In the fifty-fourth minute of Spain’s World Cup match against Iran, on Wednesday, the Spanish midfielder Andrés Iniesta received a pass in Iran’s half of the field. Spain had been dominating; they possessed the ball for nearly eighty per cent of the game, and, at one point, shortly after halftime, they had completed three hundred passes more than Iran had. And yet Iran, playing a deep, packed defense, was holding the former World Cup champions to a scoreless tie.

A lone defender charged at Iniesta. That’s a situation that has struck terror in his opponents for more than a decade. El Ilusionista, they call him: the magician. “He doesn’t pull rabbits out of his hat, he pulls out big, beautiful peacocks,” the soccer commentator Ray Hudson once said. Earlier this year, Iniesta announced that he was leaving his club team, Barcelona, after sixteen seasons. The club compiled a video montage of Iniesta’s finer footwork, set to Vivaldi.

Faced with the oncoming Iranian player, Vahid Amiri, Iniesta opened his hips, as if he were preparing to pass the ball to his teammate on the touchline. The pop star Shakira, who is married to Iniesta’s teammate, Gerard Piqué, famously said that hips don’t lie. But Iniesta’s do. His hips led Amiri one way; Iniesta went the other.

Further Reading More coverage of the 2018 World Cup from The New Yorker.

Past Amiri, Iniesta played the ball to a teammate, David Silva, who passed it straight back to Iniesta. Another Iranian defender, Saeid Ezatolahi, tried to intercept the pass, but Iniesta swivelled his hips slightly, took the ball with his left foot, and raced past him, neither rushed nor panicked. Then Iniesta looked up: three teammates to choose from, surrounded by seven Iranian players. Omid Ebrahimi, an Iranian midfielder, closed in on him from the left. Iniesta scanned his options and, leading with his hips, like a ballroom dancer, froze Ebrahimi an extra beat, just long enough to create a pocket of space through which he threaded the ball to Diego Costa’s feet. An Iranian defender blocked Costa’s shot, but the ball ricocheted off his leg and into the back of the net.

The goal was enough for Spain to win, and to improve their chances of advancing to the next round. Iniesta was subbed in the seventieth minute. He rarely, if ever, plays a full game anymore. He’s thirty-four, and his balding head and heavy stubble give him the scruffy appearance of a wrench-turning super. But still, on the grandest stage of all, he continues to produce moments like today’s—a big, beautiful peacock.