Greatest Performances (1 Viewer)

[denco]

I was just going over in my mind and remembering most of the magnificent performances that I have seen both live on television and through videos. I t would be nice also to read other ppl's views and opinions abouth the greatest team and individual performances they have witnessed

Best perfomance by any player in the world cup, for me would have to be Maradona's display against Belgium in the 86 wc, it was nothing short of breathtaking, apart from the 2 magnificent goals he scored, he just terrorised them for almost the whole 90minutes, it was incredible, going past players like they were not there, setting up chances for the likes of Valdano who kept on missing and in fact missed an absolute sitter when Maradona had dribbled Pfaff the Belgium keeper

Best performance of a striker in a world cup, well , Eusebio did brilliantly scoring 4 against N. Korea after his team had gone 3 goals down, but I did not see it, so I have gone for Klinsmann against Holland in wc90, it was awesome, after Voeller had been sent off , together with Rijkard, Klinsmann just took over

Best performance by a defender in a wc is a tie between Bobby Moore against Brazil in 1970, yes he got nutmegged by Tostao during the buildup to the goal but he was absolutely amazing throughout and no way has he ever played better as its almost impossible to better that performance and the other performance was Baresi's display against Brazil in 94 final. For someone who damaged his knee in the second game, and had knee surgery, missed subsequent matches and was just patched up for the final, it was an awesome performance from arguably the greatest defender who ever played the game and I am almost sure if he was as good looking as Beckenbauer or even Costacurta then he would have had more acclaim

Best match in the world cup for me has to be both W. Germany vs France in 1982 and Italy vs Brazil in that same wc

Best performance by a goal keeper anywhere, Schmeichel was amazing when Man United went to Newcastle and produced a series of world class saves against mostly Les Ferdinand but the most amazing I have ever seen was when Sampdoria went to Inter in 1991, hoping to avoid defeat , and in what was one of the most incredible matches I have seen in serieA, Pagiluca produced a series of saves some by luck most by judgement, even saved a penalty from Mattheus

Best attacking display I have ever witnessed by a team was Real Madrid versus Man united last season, the first half should be put in a chest and treasured forever as it was pure gold

Best tactical display by any manager has to be Fabio Capello against Barcelona, he had Baresi and Costacurta out suspended, he was facing the most feared attacking duo in world football and what does he do, man to man mark the twosome of Romario and Stoichkov, no, he simply went to the root of Barcelona's powers and that was to place Massaro on Koeman, who could not launch any attack from the back like he always did, and just as importantly, Capello placed Desailly on Guradiola, with the supply line cut off, Barcelona could do nothing and to make it so sweet for Don Fabio, his 2 destroyers scored 3 goals between them to cap a masterstroke of managing

Best individual attacking performance in the Cl, you would do well to find one better that Dp's display against Monaco in the 4-1 victory as he totally tormented Monaco, scoring a hattrick and assisting Zidane in the 4th goal and though he did not score against Dinamo Kiev in the 1-1 draw, his display that day was inspirational, pity that Dp never showed again and all we are left with are flashes of what might have been.

Best midfield display by a midfielder in cl has to be the coming of Zz as a world beater against Ajax, the way he systematically destroyed Ajax was just incredible

Best match in the premiership undoubtedly has to be liverpool 4 Newcastle 3 part 1, my advice is just go and watch that game, forget about the defending and just admire the attacking

To be continued

 

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[Kaiser Franco]

Interesting thread. Allow me to make a brief contribution.

Best performance by a single player in a major tournament : probably Diego's toying with the belgians in 86, I'll have to agree.

Best performance by a striker in a major tournament : Paolo Rossi against favourites Brazil in 1982, for scoring the three goals that sent us to the semifinal in a game we could not afford not to win. Also : Van Basten's hat-trick against England in Euro 88, Hurst's hat trick in the '66 final, Ronaldo's double in the '02 final...

Best performance by a defender in a major tournament : Baresi's heroic comeback in WC 94, Gentile's muzzling of Maradona in 82, Thuram's double in WC 98 semi (though he was even more impressive defensive wise in the QF against Italy), Cannavaro against France in 98...Can't really make up my mind. At club level, Dessailly's scaring away of Romario and Stojchkov in the 94 CL final was really something. But what about the legendary serie A duels between Kohler and Van Basten in the early 90's? So many memories...

Best game in a WC : Italy-Germany 4-3 after extra-time in the WC 1970 semi. For italians, it is simply known as the "Game of the century". Italy scoring an early goal and resisting the formidable german attacking machine for 90 minutes. Schnellinger (nearly 300 games for Milan, ZERO goals scored) equalising in added time. Extra time : 1-2; 2-2; 3-2; 3-3 and then Rivera's delicious shot wrong-footing Maier in the final minutes of the game. Simply grandiose.

