If you’ve been watching the World Cup closely — really closely — you’ll have spotted the cow’s tail.It made a rare appearance at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday during the second half of the Brazil versus Morocco game, close to one of the corner flags and with about 15 minutes of normal time remaining. It was beautiful, too.In case you think the heat is starting to get to us and that we’re going slightly mad, we’re talking about the wonderful piece of skill used by Ismael Saibari, Morocco’s prodigiously talented forward, to nutmeg the Brazil left-back Douglas Santos, leading to gasps from the crowd.Saibari’s 180-degree sweep turn is called ‘la cola de vaca’ in Spanish, which translates as ‘the cow’s tail’, and is a move that was popularised by the Brazil and Barcelona legend Romario in the 1990s. It also happens to be one of the 10 skills that features in the first part of our How To Series, which breaks down some of the best dribbling moves and turns used by the world’s greatest players with the help of video tutorials.Watch and learn, and you could be sprinkling magic at your local five-a-side pitch next week with Ronaldinho’s ‘hocus pocus’ move.Across the six-part series, we’ll also be demonstrating the art of shooting, exploring some of the best types of passes in the game, looking at a wide range of set pieces, hearing golden tips about goalkeeping, and showing you how to take on and master the ball-juggling challenge that was inspired by a Diego Maradona warm-up in 1989.To guide you through it all, we’ve got four players with more than 1,500 appearances in professional football between them, including current and former internationals and a cult hero who takes penalties while pretending to tie up his laces and performs like a seal — literally.
Welcome to The Athletic’s How To Series, where experts show you how to copy your heroes
In a special video-led series, four footballers, a Premier League academy player and a football YouTuber teach you what you need to know













