Robin van Persie launched himself like a flying fish to meet a 50-yard pass from Daley Blind, and headed the ball over a stranded Iker Casillas. It was the 44th minute of a group game in Salvador at the 2014 World Cup. Spain were the defending champions. By full time they had been beaten 5-1, and the diving header had become the image of the tournament.
A header from a very long way out
What made it absurd was the distance and the angle. Van Persie met Blind's long pass with his whole body horizontal, and the ball looped perfectly over Casillas and into the net. No sane striker tries that from there. Van Persie did.
The goal made it 1-1. After that the Netherlands tore Spain apart, and the champions went on to be eliminated in the group stage after the demolition.
The picture of him in mid-air earned him the name The Flying Dutchman, and it has been replayed as often as almost any goal in World Cup history. It went round the world at a speed the internet of the time was barely ready for. Audacity and a little madness, in roughly equal parts, and a sign that the 2014 tournament had properly started.
Tomorrow: number 29.
