I NEVER thought hubris and the Wales national football team could be words used in the same sentence.
Having failed to qualify for a major tournament since 1958 and seen more heartache and glorious failure in that time than in Woody Allen’s entire back catalogue, pessimism and gallows humour has always been the best fit for long-suffering Wales supporters.
Seemingly no more; I’ve been shocked by some of the things I’ve read in the past couple of weeks since Wales’ brilliant 1-0 win over Belgium put them outright top of Euro 2016 qualifying, Group B.
I’m concerned we aren’t less concerned that things could still turn sour.
The timing of the victory is enormously important in terms of the seedings boost it is going to give Wales – set to be a top ten team in the world and a top seed for the World Cup qualifying draw – even if we know the FIFA rankings are baffling bonkers.
However, surely some perspective is needed.
I’ve seen Thierry Henry suggest Wales should believe they can win the European Championships, because apparently now it is certain that Wales are going to France. At least two major news outlets in Wales have done online pieces speculating which game will be the one that sees Wales qualified.
And not only is qualification done and dusted, but Wales are now apparently better than England. Even though they’ve only failed to qualify for two of the last 12 major tournaments in world football and routinely qualify with ease for those big events, Wales are better because they beat Belgium. England never beat the big teams, you see.
Supporters are now seemingly even praising themselves. I must have seen 20 videos of the Welsh fans singing the national anthem during the Belgium game, but the fact is, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland have that kind of passion and atmosphere routinely.
The fact we are only just waking up from a slumber that saw stay away supporters leading to quiet crowds of 4000 for home internationals, is no cause for crowing. It is great that the fans generated a good atmosphere for the first time in a long time, but it doesn’t make us special.
Wales are in a superb position in Group B with four qualifiers remaining, but we need to remember that all four games fall in a six week window between the start of September and middle of October.
So any player who misses one qualifier with a muscle injury would be in danger of missing all four. If the worst happened with one of their key men, in particular Gareth Bale, things could change very quickly. And both of Wales’ remaining away games (Cyprus and Bosnia) are huge banana skins.
I’ve believed since the draw in Brussels that Wales will make it to the European Championships, but spare me the premature hubris spreading like wild fire among Welsh followers.
Qualification is still far from a foregone conclusion.
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