WATCH OUT ENGLAND, HERE COMES THE... WELSH WIZARD
IF GARETH Bale’s free-kick in the Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday was his most memorable Wales goal, it was arguably not his most significant. That one came in September 2014 during the first game of Euro 2016 qualifying in front of 3,300 people in Andorra.
Having fallen a goal behind to a team who had lost their previous 44 competitive games and not scored a goal for almost four years, Wales were heading for a humiliating defeat only for two Bale goals — the second a twice-taken 81st-minute free-kick — to save his country.
To this day, Wales manager Chris Coleman — a hero in his nation after Saturday’s victory in Group B — believes Bale’s winning goal saved his job.
‘I knew what would happen had we not won,’ said Coleman, in Chris Wathan’s excellent book Together Stronger. ‘You can’t come away from Andorra not winning, you just can’t. He got me out of it with that goal.’
That tale simply underlines Bale’s fundamental importance and commitment to Wales. The day before that game he had been asked privately what would happen if, indeed, Andorra did score first. He replied with a smile that he would ask for the ball and not give it back until he had undone the damage.
If that hints at selfishness, then it’s misleading. Bale understands his role in the structure of Coleman’s team but he also understands his own importance.
There are those who believe the Real Madrid star — known as the Galles Galactico — is at his happiest when returning home for international duty. Off the field, his teammates say he has not changed.
‘ He is still one of the most immature players in the squad,’ said full back and close friend Chris Gunter. On the field, however, Bale has grown in stature and in physical presence since his move to Spain. It is this aura that England will need to concern themselves with on Thursday in Lens. Bale sets the mood for Coleman’s team and seems to have arrived in France in exactly the right mood.
Watch Bale’s club colleague Cristiano Ronaldo play for Portugal and you will see a brilliant footballer. The hat-trick he scored in Stockholm to down Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sweden in a World Cup play-off tie in November 2013 was one of the most astonishing individual performances the international game has seen. What Ronaldo is not, however, is a brilliant team player at this level. Playing with colleagues less gifted does not suit him. There are far too many shrugs and sighs and raised eyebrows.
Bale is different. The 26–year-old not only accepts the limitations of this group, he embraces them. In Bordeaux he was not at his best — his free-kick goal really should have been saved and he is better suited to a more withdrawn role — but when other players look to him, literally and metaphorically, his desire to respond by example and strong leadership is clear.
‘When he is in that dressing room with the Wales jersey on, he’s fantastic,’ added Gunter. ‘Going to Madrid has benefited us because he’s not only got better as a player but as a whole package. There is just this huge presence about him now.’
How Roy Hodgson sets his team up to deal with Bale on Thursday will be intriguing. Coleman is unlikely to change his own team’s style to accommodate England as the Wales manager tends to rely on a system that, after the Andorra wobble, worked spectacularly during qualifying.
The England coach does have a dilemma, though. Hodgson knows his team must chase the game in Lens after their opening draw with Russia but to do that will leave an already suspect defence vulnerable to the strength and cutting edge of Bale on the counter.
Bale will also look to exploit England’s weakness in the air. Despite his claims that he doesn’t do much gym work, Bale has developed a Ronaldo-like spring from a standing start. He almost beat Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kozacik with one such effort with the game poised at 1- 0. Chris Smalling and Gary Cahill may watch footage of that moment with trepidation.
One man cannot win a game on his own, of course. But the respected Western Mail newspaper once put it rather well when it suggested: ‘One man can’t make a team but he can make a team believe’.
That would appear to be where Wales are right now with Bale. He took a private jet to join his country for a game in Macedonia moments after signing his contract with Real in 2013, and his desire to achieve with his country has rarely seemed to waver.
He has the look of a man who wishes to write his name right through this tournament. He has started, but it is unlikely that he has finished.