at the helm.
Rob Page is announcing Wales' first WC squad in 64yrs from a welfare hall in Tylorstown. That is huge. No Empire State bldg. No castle. It's an extension of what's made him so effective: loyalty to working-class roots. Never has football needed that more.
Jess Fishlock scored the game-winner to send Wales to a first-ever WCQ playoff. Gareth Bale scored the game-winner to send Wales to the men’s WCQ final (and first-ever WC). To live in an age w/ a talisman is special. To have two is epochal. A genuine golden generation. 🏴
Aaron Ramsey creating more chances than the entire Belgium squad is downright typical Rambo filth but without Ampadu sitting deep in midfield, the licence to do that doesn't exist and Wales' creativity suffers.
In short: Amps in midfield = Ramsey making silly with a football
Deep down it’s wrong & Bale playing 77min of football b4 a WCQ is a fat, scary issue. But that man leaping, laughing & full-on balling in Wales kit 24 hours after 'bad back'ing it for a 2nd time to ensure he's a thumbs up for his country is the level of shithouse I aspire to.
Ethan Ampadu just sprinted across the pitch to leap into the arms of Wayne Hennessy after the final whistle. Hennessey had played one minute of this World Cup qualifying campaign before tonight's game and put in a shift like that. A game away from being a Welsh centurion.
Lumping praise on Wrexham while they’ve hit the jackpot in football luck has become a divisive room splitter but if you can’t appreciate what these new owners have done to invigorate the community & how they’ve bought into it, you’re missing the bigger picture. Congrats Wrexham🏴
“I’m bringing my Welsh boyfriend home for Thanksgiving to duck hunt with my dad in Louisiana” is a phrase I never thought I’d tell UK border control, but here we are.
Connor Roberts fills in on media duty while Gareth Bale does a physio session: “Sorry all, you’ve drawn the short straw today, getting me instead of Gaz.”
Love him
Me: “You’ve had 12 yellow cards, 2 reds this season, but do you think you’ve gotten better at handling physicality?”
Ampadu (smiling): “Maybe looking at those stats, maybe not…”
21yo. 3 loans. 3 countries. 33 caps. 5 positions for Venezia. One incredibly mature player.
Cardiff City Women v Abergavenny Women at CCS. Not only smashing the women’s domestic attendance record set in Sept but ALL domestic attendance records (men’s included). A statement of intent + proof that investing in the women’s game is not a bandwagon enterprise. Fantastic.
Wow 1yr ago I covered
#WALHUN
w/
@indywalesfans
thinking it was just some school assignment
I couldn’t name the squad
I tolerated football
Then
@Cymru
happened
The fans, bedlam, anthem
I fell in love
I’m now(trying to)make football my living
What a trip
Wales u changed my life🏴
I had the best night cheering on Wales in
#Euro2020Qualifiers
and can say, I've fallen in love. Here's a little taste as to what I took from it. Retweet, share, let me know your thoughts. Thanks to
@indywalesfans
for the greatest night
#Cymru
#CymruamByth
Question: “Do you have any memories of watching the WC that stand out as a kid?”
Bale: “No, not too many because Wales weren’t in any.”
Sassy Bale is my favourite Bale.
3 red cards in 6 matches
22 goals conceded in 12
10 goals scored in 12
1 clean sheet in 12
And looking like 1 win in 12 (only Latvia since the Ukraine play off final)
This is a very miserable colour by numbers for Wales
Forget the scoreline. The fact we’re even voicing disappointment about not making it to the quarter-finals of a major tournament is spectacular in itself. Five years ago, this was a miracle. Wales did not play well today, but they've put in a hell of a journey.
Arriving in a new country & considering football media as a woman was terrifying. Seeing other women smash it constantly is the greatest source of inspiration. That these 3 double as my friends is frankly wonderful
@SionedDafydd
@MollyStephens_
@SophieDavis1208
up the girls👸⚽️
Bristol City Women might be bottom of the WSL but they have one of Europe's highest avg attendances this season. How? It comes down to creating a loyal women's fanbase via matchday experience & community. It's not Glastonbury but it's worthy of praise.
