During this year’s World Cup, three outcomes are guaranteed. First, fans of one country will experience nirvana, while those in 47 others (up from 31 previously) will be heartbroken. Second, there will be moments of everlasting genius and infamy. There could be a goal as mesmerising as Diego Maradona’s solo dribble against England, a touch as sumptuous as Johan Cruyff’s turn against Sweden or a save as improbable as Gordon Banks’s against Pelé; a penalty miss as agonising as Roberto Baggio’s against Brazil, a handball as blatant as Luis Suárez’s against Ghana or a headbutt as shocking as Zinedine Zidane’s against Italy.
The third certainty is plenty of stodgy matches which few people remember fondly. That is because the World Cup—for all the fervour about sweepstakes, sticker albums and occasional screamers—typically produces an ugly version of the beautiful game. One way to measure this is in goals: in the past three editions, there have been only 2.6 per game in normal time, falling to just 2.3 in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. During that time, the rate in the English Premier League, the world’s richest domestic competition, has been 2.8. Notably, the moments of brilliance and ignominy mentioned above happened in otherwise cagey games. In only one did a team score multiple goals, and that was because Maradona punched one in with the „Hand of God”
