Bale's wonder goal

With the World Cup coming soon, you'll get many chances to see wonderful goals and then read how they are described in English. Let's get some practice with Gareth Bale's brilliant goal against Barcelona Wednesday night.

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Real Madrid's Welsh forward Gareth Bale celebrates after scoring during the Spanish Copa del Rey (King's Cup) final "Clasico" football match FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid CF at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia on April 16, 2014. AFP PHOTO/ DANI POZO

Bale's wonder goal

Sportwriters from around the world were focused on the Spanish Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The score was even at 1-1 until late in the match when Real Madrid's Gareth Bale scored a goal that will be remembered for a very long time as one of the best individual efforts ever in a high-pressure championship match.

Here is the goal, starting with a Barcelona attack  and then the counterattack, ending in Bale's goal (note: You can change the setting to HD):



In many match reports, the Bale goal gets only a single paragraph as in this one by Joseph Wilson of the Associated Press:

"With the game hanging in the balance, Bale got the winner when he sprinted down the left side of the pitch, even running out of bounds to avoid Marc Bartra, before racing into the area and rolling the ball under goalkeeper Jose Pinto."

Gareth Bale scores, "calmly slotting a shot past the goalkeeper". AFP PHOTO/ DANI POZO

Other sportswriters made the goal the highlight of their stories, adding detail and some very descriptive language. Here's a good example from Chris Greenberg of the Huffington Post.

"After receiving a pass from teammate Fabio Coentrao just beyond midfield, Bale knocked the ball forward. Before he could run onto it, Bale was promptly knocked out of bounds by Barcelona defender Marc Bartra. It didn't matter. Bale somehow won the footrace to the ball despite having to cover so much more ground than Bartra. After completing his blistering but circuitous dash, Bale controlled the ball while hardly lessening his breakneck pace, shielded the defender eventually closing behind him and then calmly slotted a shot past the goalkeeper."

The Telegraph's Jim White wrote a whole story about the goal. He begins by focusing on Barcelona defender Marc Bartra, who had actually had a very good night, scoring Barcelona's only goal. But 84 minutes into the match, his nightmare began.

"And then Gareth Bale received a pass just inside the Barcelona half.

"Bartra, seeing the tall, slim Welshman take possession, simply assumed he could muscle him off the ball. The defender shepherded him with little aplomb towards the touchline. But Bale was barely inconvenienced by the intrusion. Never mind that he was so far into touch he was practically in Marbella, he simply skipped round Bartra like he was a training ground dummy and, despite giving him at least a five yard start, ran on towards the Barcelona penalty box with the big Catalan floundering in his wash. Once in the area, with a coolness of head which belied the boiling atmosphere, Bale stabbed the ball expertly under the diving body of the Barca keeper Pinto into the net for the winning goal."

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