Come right this way for your Beckhams, your Cristiano Ronaldos back when he could take the odd free-kick, and most importantly your Juninho Pernambucanos. Hulk v Sao Paulo The thick-set Atletico Mineiro forward lines up a 40-yard kick. Surely it’s too far out.
But no, someone has made Hulk angry and he absolutely batters the ball and it wobbles and floats into the top corner. And it moves at pace, so he must have hit it hard. He’s still only 37 and still playing and has played 199 games for Mineiro, scoring 106 goals.
Keisuke Honda v Denmark Japan’s dead-ball specialist hits one from the right, 35 yards out. It wobbles, rises and swerves into the net in a quite extraordinary fashion. It must have been the way he hit it and the nature of the ball.
The keeper doesn’t stand a chance and can’t even put himself behind it. David Luiz v Colombia Brazil’s sideshow Bob runs up to a dead ball 35 yards out and strikes it with the side of his foot. Unusual in itself.
Even more so that it sped into the top corner at pace. It looks like a powerful pass. Understandably he loses his mind.
Elano v Colo-Colo An aerodynamic feat. It’s an apparently straightforward 40-yard drive into the goal, except the ball does several gymnastics along the way, going right and left so dramatically that the keeper doesn’t know which way to go before it’s past him. Juninho Pernambucano v Ajax The best ever dead-ball specialist, here Juninho takes a free-kick from the right that must be 45 yard.