Which were the truly great matches, the performances that defined the class of players like Zidane, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Romário, Platini, Best, Di Stéfano & Co? Maradona's top number was probably the semifinal vs Belgium in the 1986 WC. Ronaldo's was perhaps the CL semifinal Man United-Real Madrid in 2003? Messi's top performance may have been the CL quarterfinal vs Arsenal in 2010.
What happened? You need to watch that game for sure, Magico was owning only by himself whole Barcelona like nobody did before. Magician.
It is interesting to think about what truly were their outstanding games. Of George Best often the two against Benfica, his international game against Scotland and semi-final performance against Real Madrid (2 assists) are mentioned. Or the occasion that he scored 6 goals in an FA Cup game, still a club record today.
Best was terrific that day vs Northampton. He said after the game: "It was getting embarrassing. I didn't want to score any more, so I spent the last 20 minutes at left-back."
I don't know try to find it. It was magic in its purest form. Messi and Maradona combined are not close to Magico's magic.
If Mágico Gonzalez with his talent had half the fight and persistence that AguiluchoMerengue has then he surely would have been an all-time great.
Vincenzino Montella 4 goals vs Lazio in 2002: Marco van Basten's 4 goals vs IFK Göteborg in 1992: I'm not a great fan of tackles, but Glenn Hysén's performance vs England in the 1988 WC qualifier at Wembley is legendary:
Peter Schmeichel vs Bayern Munich in 1999 was very impressing too, but I was not sure if it was his best performance.
Ronaldo against Lazio in 1997-98 UEFA Cup Final. Never seen anyone trouble Nesta as much as Ronaldo did. Redondo against Manchester United in 1999-2000 UCL Quarter Finals. Zidane against Brazil in 2006 Quarter Finals. Rivaldo against Valencia in 2000-01 La Liga season. The last game of the season. Barca needed a win to qualify for UCL and Rivaldo's hattric won Barca the game. Final score was 3-2. That third goal was simply sick.
I had almost forgotten Rivaldo's great game there. Rivaldo was a really enigmatic player. In South America they called him Patapalo ("Wooden leg"), but he was actually considered the best of the world for a while. Then he arrived to Milan and just wanished. He was spectacular at his best, but if you compare him to the best current players, you really understand how much the game has progressed.
Rivaldo is both underrated and overrated. He is overrated by the like of Peru FC who rate him as a 'mediapunta' or attacking midfielder while (esp. at his clubs) in reality his main task was scoring goals, with assists as secondary job. But he is also underrated. Few realize that no other Brazilian scored as much goals as him in European club competitions - yes, even Ronaldo, Jardel or Altafini didn't score as much.
I think Rivaldo is very underrated. I for one consider Rivaldo higher that Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho at his best was better than Rivaldo at his best. But Rivaldo had a better career and had more longevity. Even though Ronaldo is my all time favourite footballer, Rivaldo was the best player in 2002 WC IMO. Not to mention if it hadn't been for Rivaldo's performances, Brazil wouldn't have qualified for 2002 WC.
Rivaldo was in some way the Zlatan of his times. He had incredible numbers, but also an inclination to consider football an individual sport. His vision of the game was basically: "Football = the ball + my foot + the goal".
After the AC Milan fiasco, Rivaldo did enjoy a nice coda to his career with Panathiniakos, including some great matches in the CL and for Brazil in the early stages of the WC06 qualifiers. He didn't completely vanished after leaving Barcelona, and I feel that Parreira made a big mistake in leaving him out of the squad for WC06.
What did he do in those qualifiers? Scoring one goal from the penalty spot as a forward. https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/...yers-statistics-and-discussion.1981757/page-3