sport news IAN HERBERT: Why 6ft 5in battering ram Moore makes a big difference to Wales at ... trends now
It has to be said that some people in the USA did not take the result against Wales terribly well.
‘USA LOSES 1-1’ a New York Post back page headline proclaimed of the deadlock against Wales at the Al Rayyan Stadium, recalling the paper’s legendary front page after the same scoreline against England in 2010, which it described as a win and the ‘Greatest tie against the British since Bunker Hill’.
And then there was the post-match disgruntlement of a member of the US press corps, after Wales captain Gareth Bale’s appearance had lasted only a couple of minutes.
Wales striker Kieffer Moore holds off USA duo Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic
‘Why should we bother covering you guys?’ the American shouted, as man of the match Bale left the room. The Wales FA’s head of PR, Ian Gwyn Hughes, gave this short shrift. Bale had been waiting to speak while the USA coach Gregg Berhalter held court, he said. Wales did not have all night.
That Bunker Hill battle, part of the War of Independence which secured America freedom from British colonisers, was not for the faint-hearted. It was the fight which saw the first use of the expression: ‘Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.’
Precisely the kind of encounter which you imagine Kieffer Moore would have been up for.
Bournemouth striker Moore — or ‘Zlatan’ as they know him in Wales — is far more than the battering ram which some consider him to be. But his sheer physical presence, at 6ft 4in, was what manager Rob Page needed to introduce after a desperate first half against the USA.
The 6ft 5in striker towers above the defence to direct a header towards goal
The 30-year-old, having replaced Dan James, provided a target for Wales to aim for as they started to play over the press of their younger, more athletic opponents. His hold-up play brought others into the game and pinned the USA back. It meant that Bale and Aaron Ramsey, strangers in the first half, were close enough on the field to interact and win the penalty which allowed Wales to fight another day. It was a ‘second-half swoon’ from the US, the Post said.
Bale does not do platitudes, so he was not being polite when he declared in the aftermath of the game that Moore had been his man of the match. ‘He came on and made a big difference. He gave us that physicality and it was a great performance,’ Bale said.
Harry Wilson, who struggled in the first half, made the same observation. ‘Kieffer gave us the platform to build,’ he said. You would
