The friendly international in Cardiff this week was an opportunity for Craig Bellamy to give fringe players a taste of international football while Ghana’s newly-appointed manager Carlos Queiroz used it to prepare for the upcoming World Cup (Ghana have now qualified five times in the last six tournaments). Drawn in a group with Croatia, England and Panama, Ghana obviously viewed a game against Cymru as a useful dry run for their encounter with England

This was only the second time that Cymru have played an African team, and the first time ever in Wales. The first African encounter was 28 years ago in 1998 when Cymru lost 4-0 to Tunisia in Tunis. Exactly like Ghana, Tunisia back then were getting ready for an imminent World Cup (France 1998) in which they had also been drawn in a group containing England. The unavoidable conclusion to draw from this coincidence is that Cymru are perceived in Africa as nothing more than a proxy of England, only worthy of playing in a warm-up for the serious business to come and not in our own right – and, even worse, the Welsh style of play is seen as similar enough to England’s to make such a match useful practice. How insulting! When, oh when, will Cymru develop a distinctive Welsh style of football?

But at least Ghana were a new opponent, meaning the number of different countries Cymru have played has risen to 81, a figure that includes six countries that no longer exist (Czechoslovakia, East Germany, pre-partition Ireland, Soviet Union, West Germany and Yugoslavia). There are currently 211 FIFA members, so there are still 130 Cymru have never played. As for Africa, 52 of the continent’s 54 teams have yet to be played – which accounts for nearly half Cymru’s missing adversaries. Let’s hope it isn’t a further 28 years before Cymru take on another African country.

The game in Cardiff was predictably dire: passionless, robotic, risk-averse and utterly unabsorbing. The stadium was two-thirds empty, squadrons of anonymous substitutes came and went, Bellamy can hardly have learned anything he didn’t know already about the rather ordinary England-based players he persists in selecting, and gnarled veteran Queiroz, who has led South Africa, Portugal and Iran (three times) to previous World Cups, will surely not be expecting much from an unimpressive Ghana side currently 75th in the FIFA rankings. Perhaps they can beat Panama, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Far more interest came from the fact that this game (Cymru’s 730th) was billed as the 150th anniversary of the FAW’s foundation in February 1876 and Cymru’s first ever match a month later in March 1876 (against Scotland at Hamilton Crescent, Partick). A new Adidas ‘anniversary jersey’ was unveiled, featuring a modern version of the 19th century’s starched white collars; and some former players* gathered on the pitch for a photo-shoot and to wave to the crowd. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, they were hard-tackling, raw-boned athletes. Time waits for no man…

*NOTE: Danny Gabbidon, Matty Jones, Ceri Hughes, Clayton Blackmore, Nathan Blake, Nick Deacey, Owain Tudur Jones, David Giles, Ian Walsh, Neil Roberts, Kit Symons

Picture: Public Domain