The World Cup final between Germany and Argentina will take place on Sunday at 4 P.M. By now, many of us have watched an absurd amount of soccer, at the expense of work, family, and good sense. A few weeks ago, unwilling to break away from a close match, I resorted to streaming it on my iPhone while slaloming through a crowded train station, something I wouldn’t recommend.
Watching all this soccer has been a delightful way to spend the summer, although, if your spouse or roommate doesn’t share your sporting passion, I imagine you have, at some point, heard something similar to my wife’s frequent refrain: “You’re still watching soccer?”
To justify those countless hours, I’ve compiled a list, in descending order, of my most memorable moments from the 2014 World Cup.
9. David Luiz’s free kick against Colombia.
Soccer is full of players with hair that outshines talent, and I suspect that a pair of clippers might send the Brazilian player David Luiz’s stock plummeting. But there’s no debating the perfection of this free kick, as it knuckleballs its way past the Colombian goalkeeper to put Brazil up 2-0 in the quarterfinal match.
8. The second half between Mexico and Brazil.
Ties, especially scoreless ones, are the bane of many sports fans, but the second half of this goalless group-stage draw was scintillating. Guillermo Ochoa, the Mexican goalkeeper, stopped shot after shot, prompting the announcer to proclaim, “Are they building a statue for him back in Mexico City or what?!”
7. Tim Cahill’s goal against the Netherlands.
Cahill, an Australian who plays his club soccer for the New York Red Bulls, took this cross-field pass out of the air, on a left-footed volley, and buried it into the roof of the goal. Stunning stuff.
6. The Netherlands’s thrashing of Spain.
Going into this World Cup, Spain dominated the soccer world with its style of short, quick passes known as tiki-taka. The Spanish side won the European Championship in 2008, the World Cup in 2010, and the European Championship in 2012. Jürgen Klinsmann, the current American coach, referred to squad as the “team of the century.” But, on the second day of this year’s tournament, Spain faced the Netherlands in a rematch of the 2010 World Cup final, and it wasn’t even close. Spain was defeated 5-1, and was subsequently eliminated in the first round. All dynasties end, this one perhaps just a bit more abruptly than others.
5. Luis Suárez.
Luis Suárez, of Uruguay, was on the cusp of a historic World Cup. After sitting out the opening game to recover from knee surgery, he played in Uruguay’s second game, against England, and netted two goals that would devastate England’s hopes of advancing. Suárez, however, is a man of demons; in an ESPN the Magazine profile, he is described as “bat-shit crazy.” Before the World Cup began, he had already bitten another player twice. So it shouldn’t have been too surprising when, with about ten minutes to play in Uruguay’s match against Italy, Suárez sunk his teeth into opposing defender Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder. Suárez played out the game but was banned from the rest of the tournament.
4. Tim Howard against Belgium.
Even in a tournament distinguished by extraordinary goalkeeping performances, Tim Howard’s sixteen saves in the U.S. game against Belgium—a new World Cup record—stand out. FIFA was apparently amazed, too: Howard agreed to take a “random” drug test immediately after the match.
3. Germany’s thrashing of Brazil.
What happened? How could Brazil be defeated so thoroughly in front of its own fans? Pundits will dissect the match for years, particularly the eighteen minutes during which Germany scored five times in the first half. You also suspect that the disappointment and agony may last for generations.
2. Julian Green’s goal against Belgium.
Julian Green was an inexperienced, nineteen-year-old winger whose selection to the U.S. men’s national team came, many believe, at the expense of Landon Donovan, the U.S.’s all-time leading goal scorer. Green made his World Cup début midway through extra time in the round-of-sixteen match between the United States and Belgium. The U.S. was losing 2-0. Two minutes after entering the game, Green made a darting run from the left flank, received an aerial pass, and sliced through the ball, volleying it past the Belgian keeper Thibaut Courtois. His goal sparked the most exciting fifteen minutes of U.S. soccer history and gave Americans a taste of the frenzy and passion other countries feel about this game.
1. Lionel Messi’s game-winning shot against Iran.
Messi, the Argentine megastar who hasn’t lived in Argentina since his youth, has suffered criticisms about an inability to replicate the form he displays with Barcelona for his national side. Argentina has looked sluggish at times, though Messi has managed to bail it out with a free kick against Nigeria and a piece of dribbling magic to set up Argentina’s late winner against Switzerland. But this goal, to break a deadlock in the final seconds against Iran, ranks as my most clutch moment of the tournament.
Top: Lionel Messi on July 9, 2014. Photograph by Ian MacNicol/Getty.
