When Gareth Bale was 24, he was the £85 million signing who scored in the final of the Champions League. When Kieffer Moore was 24, he was playing non-league football for Forest Green Rovers. And when the United States returned to the World Cup, they were denied victory by a combination of Wales’ answer to an action hero and the footballer named after the star of 24.
Bale’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw earned him Fifa’s man of the match award. The Wales captain was not even his own man of the match, however. “Kieffer came on and made a big difference, he gave us that physicality and it was a great performance,” he said, nominating the substitute who made Wales’ first World Cup match for 64 years a game of two halves: one without Moore that the Americans dominated, one with him when Wales were transformed.
