{"id":27544,"date":"2022-11-22T04:44:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T04:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=27544"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:43:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:43:51","slug":"qatar-world-cup-usa-1-1-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/11\/22\/qatar-world-cup-usa-1-1-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar World Cup: USA 1 – 1 Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? They were the unmistakable lyrics a dozen or so Wales supporters sang as they hopped off a metro escalator and descended on a stadium adjacent to a 500,000 square metre shopping mall fit with a five-star hotel. A few days after the Brazil legend Cafu wished Wales good luck wearing a tricolour bucket hat now synonymous with the nation, they are the kind of words that could have reasonably been running through Gareth Bale\u2019s mind after his penalty snatched a late draw on their first appearance at the World Cup finals since 1958.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bale is the true prince of Wales and despite spending almost the entire match on the margins he provided another one of those big\u2011game moments to file with the rest of them. His catalogue this year is already turning into quite the collection: two stunning goals against Austria in March, a match-winning free\u2011kick against Ukraine to secure their place at these finals, and, a fortnight ago, an extra-time header to help Los Angeles FC en route to lifting the Major League Soccer Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now this, an unerring spot\u2011kick, having drawn a clumsy foul from the USA defender Walker Zimmerman, to cancel out Timothy Weah\u2019s incisive opener and get Wales off the mark. It was an occasion awash with emotions for everyone involved, particularly Neco Williams, whose grandfather died on Monday. \u201cTo go from crying all day to start in a World Cup game was extremely tough,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a Wales perspective, the dynamic of this game shifted not because of Bale, who completed a full game for the first time since September, but because of the half\u2011time arrival of Kieffer Moore, a surprise omission from Rob Page\u2019s starting lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Moore and then the raw Brennan Johnson arriving from the bench, Wales turned up the heat and when Bale stuck out a leg to trap Aaron Ramsey\u2019s pass in the box, he invited a challenge that allowed him to equalise. Bale\u2019s rusty showing until that point suddenly paled into insignificance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIrrespective of what he does at club level, he manages to pull the jersey on for Wales and give performances that surprise people,\u201d said Page, the Wales manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said to him on about 75 minutes: \u2018Are you OK to carry on?\u2019 and he went: \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m fine.\u2019 And at the end of the game he said: \u2018That\u2019s why I stayed on.\u2019 \u201cHe looks after himself, he manages himself through games. If he\u2019d have gone full-tilt from the first whistle, he probably wouldn\u2019t have lasted until half time. But he\u2019s very experienced and clever at managing his body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bale\u2019s nous ultimately gave Wales a route back into a game that looked lost until Moore\u2019s introduction at half time, when Page asked his players to be braver. A rethink seemed inevitable given Wales\u2019s passive approach in the first half and it was no surprise that Page turned to Moore, the only bona fide No 9 in the Wales squad. He quickly got to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Davies\u2019s diving header forced Matt Turner into a sprawling save soon after the hour and from the subsequent corner Moore glanced a free header wide at the front post. USA never looked like doubling their advantage after the interval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this level, goals are difficult,\u201d their head coach, Gregg Berhalter, said. With a smile he added: \u201cUnless you\u2019re England, goals are pretty difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the outset there was unfiltered enthusiasm at Wales taking the world stage for the first time in 64 years. They had to survive an early scare when Wayne Hennessey instinctively repelled Joe Rodon\u2019s header to spare the defender the embarrassment of scoring an own goal after Weah crossed from the right, and seconds later USA made tracks down the left, resulting in Josh Sargent heading against a post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wales were on the back foot and conceded when Christian Pulisic scurried upfield after latching on to Sargent\u2019s cute layoff just past halfway. The Chelsea forward made light work of eluding three Wales shirts before slipping in Weah, who calmly stroked the ball past Hennessey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Timothy<\/a>
Timothy Weah celebrates after his goal gives the USA a first-half lead. Photograph: Xinhua\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before leading Wales out of the tunnel Bale chewed on some gum, licked his lips and took a swig of water. Before his penalty, a couple of deep breaths and then a right-foot blast into the top corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the fans, it was a night when the little things were always going to stir something far bigger: from the starting lineup being read aloud half\u2011hour before kick-off \u2013 Bale\u2019s name predictably got the biggest cheer \u2013 to the mere sight of the pre\u2011match pyrotechnics fizzing beside an oversized World Cup trophy occupying the centre circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connor Roberts could not stop smiling during a typically moving Welsh national anthem, at the end of which every Wales player swivelled to applaud the almost 3,000-strong Red Wall, who proudly displayed flags advertising Brecon, Flint Town FC and Wrexham. \u201cIt was 64 years but worth the wait,\u201d Page said. \u201cTo see the Red Wall celebrating was just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This point leaves things delicately poised before Wales face Iran and England take on USA on Friday. \u201cIt was always going to be a tough game against England,\u201d Berhalter said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it was ever going to change based on what happened [against Wales]. A point in the first game isn\u2019t the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Pulisic was bright for USA, Wales\u2019s go-to man was rather muted \u2013 until being clattered inside the box by Zimmerman. From the spot Bale made no mistake and deep into nine minutes of added time Bale even sensed an improbable winner but was fouled when winding up to shoot from halfway after Turner raced out of his goal. \u201cHe\u2019s never let us down, has he?\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? They were the unmistakable lyrics a dozen or so Wales supporters sang as they hopped off a metro escalator and descended on a stadium adjacent to a 500,000 square metre shopping mall fit with a five-star hotel. A few days after the Brazil legend Cafu wished […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[5489,195,8952,2422,169,8927,1279,8908,2117,5241,1258,9026,11638,7090,3874,10104,7123,10634,12791,8126,7968,11973,13256,8552,7987,9761,10416,9247,8840,7419,8593,5180,9262,6348,1254,8869,10415,36,5248,594,8796],"class_list":["post-27544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-austria","tag-bale","tag-blast","tag-brazil","tag-chelsea","tag-christian","tag-circle","tag-coach","tag-davies","tag-died","tag-england","tag-fans","tag-forced","tag-games","tag-lead","tag-legend","tag-los-angeles","tag-lost","tag-manager","tag-match","tag-nine","tag-one","tag-players","tag-qatar","tag-qatar-2022-fifa-world-cup","tag-shoot","tag-soccer","tag-spare","tag-strong","tag-the-game","tag-tim-weah","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-wales","tag-water","tag-work","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who","tag-xinhua"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52246,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27544\/revisions\/52246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}