Azerbaijan Vs Wales
This Saturday Wales and eighty of their hardiest fans will make one of the longest trips in European football for a 2010 World Cup Qualifier against Azerbaijan.
This oil-rich former Soviet Union state, which sits on the Caspian Sea, is a pretty tough place to reach to start with, never mind when the authorities start getting shirty with visa applications.
The squad flew into Baku’s main airport late on Tuesday night with most supporters due to follow that route but twenty six fans and members of the Welsh football supporters’ charity Gol have taken a different approach. Setting out last week in nine dilapidated old bangers, they are driving the 2500 miles and visiting twenty orphanages along the way to donate aid.
So at least something positive will come out of this fixture, for it is looking bleak on the football side. Azerbaijan are not exactly a football powerhouse despite being managed by German legend Berti Vogts. They drew at home with Lichtenstein last September, but have proved hard to beat with their backs against the wall against top sides.
Saying that Wales go into the tie with an injury ravaged squad.
Premiership stars Craig Bellamy, Simon Davis, Jason Koumas, Danny Gabbidon, James Collins and Sam Ricketts were ruled out before the warm-up game against Estonia in Llanelli. That game, a ho-hum 1-0 victory for Wales was notable only for Wales fielding it’s youngest ever team, with an average age of just twenty one and Robert Earnshaw’s penalty, which took him to the top of Wales’ all time scoring list.
During the game, Jack Collison of West Ham United and Manchester City striker Ched Evans had to be removed injured, while Tottenham left-back Gareth Bale had a bizarre accident at his parents’ home, leaving Wales with an even more threadbare squad.
A country of Wales’ size can’t afford an injury crisis, which is exacerbated by John Toshack’s bolshie attitude towards the older established players, who duly retired when he retook the reins of the national team.
Looking at the squad, what wouldn’t supporters give to have an old head out there like Savage, Giggs or even Gary Speed to steady the nerves of a very young team?
Tune into BBC2 Wales on Saturday at 4pm to see if Wales’ young guns can overcome their injury crisis and the hot, intimidating atmosphere of the Tofig Bakhramov Stadium and start building a solid platform for Euro 2012 qualification, or witness one of the most humiliating defeats in Welsh football history.
Wales squad: Hennessey (Wolves), Myhill (Hull), Price (Derby), MacDonald (Swansea), Eardley (Oldham), Gunter (Tottenham), Morgan (Peterborough), Nyatanga (Derby), A Williams (Swansea), Allen (Swansea), D Edwards (Wolves), Tudur Jones (Swansea), King (Leicester), Ledley (Cardiff), Ramsey (Arsenal), Church (Reading), Earnshaw (Nottm Forest), Vokes (Wolves).
IMAGE: ewiemann
