Netherlands 1-1 Argentina, quarter-final, France 1998, and the clock was running down. Frank de Boer, in his own half, hit a 60-yard pass forward more in hope than in design, or so it looked.
Dennis Bergkamp brought it down with his right foot. That first touch is still held up as close to perfect as control gets. With the second touch he flicked the ball past Roberto Ayala. With the third he finished. It was the 89th minute, the Netherlands won 2-1 and Argentina were out of the World Cup.
Three touches. There was nothing else to it, and nothing missing either.
The Iceman at his best
Bergkamp had a reputation for making the difficult look like routine, and this goal is probably the clearest example. Each touch on its own was world class. Put together, under pressure, in the last minute of a quarter-final, they made the finest goal of his career. For a player who scored as many good ones as he did, that is saying something.
The goal is widely regarded as one of the top five World Cup goals of all time, and it is probably the most celebrated in Dutch football history.
What makes it stand out on replay is the calm. A 60-yard ball dropping out of the sky, a defender of Ayala's class tight behind him, a World Cup semi-final place at stake, and Bergkamp played it as if he were alone on the training ground. The Iceman, they called him, and on that evening in France he earned the name.
Tomorrow's goal: number 7.
