1974 Cyruff turns on the magic
Football’s a team sport, but every so often there’s a moment of individual brilliance that makes the whole stadium — and watching world — emit a collective gasp. Expertly trapping the ball from a lofted forward pass, the Dutch genius faced Swedish defender Jan Olsson just outside the penalty box. In an instant, he faked out the Swede. Olsson remained rooted to the spot, struggling to stay upright, no doubt thinking what was going through the minds of everyone else in the stadium and watching: “What the hell just happened?”
1990 Roger Milla’s celebration
Italia ’90 was one of the classiest editions of the World Cup, and was definitely improved by the stylish hip-moving celebrations of Cameroonian legend Roger Milla.
Prior to his joyous, finger-raised dance at the corner flag or in front of the fans, goal celebrations tended to be wild, unstructured affairs.
But for Milla’s four goals for Cameroon in the competition, in a run that took the West Africans to the quarterfinals — as far as any African team had ever made it at that time — Milla injected class and humor into his one-man tango rendition.
2010 Suarez handball
Sometimes, you have to do whatever it takes to win — just ask Maradona. Another infamous handball entered World Cup lore in the 2010 edition of the competition, when Uruguay met Ghana in the quarterfinals in South Africa.
As the game ticked on to extra time, against the droning backdrop of thousands of vuvuzelas, Uruguayan star Luis Suárez found himself face to face with an almost-certain goal headed by Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah after the ball had ping-ponged around the penalty area following a free kick.
So what did the striker do? Standing on the goal line, he instinctively stuck out a hand, swatting the ball away and into the grateful hands of Fernando Muslera, Uruguay’s keeper.