The greatest individual West Ham performance of the past decade

This week I’ve been tasked to do something really hard. Harder than moving a mountain. Harder than picking which one I like least out of Ant and Dec, and even harder than explaining the offside rule to Kevin Nolan.

I’ve been asked to write about the ‘greatest individual performance I’ve ever witnessed.’

Now. This is a tricky one because I’ve only been in the UK for ten years. Before then, I lived in America, where we didn’t have games on TV all that often—and when we did, they weren’t West Ham. As a result, my personal history with the club begins in 2004— when I was 18.

With that in mind, any performance from any player that I select is bound to pale in comparison with the greats of the past. Yes, I know Bobby Moore was really good, and I’m sorry I never saw him play. I realize Scott Parker doesn’t hold a candle to Billy Bonds, but I don’t have a lot of modern ‘greats’ to work with here, and if you can hear a funny scraping noise, that’s me at the bottom of a barrel containing our current crop of players.

Using the great forum of Twitter, I’ve managed to move on from my initial article entitled “Not Nigel Reo-Coker,” and here are the performances in contention for best individual performance that I’ve seen (all of which were suggested and prompted by twitter buddies—thanks, all.)

1. Robert Green v Arsenal 7^th April, 2007

Rob Green, before the promise of a well-paid career on the bench at QPR distracted him, had some brilliant games for West Ham. Perhaps his best game was against Arsenal, when West Ham became the first team to win at the then-new Emirates stadium. Rob Green was outstanding against an Arsenal that posed threat after threat, and yet he single handedly ensured West Ham’s clean sheet—making some particularly impressive saves one after another in the last 10 minutes.

2. Carlos Tevez v Manchester United  – 13^th May, 2007

Yup, it’s “that” player and “that” goal that cost us one billion-million-pounds (rough estimate) and kept us in the Premier League—but my god, what a performance it was. In a game that made all the difference, Tevez was the driving force of the team. He scored, got booked, was unlucky to have a penalty appeal turned down and had a number of excellent shots on target. He was brought off in the 82^nd minute, but for the time he spent on the pitch he was inspiring, and scored the goal that kept us up (and admittedly screwed us financially for years to come, but you can’t have everything.)

3. Scott Parker v West Brom (and also kinda West Ham) -12th February 2011

Scott Parker’s performance on the pitch wasn’t half-bad. It was his usual ballet-style game of twists and turns, and whirls and twirls—but it was his performance off the pitch that was so incredible. At half-time, West Ham trailed by 3 goals to 0 against West Brom. In the dressing room, Scott Parker (reportedly) embodied the spirit of Winston Churchill to motivate the Hammers to come back out with a bang – and to score within the first 5 minutes of the game restarting. West Ham played a completely different game the second half, and went on to draw the game 3-3—and everyone credited the change of fortunes to Scott Parker.

So which one is the best, for me? Carlos Tevez against United. It’s the one that sticks out the best in my mind, the one that still gives me goosebumps to think about— particularly how I actually cried happy tears in the pub at the final whistle (and my then-boyfriend accidentally dumped a beer on the SkySports reporter. Sorry.)

Though what it makes me think of most is how much I miss games like that. We had two great wins against Spurs this season, but so much of the games this year have been tainted by the negativity and depression that have come along with the results. We need someone to save the day like Green did in order to beat a club that no one else could. We need someone to score an incredible goal in a game, that on paper, we never should have won. We need someone to break the mould and inspire the players to turn their fortunes around and make a comeback.

We need a hero capable of delivering an impressive individual performance—and we only have a few months left to find one, in order to save the day.

What was your best individual performance in the past 10 years? Do you miss any of Green, Tevez and Parker? Do you think anyone of our current squad is capable of a heroic individual performance?