When The Pulse dropped on Saturday with a subject line of ‘The greatest performance ever,’ it got us thinking.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani became the first player to hit three home runs and throw 10 strikeouts in a game, and took his team to the World Series. There’s an argument to be made “it was the best individual performance the sport has ever seen,” apparently.
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But just how good was Ohtani’s display? And do you have to excel at every aspect of a team game to justify genuine greatness? Furthermore, can you have a great individual performance and be on the losing side?
We thought we’d have a bit of fun and ask some of our staff to tell us about the great individual displays that have stood out for them. We would love to hear what you think, too, using the form or the comments section below…
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Diego Maradona, Argentina (vs Belgium, World Cup semi-final, June 25, 1986)
Thirty-nine years have passed, but I don’t think any footballer — not even Lionel Messi — has captivated me as much as Maradona did during the 1986 World Cup. His career was pockmarked by ups and downs and personal difficulties, but the heights he scaled at the peak of his powers, at Napoli and during that World Cup in Mexico, were truly extraordinary.
His exploits in the quarter-final are
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