Gareth Bale And United States Become More Familiar After Wales World Cup Tie

The United States is becoming increasingly familiar with the star quality of Gareth Bale. The 33-year-old Welsh soccer legend has now made his mark on the biggest stage of them all as his second-half goal secured a tie for Wales in their World Cup opener against the USMNT.

His latest contribution for his national team comes just months after he moved to Los Angeles to play for Major League Soccer side LAFC, whom he recently helped win an MLS championship.

Bale is going global, if he wasn’t already. Like many legends of European football before him, he is seeing out the end of his playing days in North America. His Wales side being drawn in the same group as the United States at the World Cup will only increase his profile in the region.

And though the head-to-head game between the two nations has now been played, Bale’s performances in subsequent games against the other teams in the group, England and Iran, could still affect the USMNT’s chances of qualifying for the knockout stages.

England breezed past Iran with a convincing 6-2 win in Group B’s other early game. Gareth Southgate’s side will be favourites to top said group, but in Bale, Wales have a player who can produce a moment, or moments, to defeat any team.

He was relatively quiet in the first half against the United States, though. Of the two players who started in attack, Wales head coach Robert Page decided it would be Daniel James to make way at half time as he changed his approach, bringing on the 6-foot-5 target-man, Keiffer Moore

On first-half impact alone, it could have just as easily been Bale who made way for the towering striker. Between them, the two Welsh starting attackers only had 31 touches in the first half—James 15 and Bale 16.

But Bale being on the field offers potential. A potential moment in a game from a player who has amassed a collection of trophies throughout his career, many of them thanks to his own individual prowess in key moments.

He most recently demonstrated this at LAFC, helping them win the MLS Cup thanks to an equalising goal headed home deep into stoppage time in extra time against Philadelphia Union. The LA side went on to win the penalty shootout.

Perhaps the only surprising thing there was that he didn’t take a penalty in that shootout. LAFC won it within four spot-kicks, so maybe Bale was down to take the usually important fifth.

He was, however, required to take a penalty in this World Cup clash.

Bale’s arrival in MLS earlier in 2022 added an extra dimension to the game. He was one of only two players in the starting lineups to play their club football in the U.S. domestic league, the other being USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman.

The pairing of Zimmerman and Tim Ream—who plays his club football in England for Premier League side Fulham—can take some credit along with their coach Gregg Berhalter for Wales’ first-half ineffectiveness.

The speed of James was not an issue despite the US operating with a high defensive line at times. This was down to the anticipation of the centerback pairing but also the ability of the U.S. to break things up in midfield, even if it meant they gave away the occasional foul or picked up the odd yellow card.

Tim Weah gave the United States a first half lead via an excellent finish from Christian Pulisic’s equally good through-ball, but the two MLS players clashed in the second half, with Zimmerman bringing down Bale in the area to concede a penalty.

There is sometimes an unease around players who have won the penalty stepping up to take it, but there were no doubts as to who would assume the responsibility for Wales.

U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner dived the right way and even got a hand to the ball, but this only served to further demonstrate how powerful and convincing the spot-kick from Bale was as it rocketed into the back of the net.

Wales had the odd occasional chance in the second half just as the United States had in the first. Not least when Bale had the ball around the halfway line with Turner out of his goal, only to be fouled by Kellyn Acosta before he could try to find the empty net. The draw was ultimately a fair result between two evenly matched teams.

For Bale it was business as usual. If anything it was a relatively uneventful game by his standards, but he’ll be the face across all the reports of this game across the world.

Especially in his new home in club football, the United States, which will only serve to increase the already high profile of this increasingly familiar soccer star.