Together Stronger. That was the official hashtag and slogan
of the Wales squad during the European Championship. Usually anything ‘official’
when it comes to the marketing side of football is to be ignored or avoided as
the embarrassment it is, but this one hit the mark.
The achievements of the Welsh team have been well documented
over the last few weeks but this feeling of togetherness, of unity, was
something that was very noticeable among all of the successful sides in France.
Although Portugal had probably the biggest individual
football superstar, it was the rest of the squad that came together as a team
to take on their French opponents – and a partisan home crowd – after Ronaldo
left the pitch on a stretcher after 25 minutes of Sunday’s final.
The Portugal team were actually unfairly deemed to be bit
part players to Ronaldo’s headline act but they showed the unity and teamwork
that was needed to win their nation’s first ever major trophy. By disregarding
players such as Nani, Sanches and Pepe, pundits and fans alike helped foster
the togetherness that brought them their famous victory.
But if you look at the tournament as a whole it is easy to
see that those squads that worked as one were the more successful compared to
other nations with perhaps a higher number of top quality players. England and
Belgium are just two examples of squads brimming with some of the best players
in Europe. But when they found themselves up against players playing for each
other, for their coaches, and for their countries, it was the superstar sides
that came up short.
Although Wales reached the semi-final in their first major
tournament in 58 years it is probably Iceland that epitomise this feeling of
football collectivism. In their first ever finals they compounded all
expectations to, first of all, get out of a group above the eventual winners
and then to go on to beat the inventors of the game themselves. England, on
paper, were far too powerful for their tiny North Atlantic opponents, but as a
team Iceland fought together and played to their strengths, dispatching England’s
supposed superiority.
Iceland found the French side in imposing form in the quarter
final and were soundly beaten. But even in that match the underdogs never gave
up, kept on pushing forward when they could and won the second half of the
match (unfortunately they had already conceded four in the first half).
There are a number of other examples of this togetherness
from the tournament – Hungary winning their group, Albania scoring their first
ever goal to win their first ever match at a finals, Northern Ireland and
Slovakia qualifying for the knock out stages. All these instances give credence
to the belief that teamwork can overcome individual talent.
The bloated format of the competition has been derided by
many and maybe that gave some of these ‘smaller’ nations a bigger chance to
work together to progress further than they would have done if only the ‘elite’
were allowed to qualify. But they still had to bring themselves together to
produce these performances and results – even if some of the more storied
nations were not always up to par.
In the end Ronaldo – one of the biggest superstars the sport
has ever known – has won the European Championship but it was his team that won
it for him. And as another tournament enters the history books the fans will
remember most the exploits of Wales and Iceland as they were the teams who
showed that you don’t always need the most money, or a plethora of galácticos to be successful. Sometimes you
just need to play together as a team.
