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World Cup 2014: The best passes of the tournament

The Independent’s team of writers make their individual choices for the best pass of the World Cup in Brazil

Sunday 13 July 2014 21:09 BST

Angel di Maria celebrates his goal with Lionel Messi (GETTY IMAGES)

It's been a fantastic month of football littered with brilliant plays. Our writers select their favourite pass of the tournament.

SAM WALLACE - chief football writer

Lionel Messi to Angel Di Maria against Belgium

The mesmerising thing about this pass, as it evaded four defenders, was the perfection of the pace on the ball. Any quicker, or any slower, and it would not quite have been right. It was like a good chip onto the green with enough backspin to hold up at the pin. A pity Di Maria did not score.

IAN HERBERT - football correspondent

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal v United States

Grace under the most incredible pressure, this. The accuracy and weight of Ronaldo’s cross from the right were sublime, allowing substitute Silvestre Varela to keep Portugal in the tournament with a late equaliser against the US. The timing – 90 minutes – just took your breath away.

GLENN MOORE - football editor

Take your pick from the various unselfish short, square passes by Germans in the slaughter of Brazil. Less defence-splitting than Lionel Messi’s v Belgium, or Raheem Sterling v Italy, but symbolic of a team in which the individual plays for the collective.

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Red faced

Vincent Tan, owner of relegated Cardiff City, is proved wrong again: red shirts do not increase the chances of success. Red was the most popular first-choice shirt colour in the tournament. Nine teams picked it, yet five, including big guns Spain and Portugal, failed to get out of their groups. Two more fell in the second round, and the furthest any crimson campaigners got was the quarter-finals – Ivory Coast and Belgium.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Don’t get carried away

Not for the first time at a World Cup, the number of goals (added to by Netherlands' 5-1 thrashing of Spain) in the first round sparked talk of a new record. But the group stages are no guide for the latter rounds, and the goal rush dried up once the sudden-death reality of the knockouts took hold.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Letter of advice

To succeed in these finals you needed your nation’s name to start with a letter in the first half of the alphabet, Algeria (pictured) being the most surprising. Of the 32 nations, only nine started with a letter in the latter half of the alphabet. Of those, five got through to the second round, but out of eight quarter-finalists only Netherlands represented N-Z.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Well done Jose

For Jose Mourinho to get £50 million from PSG for David Luiz looks great business. The Chelsea manager’s chief concern was always the Brazilian centre-half’s defensive ability, and the semi-final against Germany, when he effectively abandoned his post, graphically proved Mourinho’s point.

GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Spain lacked energy

Spain’s feeble performance, especially against the Netherlands, proved that at the top level age isn’t as important as freshness. Many of their players are in their prime and playing for top clubs. And it was not exactly an old team. But success can sap a player’s energy as much as age.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Europe can win away

The fact that this World Cup was only a Javier Mascherano tackle and a penalty shoot-out away from being a third successive all-European final shows the old belief that only South American teams win on that continent needs updating. It wasn’t the climate that prevented the Netherland’s best player, Arjen Robben, scoring a late winner against Argentina.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Hair cuts both ways

The jury is out on whether changing your hairstyle aids success. Ronaldo’s zig-zag didn’t help him or Portugal, while Neymar’s blond tint presaged his injury and Brazil’s 1-7 thrashing. But Argentina defender Martin Demichelis has been reborn as a player since he lost his ponytail. The newly shorn Marouane Fellaini must be hoping for the same at Old Trafford.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Messy not Messi

The “vanishing foam” may have kept defensive walls back 10 yards at free-kicks, but it did nothing to help the free-kick taker strike the ball cleanly. The ball had to be kicked through the ring of foam circling the ball, splattering it everywhere.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Money talks in Africa

Nigeria’s Stephen Keshi (above right) became the continent’s first manager to reach the second round, where there were two African teams for the first time. It should have been a landmark tournament; instead three federations got involved in financial disputes as the old problems resurfaced.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

A star is born

Given the media globalisation of the club game, it seemed rather old-fashioned to imagine a hitherto unregarded player making himself properly known at a tournament. But in this World Cup James Rodriguez (right) of Colombia has gone from the fringes of the elite to worldwide superstar.

