World Cup: American Eagles and Welsh Dragons share the spoils
1-1 result a fair reflection of a game in which each side dominated a half
FOR the first 30 minutes of this encounter, the USA ‘yanked’ Wales’ chain.
Their high press limited Wales from moving up the park and forced them to keep playing back to keeper Wayne Hennessy.
The latter did well to prevent a Joe Rodon own goal as the defender tried to head clear a vicious cross in the 10th minute.
Two yellow cards in quick succession sparked concern in the USA camp; maybe the result of too much aggression by the fired-up youngsters.
I had predicted that Christian Pulisic might run the show for the USA, and that proved to be the case as he and adventurous fullback Anthony Robertson caused chaos down the left flank as they mounted countless attacks.
And it was the guile of Pulisic that led to the USA goal in the 36th minute as his pinpoint pass and Timothy Weah’s perfectly timed run saw the latter slide the ball past a despairing Hennessy.
The goal was gold to the USA fans and would have brought a smile to the face of the scorer’s father, George Weah, former Liberian football captain and now president of that country.
The Americans went into the tunnel 1-0 up and deservedly so, but Wales brought on Kiefer Moore after the break and this changed the entire complexion of the game.
His strength upfront gave Wales a more attacking intent and they started to dominate possession and territory.
They had two great chances to equalise, first when a terrific Matt Turner save denied Ben Davies from close range, and from the resultant corner when Kieffer Moore’s header skimmed the bar.
But a short pass into the box from Aaron Ramsey saw Gareth Bale brought down from behind by Walker Zimmerman and a spot kick was given in the 80th minute.
Bale smashed it into the top corner to make it 1-1.
What followed was 15 minutes of madness as both sides threw everything into the fray in an attempt to grab the winner, with changes being rung as cramp and injuries set in.
All in vain and the result was a fair reflection of a game in which each side dominated a half and both scored one goal.