Best game at club level : Milan-Steaua Bucarest 4-0 in the 1989 CL final. The pinnacle of the Sacchi doctrine. The best attacking display however has to be Milan-Real Madrid 5-0 in the semifinal that same year. Ancelotti, Van Basten, Rijkaard, Gullit, Donadoni : all of them on the scoresheet.

Best performance by a goalkeeper : having not seen Lev Yashin or Gordon Banks first hand, I'll go for Higuita against Cameroon in WC 1990. Or maybe Grobbelaar against Roma in the CL 1984 final. Nah, just kidding : my vote goes to Toldo's hypnosis of the dutch in the Euro 2000 semi.

Best tactical display by a manager : I think I need some more time to think about one. I loved Lippi's courage to put Birindelli and Zalayeta in against Barcelona last year for instance. Capello's way of coping with Billy and Baresi's absences in the 94 CL final was genius, this being said.

Best individual display in a CL game : Van Basten's poker against Goteborg in the 1992 CL group stage. One of Super Marco's very last games with Milan, in which he literally dismantled a hitherto most decent swedish side, also scoring a quintessential bicycle-kick.

Best midfield display in the CL : Rijkaard in the 1990 CL final against Benfica, Roy Keane in the 1998 semi vs Juve,...etc.

 

[mikhail]

++ [ originally posted by denco ] ++
Best tactical display by any manager has to be Fabio Capello against Barcelona, he had Baresi and Costacurta out suspended, he was facing the most feared attacking duo in world football and what does he do, man to man mark the twosome of Romario and Stoichkov, no, he simply went to the root of Barcelona's powers and that was to place Massaro on Koeman, who could not launch any attack from the back like he always did, and just as importantly, Capello placed Desailly on Guradiola, with the supply line cut off, Barcelona could do nothing and to make it so sweet for Don Fabio, his 2 destroyers scored 3 goals between them to cap a masterstroke of managing

I'd give this plaudit to Gianluca Vialli of Chelsea for his handling of Barcelona in the CL quarters in 2000. He bluffed Van Gaal into thinking that Jodie Morris (who's since left the club) could man-mark Pep Guardiola out of the game, and he set up the team such that Tore-Andre Flo became an attacking foil for Zola to work his magic off of. Ultimately he failed, because of a late Figo goal, and because he went a man down, but the 3-1 win in the home leg was a masterpiece.

 

[denco]

Best game at club level , and Kaiser Franco , u say its Milan Vs Steaua Bucharest, come on man, that was a huge mismatch, Steaua, offered no resistance as they could not, to be fair to them
Its difficult to say best game at club level as there have been so many of em

But I would say that Milan team that beat every one home and away only to lose in the Cl final against Marseilles , were one of the finest if not the finest team in Cl history for me, as Lentini as in superb form with superb crosses, Van Basten in magical form till he got injured, Papin coming in and scoring 2 identical blinders against Porto and I forget the other team in consecutive matches

Best seriea match involving Juventus in recent memory has to be Juve3 Fiorentina2 imo as Fiorentina went 2 goals ahead even if Juventus were playing very well. then Vialli got one back as as he was being congratulated by Ferrara and Conte, he pushed thm away saying forget the congrats we have a match to win or draw, then he scores another one and in the dying minutes, the ball is floated in the air and who is there to delicately lob the goalkeeper with an outrageous overhead chip, was the boy wonder at the time, ADP

One of the best recent performances I have witnessed in serieA again involving Juve, is the virtuoso, 5 star performance by Jugovic in the 6-1 demolition of Milan, matched By Edgar Davids in his debut against Inter at the San siro and even though we lost that game we totally dominated before Djorkaeff capitalised on Ronaldo's brilliance, Davids was stupendous

Milans 5-3 demolition of Lazio, 7-3 destruction of Fiorentina in Florence and 8-2 annhilation of Foggia were awesome as well, with the 5-3 game with lazio being on the most entertaining in recent memory

Again KaiserFranco, I have to disagree with the Gentile bit as he used foul means more than fair means in that game, punching , kicking and grabbing shirts, I am sorry , I don't regard that as a good performance

Total agreement on Roy Keane as that is probably the best display by a midfileder in a long while in Cl history, he totally dragged his team from the brink of defeat to victory

The strikers well they all scored goals but didnt contribute much apart from that but Klinsmann not only scored , hit the post, and virtually destroyed Holland on his own that day

Marco got his own back though in the euro92 by being amazing against Germany in the 3-1 defeat , though he did not score, he just terrorised Germany that day.