Every squad announcement there’s always chat about Joe Morrell playing League One football. But every time he comes on the pitch for Wales, he gives another level. Those last few chances boil down directly to Morrell’s work rate.
Gareth Bale’s Wales’ semi-final performance was defiant & legendary. It is also sad. How a legend so inimitable can have his legacy turn so sharply in two very different directions. How in one place he is the messiah, the other a “euro-sucking” parasite 👇
Definitely one of the most incredible moments I've experienced in Wales so far, walking 1.5 miles with
@indywalesfans
and singing the anthem louder than I've ever sang my own - there's something really special here - cymru am byth! 🏴🏴🏴
#Cymru
#Euro2020Qualifiers
Ben Davies in the centre of the huddle. How many times did that man keep Wales in the game. But not just Davies. All of the players. What a performance. Nothing was left out there. There is no more cruel or glorious way to go out. There should be nothing but pride.
Wales are 90 minutes away from reaching a third successive Euros. Another qualifying playoff semifinal. Another sensational free kick. But this time, it wasn’t defined by one man. And perhaps that’s what this new era is all about.
Imagine being the guy on the ground having to reconcile with the fact Messi looks at you and sees nothing more than a human training cone, the mental spiral would be tragic
5yrs ago I went to my school paper & asked to join the sports section. I was told to find the culture section.
Today I’m in a press box on the other side of the world reporting on
#EVEvCHE
in the WSL for my new job at Reach.
What a wild ride life can be when you don’t listen
This is a lovely bit of football (and Wales Women’s first-ever goal against Germany after conceding 34 goals across the four previous meetings. Milestones and all that).
Less than 48 hours in Cardiff:
Gone to a Cymru match ✔️
Saw Gareth Bale ✔️
Climbed Pen Y Fan ✔️
Running out of things to do w the lot of them and we’ve got 6 more days😅🏴
Koumas’ finish on this is nuts. And everything Colwill does in the build-up (the control, the grace, the pass) is nuts. But the finish is really nuts. Colwill + Koumas is silly money & Matty Jones is cooking w it.
Overdue personal 🥳 but thrilled to start as National Sport Content Producer w/ ReachPLC tomorrow!
6yrs ago my uni paper told me to call the culture mag when I said I wanted to write sport. Amazing what hard work, blind faith & watching Aaron Ramsey score 2 vs Hungary can do🍻
'Of everything the new owners have given the club (&the list runs long), a bona fide platform to showcase the community’s interminable football appetite — men’s & women’s — is one of the more subtle yet powerful ones'
A piece on Wrexham & potential.
"I was going to ask for his socks. I was going to ask for his track suit. I'm gutted he's not here." - Sorba Thomas on Gareth Bale not being at camp.
I love Sorba Thomas already.
If you want to numerically showcase Neco Williams' comprehensive influence on tonight's match:
5 tackles (most in the team)
5 clearances (most in the team)
58 touches (most in the team)
do a good job of it.
For a long time it's felt David Brooks was the most technically exciting young player of Wales' 'next gen'. Hampered by injury, a cancer diagnosis, it felt football (not just Wales) was going to be cruelly denied seeing him flourish.
He's flourishing & it's a pure joy to watch.
happy Thursday, if you woke up w/ a desire to start your morning with a cheerful, just-under-six-min doc on Wrexham (who doesn’t?), check out .
My American lilt is scattered amongst the better Welsh accents as I wax lyrical & shoehorn in the word soccer.
Horrible things have a funny way of becoming less horrible. Sister & mom are evacuating New Orleans after a tree hit our house during Hurricane Ida. They’re coming to Cardiff. I haven’t seen them in a year. They’ve never been to Wales. Sometimes life can be bad but then so good.
being a swansea fan is really hard, one minute I'm writing my season's eulogy and convincing myself mid-table is a happy place and the next I'm already counting up my spare change for a premier league season ticket next year
It's Rob Page's birthday today and he's spending it in Kazan, Russia, juggling visa issues & a convoluted WC qualifier. Regardless of your stance on tactics, Page deserves a lot of credit for the void he has had to fill last 10 months, not least the last 10 days.
