--- title: World Cup 2014 Football Soccer: A Turtle Takes on a Dog description: You’ll never guess who wins the closest thing the World Cup has to the Puppy Bowl canonical: https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-04T14:41:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:23.845Z og:title: World Cup 2014 Football Soccer: A Turtle Takes on a Dog og:description: You'll never guess who wins og:url: https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: World Cup 2014 Football Soccer: A Turtle Takes on a Dog twitter:description: You'll never guess who wins twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Turtle vs. Dog Is the Best Soccer Match You’ll See During the World Cup  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 4, 2014 2:41 PM UTC  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Jul 4, 2014 2:41 PM UTC The World Cup this year has been even more packed than most with high-intensity, hair-raising games, but none of them holds a candle to this matchup for the ages: turtle v.s. dog. Posted to Facebook under the title “Italian soccer :) ( a.k.a. also a turtle and a dog can manage …” by Valeria D’Innocenzo Carlantoni in Civitavechia, Italy, a small town near Rome, this 1:17-long clip features some surprisingly cheeky touches and fancy footwork. The aggressive tackle at the end is exceptional, though it’s a miracle no one got carded. If you’ve been rooting for the U.S., soothe your broken heart (which should still be celebrating the [OMG-mind-blowingly](http://time.com/money/2950977/tim-howard-american-stud-goalie-endorsements/) awesome [performance](http://time.com/2949434/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-tim-howard/) of U.S. goalie [Tim Howard](http://time.com/2947770/u-s-goalie-tim-howards-heroic-effort-in-the-world-cup/)) with this clip. Try and watch this video without, at least in your head, narrating the action in a game announcer voice. This needs to be the World Cup’s version of the Puppy Bowl. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/"},"headline":"Turtle vs. Dog Is the Best Soccer Match You’ll See During the World Cup","datePublished":"2014-07-04T14:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:23.845Z","description":"You’ll never guess who wins the closest thing the World Cup has to the Puppy Bowl","url":"https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Appreciation","Italy","Dog","Soccer","World Cup","Funny","Rome"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2956805/world-cup-2014-football-soccer-turtle-dog/","name":"Turtle vs. Dog Is the Best Soccer Match You’ll See During the World Cup"}}]}] ```