The Wales star stepped up when his side needed him most to lift LAFC in the dying moments.
It was an instant classic, perhaps the best game in MLS history. A heavyweight title fight between incredible teams, LAFC and the Philadelphia Union, who each were on the verge of winning on several occasions only to throw it away.
Gareth Bale became the hero in the 128th minute. The savior. With his team down a man, down a goal and moving closer and closer to another season ending in defeat, Bale rose up high, posterizing would-be Union match winner Jack Elliott in the process. Bale headed home to make the score 3-3 and force a penalty shootout won easily by LAFC.
If you've followed Bale's career, his authoring of such a dramatic moment comes as little surprise. It's what he was born to do, and what LAFC were so desperate to add when they signed him following his exit from Real Madrid.
LAFC are champions, and they have their superstar to thank.
Hollywood couldn't have written it better.
WINNER: Gareth Bale
In some ways, it was both totally impossible and entirely predictable.
Bale came to the team lacking form and fitness. He'd battled injuries, easing his way into LAFC's lineup. The winger had scored just twice for LAFC, never going 90 minutes and not appearing in LAFC's first two playoff games.
But given his long-term track record, when he came in to the game in extra time there was still a sense that he could come through despite the deck stacked against him.
He's scored big goals everywhere he's been, and the cynic among us would say he's scored bigger than this. Bale has won Champions League finals, after all.
But he many not cherish one more. He'd been written out, discarded. He'd struggled to break through even here in MLS.
So it's somewhat poetic that his goal came from a towering header, one that saw him leap like the Bale of yesteryear. The smile was huge, the ovation was deafening and Bale was the hero again.
Who would have thought?
AdvertisementLOSER: Maxime Crepeau
It doesn't get much worse. Horrible, absolutely horrible.
With just minutes remaining and a shootout looming, Crepeau came rushing out of his goal to stop Corey Burke on a breakaway. The two collided, leaving both down injured in a scary sequence.
Burke eventually got up. Crepeau didn't.
The injury comes less than two weeks before Crepeau was set to join Canada's team at the World Cup. He isn't the starter (that job falls to Milan Borjan) but he is a key veteran for the national team that is returning to the biggest stage for the first time in a lifetime.
Making matters worse? Crepeau was given a red card for the sequence that cost him his World Cup, leaving his side down a man.
It was a sad, sad moment from an otherwise good final.
WINNER: John McCarthy
If Bale was the storybook hero, the conqueror always destined for the big moment in MLS, McCarthy is on the other side of it all.
A career backup, there were few scenarios where McCarthy would end up on the field on Saturday. But, after Crepeau's injury, there he was, against his former team nonetheless.
The goalkeeper played for the Union from 2015-18 and had been their hero in several U.S. Open Cup matches. Now, Union fans will remember him for being a hero on the other side of the biggest game in their history.
McCarthy wasn't the sole reason the Union lost the penalty shootout. Daniel Gazdag's slip and subsequent miss didn't help the Union's cause.
Still, it was McCarthy that stared down his former team while lifting his current one after playing just 90 minutes all season.
From backup to championship-winning hero, all in the space of about 15 minutes. Only in MLS!
LOSER: The Union
Not a loser in the sense the headline might imply. But, my goodness, will this hurt.
After a season like this, to come up short in the way the Union did felt like a gut punch. Three straight misses in a penalty shootout after holding the outcome in their hands just moments before.
After Bale's goal, it felt like there was no way back and, as it turned out, there wasn't.
The Union will be back next season, of course, because they've built something special. But there's no guarantee they'll get so close again any time soon, even if their talent level remains this high.
So spare a thought for Andre Blake, the Union star who was powerless to prevent his team's loss. Spare a thought for Alejandro Bedoya, the Union captain who couldn't suit up due to injury. Spare a thought for Kai Wagner, Paxten Aaronson and Jack McGlynn, young stars who seem bound for European successes and may not be long for MLS. Spare a thought for Jim Curtin and Ernst Tanner, two legitimate soccer geniuses who have built a program from the ground up.
There may be more opportunities to come in the future. But this one will sting for quite some time simply because they were oh so close.