Greatest sporting performance you have seen live

[Janik]

My latest post on the greatest sportsperson thread suggested a spin-off from it - not the biggest name you've seen, but the highest level of play/game you have been in attendance at. The take-your-breath-away type of performance. Which may or may not have come from an all-time great.

For me, it is the same answer for first place - Federer and Nadal going at it in the 2007 Wimbledon Men's Singles Final. Also mentioned on the other thread was Serena beating Safina 6-0 6-1 a couple of years latter, but that was a bit hard to judge how well she was playing as she was so totally blowing away her opponent (which could be argued shows the level given that, if I remember correctly, Safina was World No. 1 at the time... technically). About the only thing that genuinely pushes the Federer-Nadal match was an Andy Murray performance against Andy Roddick at Queens Club when Muzza seemed preternatural in getting the huge serves back and then well nigh perfect in everything else he did after the rallies got started - it was a mismatch and Roddick just looked gobsmacked.

Also as mentioned on the other thread, the best team showing I've seen was Liverpool pretty recently, the first title under Klopp, Salah-Sane-Firmino season team having a game-of-games. They are probably an example of collection of very good but quite all-time players combining to play at an all-time great level (and doing so for a sustain period to boot, which is particularly impressive).


I wonder if any has been present at famous shocks where a relatively mundane performer suddenly played out-of-their-skin as if they were one of the world's very best? I'm thinking Rosol hitting everything as hard as he could and them all going in against Nadal at Wimbledon, Devon Malcolm bowling like the wind and ripping through South Africa 9-57, that sort of performance.

[ursus arctos]

Messi's hat trick for Argentina against Brazil at Giants Stadium.

For a pair of opponents, Cruyff and Hoddle in the White Hart Lane leg of Tottenham's UEFA Cup tie against Feyenoord in 1983.

For unexpected results, Bulgaria's win over Germany at the 94 World Cup (I was also at Ireland-Italy, so it was a good month for shocks).

[Amor de Cosmos]

OK I'm truly biased, but this is why:

League Cup Final, Wembley 1967: West Bromwich Albion (1st division) v Queens Park Rangers (3rd division). HT: WBA 2:0 QPR. FT: WBA 2:3 QPR. It was spectacular, and for me love at first sight.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Arsenal win at Barnsley in 1998. Pick any of five of their players in that game but probably Vieira.

I've not seen many good innings but Greenidge in a ODI at Leeds in 1980 hit a 6 that went about 20 feet above my head in the west terrace.

[Tony C]

As I mentioned on the other thread Viv Richards’ 189 not out in the Manchester ODI in 1984 was sublime, a true great at the peak of his powers. I remember certain incidents in the innings quite well: at one stage England were bowling shorter to him which he was just pulling nonchalantly to the square leg boundary. England countered by moving the third man fielder to deep square leg and again bowled short only for Richards to lean back and late cut beautifully to the boundary where the third man had been. The crowd just laughed and applauded. Effortless brilliance.

[elguapo4]

As said elsewhere, I saw Greg Lemond put in probably the greatest time trial in Tour de France history to beat Laurent Fignon in 1989

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Mine would be the same too, Usain Bolt winning the Olympic 100m in a time of 9.63, an Olympic record that very probably I'll never see broken.

[Hot Pepsi]

I went to a Penn State - USC game at the old Giant Stadium a while back. Crap game, as I recall.

After the game during the tailgate - long after most of the cars had left - we took turns kicking a not-fully-inflated football (not sure why we didn't pump it up a bit) over the portajohns, like kicking a field goal. Most of our efforts from long range were shanked or completely botched and just bounced along the ground. But my brother kicked a perfect one right through the imaginary uprights from about 25 parking spots back.

I also once saw a kid pull off that rare move in Jenga where he pulled the pieces from the second to bottom row simultaneously and the rest of the structure stayed upright.

[ursus arctos]

VT's post on the other thread causes to me to note that at least two regular posters have seen Test triple centuries (mine was Amla at the Oval).

That is somewhat striking given that there have only been 31 all time.

I saw Jim Bunning no hit the Mets in 1964. It was the first perfect game in the National League since 1880 and one of only 23 all time. It is the only MLB no hitter I've seen.

[Hot Pepsi]

VT's post on the other thread causes to me to note that at least two regular posters have seen Test triple centuries (mine was Amla at the Oval).

That is somewhat striking given that there have only been 31 all time.

