Eigil Nielsen is credited with creating the common 32-panel football design in 1962 using 20 hexagonal and 12 pentagonal patches. It quickly became popular when the Adidas Telstar in 1970 became the first football in the World Cup to use the design.
The 1970 ball (Adidas Telstar) is pretty iconic because it was specifically designed to be more visible on television broadcasts in the era when most viewers had black-and-white TVs.
Some parts of Latin America use crack to refer of someone who is very good at something, started on football but nowadays it's used with everything, it's a synonym for superstar, ace, legend, etc.
Maybe, just Maybe, it has to do sth with the fact that we got obliterated. The last tournament I watched before the European Tournament was the world cup in 2014