As you probably well remember, the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands was grubby, tense, petulant and nigh-on barbaric at times.
Howard Webb did his best to keep a lid on the hostility, showing admirable restraint to limit the card count to just 14 yellows and one red; Xabi Alonso got kicked in the aorta; elbows were swung, studs were left in; Mark van Bommel was there, inflicting ABH on whomever should cross his path, friend or foe.
There were, however, also brief scintillas of what was recognisably football to be enjoyed amid the filth. Not many, but some.
One such moment came after an hour of ugly, attritional scrapping (seven yellow cards had already been administered), when a perfectly measured throughball from Wesley Sneijder set Arjen Robben en route to scoring what looked like an inevitable deadlock-breaker.
Prolific to the point of automation in such circumstances, the entire world sat back and waited for Robben to ripple the polyethylene twine.
Unfortunately for the Dutch forward, Iker Casillas had other ideas…
Having the wherewithal to stand your ground in front of a thronging stadium, an expectant global audience and one of the best finishers in world football takes bloody industrial-size cobblers. Fair play, Iker lad.
Speaking of Casillas, the 36-year-old veteran made the 1,000th appearance of his professional career on Monday evening, though it ended in a 2-0 defeat for Porto against mid-table Belenenses.
Still, that’s one heck of an innings and once you lump in the five La Liga titles, the three Champions Leagues, the World Cup, the two European Championships and the 385 clean sheets, there can be little disputing his place at the very top end of the great goalkeeping pantheon.