The ones that almost single handedly win big games.
I remember a few weeks ago in the diving thread that I said that the flashy diving players are like fluff in that they only do all that fancy stuff against weak teams, and in the big important matches when one tiny advantage will win it, they are suddenly nowhere to be seen. In those games, the true giants of the game shine through and win matches almost single handedly.
From my own country of Ireland, the obvious one would be Keano. However, I'd be all day listing his out and everyone knows them already.
The undersung one is Paul McGrath for us. A legend in Ireland, and highly thought of in England where he played most of his football. In the 1994 World Cup, we drew Italy and nobody gave us a chance against this team as they were one of the favourites to win and they had also beaten us last time up. However, Paul McGrath had one of the most commanding performances anyone had ever seen and completely stopped the Italian attack from getting anything going. Ray Houghton was the man who scored the goal leading to our legendary 1-0 victory against them, but the hero was an injured Paul McGrath at the back who was just amazing the whole day.
Check out this video of one of the greatest days we ever had. I remember this clearly, was 12 years old, bedlam in one of the houses on my street at home.
Another one, and one of the most brilliant feats in all of sport, was Maradona in 1986. This was discussed recently, but no amount of praise on this performance was too much. If McGrath won a single match for Ireland, this guy almost single handedly won the entire 1986 world cup for Argentina. The England came was the prime example, every time he got the ball he looked like scoring, and on one occasion he scored the greatest goal ever.
Yeah, he cheated with the handball, even look at the build up to it though. Then the second one, wow.
So, post some examples of just a huge performance from one player when it really counted to win a big game.
HB