Yes Marco's legendary duels with Kohler and Vierchewood spring to mind

 

[mikhail]

++ [ originally posted by Kaiser Franco ] ++
Best midfield display in the CL : Rijkaard in the 1990 CL final against Benfica, Roy Keane in the 1998 semi vs Juve,...etc.

I've unfortunately not seen Rijkaard's performance, but Keane's was exceptional. I'd add Redondo's demolition of Man Utd the year before he left Real Madrid to that list. It's the only important game where I've seen a fully fit Keane at his prime play in another man's shadow, and Keane didn't play badly that day (appart from the OG!).

 

[Kaiser Franco]

++ [ originally posted by denco ] ++
Best game at club level , and Kaiser Franco , u say its Milan Vs Steaua Bucharest, come on man, that was a huge mismatch, Steaua, offered no resistance as they could not, to be fair to them
Its difficult to say best game at club level as there have been so many of em

But I would say that Milan team that beat every one home and away only to lose in the Cl final against Marseilles , were one of the finest if not the finest team in Cl history for me, as Lentini as in superb form with superb crosses, Van Basten in magical form till he got injured, Papin coming in and scoring 2 identical blinders against Porto and I forget the other team in consecutive matches

Best seriea match involving Juventus in recent memory has to be Juve3 Fiorentina2 imo as Fiorentina went 2 goals ahead even if Juventus were playing very well. then Vialli got one back as as he was being congratulated by Ferrara and Conte, he pushed thm away saying forget the congrats we have a match to win or draw, then he scores another one and in the dying minutes, the ball is floated in the air and who is there to delicately lob the goalkeeper with an outrageous overhead chip, was the boy wonder at the time, ADP

One of the best recent performances I have witnessed in serieA again involving Juve, is the virtuoso, 5 star performance by Jugovic in the 6-1 demolition of Milan, matched By Edgar Davids in his debut against Inter at the San siro and even though we lost that game we totally dominated before Djorkaeff capitalised on Ronaldo's brilliance, Davids was stupendous

Milans 5-3 demolition of Lazio, 7-3 destruction of Fiorentina in Florence and 8-2 annhilation of Foggia were awesome as well, with the 5-3 game with lazio being on the most entertaining in recent memory

Again KaiserFranco, I have to disagree with the Gentile bit as he used foul means more than fair means in that game, punching , kicking and grabbing shirts, I am sorry , I don't regard that as a good performance

Total agreement on Roy Keane as that is probably the best display by a midfileder in a long while in Cl history, he totally dragged his team from the brink of defeat to victory

The strikers well they all scored goals but didnt contribute much apart from that but Klinsmann not only scored , hit the post, and virtually destroyed Holland on his own that day

Marco got his own back though in the euro92 by being amazing against Germany in the 3-1 defeat , though he did not score, he just terrorised Germany that day.

Yes Marco's legendary duels with Kohler and Vierchewood spring to mind

Denco,

I have the Milan-Steaua final on tape : trust me, it wasn't a mismatch. Steaua wished they could do something, but Milan's bulldozer left them helpless. And we are speaking about the great Steaua, a team that had been crowned European champion just 3 years before and who aligned Belodedici, Hagi, (the then performing) Lacatus and virtually all of Romania's National Team at the time.

Our 1992-93 European campaign was truly amazing, no doubt. Damn Basile Boli the french dream wrecker for heading in that ball in the final.

Allow me to skim over the 1-6 Juve win at San Siro.

Those tennis games we won against the likes of Lazio, Fiorentina and Foggia were prime entertainment, though in Foggia's case, Zeman's idea of playing 4 strikers aginst us (Rambaudi, Baiano, Kolyvanov and Signori supported by Shalimov) may have helped.

As regards Gentile, please refer to my comment in the "Nastiest team" thread. Ok maybe that wasn't the greatest defensive performance but it wasn't the most terrible and nasty one either.

I recall very well Van Basten's toying with the germans in Euro '92. At some point he hit the bar after a left-footed volley that is the EXACT copy of Zidane's famous CL final wonder against Leverkusen. Except that it hit the bar.

I want to add a comment concerning legendary games. The reason why the "Golden/Silver Goal" rule should be abolished is because we will never have the chance to see games sucha as Italy-Germany 4-3 after extra time or Germany-France 3-3. Had the rule been applied in WC's 1970 and 1982 Germany would have qualified for the final after Muller's 2-1 (and would probably have lost to Brazil just like we did), whereas France would have been the finalist in 1982 (would Italy have beaten them as easily as we beat the germans?) and today only boring football freaks like myself would remember those games. One can also wonder if Italy could have made a comeback at Euro 2000 after Trezeguet's goal : after all, it was the exact same scenario as against Germany : Italy leading for most of the game and the other team equalising in added time, then taking the lead in full flow, then...

