5 Iconic moments in football Part 1

Football is like life, mostly mundane, sometimes exciting  and every once in a while ,something happens which one just can't forget, it becomes a core memory and ICONIC. Among plethora  of such moments the game we all love has produced over time, we will roll back the clock and have a look at 5 such moments which have etched their places among the football aficionados.

1) Portuguese Maestro Pork'd at Camp Nou

23rd November  2002 , the date a former Portuguese Barca El Captino managed  to rear an ugly head from the curlers, quite literally as his move to their bitter rivals whitewashed any good memories  he might have had over at Camp Nou. Every time he went over to take a corner it became very clear what they thought of GOT-esque betrayal from their once hero for moving to their bitter rivals especially when he was their skipper.

Chucking objects at him throughout the match including a pigs head which was symbolic gesture to send out a message that he was allegedly a money hungry pig who had betrayed his former side FC Barcelona to join Los Blancos which was no doubt one of the most controversial and polarizing transfers of all time .

2) When Jose Mourinho preferred to stay Silent

15th of March 2014,. a run of the mill fixture between Chelsea and Aston Villa was the birthplace of one of the most iconic phrases in online football banter culture. This was a 1-0 narrow defeat except for the fact that the refree that day. 

Chris Foy had shown two red cards during the game which eventually lead to these iconic words coming out of Jose's mouth in the subsequent post match interview, "If prefer not to speak , If I speak I'm in big trouble". 

Thereby conveying exactly what he actually  felt about the refereeing performance in that game by repeating the same phrase when being pressed upon by the media persons to get a reaction out of him and getting across his message without even mincing words, truly a "Special One" moment from Jose.

3) Blood and Tears for The 3 Lions

England vs Sweden - World Cup qualifier in 1989, Terry Butcher suffered a cut to the forehead during a collision early on in the game, got patched up with some temporary stitches and continued. 

Even though for a Center Back heading the ball is pretty important and the stitches quickly reopened (explains the crazy amount of blood) he Still managed to bravely  play the whole ninety minutes and kept a clean sheet even though he couldn't keep his shirt clean.

4) Do not Scratch your Eyes

12th May 2013, EFL Championship Play Off Semi-final between Watford and Leicester. Leeds get a penalty  deep into injury time and Watford promotion hopes were about to be dashed, but Anthony Knockaert fluffed his lines and former Arsenal No.1 Almunia and Bamm !! 

Watford start a lightning counter from their own half  down the right hand side and eventually Hogg delivered the ball into the box which Troy Deeney duly smashed into the net in 97th minute of injury time and jumped onto the crowd in ecstasy.

5) Bafana Bafana !! Goal for all Africa

On the 1st ever World cup held on African soil , on at 4 pm local time, on June 11, 2010, the referee blew their whistle officially kicking off the first-ever FIFA World Cup in Africa between South Africa and Mexico.  

The 1st half in this match was closely contested and had nothing spectacular to write home about. But the breakthrough  came in the 65th minute when Barca and Mexican legend Rafael Marquez's casual attempt at a pass in South Africa's half proved costly as they pounced on it to launch a counter. 

Teko Modise played a quick one-two with Katlego Mphela before outfoxing the Mexican defence with an immaculate weighed pass for the lightning. Quick Siphiwe Tshabalala who had ventured into the Mexican box way back from his own half, took a touch in the box. The ball ended up in the back of the net and the rest is history. 

This moment being immortalized  by the  iconic Peter Drury , the typical African flair with the whole team celebration and the vuvuzelas(even though they were a nightmare for ears for the most part)

Everything was just perfect , encapsulating the beautiful game in it's full glory

Cover Credits - Nike Football