I saw Jim Bunning no hit the Mets in 1964. It was the first perfect game in the National League since 1880 and one of only 23 all time. It is the only MLB no hitter I've seen.

I've never seen a perfect game, but I saw Hideo Nomo no-hit the Orioles when he was playing for the Red Sox. It was his Red Sox debut and the first no-hitter in Camden Yards and the first for the Red Sox since the 60s. Wiki tells me that was April 4, 2001.

[ursus arctos]

Penn State played US in the Meadowlands in 1996 and 2000

Neither game was competitive, with each side winning once.

PSU recorded the unusual total of five points in the second contest,

[Hot Pepsi]

Oh, that's right.
I recall watching the 96 one while I was supposed to be working a shift as a waiter in Boston. A friend of mine sat at the bar and regularly gave me updates as I sorta did my job. I believe that was during John Robinson's brief return to USC. I also saw PSU beat the hell out of USC in 1994. That was here. It was fantastic.

It was the crappy 2000 one that I actually went to where my brother kicked the ball over the portajohns. I recall that I'd just started doing OTF and had learned from several friends here that it is acceptable to watch a sporting event with a silent look of disappointment, slowly shaking one's head. So I did that. PSU had graduated the great defense it had had in the late 90s but still had the same pathetic offense. The team only got worse until a massive turnaround in 2005.

I've also seen PSU play Rutgers at Giant Stadium and, IIRC, Syracuse at MetLife. They won both of those. I've also seen them play Indiana at Fed Ex Field in Maryland (technically a home game for IU) and I've seen them play Temple at the Vet and the Linc. All of those were victories for PSU although not all very convincing. I've also seen them beat Miami in the Orange Bowl in 1999 and lose to West Virginia in Morgantown in 1984. I saw them beat Cincinnati at Riverfront once too. I think those are all the away games I've been to.

[ursus arctos]

That's a pretty good list. I barely saw Harvard play in Cambridge (and have never seen Cal live, with is sort of strange).

I think that the Meadowlands would be very happy to have them here every year. If Schiano is successful in resuscitating Rutgers, I could see them moving that game to Met Life.

[Hot Pepsi]

Yeah. More recently, they tried having that game at night at Rutgers' stadium. The first year they were in the B1G it was actually close. They were trying to encourage the on-campus experience.

I saw W&M at Princeton and against BU in Norfolk when my brother was the mascot.

I never saw BU play football when I was at BU. The program still existed my first year there but not my second year.

[ursus arctos]

It isn't surprising that I never saw Columbia during my time there, which included the end of then record 43 game losing streak.

The Rutgers stadium is on the edge of a satellite campus that is on the other side of the river from the main campus. I honestly don't know how that works because it postdates all of my Rutgers contacts.

[Incandenza]

I was there to see Loyola Marymount beat Michican 149-115 in the NCAA Tournament in 1990. Jeff Fryer made 11 out of 15 3-point shots, setting the record for 3-point shots made in the NCAA tournament. LMU also still holds the record for the highest score in a tournament game (84-57 over MICHIGAN in the second half!)

[Hot Pepsi]

I recall seeing Penn State beat Kutztown in men's lacrosse 25-4 around 1989. PSU wasn't even all that good back then.
Kutztown cut the program a year later.


Sorry, I meant to post that in the worst sporting performances thread.

[Third rate Leszno]

Colin McRae winning the 1995 RAC Rally, and with it the World Rally Championship. He dropped a minute on day 2 with a puncture, then more time with another puncture and damaged suspension, but he stayed calm and put in some stunning times to demoralise the opposition and was fastest on 18/28 special stages, beating team mate Carlos Sainz to the title. As Kris Meeke (no mean driver himself) observed, "You’re standing watching this bit of road moments before the cars arrive and you imagine what they’re going to do; then Colin arrives and does something you’d never imagine was possible." I followed the event around for several days and the memories will live with me for ever.

[Ray de Galles]

I wonder if any has been present at famous shocks where a relatively mundane performer suddenly played out-of-their-skin as if they were one of the world's very best? I'm thinking Rosol hitting everything as hard as he could and them all going in against Nadal at Wimbledon, Devon Malcolm bowling like the wind and ripping through South Africa 9-57, that sort of performance.

I saw World Number 102 Dustin Brown knock Nadal out of Wimbledon in 2015 which was an amazing match but it was in a period where that kind of thing had happened four years in a row to Rafa.

As for the main question in the thread I would need to give it some thought but the partisan knee-jerk response is Wales 3 Belgium 1 in the Euro 2016 quarter-final.