2000’s Top News Stories of the Decade

We have come to the end. Not just to the end of a transformative soccer year, 2019, but to the end of a decade. And wow, it has been something.

The 2010s brought indescribable joy and unspeakable agony, probably more of both than any decade before. Their World Cup finals brought extra-time winners, two American titles, and a hat trick for the ages. Their Champions Leagues brought historic comebacks, unforgettable bicycle kicks, and four finals decided after the 88th minute.

They brought engaging narratives and captivating feats and swan songs. But most importantly they brought us iconic moments. Euphoric moments and brutal ones, but most of all incredible memories. So many that we couldn’t resist trying to rank them.

Without any further ado…to the top 10 iconic soccer moments of the 2010s, in descending order.

(Not so random disclaimer: We only considered on-field moments – so FBI raids and presidential resignations won’t be seen on our list. And we considered them from the perspective of the evolving soccer fan so they come off a bit vague, we know. Don’t hold back in the comments, let us have it.)

2010: Iniesta’s World Cup winner

From a global perspective, an extra-time World Cup-winning goal – one full of quality, too – belongs in the top five. But for fans with no emotional connection to Spain, Iniesta’s golden moment may not hit the same.

15 years from now though, Andres Iniesta’s strike to put Spain 1-0 up on the Netherlands in the 116th minute of the 2010 World Cup final will persist. It’s the one that kids will recreate in backyards. Its impact – clinching Spain a first world title – is forever etched into the era for Spain that will be remembered as Golden. It also solidified Iniesta as a legend.

2011: Rapinoe to Wambach

The toughest thing about back to back titles is determining which championship mattered more. Thirteen months after Donovan’s moment, the U.S. women found themselves in a similar situation: Down a goal, in stoppage time, with yet another World Cup flop staring them in the face. This was epitomized in ESPN’s Ian Darke’s laboured tone. “And it will go down as the USA’s worst performance ever in a Women’s World Cup.”

But then almost out of nowhere, Ali Krieger cut out a pass, Carli Lloyd fought through fatigue and cycled the ball left to Megan Rapinoe. With the U.S. players running on empty, the seemingly impossible became possible.

Eight-plus years later, the entire play still seems so absurd. Watching Rapinoe’s cross in mid-flight, you can almost see when the opportunity shifts from hopeful to perfection.

The Americans then won on penalties. The following weekend, they fell to Japan. But this moment helped re-launch women’s soccer. It enabled explosions of interest around 2015 and 2019. Can you trace most of the USWNT’s decade-long popularity back to July 10, 2011? We think so.

2012: Zambia wins AFCON 2012

2012 was a tough year to select for, but when Zambia beat the Ivory Coast on February 12 2012, in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, it meant redemption for a football team and a nation. It also gave football one of its greatest ever stories. For Zambia, though, there was a bittersweet joy, a sense of having done something that transcended sport.  It was a fairytale triumph for the team, who returned to Gabon 19 years after the plane crash which claimed the lives of the team's coach and 18 members of their squad.

2013: Football Says Goodbye to Sir Alex

United would get their own back on City the following season, and it would be the 13th and final Premier League title won by their legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson.

On 8 May 2013, Ferguson announced he would be retiring from the game at the age of 71. The Scot bowed out having won a staggering 38 trophies during his 27 years in charge at Old Trafford, more than any other manager in the history of the game.

The following day, David Moyes was appointed as Ferguson’s hand-picked successor. The less said about his 10 months in charge of United, the better. Sir Alex’s influence has only compounded in his absence as Manchester United, for all of their lore and prestige, look unrecognizable in the current hierarchy of club football. At least he still cheers them on from the crowd right?

2014: 7-1

The night of July 8, 2014, was less a moment, more a mood. It was an image that developed over two hours but has since remained in the minds of football fans. “7-1.” Even Google knows the significance of the scoreline. Go ahead, type them into the search bar. Let me know what you first result is?

The first of two World Cup semifinals that summer was humiliating and devastating for Brazil, a country who still is seen as the measuring stick of international soccer. But in one of the country’s worst moments, its world-class footballers looked paralyzed by the moment, by expectations, by the weight of a country on their shoulders. As they unravelled, on live TV with the world watching, we were left to wonder whether the team understood the unshakable grief they’d be responsible for.

You may not remember any of the seven goals. But you’ll remember where you were, the faces you saw, and the sheer disbelief in Brazil capitulating on the world stage.

2015: Carli Lloyd from midfield

In 2015 There was nothing dramatic about the USWNT’s return to the top of the women’s soccer world. They scored inside three minutes, and again inside five. By the time Carli Lloyd took a forward touch in midfield, they were 3-0 up and cruising.

But what Lloyd did next was, and forever will be, iconic. To cap a stunning 15-minute hat trick, from smack-dab in the middle of the centre circle, her strike was honestly a little disrespectful. The audacity.

Dare. To. Shine.

