Three players—Messi, Neymar and Muller—have four goals tallied already this World Cup. Six others have 3 goals to their name. Thirteen have 2. Twenty seven with just 1. In total, if my math checks out (which it probably doesn't because of when I wrote this, but whatever) 136 goals have been scored. Some have been important ones. Others, not so much. Some were scored by good players. One was scored by Fernando Torres. Brits scored. Italians too. The US government even let an Iranian player score. 136! Wow! That's more goals than Wilt Chamberlain scored against the Knicks in 1962!
That's 136 chances for a guy to pop off his shirt. 136 robots danced. 136 [insert praying hands emoji here]. 136 babies cradled. But as we know, every goal is different. Every goal requires a different type of celebration. Often, goal celebrations share similarities. There's some sort of common denominator: A gesture is made by a goal-scoring Ecuadorian and then replicated days later by an equally jubilant Socceroo. An Elephant from the Ivory Coast rejoices just as a celestial Uruguayan might.
Before we head any further into what is already shaping up to be a particularly spectacular knockout stage of this World Cup, let's examine some of those common denominators. Let's categorically break down all the different types of goal celebrations.
Andrew Meisel is a writer living in NYC who loves soccer.
1. CELEBRATIONLEAD
2. bench
3. follometofreedom
4. powerpump
5. charliebrown
6. praying
7. dance
8. otherguy
9. hungruman
10. cahill
11. notdeadyet
