Germany secured its fourth World Cup title in the most unexpected twist as the substitute Mario Götze made his late goal during extra time. It was truly a tension-filled match as both teams played so well! Thus, the final match produced some of the most memorable moments in World Cup 2014.
While Götze’s goal became the most significant moment of World Cup 2014 final match, here are some other moments that were included in the list of worldwide trends:
1. Messi “The Little Magician”
Argentina player Lionel Messi has long been known as “the little magician” of the football world especially after he helped Argentina win the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup with 6 goals. As he became the player with the most goals and most hat-tricks, he was regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. However, the term “the little magician” was rarely mentioned until commentator Ian Drake used the phrase, “Here’s the little magician with the ball” to describe how Messi played on the field at the World Cup final.
After Argentina was defeated 1-0 in the World Cup final by Germany, Messi was named the tournament’s best player with the Golden Ball Award.
2. David Beckham and his sons
When Germany and Argentina were deadlocked 0-0 at halftime, the camera decided to divert its attention to David Beckham and his sons who came to watch their first ever World Cup final match in support of Argentina team. Beckham’s excited son Romeo was seen showing his Daddy the pictures he took while eldest son Brooklyn was busy taking videos of the match in the stadium. The phrase “Omg David Beckham” trended worldwide on Twitter during halftime.
3. Movie selfie
It’s official. Not only has the word “selfie” been made an official word since its addition into the Oxford dictionary, it finally made its debut into the football world. Former internationals Lothar Matthaus was seen taking selfie with Fabio Cannavaro and Passarella during the final match. When the television camera caught them taking selfie, the football commentator uttered the first “selfie” ever said in football history: “He was the last to carry the World Cup for Germany…and even he is not beyond the selfie!”
But that’s not all! When Matthaus was filming the crowd using his phone, the commentator further described his action as, “Lothar Matthaus is self-movieing, a movie selfie.”
4. Higuain’s offside goal
The first half of the match had everyone sitting on the edge of their chairs as both team wasted good chances to score a goal. When Argentina finally had their chance, their striker Gonzalo Higuain thought he finally scored a goal for the team – before he realised that it was an offside goal. He only discovered his offside goal after the wild celebration which lasted at least 30 seconds.
5. Vitaly the streaker
Russian comedian Vitaly Zdorovetskiy made his streaker appearance at the World Cup 2014 final match. With “Natural Born Prankster” written on his chest, he even attempted to kiss German defender Benedikt Höwedes before he was caught on the field by the security. NBA star LeBron James, who also attended the match, captured Vitaly’s streaking on his Instagram too. The prankster previously made an announcement to his Twitter followers that he will be making a surprise appearance at the World Cup final.
6. Sunset over Rio & Chris the Redeemer
The most beautiful World Cup moment goes to this footage of sunset over Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. The footage captured the attention of those who watched the final World Cup match between Germany and Argentina. It was also considered the best shot of the entire match during World Cup 2014 final.
7. Neuer & Higuain
During the second half of the match, German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer kneed Gonzalo Higuain unintentionally when he tried to punch the ball away from the goal. As Higuain writhed in pain on the field, he was called for a foul even though it’s an unintentional knee kick from Neuer. Though it was deemed as an unfair foul, that moment has generated a series of meme, with different angles of the picture.
8. Thomas Müller
Before the match began, German midfielder Thomas Müller was caught giving a cheeky wink to the anthem camera when Germany’s national anthem was playing. As it turned out, his wink has been his trademark each time they play the German national anthem. Clearly, Müller is trying to prove that he’d as good of a winker as he is a football player. How charming!
Meanwhile, relive some of our other #WorldCup memories here:
- The one with the sad Brazilian man. Who is he? Why is he so popular? All is revealed.
- Once in awhile, Twitter becomes awesome-r than they already are with customisations like these.
- When Suarez insisted that he fell on Chiellini with his teeth and the memes that were generated after.
- This Brazilian boy who has (almost) a team of football stars in his name.
- How governing body FIFA decided to “red card” (read: ban) chunky, brightly coloured headphones, Beats.
- That time Neymar broke his back and effectively broke hearts from around the globe when he was laid off.
- A riot in Brazil during the #BRAvGER game, you say? Nope, nope, nope. Not even close.
- Our MP, clearly a Germany fan, doing it wrong by publicly hailing Hitler in a tweet after #GER’s 7-1 win over #BRA.
- Another meme frenzy following the shocking #BRAvGER semi-final match.
- What we thought were the funniest moments from the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil earlier on.
