The vibrant drama of the World Cup, illustrated

The World Cup isn't a time for multitasking. Warm, flat beers are remembered and sipped during half time. Bathroom breaks are scheduled for the game's end. In those crucial 90 minutes, often the only measurable productivity is the number of nails chewed down to their stubs.

Which makes illustrator Simón Prades' World Cup drawings all the more impressive. Not only is the half-German, half-Spaniard watching the games as an impassioned fan, but also as an artist eager to capture the tournament's defining plays with pen and ink.

In collaboration with The New Republic, Prades is illustrating moments of anguish and triumph on each game day for the duration of the World Cup. The sketches, completed over the course of two to five hours, are first done in ink, then scanned and colored digitally. When each day's drawing is complete, it joins the growing and vibrant timeline that is "Moment of the Match."

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Prades' sketches, with their excited strokes and sprays of ink, capture the pulse-quickening movement of the games and are the perfect complement to your World Cup-watching obsession. Below are three illustrations, along with captions, by Prades. Head on over to The New Republic for more.

All images have been published with permission from the artist.

To see more of Simón Prades' work, check out his website. For updated "Moment of the Match" sketches, go to the New Republic.