Battling Wales suffer German heartache at Llanelli; Wales Under-17 0, Germany Under-17 1. (original) (raw)

Page/Link:

Page URL:

HTML link:

Citations:

WALES boss Peter Nicholas hailed his marvels as they so nearly pulled off a soccer surprise at Stebonheath Park, Llanelli yesterday.

A strike eight minutes from time by German linkman Ersan Tekken finally, and cruelly, cut down the swashbuckling Welsh.

The technically sublime Germans, hot favourites to triumph at the Uefa under-17 international tournament to be held in Northern Ireland in May, were more than matched by a Wales side containing five Cardiff starlets from the start. Two more, Danny Parslow and Stuart Fleetwood, went on during the second half.

As City owner Sam Hammam and director of football Lennie Lawrence gazed on, Bluebirds duo Danny Thomas and raider Jon Kift took centre stage.

Link man Thomas prompted intelligently throughout and Kift almost grabbed secondhalf glory as he forced German keeper Rene Adle into desperate diving saves.

Highly-rated VFB Stuttgart striker Mario Gomez was a constant menace to the Welsh, but Nicholas said: "We did our homework on Germany coming into this game and matched them in every department.

"It was never a case of us attempting to catch them on the break. We met them head on, I think they were shaken by our approach.

"The German coach shook my hand at the end - you could see and feel his respect for our performance."

COPYRIGHT 2002 MGN Ltd.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.

Copyright 2002 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Publications by Name

Publications by Date

Authors

Literature

A-D E-O P-T U-Z

before 1995 1995-1999
2000-2004 2005-2009 2010-

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z