I'm curious to know if there is one match that sticks out in anyone's mind as being particularly painful. Can be club or country, and feel free to elaborate as much as you like. As a Porto fan, our loss to Schalke in the 2nd leg of the last 16 of the 2008 CL really stands out as being particularly devastating. We lost the first leg of the tie 1-0 in Germany, but fought back to equalize late in the 2nd leg and sent it to penalties. Throughout the match, Manuel Neuer made several breath-taking stops that simply sucked as a Porto fan, and I guess it was inevitable that we would lose the PK's. Still, I thought we dominated the tie and deserved to win, and it was tough seeing several of our veteran players like Ricardo Quaresma in tears after the match since he knew he was leaving the club that summer. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY-0xuJ0edM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY-0xuJ0edM[/ame]
Liverpool's 0-3 loss inthe 1981 Intercontinental Cup to Zico's Flamengo That Liverpool team is one of the greatest of all-time, but it seems to be relegated in favor of more "glamorous" teams like Flamengo because of the loss. And, it seems that most of the Liverpool players are downgraded with regard to Zico himself also.
1986 European Cup final Barcelona 0, Steaua 0 after extra time Barcelona fails on all four penalties to lose 2-0. And all in front of 70,000+ Culés in Sevilla. At the time Barca were overwhelming favorites in that game but hindsight shows that Steaua side wasn't too shabby a team ('88 semifinalists, '89 finalists) And since Barca had themselves reached the final via penalties I've considered it a case of "you live by the sword, you die by the sword". Still, I've never felt such pain in the pit of my stomach as I felt after that game. '92 Sao Paulo... '94 Milan... '95 Real Madrid... '02 Real Madrid... '05 Chelsea... '06 Internacional... '07 finish to La Liga... '08 Pasillo... '10 Inter... None of it comes close to '86 Steaua.
Not really. That Brasil '82 team is still lauded as an amazing team. I don't think anyone goes walking around rejoicing the Italian team from that same WC, do they? Anyone - besides Dor02?
Does it have to be a loss? The draw with Sweden in the 2002 World Cup hurt me the most. Lots of tough Boca losses, but for a club, there's always next year. For the NT, its once in 4 years.
For club for me it has to be the 95 play-off final. 2-0 up and then miss a penalty. They guy whose foul caused the penalty was already on a yellow, but was "let off" by the ref, despite there being no attempt to do anything other than bring the man down. The same player then sets up the 85th minute equaliser, and we eventually lose 4-3.
For me, the elimination of Germany by Bulgaria in the quarterfinals of the 1994 WC. For the first and only time in history, Germany went into a World cup as the number 1 favorite (they also led the FIFA rankings - a feat which they have not been able to repeat after that). The players that had won the 1990 WC were still in place, and had performed outstandingly in the group games (especially Klinsmann). I was convinced they would repeat their WC triumph, especially taking into account that the other favorites like Brazil had not been convincing. Germany dominated the game against rank outsiders Bulgaria from the beginning and scored in the 47th minute. Then they made the mistake of getting too complacent. Bulgaria, lead by the magnificent Stoichkov, scored two late goals on the counter and there was not enough time to get an equalizer. I will never forget the moment the ball was in the air for long seconds on its way to Letschkow, and the German player covering Letschkow was the diminutive Hässler. From the moment the cross was struck it was clear that Letschkow would win the header against Hässler and score the winning goal. This was pure torment.
Hurt is not the right word, I would say the performance was embarrassing and pathetic. HM: Austria - Spain 0:9