RealGM

Okay, here's why I believe that the recent Portugal vs Sweden World Cup qualifier may have been the greatest international match of all time.

1) The stakes couldn't be much higher - winner goes to the World Cup, loser goes home
2) It was the last chance for two of the main Ballon D'Or contenders to stake their claim
3) Both the players in question were at the absolute top of their game and combined for all five goals
4) This will probably go down as the legacy-defining game of a player who will establish himself as one of the all-time greats (by "legacy-defining", think Pele vs Sweden, Maradona vs England, Ronaldo (Brazilian) vs Manchester United, Puskas/Di Stefano vs Eintracht Frankfurt, Zidane vs Brazil, Messi vs Arsenal, etc.)

I honestly think it might very well have been the greatest international match ever played.

No qualifying match can ever be the greatest ever. This is like comparing an nba regular season game to a finals game.

For me, the GOAT international match must be a finals of a great tourney, exciting with unforgettable goals (duh) and so iconic for both sides that it became part of their national identities. That being said, my choice is England - West Germany 1966. The game itself, the 3-2 "Wembley Goal" (was it a goal?) and Hurst, Tilkowski and Bachmarov (sp?) have all become immortal.

BTW: from the top of my head, I can name at least 3 Swedish and 3 Portuguese matches that were bigger than the 2013 match.

1950 Sweden - Brazil WC Finals - Pelé becomes immortal
1994 Sweden - Romania WC QF - the shootout heard around the world
2012 Germany - Sweden qualis - the immortal 4-4 (duh!)

1966 Portugal - North Korea WC QF - Eusebio's wrath fells the Red Army
2004 Portugal - Greece EC Finals - Charisteas spoils the party
2006 Portugal - England WC QF - Top 4 at last

Recently

2006 WC SF, Germany-Italy *hides from German fans*:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXBVvg9u8qI[/youtube]

2008 EC QF, Netherlands-Russia

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE058c4s-9g[/youtube]

Turkey's games in 2008 EC were outstanding as well IIRC

^^I dunno, we Germans have a spectacular share of painful losses. Sure, England 1966, Italy 1970, Argentina 1986 and Italy 2006 were all painful, but IMHO the worst German loss of all time was 1978 vs Austria, the Cordoba Debacle. I mean, we could beat Austria 20-0 and all they would say is "Yeah, but at least we won in 1978".

For Netherlands, the GOAT games are easy:
1974 vs West Germany WC Finals - Cruyff's most famous loss ever
1988 vs West Germany EC SF - Van Basten figuratively, and Koeman literally wipe their butts with us
1988 vs Soviet Union EC Finals - Van Bastens scores the Goal of the Century

What is the Messi vs Arsenal legacy defining game?

Portugal-Sweden was perhaps the best international game of the year 2013... best ever? not even close.
Spain vs Italy 2012? less close than Portugal-Sweden.

Italy-Germany 2006?...personally my favorite ever

Effercon wrote:1) The stakes couldn't be much higher - winner goes to the World Cup, loser goes home

Could be a World Cup game!

Batu7 wrote:What is the Messi vs Arsenal legacy defining game?

2010 CL, iirc. Arsenal won the first leg 2-1. Barca won the second 4-1, Messi scored all four goals.

magik9113 wrote:Portugal-Sweden was perhaps the best international game of the year 2013... best ever? not even close.
Spain vs Italy 2012? less close than Portugal-Sweden.

Italy-Germany 2006?...personally my favorite ever

Regarding Spain-Italy: Brazil-Italy is up there too, for the same reason: an all-time great international team absolutely obliterating a very tough team and ascending from "amazing team" to "legendary team". I saw Spain-Italy 2012 in the same vein.

Boognish wrote:

Effercon wrote:1) The stakes couldn't be much higher - winner goes to the World Cup, loser goes home

Could be a World Cup game!

Bear in mind that these are two teams that are likely to be bounced in either the group stage or the last 16. Considering neither side was expected to make a deep run in the World Cup if they had gotten there, just getting there itself was considered the big target. Combine that with all the factors I mentioned (Ronaldo-Ibra duel, final pitch for the Ballon D'or, Ronaldo legacy-defining game, Ibra's comments before and after the game, etc.), and you have yourself the perfect mixture for an all-time great international match.

IronChef wrote:2010 CL, iirc. Arsenal won the first leg 2-1. Barca won the second 4-1, Messi scored all four goals.

Yep, that's the one.

So these are not teams good enough to go far in wc yet they produce the greatest game of all time? ok.

Ballon d'or is a joke and there's not even historical bad blood between countries to raise the tensions. all you got two good players on two underachieving teams.

Maybe not Sweden, but Portugal was definitely expected to make the WC. Reaching Brazil was never considered the big target for them.

Not only that the game itself was painful to watch save 10-20 minutes.

IronChef wrote:

Batu7 wrote:What is the Messi vs Arsenal legacy defining game?

2010 CL, iirc. Arsenal won the first leg 2-1. Barca won the second 4-1, Messi scored all four goals.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6BHyv6nkAs[/youtube]

In all Arabic commentary glory.

5DOM wrote:Recently

2006 WC SF, Germany-Italy *hides from German fans*:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXBVvg9u8qI[/youtube]

This was the best for me. I'll never forget Cannavaro destroying Germany's last chance.

I also loved Zidane's run that whole tournament. His destruction of Brazil, Portugal and the last time Spain was beaten in a meaningful match(Confederations Cup be damned).

Germany tooling the Dutch at the euros is my all time fav. That was before the DFB megatardedly forced Netzer out of the NT with beckenbauer, kleiner dicker müller, and co at the height of their powers. The Dutch scored early and then proceed to do nothing with the rest of their possession, just for that German total football machine to come back and steal their win.

Germany-Hungary in 54 deserves a shout to, being as it's the greatest upset of all time in football. A group of german amateurs on a rain-soaked pitch defeated the most dominant team the sport had seen to win a WC in their first tourney.

From a German POV, the GOAT matches would be
1) West Germany - Hungary 3-2 (WC Finals 1954) - the Bern Miracle
2) West Germany - Netherlands 2-1 (WC Finals 1974) - ice cold robbery of the Dutch Super XI
3) East Germany - West Germany 1-0 (WC 1974) - Sparwasser scores the finest moment in GDR history

Point forward wrote:From a German POV, the GOAT matches would be
1) West Germany - Hungary 3-2 (WC Finals 1954) - the Bern Miracle
2) West Germany - Netherlands 2-1 (WC Finals 1974) - ice cold robbery of the Dutch Super XI
3) East Germany - West Germany 1-0 (WC 1974) - Sparwasser scores the finest moment in GDR history

Yeah, the legend of that sparwasser goal is the first football story I heard as a child. As our boys managed to even chip perfect sepp maier's tooth in the match. *sigh* and now after Toni Kroos we'll never have a great football story from a player born in the DDR.

Being Portuguese it was incredibly entertaining to watch us qualify in style but definitely not the best international match ever. Perhaps the best this year.

My personal favourites are Spain - France 2006 WC, Brazil - France 1998 WC Final, and any number of Portugal games from 2006 when we had quite possibly our best set of attackers and midfielders to date.

Hmm surprised to see the Colombia vs Argentina match listed there since it was a total trashing. Greatest individual match for Colombia? Sure. Greatest surprise in soccer history? Maybe. Greatest match ever, nope. Still remember that game like it was yesterday though. The party throughout the entire country was absolutely insane