Wales national under-21 football team
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||
| Nickname(s) | Young Dragons | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Football Association of Wales | |||
| Head coach |  Brian Flynn |
|||
| Most caps | James Thomas | |||
|
||||
| First international | ||||
Wales 0-2 England U21  , 1976[1] |
||||
| Biggest win | ||||
Wales 6-2 Cyprus  1993 |
||||
| Biggest defeat | ||||
 Italy 8-1 Wales Pavia, September 5, 2003 |
||||
| UEFA U-21 Championship | ||||
| Appearances | None (First in n/a) | |||
| Best result | 1st of 5 in Qual. group, 2009. Lost in play off. |
|||
The Wales national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Wales and is controlled by the Football Association of Wales. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years.
The national under-21 team is the highest level of youth football in Wales, and is open to any players who were born in Wales or whose parents or grandparents were born in Wales.
Contents |
[edit] Recent history
The current manager is Brian Flynn, who previously managed two Welsh club sides playing in the English leagues: Wrexham and Swansea City. He also had previously coached the Under-21 team for a while in the early nineties.
Some of the most successful players to emerge from the under-21 team recently have been Lewin Nyatanga, Derby County's Young Player of the Year for 2005-06, left-sided player Gareth Bale of Tottenham Hotspur and Neil Eardley of Oldham. All three players are defenders.
In recent decades, the team has been viewed by the Welsh national management as more of a hole to be filled than a team to be used to nurture young international players, many of the great Welsh players of recent years having not spent long in the under-21 team. Ryan Giggs only made one appearance for the under-21 team before making his senior debut against Germany the next day.
More recently however, Wales's current manager, John Toshack and youth manager Brian Flynn have been seen to use the U21 team for the purpose of creating a pool of youthful Welsh talent. The team can now boast a much better tracking system of young Welsh players, and has seen a marked improvement in players and their playing. Recent performances have seen them achieve big wins against Estonia (5-1), Northern Ireland (4-0) and France (4-2).
On 15 May 2008, they played a friendly against England U21's to mark the 100th match in the history of the side, losing 2-0.
A 3-0 victory against Romania in September 2008 meant that the Under-21 side finished top of their qualifying group for the first time in their history. It meant Wales would go into a two-legged play-off in October 2008 for a place in the finals of the 2009 UEFA U-21 Championship to be played in Sweden.
[edit] Current squad
Wales' squad for the qualifying matches against Luxembourg, played on 27 and 31 March 2009, was announced on 13 March 2009.[2] Several changes were made to the squad during the following weeks, with Ashley Richards, Chris Maxwell and Jake Taylor replacing Rhys Taylor, Kayne McLaggon and Darcy Blake. Neal Eardley was allowed to join the under-21 side by senior squad manager John Toshack after initally being called up for the senior side.
Caps and goals are accurate as of the match played on 31 March 2009. Ages as of 1 April 2009.
|
[edit] Recent call-ups
The following players have been called up to the squad since the Euro 2009 qualifying campaign ended.
- Goalkeepers
| Name | Date of birth | Club | Caps (goals) | Most Recent Call up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhys Taylor | 7 April 1990 | Chelsea |
1 (0) | v.  Luxembourg, 27 March 2009 |
- Defenders
| Name | Date of birth | Club | Caps (goals) | Most Recent Call up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kai Edwards | 29 January 1991 | Wrexham |
0 (0) | v.  Northern Ireland, 10 February 2009 |
| James Bloom | 11 August 1991 |  Falkirk |
0 (0) | v. Luxembourg, 27 March 2009 |
- Midfielders
| Name | Date of birth | Club | Caps (goals) | Most Recent Call up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billy Bodin | 24 March 1992 | Swindon Town |
0 (0) | v. Northern Ireland, 10 February 2009 |
- Strikers
| Name | Date of birth | Club | Caps (goals) | Most Recent Call up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kayne McLaggon | 21 September 1990 | Southampton |
0 (0) | v. Luxembourg, 27 March 2009 |
| Marc Williams | 27 July 1988 | Wrexham |
2 (2) | v. Northern Ireland, 10 February 2009 |
| Jordan Follows | 23 March 1990 | Llanelli |
0 (0) | v. Northern Ireland, 10 February 2009 |
[edit] References
- ^ "Wales U21 0-2 England U21" BBC Sport Retrieved on 16 May 2008
- ^ "News - Wales Under 21 Squad v Luxembourg". faw.org.uk (Football Association of Wales). 13 March 2009. http://www.faw.org.uk/news/1286. Retrieved on 1 April 2009.
[edit] External links
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
