The 1990 football World Cup was not, in truth, a great tournament, but it was a tournament of great moments, and in time they became all that was remembered. An often dreary event to live through – no World Cup has had an average fewer goals per match – it was rescued by the most remarkable of all curtain-raisers, Benjamin Massing’s assault on Claudio Caniggia, Roger Milla’s dancing, René Higuita’s goalkeeping, Lothar Matthäus’s wonder goal, David Platt’s volley, Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler, Gazza’s tears. In the end, these moments are all that get remembered. It has gone down as a classic.
This series has gone through the same process in fast forward. Marked more than anything by players bravely hauling themselves beyond the brink of exhaustion on flat wickets, it has simply produced too many great moments to not in fact be great.
