10 Underrated FIFA World Cup Moments

The English media loves to find a scapegoat for the failures of the national team. Sometimes he's English and sometimes he's foreign. England exited the 2006 World Cup in Germany at the quarter-final stage. Wayne Rooney was the golden boy of English football at the time. Only in his early twenties, he was the main forward for Manchester United and had prodigious abilities. However, when it came to his temperament, he was lacking. This was on show for everyone to see when he was given a red card in that last-eight tie against Portugal after stamping on the groin of Ricardo Carvalho. The English media had found their scapegoat: Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo was Rooney's United teammate at the time. So Rooney felt betrayed when Ronaldo urged the referee to take action for his stamp. England felt betrayed on Rooney's behalf. To make matters worse, after completing the job Ronaldo winked at an off-screen presence. The cheek. Seriously, if you weren't paying attention to this in 2006, it's hard to capture the irrational vitriol directed at Ronaldo after he winked. The clip show clip below gives you an idea of the idiotic zeitgeist of the time. Shearer even hoping that Rooney got his own back on Ronaldo in time.

It's a big moment but the subsequent meteoric rise of Ronaldo buried it on a timeline straining under the weight of his achievements. Portugal won that quarter-final on penalties and they were dumped out by a Zidane penalty in the next round. Rooney and Ronaldo both scored on the opening day of the next Premier League season.