 

[Freddy]

I can't forget two matches that I have seen

First...That match between Argentina and England in World Cup 86 when Maradonna scored that Brilliant Goal

Second...The match between Portugal and England in Euro 2000..when England was leading 2-0 then Figo scored that Brilliant goal and then Joao Pinto and Nuno Gomes scored another 2 goals to win 3-2

 

[gray]

I didn't see the match (because I wasn't born at the time ) but I get amazed whenever I hear about Eusebio's exploits against North Korea in the quarters of the 1966 World Cup

North Korea led Portugal 3-0 at one stage and looked like reaching the semis, but Eusebio scored four and Portugal won 5-3.

 

[denco]

++ [ originally posted by Kaiser Franco ] ++


Denco,

I have the Milan-Steaua final on tape : trust me, it wasn't a mismatch. Steaua wished they could do something, but Milan's bulldozer left them helpless. And we are speaking about the great Steaua, a team that had been crowned European champion just 3 years before and who aligned Belodedici, Hagi, (the then performing) Lacatus and virtually all of Romania's National Team at the time.

Our 1992-93 European campaign was truly amazing, no doubt. Damn Basile Boli the french dream wrecker for heading in that ball in the final.

Allow me to skim over the 1-6 Juve win at San Siro.

Those tennis games we won against the likes of Lazio, Fiorentina and Foggia were prime entertainment, though in Foggia's case, Zeman's idea of playing 4 strikers aginst us (Rambaudi, Baiano, Kolyvanov and Signori supported by Shalimov) may have helped.

As regards Gentile, please refer to my comment in the "Nastiest team" thread. Ok maybe that wasn't the greatest defensive performance but it wasn't the most terrible and nasty one either.

I recall very well Van Basten's toying with the germans in Euro '92. At some point he hit the bar after a left-footed volley that is the EXACT copy of Zidane's famous CL final wonder against Leverkusen. Except that it hit the bar.

I want to add a comment concerning legendary games. The reason why the "Golden/Silver Goal" rule should be abolished is because we will never have the chance to see games sucha as Italy-Germany 4-3 after extra time or Germany-France 3-3. Had the rule been applied in WC's 1970 and 1982 Germany would have qualified for the final after Muller's 2-1 (and would probably have lost to Brazil just like we did), whereas France would have been the finalist in 1982 (would Italy have beaten them as easily as we beat the germans?) and today only boring football freaks like myself would remember those games. One can also wonder if Italy could have made a comeback at Euro 2000 after Trezeguet's goal : after all, it was the exact same scenario as against Germany : Italy leading for most of the game and the other team equalising in added time, then taking the lead in full flow, then...

You have the demolition of steauea on tape, lucky you, I have the Milan 5-0 of Real and the 1-1 in the Bernebeu which I thought was a better match as only 1 team was at the races in the 5-0. In the 1-1 , an amazing overhead kick by Hugo Sanchez was matched by a fantastic diving header by that man again Marco Van Basten.
I have so many tapes of Milan , you kinda wonder, like the poker by Marco against IFK Gottenberg, demolition of Samp 5-1 with a beauty from Albertini
Another great performance was by Juventus where we beat Man united 1-0 at Old Trafford where for the first 20 minutes we produced an awesome display of passing movements that was sheer genius with Zz orchestrating, Dp toying with Man us defence, Di livio bombing up and down, Jugovic and Deschamps controling the midfield and Boksic just making them run. Man united came into it in the second half with Beckham and Giggs coming to the fore

 

[Kaiser Franco]

The 5-0 destruction of Madrid in 89 was a masterpiece. In fact we should already have won the game at the Bernabeu, as Gullit's perfectly regular goal was ruled offside. I guess the King of Spain was in the stands that night, so it was written that Madrid could not lose. Hugo Sanchez' goal was nice - halfway between an overhead kick and a semi-volley in fact - and so was Super Marco's equaliser of course.

I think I remember the Juve-Man U game you allude to as well : Boksic scored the winner, didn't he? It was a demonstration on behalf of Juve though, undoubtedly. Those were the years of italian clubs' indisputable dominance in European competitions, as Juve used to teach Man Utd a lesson on a regular basis, leaving Alex Ferguson in awe of Lippi's methods. How things change...

One of the best European games that I have seen Juve play in recent years though has to be the first leg of the 1997 semi against Ajax in Amsterdam. I think the score was 2-1, but Zizou, Vieri and co. dominated so much that it really should have been 8-1. I think that is as close as Juve ever got to Milan's brilliance .