Your World Cup,
your predictions.

One movement, one fake, one drag-back, and football gained a permanent new piece of vocabulary. Johan Cruyff shaped to cross, stopped dead, dragged the ball behind his standing leg and spun away from defender Jan Olsson in the same motion. The Netherlands drew 0-0 with Sweden, but nobody remembers the scoreline. They remember the feeling that football suddenly looked more inventive than it had the day before.

Brazil's fourth goal against Italy looked rehearsed by artists. Nine passes, every player calm, every movement deliberate. Then Pelé paused, waited, and rolled the ball perfectly into the path of Carlos Alberto charging from right-back. First time, bottom corner. The goal became shorthand for everything people wanted football to look like — rhythm, imagination, freedom. Brazil won 4-1 and sealed the most romanticised team in World Cup history.