Bale

[dai]

First two pens awful.

Is it just me, or does the crowd seem very close to the pitch??

[Deleted]

what a big time player he is,if his legs aren;t the best these days he will just power in a header,legend.

[scarfer]

thanks to Bale's equaliser, LAFC won the league on penalties.

viva Gareth BALE

[fiveattheback]

Man for the big occasion

[ontheroadagain2]

Nov 5, 2022 23:11:34 GMT fiveattheback said:

Man for the big occasion

👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿⚽️

[erasedcitizen]

What a legend.

[hooky]

He just does what Bale does doesn't he ......
.... he shows up for the big moments

x2 vs Austria
x1 vs Ukraine
to get us to the WC

x1 vs Philadelpia in MLS final
to help Los Angeles FC win their first ever MLS

He does that when he can hardly string 5 mins together on the pitch for any sustained period of time

Mad!

[hooky]

Part of their history now (and Real Madrid's whether the fans like it or not!)

His documentary will include that moment!

Pisses me off when I hear how George Best (who played properly for 3-4 years) is the best British player ever or the others. Look what he has achieved and look what he has helped to win in big matches! Our champion! Hope he can do something in the WC, even if its in just one game, to give us a memory for ever

[hooky]

The guy he outjumped for the equaliser was 6ft 6inches apparently!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QczPtDh0aJ8


I was thinking until the Austria games that he had not scored a free kick for years and I was thinking the same about headers recently!

[erasedcitizen]

If you ain't first, you're last.

[allezlesrouges]

Legend - did he take one of the pens as well?

[iot]

Nov 6, 2022 9:09:10 GMT allezlesrouges said:

Legend - did he take one of the pens as well?

No. I assume he was down as the 5th taker. They won it by the 4th

[CrackityJones]

Legs have gone gonna retire etc etc

[welshrover]

The bloke is just a legend, nothing more to say really.

[insertname]

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

[dai]

Nov 6, 2022 17:07:40 GMT insertname said:

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

In the post match press conference he admitted himself that he's not fully fit, but he was ready to play a part late on if needed. He was blowing quite a bit throughout extra time.

Fitness aside, I still think his legs have gone.
 
I think the standard of MLS has improved a lot over the last few years, but I was thinking a partly fit Bale should be having fun at this level, maybe I was wrong.

[dai]

Nov 6, 2022 8:18:20 GMT erasedcitizen said:

If you ain't first, you're last.

Didn't realise he was a Red Hot Chilli Peppers fan.

[insertname]

Nov 6, 2022 17:22:32 GMT dai said:

Nov 6, 2022 17:07:40 GMT insertname said:

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

In the post match press conference he admitted himself that he's not fully fit, but he was ready to play a part late on if needed. He was blowing quite a bit throughout extra time.

Fitness aside, I still think his legs have gone.
 
I think the standard of MLS has improved a lot over the last few years, but I was thinking a partly fit Bale should be having fun at this level, maybe I was wrong.

Ah interesting, good to know and does put a new light on things.

To be honest I now go the other way, if the MLS is a better standard now as you point out and he’s not been up to playing it must cast some doubt on his fitness for the World Cup. All in all we don’t seem to be in great shape at all

[iot]

Nov 6, 2022 17:07:40 GMT insertname said:

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

No idea why you find it necessary to criticize ramsey to make your point about how much of a big game player Bale is. But for the record, Ramsey has played three FA Cup finals and scored in two of them. He scored and was outstanding in several european cup games for Arsenal. Then for us, he was in the Euro 2016 team of the tournament - I would say they were pretty big games! He scored both goals to take us through to Euro 2020, and he was our best players in our only win in that tournament. He was also brilliant in the game that turned our WC qualifying campaign around in Prague. Yes he was poor in that Ireland qualifier, and against Ukraine too. But overall, I think that's a very good record in the big games

[saints19]

Huge congratulations to Bale, great goal and delighted for him. Another honour for his CV too. Time and again he proves he's still got quality, even if he's lost a bit of pace over the years. People taking about retirement - no one knows what's on his mind, but he certainly doesn't have to retire when he still has quality in his locker.

[insertname]

Nov 6, 2022 18:38:35 GMT iot said:

Nov 6, 2022 17:07:40 GMT insertname said:

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

No idea why you find it necessary to criticize ramsey to make your point about how much of a big game player Bale is. But for the record, Ramsey has played three FA Cup finals and scored in two of them. He scored and was outstanding in several european cup games for Arsenal. Then for us, he was in the Euro 2016 team of the tournament - I would say they were pretty big games! He scored both goals to take us through to Euro 2020, and he was our best players in our only win in that tournament. He was also brilliant in the game that turned our WC qualifying campaign around in Prague. Yes he was poor in that Ireland qualifier, and against Ukraine too. But overall, I think that's a very good record in the big games

it’s a phrase I see a lot on various forums and imo it’s over used and very badly applied. eg I don’t think you can apply it easily to players who score goals in domestic cup finals, that’s not really the pinnacle of the game and domestic cups have long since been devalued by the champions league for the top clubs. In the same way I don’t really see lower league players who score crucial goals as big game players because they aren’t playing at the highest level.

