Group D
 |
|
Wales |
0 - 2 |
Germany |
5' |
|
0 - 1 |
Miroslav Klose |
60' |
|
0 - 2 |
Miroslav Klose |
|
 |
0 |
|
2 |
Wales boss John Toshack faces plenty of soul-searching in the wake of his side's demoralising defeat in Cardiff.
Euro 2008 qualification is effectively long gone, but with Toshack trying to integrate a string of young players into the tough world of international football, he did not expect limp, uninspired displays from his senior men.
Toshack refused to point the finger after seeing Miroslav Klose score a goal in each half, allowing Germany to cruise to another Group D victory to put them within touching distance of qualification.
Toshack has a totally different agenda, trying to build a bright young side for the future.
What he did not need was insipid displays from the likes of Jason Koumas, Carl Robinson and, to a far lesser extent, the hard-working Simon Davies.
Ahead of this Millennium Stadium showdown, Toshack had even suggested Koumas could eventually show the creative quality to replace the retired Ryan Giggs.
But Koumas was taken off after 67 minutes of painful under-achievement. The Wigan man marched straight down the tunnel, so upset was he with his own display.
Without skipper Craig Bellamy - clearly not fit for action after 48 hours at his sick baby daughter's hospital bedside - Wales had no attacking end product, nobody to run defenders and force them out of snooze control.
Toshack refused to defend Koumas, not the only offender in an over-run midfield, saying: 'Jason was not injured when he came off, I know he went straight up the tunnel but players handle that sort of thing in different ways.
'Simon Davies just sat on the ground behind me, others just sit on the bench. I have other things to worry about than what is going on behind me.
'Jason usually plays on the left, but because of what happened with us losing Bellamy I decided to push him into the centre more. We were not able to work on it at all in training, we had little choice.
'Maybe Jason is more comfortable on the left and shifting inside to support Freddy Eastwood, who without Bellamy played on his own up front, was not the best option and did not suit Jason.
'But what we have to do now is to look for the experienced players to step up and take responsibility now Ryan Giggs has retired.
'But this system has worked. We did very well against the Czechs, another strong side, and won in Bulgaria. We were given a lot of encouragement, but the frustrating thing is that things didn't show up as well this time.
'Even when we lost badly to Slovakia, a 5-1 defeat when we actually played pretty well at times, there was plenty of positives to work on. I can't say that about losing to Germany. It just did not happen.
'The early goal against us was a terrible start. We had problems in central midfield from the start and never got to grips there.'
He added: 'We lost the ball too often, that caused the first goal and it was a bad one to give away. It put a lot of pressure on people at the wrong time, and even their second goal was a poor mistake.
'The Germans were far, far stronger than we were. They were much fitter and I just could not see us getting back into it, and in the end I was more concerned about protecting the health and fitness of some of my players than getting a result.'
For Toshack, these problems of limited experience and in some cases ability, are hard to overcome as promising young players have to learn hard lessons on the most demanding stage.
Toshack said: 'For our young players to face the World Cup semi-finalists is a tall order. We have to be realistic about things like this.
'And even our experienced players were coming at this one with problems. Danny Gabbidon and James Collins have not played league football this season, Gareth Bale has only had a couple of games due to injury and Sam Ricketts has not played a match since our win in Bulgaria last month.
'But I was disappointed with some aspects of the game. I felt that some of our experienced lads could have done better.
'But we are confronting continual problems. We have seen more players retire, Ryan Giggs and Mark Delaney, while losing Craig Bellamy like we did a few hours before the game because of his family problems hit us hard.
'We had five under-2121 players on the pitch, and all that adds up to a big task.
'But we didn't get as much out of the game as we should have. Even in losing you hope to find some plus points to work on, but not from this one.'
Source:
Soccernet.com
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