SOCHI, RUSSIA -- That chin-stroking celebration? It's a reference to a goat. Or, rather a G.O.A.T.: Greatest Of All Time. And while some will rightly debate his status in the farmyard, nights like these remind you that his place in the conversation ought not be doubted.
Sergio Ramos had said it a little over 24 hours earlier, when asked how he would stop Cristiano Ronaldo. "I don't know... I just hope he doesn't have one of his best games against us."
Ramos' prophecy did not come to pass. This was Ronaldo's best game -- at least at a World Cup -- and in some ways one of his most important, because it neatly marked yet another evolution in a career that has seen him adapt and mutate with only slightly less regularity than Lady Gaga.