Martinez full of praise for Brennan Johnson even if he was 'offside': "Incredible pace, incredible personality, reminds me of a young Earnshaw, always a threat, can see he has a very bright future playing at the highest level."
High praise
On a train home from Man. 24hrs before Wrexham’s promotion, I sat by a Stockport fan who found Wrexham indescribably annoying.
I’m still thinking about this man. Jealousy is fine. In fact, be jealous. But hopefully in the future, you won’t have to be.
Egregious levels of hungover still but here’s a rough word-vomit of why Friday night was not a disappointing one-off (the last few months have felt like a perpetual slap in the face). Wales have been spoiled but fans deserve higher standards than this.
Excl int w/ Katie McCabe:
▪️ Miedema will 'always be an Arsenal legend'
▪️ Why the season has been 'disappointing'
▪️ 'I want to win trophies w Arsenal'
▪️ Keeping fit amid injury crisis
▪️ 'I play hard but fair, maybe pick up a rare enemy along the way'
Had to remind myself Wales were a woman down the last 20 minutes & nearly grabbed a (deserved) equalizer away to one of the world’s best teams (who, mind, had scored 35 goals in 5 games…) fine margins but rewind to March when Gemma came in as manager.. incredible the trajectory.
If you weren’t convinced Gemma Grainger and this Cymru team were serious about this being the year to finally qualify for a first-ever major tournament, this is your proof. Get behind this team because they’re going places. C’mon Cymru.
No fans. 7 withdrawals. 3 visa rejections. Covid-19. 1,000 extra miles traveled. Rob Page's freaking birthday. Not even photographers allowed in.
It's a shambles. The players and staff deserve every ounce of support and respect for keeping their chins up today.
"Cymru can win, even with a depleted squad. But the circumstances in which they must require a level of character that strikes a chord at a time when character seems to be expendable for certain organisations."
An important read
#TogetherStronger
👇🏴
WRU CEO Steve Phillips describing the culture of the WRU as "falling short" amid such disturbing allegations of sexism and misogyny is genuinely woeful. That's not "falling short". That's failure of the highest level. Unacceptable.
Seeing Gallagher & Guehi take it to Man City is a timely reminder of the quality Steve Cooper had at his disposal at Swans v RM. Not an indictment of current squad but the gulf in quality is glaring. Helps explain why RM project will require immense patience (& backing…)
Llantwit Major are officially Cymru South champs. In a perfect world, they get promoted. Pending a licence appeal, they won't.
Only 1 club has ever gained Tier 1 licence on their 1st attempt. Does the system fail its most exciting teams or help? I asked.
This video made me hurt the first time I watched it. She’s laughing, handling it fine, but this type of abuse is what deters so many women from openly supporting football, not to mention attending an away match. Banter is one thing. This isn’t that. Football is better than this.
this super bowl has been good and all but devastating not to hear a “your support is fucking shit” spewing from the Bengals fans who travelled 2,000 miles to LA and outnumber the Rams fans in their own stadium
I know Aaron Ramsey chose to play for Rangers. I know so many Wales fans are devastated/incensed/disappointed with this. Nothing wrong there.
But my goodness seeing that man SMILE while talking about playing football, playing it the way he wants to, is so nice.
Because
@chsingthedragon
told me to write some words about Aaron Ramsey. And today I spent three hours in the park trying to mimic his assist and it was rubbish.
The work done at Wrexham behind the scenes over the years by lifelong fans to ensure the women's set-up from ground up builds a sustainable legacy is truly fantastic. It would be more than deserved for the first-team team to go up 👏👏
To be clear
Aaron Ramsey signing for his boyhood club despite lucrative dubiously moral offers from elsewhere is cool
Ramsey signing a contract alongside is son is cool
Ramsey losing w/ Cardiff for the Swans’ double doub + 1 is cool
These things can coexist