Top football moments of the year 2014

New Delhi: The year 2014 has been a great year for football especially for India. The nation saw the resurgence of football through Indian Super League. It was a really a great step to revolutionize the Indian sports. However the biggest football extravaganza FIFA World Cup was the main eye catcher of the fans around the world. It was the year full of controversies, major upsets and big records by the legends.1) Germany wins 4th World Cup after 24 yearsGermany became the first European side to win the World Cup on South American soil with a dramatic late goal in a 1-0 victory that prevented Argentina claiming victory in the spiritual home of their biggest rivals.With two quick touches, Mario Goetze ended Germany's 24-year wait for another World Cup title which made him an overnight hero.He scored the winning goal in extra time to give Germany a 1-0 victory over Argentina in a tight and tense final that came down to one piece of individual skill.It was a goal that gave Germany its fourth World Cup title in its eighth final, and left Argentina star Lionel Messi still walking in the shadow of his compatriot Diego Maradona, who led his country to the 1986 title.2) Old habits die hard, Luis Suarez bites againOn the world's biggest football stage with his team facing elimination, Uruguay's Luis Suarez bit an opponent at the World Cup. Suarez, who earned a 10-match ban in 2013 for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic, bit Italy's Giorgio Chiellini late into Uruguay's final group game. No card was shown to Suarez by the referee and Chiellini was furious for obvious reasons.Later Suarez ended up with a four month ban from all football activities across the world.However Uruguay defeated former World Champions Italy 1-0 and kicked them out of the tournament.3) Shocker…..Neymar leaves World Cup with a back injuryThe Brazilian star had his World Cup prematurely ended when Colombia's Juan Zuniga kneed the 22-year-old in his back during the quarter-final on 4th July 2014.Neymar claimed after the game he could have been paralysed had the blow been a few inches lower.He was ruled out of his country's dismal final two matches. Brazil went on to be humiliated 7-1 against eventual champions Germany before limping to a 3-0 defeat in the third-place play-off against Holland.Later Zuniga sent a letter of apology to Neymar, saying he is "deeply sorry and sad" for causing the injury that knocked the Brazil striker out of the World Cup.However he recovered well in time and returned for training in the first week of August.4) Another shocker…Germany bulldozed Brazil by 7-1With Neymar out due to injury, Germany poured in the goals to hand Brazil its heaviest World Cup loss ever with an astounding 7-1 rout in the semi-final on 8th July 2014 that stunned the host nation. Miroslav Klose scored a record-setting 16th career World Cup goal in a five-goal spurt in the first half as Brazil's defence was torn apart.Previously, Brazil's biggest World Cup loss was 3-0 to France in the 1998 final. This matched their biggest ever margin of defeat in any competition, equalling a 6-0 loss to Uruguay in 1920 in the South American championship, the predecessor of the Copa America.It was also Brazil's first loss in a competitive match on home soil since 1975, when Peru won 3-1 at Mineirao Stadium in the Copa America.5) Super man - van PersieIt was a stunning goal that will live long in the memory - Robin van Persie soaring through the air to head Holland level in their World Cup opener against defending champions Spain.With halftime approaching and the scores levelled at 1-1, the Dutch needed some World Cup inspiration. They needed somebody to do something special and get their 2014 campaign started.Daley Blind produced the pass. Robin van Persie produced a magnificent header to beat Iker Casillas and send the Dutch hordes into celebration.6) Indian super league---birth of a footballing nationFootball in India will never be the same again and Indian Super League (ISL) can take all plaudits for this monumental change in the country's sporting culture.The inaugural Indian Super League trophy was lifted by Atletico de Kolkata, co-owned by Sourav Ganguly. Mohammad Rafique has written his name in history after scoring the goal in the final against Kerala Blasters just 30 seconds before the full time.For the first time in Indian football, globally renowned footballers like Del Piero, Luis Garcia, Marco Materazzi etc played alongside the Indian footballers. With a mission to revolutionize the sport, Indian Super League is positioned as a high quality and dynamic league that will elevate Indian football to an international level.The average match attendance for the tournament since its commencement Oct 12 is 24,357, the highest across Asia, and according to the organisers the league trailed only Germany's Bundesliga, the Barclays Premier League and Spain's La Liga.The tournament kicked off with 65,000 people attending the opening game between Atletico de Kolkata and Mumbai City FC Oct 12. The league also recorded over 16 million online video views through the course of the tournament.Additionally, the official ISL online channel registered 28.7 million visits. On social media too, the ISL captured the minds of football fans, recording over 1.8 million conversations, 10 billion impressions and 275,000-plus unique authors.The semi-final clash between Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters FC recorded the highest number of online video views - 1.1 million - ever witnessed in India for any single sport game.Besides making football popular again, the most important thing ISL did was to make young Indian footballers see the sport as a viable career and this in turn is expected to increase the pool of players and improve the quality of the national team.The popularity with which the ISL has been received only spurs towards realizing the eventual dream of giving rise to a footballing nation and participate in 2026 FIFA World Cup.7) Lion……Lionel MessiLionel Messi scored a hat trick to emphatically break the Spanish league's all-time scoring mark in Barcelona's 5-1 win over Sevilla on 22nd November 2014.Messi, already Barcelona's all-time scorer, surpassed Athletic Bilbao great Telmo Zarra's milestone of 251 goals that had stood untouched since 1955. His record-setting effort eclipsed rival Cristiano Ronaldo becoming the first player to reach 20 goals in the first 12 rounds of a season.Three days after he scored another hat-trick to become the Champions League's all-time top scorer in a 4-0 win over APOEL.8) Cristiano Ronaldo's Spanish League recordCristiano Ronaldo scored all of Real Madrid's goals in a 3-0 win against Celta Vigo on 6th November 2014, breaking La Liga's long-standing hat trick record with his 23rd for Real Madrid.Ronaldo broke the record of 22 hat tricks he shared with another Real Madrid legend, Alfredo Di Stefano, and Athletic Bilbao's Telmo Zarra.His third goal was also his 200th of his La Liga career - a feat he achieved in just 178 games, faster than any other player.