2016: Leicester City’s PL Title

Before the season began, bookmakers offered odds of 5,000–1 on Leicester winning the title. Once in a lifetime stuff. In the summer of 2015, Leicester City hired Claudio Ranieri to replace Nigel Pearson as their new manager and many pundits figured the Italian would struggle to keep the club in the first division.

But the Foxes made an excellent start to the season, spearheaded by striker Jamie Vardy, who scored 13 goals over 11 consecutive matches from August to November, breaking Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Premier League record of scoring in 10 consecutive games.

Despite having been bottom of the league exactly 12 months prior, Leicester topped the table on Christmas Day in 2016 and while the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur struggled with consistency, Ranieri’s men pressed on in second half of the season.

Leicester officially became the sixth club to win the Premier League following a 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Tottenham on 2 May 2016 and the trophy was lifted at the King Power Stadium a few days later.

2017 Part 1: Messi at the Bernabeu

No end-of-decade list would be complete without the GOAT, Lionel Messi. Constantly breaking records and boggling minds, Messi has won 23 club trophies and a record 6 Ballon d’Ors to date.

But besides all of his other record-breaking moments, the one that best encapsulated Messi’s brilliance happened on April 23, 2017. Barcelona and Real Madrid were deadlocked at 2-2 after a gritty and embattled 90 minutes of Classico football. It was a must-win for Barca in order to stay in the title race. Sergi Roberto skipped past Marcelo in midfield and passed the ball left. And as everybody’s eyes went with the ball, Messi performed his favorite magic trick. The greatest footballer on the planet made himself invisible, ghosting towards the top of the box and put Madrid to the sword just when they thought they had taken points from Barca.

Arguably more iconic was what he did next. Holding the “MESSI 10” side of his jersey up to a stunned Santiago Bernabeu crowd, and entire footballing world, Messi was flexing and we were all here for it. We are still here for it. And so were the Madrid fans, who couldn’t help but applaud.

2017 Part 2: La Remontada

On February 14, 2017, the decade’s most prolific club was exposed in front of Europe and beaten 4-0 on what felt like a consequential Champions League knockout night in Paris. Turns out the rumours of Barca’s demise were greatly exaggerated. 

With three minutes plus added time remaining in the return leg back in Spain, Barca trailed PSG 5-3 on aggregate and by an away goal. And just when you thought they were even more dead than they’d been in February, Neymar dazzled. Suarez embellished, and Sergi Roberto, a Catalan boy who’d joined the club at 14, provided one of the most iconic moments in recent Camp Nou history to complete a 6-1 victory, the biggest, most breathtaking, most dramatic European comeback ever.

Since it was only the Round of 16, and Barcelona limped out of the competition in the quarters after losing to Juventus, this only ranks at number 9 for us.

2018: Gareth Bale on his bike

“Wales. Golf. Madrid. Bicycle Kicks. In that order.” Gareth Bale’s decade, a majority of which was spent at Real Madrid has been polarizing, to say the least. Observing his current standing with Coach Zidane and the Merengues, you’d almost forget that Bale has arguably been Madrid’s most decisive player of the decade after the club’s all-time goat Cristiano Ronaldo.

Especially when you consider that Bale won two Champions League finals for the competition’s perennial winners. He put crosstown rivals Atletico to the sword with a 110th-minute header in 2014. Then, in 2018, to solidify the Threepeat – and four European crowns in five years for Real – Bale scored a goal that might just be the decade’s best.

Since this goal wasn’t as dramatic as many of the other moments on our list. And because Real fans never quite treasured it properly, we have Bale’s Bike coming in at number 10.

2019: Liverpool refuse to give up against Barcelona

The most recent memory on this list, we all remember Liverpool going into the second leg of their 2019 Champions League semi-final tie with Barcelona 3-0. Down from the first leg and their chances of making it to a second successive final looked extremely unlikely to say the least.

Adding insult to literal injury, Mohamed Salah would miss the game through injury, ensuring that there was no chance for Jürgen Klopp’s side to stage a comeback. But the Reds showed that night what can happen if you refuse to give up hope.

The young club legend Divock Origi got the ball rolling when he made it 3-1 on aggregate after just seven minutes and that was how it stayed until half-time. Georginio Wijnaldum stunned Barça with a quickfire double to level the tie shortly after the interval.

Liverpool knew that it would have been quiet for them if they conceded an away goal but kept pushing. Their fairytale comeback was complete when unlikely hero Origi converted following a now-classic Trent Alexander-Arnold delivery, and boom, 4-0.

Anfield has witnessed some truly magical European nights over the years but this one was definitely top.

Liverpool went on to clinch a sixth Champions League after overcoming a Tottenham side in the final who’d pulled off a pretty stunning comeback of their own in the semi-final.

It’s a Wrap!

So that’s it. An entire decade wrapped up in a matter of minutes. What was your favorite story of the decade? Who did we miss on our list? Who should have made it? Let us know in the comments below, subscribe and join the conversation!