06-13-2014, 01:11 AM
Here are a few other world-cup stories to entertain you:
It’s the defining image of the 1974 World Cup; the defining image of the great Dutch team of the 70s; the defining image of one of the most talented, enchanting and magical players to ever breeze around a football field. Vogts was then booked for persistently fouling Cruyff, an achievement that was quite remarkable (thanks to the BBC’s David Coleman again) seeing only four minutes had elapsed.
World Cup: 25 stunning moments … No25: the Cruyff Turn is born in 1974 | Football | theguardian.com
Perhaps the main problem, though, was one of ideas. "All of us Brazilians got carried away with the great football that Netherlands had presented in 1974, with the players carrying out lots of functions, and our coach Claudio Coutinho wanted, in a short space of time, Brazilians to play in the same way. It wasn't possible," he said.
BBC Sport - Zico's World Cup story: World class but denied on biggest stage
Piqué is a multifaceted person, a footballer-genius with an IQ of 140, a person who always speaks his mind and that, sometimes, bothers others. One day, he fell in love with a woman who was born on the same day as him but 10 years before, and who turned out to be one of the most influential singers in the music world. Shakira may not have known who he was, but she does now, and is the mother of his child.
World Cup 2014: Spain profile – Gerard Piqué | Francisco Ávila | Football | theguardian.com
Conspiracy theories abounded. Mistrust of authority is commonplace in Italy, so much so that there is even a word to explain it. “Dietrologia” – which translates, roughly, to “behind-ism” – refers to the belief that the official explanation for any set of events is almost invariably the wrong one.
Upon winning the 1986 staging, the players of Argentina decided to celebrate reaching the summit of world football with the immediate commencement of shouting, whooping, hollering, singing, jigging around in the carefree style, and the taking on board of sparkling liquids. But there would be no such instant giddy gratification for poor José Luis Brown, José Cuciuffo and Oscar Ruggeri. Argentina’s new world-champion back-line were collectively collared in the dressing room by manager Carlos Bilardo, who proceeded to deliver a lengthy in-depth lecture on matters pertaining to team shape and defensive rigour.