Tim Cahill and 5 National Team Superheroes

Sometimes a player can so elevate his game at international level that he's able to single-handedly affect the result.

We saw several such performances at the last World Cup, and there have been others since.

These players are national team superheroes, and over the next few slides we'll have a look at five of them.

Let's get to it.

5. Neymar, Brazil

Neymar has been on an otherworldly scoring clip since making his senior debut for Brazil back in 2010.

In 2011, he scored seven goals for his country, and his tallies in the calendar years since have grown from nine to 10 to 15.

Incredibly, at the age of 22, he's already fifth on the Selecao's vaunted all-time goalscoring chart, recently passing Jairzinho, Rivaldo and Bebeto. In 2015, he'll likely catch Zico.

There are few players as singularly important to their national teams as Neymar, whose best moments for Brazil have come in the Confederations Cup final against Spain, the group stage of the 2014 World Cup and a recent friendly against Japan in which he found the back of the net four times.

4. James Rodriguez, Colombia

James Rodriguez's status as a Colombian superhero was underlined earlier this month when he won the FIFA Puskas award for the best goal of 2014.

In a World Cup round-of-16 match against Uruguay, the now-Real Madrid playmaker arrowed an unstoppable drive into goal from outside the 18-yard box, after chesting Abel Aguilar's headed pass, spinning and scoring with an unstoppable strike.

He also found the back of the net later in the match and ended up winning the tournament's Golden Shoe, despite going out at the quarter-final stage.

Radamel Falcao may be the biggest name associated with Los Cafeteros, but it's unquestionably James who is the country's superhero.

3. Robin van Persie, Netherlands

Nothing says "superhero" quite like the ultimate superhero pose.

Early in the second half of the Netherlands' first match of the 2014 World Cup, striker Robin van Persie eyed up teammate Daley Blind's long, arcing ball from the left, sprinted forward to connect with it and proceeded to launch himself in the air, a la superman, before beating Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas with a header.

Van Persie scored again in the match as the Dutch overturned a 1-0 deficit to win 5-1, and he also scored against Australia and Brazil as his country finished third in the competition.

He has since scored against both Kazakhstan and Latvia in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying and, with his next goal, will become the first Dutch international to tally 50 times.

2. Tim Howard, United States

As far as goalkeepers go, Tim Howard might be the ultimate shot-stopping superhero at international level.

In a 2014 World Cup round-of-16 match against Belgium, he faced an eye-popping 17 shots (39 were taken by the European outfit in total), according to WhoScored, and turned away 15 of them—many in spectacular fashion.

The likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany were often left shaking their heads in Salvador as the United States 'keeper dove this way and that and contorted his body as he repelled wave after wave of opposition attacking play.

Howard's performance inspired an internet-breaking round of memes—some featured by Time magazine—in which he was pictured saving everything from the dinosaurs to Taylor Swift from Kanye West.

1. Tim Cahill, Australia

Tim Cahill's status as Australia's ultimate footballing superhero has only been enhanced as he's got older.

At the 2014 World Cup, he scored the Socceroos' only goal against Chile in a 3-1 defeat in Cuiaba and also completed a spectacular volley against the Netherlands in Porto Alegre.

Last week, at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, the 35-year-old broke a quarter-final deadlock with China when he scored from a bicycle kick in the 48th minute, after which he scored from a well-placed header in the 65th.

Cahill and Australia will face the United Arab Emirates in the second semi-final of the tournament on Tuesday.