Your World Cup Weekend Thighlights

There were plenty of abs this weekend, to be sure — but there are so many other parts of the athletic form that deserve recognition. Like legs, those rippling staples of the beautiful game.

(Above, Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger rumbles with Milos Ninkovic of Serbia. Bravo, boys.)

Gareth Barry of England’s gams, Algerian Hassan Yebda’s stems, inadvertent upshort shot — there’s a lot going on here!

Cameroon may have lost at the hands (feet?) of Denmark, but here Sebastien Bassong’s quads are the real winner. Not that we would kick Nicklas Bendtner’s legs out of bed for eating crackers.

Ricarardo Montolivo gambe italiani sono molto bella.

John Heitinga of the Netherlands and Keisuke Honda of Japan, in warm embrace, also want to make you feel warm…and tingly, perhaps.

Not only do we get a shot here of Elano’s muscular thighs, but we also witness a moment of shared joy with Kako. Nothing chokes us up quite like Brazilian uni-monikered man-love.

And an obligatory shout-out to Landon “Legs” Donovan. Also: Maybe it’s just me, but the white stripe on Team USA’s jerseys makes them look like they’re competing in some kind of Mister Universe pageant.