With the 2026 World Cup approaching what better time to take a look back into the history of previous finals and pick out the best and worst of them. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil featured possibly the most unexpected result in tournament history, the 7-1 rout of the hosts by Germany. But there was plenty more to choose from. Below are my highlights and lowlights.
The worst
Tim Krul’s antics – Costa Rica 0-0 Netherlands (Netherlands win 4-3 on penalties)
The concept of a ‘special team’ is well established in American football, where complete line-ups are substituted in and out according to the game situation. It’s less common in football (once the special team is on, they stay on) but there are circumstances where it can come in useful. One such example was the 2014 World Cup quarter final played between Costa Rica and the Netherlands.
The game had finished scoreless in normal time, despite considerable pressure from the men in orange, and extra time was heading the same way. With a minute or so left on the clock Dutch manager, Louis Van Gaal, played a masterstroke, surprising not only the opposition but apparently his own team as well. He took off first choice keeper, Jasper Cillessen, replacing him from the bench with Tim Krul. Van Gaal judged the 6’4” Newcastle keeper to be the better of the two at saving penalties and, with the contest heading that way, brought on his ‘special team‘.
Krul was not only good at saving penalties, he was also skilled in mind games. He went up to every Costa Rica penalty taker before they shot, telling them he had been studying them and knew which way they would go. He then took an inordinate amount of time getting into position, forcing the Central Americans to wait nervously. As it happens, he showed he had done his homework, going the right way for all five of the Costa Rican shots, saving two of them. With his teammates converting all four of theirs, his short (and somewhat unsportsmanlike) appearance saw his team progress through to the semis.
The headbutt – Cameroon 0-4 Croatia
The ‘indomitable Lions’ of Cameroon proved all too ‘domitable’ in the 2014 World Cup. It was not entirely unexpected as, since their stunning performances in 1990, they had repeatedly failed to turn up on the biggest stage of all. Four finals appearances between 1994 and 2010 had delivered only one win and no progress to the knock-out stages. It didn’t help in Brazil that they were drawn in a tough group comprising the hosts, Croatia and Mexico, but their performances, anyway, were poor.
They were particularly disappointing in their second game, against Croatia, losing Alex Song to a straight red card in the first half, and conceding four goals by the 73rd minute. It was clear that there was discord in the camp, and it came to a head (literally) in stoppage time when defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto confronted forward Benjamin Moukandjo accusing him of a lack of effort. As they tussled with each other, Assou-Ekotto clearly tried to headbutt his teammate. They had to be separated on the pitch, then again in the tunnel. The management were clearly not impressed with Assou-Ekotto. He was dropped for the final group game (another defeat, this time 4-1 to Brazil) and never played for his country again.
Suarez’s bite
Luis Suarez is considered one of the greatest players in Uruguayan football history. Over a 17-year international career, he played for his country 143 times scoring 69 goals, a national record. He also lit up the Premier League for two and half seasons, winning both the PFA and FA Writers Player of the Year awards in 2013/14 while at Liverpool, before he became an all-time club legend for Barcelona.
His legacy, though, is tarnished by a series of disciplinary incidents that is probably as unsavoury as any high-profile international footballer you can think of. These included a head-butt of a referee, a ban for on-field racial abuse and several bust-ups with teammates. His particular weakness, though, was an irresistable urge to use his not-inconsiderable teeth as a combat weapon. His first notable biting incident was while playing for Ajax in 2010, before a second came in 2013 in the Premier League, a bite on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic for which Suarez received a ten-match ban. This really should have proved a important learning experience for Suarez, but apparently not.
In Brazil and facing Italy in the make-or-break final group game, Suarez bit down on the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in the 40th minute. Although he was not sent off at the time, subsequent review of the incident saw Suarez ejected from the tournament and banned from football for four months.
Suarez is still playing top level football (if you can count Inter Miami) and remains always only a hair’s breadth away from controversy. Indeed, as recently as 2025 he was suspended for spitting on a security director after a post-match brawl.
England’s pitiful exit
It’s easy in retrospect to say that we never had a chance, but looking now at the England squad for the 2014 World Cup, we never had a chance. Our world-class players – Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney – were at or near the ends of their international careers, and there was a distinct lack of star quality in the rest of the line-up. Our manager Roy Hodgson was hardly a star turn either, fresh from a stint at mid-table West Brom following a hugely disappointing spell at Liverpool.
When we were drawn in a group with Italy and Uruguay, both ranked above us, and with Costa Rica stronger than the average group fall-guy, many England fans feared the worst. Their fears were to be realised. Our opening game pitted us against old rivals, Italy. We actually played pretty well, making plenty of chances and having two decent penalty shouts turned down, but suffered from two defensive lapses, going down 2-1. To many people’s surprise, the winner was scored by a player who had underachieved in the PL, the unpredictable Mario Balotelli. In our second game, we again played decently, but also went down 2-1. This time the dagger was plunged into our hearts by another maverick, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez (see also above). When Costa Rica beat Italy in their second group game, England were eliminated with a game to spare. We did, at least, get a point in our final game, but the dull 0-0 draw against Costa Rica was a fitting epitaph for a dismal campaign.