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Referees became softies

Allegedly on Fifa orders, so many fouls went unpunished by a book- ing for the perpetrator. The statistics also suggest leniency: 10 red cards (above) is fewer than any finals since 1986.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Fifa’s timely earner

The game’s governing body may be a “non-profit organisation”, but they are still very good at earning. That could be seen every time the sponsored watch-shaped stoppage-time board (above) was held up by the fourth official.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Corners are key

Set-pieces are supposedly the weapon of choice for weaker teams, but much of Germany’s potency derives from them. For all the squad’s talent, the key opening goals in both their quarter-final and semi-final were from corners.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Rotation is crucial

The three best-performing semi-finalists all shared one trait: they changed either formation or line-up in every match, making them very difficult to work out. It was a factor in why Argentina-Netherlands was so tense, and one explanation why Brazil fell apart. Without Neymar and Thiago Silva, they could not adapt.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Club and country

A club season is no guide to World Cup form. Steven Gerrard was immense for Liverpool, anonymous for England. On the other side of things, there is Sergio Romero . The goalkeeper only made three appearances for Monaco last season but has been one of Argentina’s stars.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Asia still minor

So much for the breakthrough of Asian football. All four teams finished bottom of their groups, without a win between them. It was so bleak that the South Korean Football Association even offered a collective bow of apology.

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World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Oh lucky man

The records show that England had the seventh worst campaign of the 32 teams. Unlike those who outperformed him, such as Greece’s Fernando Santos and even Japan’s Alberto Zacceroni, Roy Hodgson has stayed in employment.

PA

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Shoot-out kings

Argentina 1990 remain the only side to have won two shoot-outs in the same World Cup. So it was perhaps fitting that it was Alex Sabella’s side who prevented the Dutch team from emulating them (above). Argentina never looked like losing from the moment of the first penalty.

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

Tweet tweet

The second semi-final offered a first, as Argentina tweeted their list of penalty takers. It almost felt like they were calling Louis van Gaal’s bluff. It’s hard to say whether it was a factor, but it did reflect how this World Cup has been dominated by social media.

World Cup 2014: 20 things we learned

No new balls please

Complaints about the ball have always been one of the tournament’s clichés, but not this time, with a complete absence of discussion about it. The ball is doing exactly what it is meant to, meaning attackers are more comfortable with it.

PA

JACK PITT-BROOKE - football writer

Paul Pogba v Switzerland

Pogba is too often praised only for his athletic prowess, but the France midfielder is a technical wizard too, as he showed with his brilliant assist for Karim Benzema against Switzerland. Pogba floated a pass with the outside of his right boot, looping it over Philippe Senderos and perfectly into Benzema’s path. He volleyed it in.

TIM RICH - football writer

Cristian Gamboa, Costa Rica v Uruguay

The goal that started the fairytale; a run to the by-line, a perfect pull-back for Joel Campbell, who produced the shot the pass deserved. Junior Diaz’s cross for Bryan Ruiz’s winner against Italy wasn’t bad either.

SIMON HART - football writer

Daley Blind, Netherlands v Spain

The pre-finals anxiety among the Dutch press about Louis van Gaal’s use of wing-backs vanished in the 44th minute of their opening game as Blind delivered a brilliant 40-yard ball from out on the left touchline to meet Van Persie’s run between Spain’s two centre-backs.

MIGUEL DELANEY - football writer

Lionel Messi for Angel Di Maria against Belgium

Literally the perfect pass, and the event that showed why there has always been so much more to him than goals. Way back in his own half, and with four Belgian players to beat, Messi somehow threaded it both around and through them to set up Angel Di Maria. Extraordinary vision. Exquisite execution.

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