With repechage, a star and ‘broken hearts’, Wales repeats 1958 formula

Journalist Mario Risoli has written several books on football and historic Welsh players. One was a diary about the country’s only campaign in the history of the World Cup, in 1958. The title is “When Pelé broke our hearts”.

It will be possible to write another one in 2022 about how the national team did the same, but with the majority of non-Welsh fans. With the 1-0 victory, this Sunday (5th), in Cardiff, they advanced to what will be the second World Cup. This time at the expense of Ukraine.

This means that the story of overcoming the Ukrainians, a nation invaded by Russia and at war, with players who have spent six months without playing professionally and which has had sympathy around the world, does not go to Qatar.

“Wales at the Cup are words I thought I would never hear in my life. It’s a feeling I can’t describe,” midfielder Aaron Ramsey said after the result.

As in 1958, Wales qualified for the play-offs, but in a different way. Now, under the rules of UEFA’s qualifiers, it was foreseen that the runners-up in each group would compete for one more spot for the tournament in a knockout system. 64 years ago, no.

The selection should not have gone to Sweden. With a team of few professional players and mostly amateurs, it fell by the wayside, but FIFA decided that something had to be done about Israel, which had no opponent. Arab rivals refused to stand up to him. The entity decided that that vacancy would have to be decided between the Israelis and a European country: Wales.

In the World Cup, the team that had John Charles, one of the biggest names in the history of Juventus (ITA), drew its three matches in the group stage, with Hungary, Mexico and Sweden. He qualified with victory in the tiebreak against the Hungarians.

That’s when he faced Brazil in the quarterfinals. Without John Charles and on the back, he resisted for 66 minutes, until Pelé scored his first goal in the history of the World Cup.

Wales has a much stronger squad this time around, a generation that reached the semi-finals at Euro 2016. Account has Ben Davies (from Tottenham Hotspur-ING), Aaron Ramsey (former Arsenal and now at Rangers-ESC), Joe Allen (called Welsh Pirlo at the time of Liverpool) and, mainly, Gareth Bale.

One of the greatest references in the history of national football, Bale finally reaches the World Cup, when he will be 33 years old. Possibly, it will be your only chance at the tournament. Opportunity that other great players the country had in the past, like Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes and Ian Rush, didn’t have.

For Ukraine, it was the end of the dream. As an independent country, it was trying to reach the second World Cup. It had been eliminated by Italy in the quarter-finals in 2006.

Because of the invasion, football in the country is paralyzed. The last game played in the national league took place on December 12, 2021. The championship was interrupted because of the winter and would resume in February, which did not happen. It was declared the end of the tournament at the end of April, as there is no prospect of resumption.

From the list of 23 players called up, 15 play in Ukraine. Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Taras Stepanenko has moved with his wife and three children to a war shelter in Kiev. Goalkeeper Georgiy Buschan was photographed at a subway station, seeking protection from bombings.
Serhiy Sydorchuk, captain of Dynamo Kiev, slept in his car with his children and pregnant wife in a parking lot.

Even athletes who work abroad had to remain active and wait for news from family members who remain in Ukraine. This is the case of Manchester City’s full-backs Oleksandr Zinchenko and Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko; and West Ham striker Andriy Yarmolenko (all England teams).

After the defeat, they went to thank the Ukrainian fans who went to Cardiff. Some had tears in their eyes. The Welsh too, but for quite a different reason.