Owain Fon Williams column: Italy impressive but no reason Wales can't have Euro 2016 run
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During this summer’s European Championships, Caley Thistle and Wales goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams will be penning an exclusive column for The Inverness Courier. He gives his thoughts on an early contender for Euro 2016 and why we shouldn’t count Wales out.
I WAS surprised the England game was being held in Lens.
The village is tiny – someone was telling me the population couldn’t even fill the stadium. It was unusual considering it was a massive derby game being held in one of the smallest stadiums.
I was a bit worried about my brothers and cousin before the game, as they were coming over for it. They were staying in Lille overnight on Wednesday as they had to pick up tickets the following morning, but that’s obviously where the trouble was. With the Russia-Slovakia game being on earlier on the day I was hoping they’d get out the way OK and thankfully, they did.
Regardless of the England result, it was not going to change our gameplan going into the final game. This group is going to go right to the wire – I was not expecting Slovakia to beat Russia and it could well mean three teams from this group go through.
I’ve still been watching as many games as I can. You would have expected France to walk all over Albania on Wednesday night but they made it hard for them. I can’t say there’s been one that’s been really impressive.
Italy have probably impressed me the most, though. I love the passion they have and you saw after Pellé’s goal and at the end of the game, they were celebrating from the heart and it’s not often you see that. It looks like they’ve got something similar to what we do; they’ve got a closeness so that no matter who plays, there’s that feeling everyone is behind each other.
Their keeper isn’t bad either. It’s amazing to think Buffon is 38 because he’s still brilliant. He was running up the pitch in the 90th minute to celebrate the goal – the old dog has still got it. He’s superhuman and it’s quite phenomenal he’s still playing at such a high level.
He was at the 1998 World Cup and I can remember watching the final in my grandma’s house. There was all the debate about Ronaldo not being fit and he was only a young lad back then. It’s crazy to think that’s 18 years ago and here we are now at the European Championships.
Being on the inside of the tournament, rather than watching it as a fan, you get to know what’s going on before everyone else does. Things like press interviews – you know they’re probably going to spice it up between two countries beforehand, whereas as a fan you wouldn’t have a clue.
When you’re in camp it’s a totally different experience to club football. The tournament is so short and the games come think and fast, it’s like playing a five-a-side tournament in training on a Friday. You’ve got three games and you need to get maximum points.
I’ve had a couple of texts from the ICT boys but I’m sure most of them are on holiday. I’ve had no chance to put my feet up – it’s like being in another pre-season here! Someone was saying Aberdeen had already gone back for pre-season, which is crazy when we haven’t even finished our season.
Nothing has been said about me getting time off but who knows how far we can go here. Who’s to say we won’t go all the way? It’s a tall order but I would rather that than go on holiday. If we get anywhere near going all the way then wow – there’s a story to tell for the rest of your life.
The England game was a massive one and we’ve got another one to come.