The best
The shaving foam
Yes, this is a trivial one, but the 2014 World Cup was the first in which vanishing spray was used by referees. It was such a simple innovation, one wonders why it did not come into the game sooner. Mocked by most on its introduction, it solved at a stroke the age-old problem of defensive walls inching further and further forward to render free kicks more and more harmless. Strangely enough, since it came in, it has done nothing to increase the number of shots and goals from free-kicks. In fact, conversion rates have declined. But it is fairer and stops obvious cheating. Now, if only they can come up with something to stop holding on in the penalty box.
Orange crush – Spain 1-5 Netherlands, Group B opener
The 2010 World Cup final saw Spain win their first World Cup title, beating the Netherlands who lost in the final for a demoralising third time. Four years later and the two teams were drawn in the same qualifying group, and scheduled to face each other in their opening fixture (the first time this had happened for the two most recent finalists). Spain were perhaps coming off their (very high) peak, the Netherlands seemed to be on the up under manager, Louis Van Gaal.
The Dutch made an early statement of intent when Wesley Sneijder burst through the Spanish defence to test Iker Casillas, but it was the Spaniards who struck first when Diego Costa won a dubious penalty, converted by Xabi Alonso, in the 27th minute. After a great chance for David Silva to double the lead, the momentum of the game changed just before half time. A hopeful cross-field ball was launched from just over the half way line. It looked like it was dropping into no-man’s land, but Robin Van Persie saw something in it. He sprinted forward and as the ball fell from the sky, launched himself at it and dive-headed it over Casillas and into the back of the net. It was one of the goals of the tournament, indeed of any tournament.
Soon after half-time a similar ball came to Arjan Robben in much the same spot. He collected it smartly, took two clever touches to flummox the central defenders, then coolly slotted past Casillas. The Dutch day got better still when a Sneijder free kick from the left missed everyone except defender de Vrij, arriving at the back post to bundle the ball in for his first international goal. A terrible and uncharacteristic mistake from Casillas then gifted a second to the alert Van Persie, before a superb breakaway from Robben produced the Netherlands’ fifth goal. Spain had not conceded five in a match for over 50 years, the last time being in 1963, improbably against Scotland.
Spain never recovered from the shock, failing to progress from the group. And the Netherlands may have peaked just a little too early, going on to stumble through the knock-out stages before falling on penalties to Argentina in the semis.
It’s pronounced Ha’mez – James Rodriguez
In September 2020 Colombian James Rodriguez arrived at mid-table Everton on a free transfer. Released by Real Madrid, it was something of a comedown for a player still only 29-years-old. A mere six years earlier, he had been the breakout star of the 2014 World Cup, performing so well that he soon became the fourth most expensive player in football history.
Rodriguez’s World Cup was stellar. He led his national team in the group stage to three wins out of three, scoring in each and adding two assists for good measure. He scored a brace in the round of 16 to ease Colombia past Uruguay, then added another in the quarters (for six in total and the Golden Boot) in the 1-2 defeat to Brazil. It was, however, not just the quantity of his goals that was exceptional, it was the quality.
His goal against Japan in the group stage was voted third best of the tournament, feinting one way then the other to leave his defender on the floor before chipping exquisitely over the advancing keeper. And his opener against Uruguay was even better. Facing away from the goal and outside the box, he controlled the ball on his chest, then swivelled 180⁰ to smash a left-foot volley against the underside of the crossbar and into the net. It was the worldie to end all worldies. Perhaps Rodriguez peaked too early in his career, but, boy, what a peak it was.
The collapse to end all collapses – Brazil 1-7 Germany, Semi-Final
Football is massive across the world but nowhere is it more massive than Brazil. It’s more than a game in Brazil, it’s an integral part of the country’s national identity. In 2014, with the World Cup hosted on home soil, expectations were high that the Canarinho would add to their record five World Cup titles.
They got off to a decent start, kicking off the tournament with a 3-1 win over Croatia that included two goals from their latest national hero, Neymar. After a goalless draw with Mexico, the forward added two more in a 4-1 win over Cameroon that meant Brazil topped their qualifying group. Signs of frailty, though, appeared in their round of 16 game vs Chile that they won only on penalties, then again in a less-than-convincing 2-1 quarter-final win over Colombia. They also suffered two huge blows in this win – the losses of star player, Neymar, injured after a cynical foul, and, perhaps more significantly, of captain Thiago Silva, due to his second yellow card of the tournament.
The semi-final pitted the hosts against Germany, and produced one of the most remarkable and unexpected games in the history of the World Cup. The stadium was a sea of canary yellow and the atmosphere electric, but rather than inspiring the home side, it seemed to render them utterly incompetent. The fun started in the 11th minute, when abysmal Brazilian defending from a corner left Thomas Muller alone on the edge of the six yard box and able to volley home. 12 minutes later the Germans skipped through the statue-like defenders to present Miroslav Klose with a record-breaking 16th World Cup goal. Just over a minute later, another defensive error left Toni Kroos unmarked on the edge of the box from where he shot in. Two more goals followed in the next five minutes, a second for Kroos and one for Khedira, again benefiting from a frozen Brazilian defence who seemed already to have given up. Brazil were trailing by incredible five goals to nil after only 29 minutes.
The pain was not over. After a brief but fruitless rally by Brazil in the second half, Germany scored twice more, both from Andre Schurrle, to take the score to a humiliating 0-7. Ozil had a golden chance to add an eighth in the final minute, before the most pointless consolation goal of all-time was scored at the other end by Oscar. Few in the crowd or the country will have celebrated, many will have been too shocked and upset to even speak.