World Cups generate some of football's most iconic imagery.
Think Pele being carried aloft in 1958 or Bobby Moore holding the trophy up in '66.
Think Tardelli in '82 or Gazza in '90, Tshabala in South Africa or James in Brazil.
Or, you know, Diana Ross in 1994.
The 1994 World Cup was the first held outside of Europe and South America.
The contemporary growth of soccer in the USA can be traced back to the summer in which
they held the tournament on their shores.
It got off to an inauspicious start.
Europe's football-lovers had always sneered at the USA's relationship with "soccer," particularly
the insistence on adding unnecessary glamour to the proceedings.
But opening ceremonies are designed to reflect the culture of the host nation, and so Diana
Ross doing a number and scoring a penalty which then explodes the goal she is aiming
at made sense.
As we all know, of course, she missed the penalty and the goal exploded anyway.
"Style over substance," cried the critics...
But what followed was a genuine festival of football, and more iconic images than you
could shake a stick at.
Here are just some of them: Ireland beating Italy in Giants Stadium thanks
to a Ray Houghton screamer and a truly inspired midfield performance from Roy Keane.
Diego Maradona's deranged celebration of his goal against Greece—screaming into the camera
with the fury of a thousand suns in his eyes—and his subsequent failed drugs test a few days later.
A potentially era-defining Nigeria side coming within a whisker of beating eventual finalists
Italy in the second round.
Ironically it was a penalty taken with nerves of steel by Roberto Baggio that saw the Azuri
fend off a Nigeria team which featured Finidi George, Jay-Jay Okocha and a host of other talented players.
Bebeto, Romario and Mazinho celebrating the former's goal against the Netherlands in the quarter final.
They stood side by side, held their arms in front of themselves and rocked them back and
forth as if soothing a baby to sleep.
This has been repeated time and again since, but was the first time a footballer marked
the birth of their child in this way—Bebeto's son, Mattheus Oliveira, whose birth it was,
signed for Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2017.
Yordan Letchov's bald pate getting on the end of a flying header in the 78th minute
of Bulgaria's quarter final tie with Germany.
Lothar Matteus had put the Germans in front with a 47th minute penalty and most thought
that was the end of Bulgaria's spirited, exciting run.
But it was not.
Hristo Stoichkov, a bona fide football genius, got Bulgaria level, and Letchcov got them to the semi-final.
They were probably the team of the tournament.
They fell at the next hurdle, though, as a Baggio inspired Italy saw them off.
The Divine Ponytail scored an early brace in front of 74,110 people in Giants Stadium.
This tournament would end with surely the worst moment of his career, but he played
some of the best football in that career to get his team to the final.
And that final might just have been the worst game of the tournament.
Brazil '94 are not universally beloved in their homeland because the football they played
under coach Carlos Alberto Parreira was functional rather than magnificent.
The 17 year-old Ronaldo was present but Parreira did not trust him.
Brazil might have been a lot more exciting if he had.
As it was, a cruel twist of fate meant the World Cup was won when Baggio stepped up to
take a crucial penalty in the shoot-out which followed a long 0-0 draw.
With the sun beating down on him, he swallowed, took a long, stuttering run up, then in trying
to lift the ball over the keeper with the inside of his boot, instead got his angles wrong and blazed over.
A world cup which had begun with the iconic image of a missed penalty ended exactly the same way.
Brazil were champions, and America had begun to catch the football bug all over again.