Let Under-21s heroes grace the big stage

Mar 28 2008 by Ian Carbis, South Wales Echo

WITH respect to John Toshack and his Wales team and their win over Luxembourg, the big result of the week came hours earlier on Wednesday.

Brian Flynn’s Under-21 side managed to score twice in the last five minutes and beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-1 to stay on course for the Uefa European Championship.

All they need now is to claim three points from six against Romania, home or away, to reach the play-offs for a place in Sweden 2009.

Yes, you can believe it, a Welsh team has the chance to get to a major finals. Now we have to make the most of it.

Despite the venue of the match on August 20 officially being advertised as To Be Arranged, manager Flynn seems to think the match will be played at Wrexham.

Let’s stop any thought of that, right now. There’s only one place for a match of this importance – that’s the Millennium Stadium.

And what about marketing it as £5 a ticket and children for free? That should get a few in.

We’re all aware that the senior side have a friendly with Georgia on the same day, but it pales in significance.

What about cancelling that game– or even playing it as a curtain-raiser to the Under-21s game?

That would also ensure the rest of the squad were there to cheer on Flynn’s Fledglings (or Brian’s Babes). Even those players with injuries should be encouraged to turn up – and Tosh could bring his lucky crutches.

After all, it’s the 50th anniversary of Wales last qualifying for a major tournament, the 1958 World Cup.

And it’s almost 15 years since Wales last took on Romania with qualification at stake, when Paul Bodin stepped up... (OK, let’s stop it there, we all know what happened).

Of course, winning against Romania will only get Wales through to the play-offs, but after setting the precedent at the Millennium, they could do it all again for that match.

A Welsh footballing public hungry for success would surely support both games.

The Under-21s have the chance to take a big step towards ending that hurt, and the Football Association of Wales should be busting a gut to help them.

IT’S so frustrating to see Freddy Eastwood heading back to reserve-team football after his two-goal display in Luxembourg.

The Wolves striker would do a great job for any other Championship side, Cardiff City included, but hardly gets a look-in at Molineux.

Perhaps manager Mick McCarthy isn’t a fan of his ‘relaxed’ approach to the game, but whatever it is, we can only hope Fred gets a move soon.

Eastwood showed he was a top-class finisher at Southend and hopefully he’ll get the chance to prove it again – for his, and Wales’ sake.

Becks’ handicap
THERE’S been a lot of fuss about David Beckham collecting his 100th cap – but in fact he has only 85 of them.

It appears that players are awarded one cap for every match they play — unless they play in a World Cup or European Championship finals.

Then they are given just one cap to cover all the matches they play in the competition – with the names of all their opponents stitched into the cap.

Beckham appeared in 20 matches at the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups and the 2000 and 2004 European Championships leaving him 15 caps short.

I’m past it, insists Jaap
AS age catches up with them, it’s very rare for a footballer to admit to the truth – unless that player is Jaap Stam.

Dutchman Stam, whose injudicious comments about Sir Alex Ferguson in his autobiography allegedly led to him exiting Old Trafford in a hurry, retired from top-flight football in October.

But, at the age of 35, the former PSV, Lazio, Milan and Ajax defender is making a comeback with his local amateur side Hoonhorst.

Stam said: “They are a bunch of older men who have played football for a long time. People who enjoy the game.

“We only play a relaxing training match, I find I cannot run anymore.

“My hamstring, my groin, my hip hurts – it is a good I have ended my career.

“I think the lads find it amusing for me to train with them, but I am glad I am allowed to.”

Kirkland gets shirty
CHRIS Kirkland gave Wigan a big problem when he gave one of his Wigan goalkeeping shirts to charity.

The club had no spares left in XXL and had to have one made before the game against Blackburn.

When it arrived, he customised it by cutting off half the arms to give him his trademark short sleeves.

Forssell’s triple platinum glory
AFTER last week’s revelation about Jim Whitley cutting it as a Sammy Davis Jnr tribute artist, reader Andy Mackay has been in touch with a story about another footballer enjoying musical success.

Well, it’s not quite musical, but Birmingham striker Mikael Forssell does have a triple platinum disc in his possession.

The 26-year-old was part of a charity CD to raise cash for needy children in Finland alongside a host of other sports stars.

“I read out a children’s story alongside 14 other sporting people from Finland, including tennis players, ski jumpers and golfers,” said Forssell.

“It wasn’t to music, it was just a story, but because it was on a CD it counts in the music charts.

“I don’t know how much it raised, the only thing I know is that it went triple platinum and sold about 30,000 or so, which in Finland is massive because we only have five million people.”

‘Any award is good’
IT may not be worth celebrating to some, but Karlsruhe’s Maik Franz is delighted with his award as the most hated Bundesliga player.

The ‘Grosste Stikstiefel’ title (or Biggest Stinking Boot) was given after a survey of other players.

“It’s good recognition,” said Franz. “Football’s hard and I play to win.”