Consistently scoring key league title/champions league winning goals is the mark of a big game player (imo of course) and there are very few of those and rightfully so. Add in his record of scoring key international goals for a small country that helped break a qualifying duck of decades and he has set an immense standard when considering “clutch” players who you want on your side.

But then I’m obviously saying that from a Welsh perspective. I have a feeling the world of football is not going to remember him as a great of the current era if only because he never seemed to get the credit he deserved at Madrid. The narrative always seemed to be that Ronaldo was the main reason Madrid won so many CLs.

[highbury06]

Nov 6, 2022 18:38:35 GMT iot said:

Nov 6, 2022 17:07:40 GMT insertname said:

Pleased for him 🙂

No disrespect but this is why it always irks me that people refer to Ramsey as a big game player, it’s an over-used phrase when there are very very *very* few big game players in world football and Bale is one of them. How many crucial goals has he scored in finals/big games? To my mind I can only think of Portugal in the Euros and the game against Poland where he hasn’t come up with something when necessary for club or country. That’s a hell of record of consistency. Phenomenal.

That being said it has to be a concern that he’s only been used as an ET sub and that there seem to be visible issues with his athleticism these days. If he jacks it in after the World Cup it would round his career off on a pretty complete note.

No idea why you find it necessary to criticize ramsey to make your point about how much of a big game player Bale is. But for the record, Ramsey has played three FA Cup finals and scored in two of them. He scored and was outstanding in several european cup games for Arsenal. Then for us, he was in the Euro 2016 team of the tournament - I would say they were pretty big games! He scored both goals to take us through to Euro 2020, and he was our best players in our only win in that tournament. He was also brilliant in the game that turned our WC qualifying campaign around in Prague. Yes he was poor in that Ireland qualifier, and against Ukraine too. But overall, I think that's a very good record in the big games

Because Bale is a top player.
Ramsey at most level 1 (he was top class in 2013-14, if he wasnt injured Arsenal would have likely won the title).

People wont call Messi , Ronaldo Benzema or Modric a big match player because they r always great no matter big match or not.
But Lewan is shit in big match.

[iot]

Interesting article this. Concerning as it suggests Bale hasn't been training properly for a while, so there will certainly be fitness issues in the world cup.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63542773

I get the impression that Bale has had a problem with the mental side of dealing with injuries and knocks throughout his career. You'll get some players who are happy playing through injuries, but I suspect Bale's on the other side of the spectrum. I remember Harry Redknapp talking about how he would go down and stay down all the time in training after every small knock, and he didn't break through properly until he overcame that issue.

Reading between the lines, I think players carry injuries / niggles or whatever you want to call it all the time, probably an accumulation of playing football almost every day for decades. So it's always a case of managing their bodies, deciding which ones they can play through and which ones they can't, and some players have higher thresholds than others. I used to think it was a clear-cut thing of either being injured or not, whereas in reality it seems to be a lot messier than that

[highbury06]

he just wanna make sure he can play in WC.
btw imagine if he could play against Ireland in 2017…. we may have been in the playoffs and got to the WC in 2018.

[insertname]

Nov 7, 2022 12:44:37 GMT iot said:

Interesting article this. Concerning as it suggests Bale hasn't been training properly for a while, so there will certainly be fitness issues in the world cup.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63542773

I get the impression that Bale has had a problem with the mental side of dealing with injuries and knocks throughout his career. You'll get some players who are happy playing through injuries, but I suspect Bale's on the other side of the spectrum. I remember Harry Redknapp talking about how he would go down and stay down all the time in training after every small knock, and he didn't break through properly until he overcame that issue.

Reading between the lines, I think players carry injuries / niggles or whatever you want to call it all the time, probably an accumulation of playing football almost every day for decades. So it's always a case of managing their bodies, deciding which ones they can play through and which ones they can't, and some players have higher thresholds than others. I used to think it was a clear-cut thing of either being injured or not, whereas in reality it seems to be a lot messier than that

“A slight issue” that kept him out for a month 🤔 You might have something of a point….

[rushlegend]

Obviously this World Cup will be his swansong - i think the sheer adrenaline of playing in a WC will carry him if nothing else. - Impact player from the bench maybe - last 20 mins in each game? - i'm sure he will be involved and make a lasting impression like always!

[mikejones]

Mr. Ferrell is a big LA sports fan. Any idea why he is for LAFC vs the Galaxy?

A recent race that recalls Talledaga Nights: Make sure to watch the last lap from the Watermelon Farmer.


Old School:

[bringbackelmo]

He's a part owner of LAFC, he talks about it, and the Galaxy, here: www.mlssoccer.com/news/lafcs-will-ferrell-heres-how-i-became-owner-mls-expansion-team

[iantov]

Sky Sports to show a documentary today; The Rise of Gareth Bale

[jbt95]

Will we need to change the chant for Qatar?

“Screw the Union Jack… viva Gareth Bale”