Thread title pretty much says it all. Just list (and describe) the best performances by individual players in a game (or two legged tie) in which their team ended up losing. I'll start with one from fairly recently- Hernan Crespo scoring twice in the 2005 CL final only to watch Milan lose on penalties.
Bogdan Stelea, 1998 World Cup R16 v. Croatia. The man was a wall all day, stopping at least three point-blank shots at one point. Romania lost that one on a PK.
Franco Baresi in the WC'94 final against Brazil. Perhaps the best performance of his international career. And in recent memory... Carlos Tevez scoring his first goal for West Ham (and the celebration of the year IMO) along with 2 assists but only for his team to suffer a heartbreaking loss to Tottenham in the final minute. One of the most memorable games i've watched in the last few years.
Klose's performance against BVB earlier this season. He was absolutley fantastic and his team still went down 3-1.
Seconded. Made even more amazing by the fact that the Final was his first game back from knee surgery because of an injury caused in the first game of the tournament!
UEFA Cup F '07: Ivan De La Pena for Espanyol v Sevilla. WC QF '06: Roberto Ayala for Argentina v Germany. CL SF 2nd leg '07: Michael Essien for Chelsea v Liverpool. CL QF 1st leg '04: Kaka for Milan v Deportivo. WC 2R '06: Rafa Marquez for Mexico v Argentina. WC 2R '06: Isaaksson for Sweden v Germany. WC 1R '06: Michael Essien for Ghana v Italy. WC 1R '06: Pavel Nedved for The Czech Republic v Italy.
that game made me want to play soccer, i was 6 when i saw that game on TV. BORING ASS GAME but 2 of the best defenders ever and a little kid watching it all.
2003 CL QF vs Man Utd: Ronaldo scored three goals and the fans gave him an stnding ovation when he was subbed. This does not really count because Real Madrid actually sealed the victory after they went up 3-2.
the arsenal didnt exactly play poorly and there was more then 1 great individual performance only to be let down by set piece defending and lack of discipline. i think bad luck played a big part too.(henchoz handball, numerous balls cleared off the line, etc) to answer the question i would put pires performance as the best for arsenal. you could see him turn the corner in this match, and the previous game against tottenham in the facup. it was the start of his legend at arsenal. vieira also had a great game. i am, of course, talking about the facup final, against liverpool, in 2001. also sol campbell, kolo toure and gilberto @ cl 06 final vs barcelona.
Igor Belanov for the USSR in their second round match against Belgium at Mexico 86. He was the Soviets' best player in the match, if not best afield, scoring a hat-trick and his team managed to lose 4-3. Belgium's second goal, which forced extra-time, should have been called offside.
Beckham vs Real Madrid in the CL quarters (I think) the year before he joined Real. United won that match but Real knew they'd done enough to go through. That was possibly the best performance of his career.
I think that I have the winner here: In 1961 Denis Law scored an incredible six goals for Huddersfield Town in an FA Cup tie against Luton Town. Unfortunately for him, the match was abandoned with twenty minutes to go, so his six goals didn't count. To make matters worse for him, he scored in the replay but Luton won the match, and City were out of the Cup.
Umm, I gots a few... Kaka scored a brace against United last season in the first leg of the CL SF though Milan eventually lost the game 3-2. Rooney, Ronaldo and Keane in the 2005 FA cup. They ran the show but Arsenal employed their usual "10 men behind the ball", rode it out to penalties where Patrick Vieira won the cup for Arsenal on penalties. Santa Cruz scored a hattrick against Wigan in the PL recently but didn't even get the match ball as Blackburn lost the game 5-3 with Marcus Bent also scoring a hattrick. I can't remember which one, probly the '62 one but Puskas scored a hattrick in the European Cup Final!....Only to go home with a runner's up medal as Eusebio's Benfica beat Madrid 5-3. Seeing as the thread mentions 'losing cause', Roy Keane got a yellow card against Juve in the CL semi final of 1999 with. Knowing he wouldn't be able to play in the final, he galvanised the side, and played with his heart out and lead the team to victory. The rest is as they say history...
That was a great game from him, but his performance evened out when he missed Italy's first penalty kick. Amazing how Italy's two best players missed their penalties that day...
forget the name but poland's keeper played great against Germany at the 2006 WC only to be scored on in stoppage time.
I thought Lothar Matthaus marking of Maradona in the 86 WC final was brilliant for most of the game. Maradona was just too good, and he managed to win the game, but if you watch a video of the match, Matthaus marked him remarkably well. It was trully a duel of titans.
Ballack and Lahm in all of Euro 2004!!! Joe Cole (Chelsea) scoring late in the game to make it 3-4 against the Spurs only to have them tie it again in extra time (4-4). Cole had the game of his life!
Not only that, his goals came in the first half and Di Stefano gave him lots of assists. At least he had the 1960 Final. Artur Boruc.