The Joy of Six: great individual performances

1) Roy Keane, Juventus 2-3 MANCHESTER UNITED, Champions League semi-final, 21/04/1999

Roy Keane has always inspired an almost dangerously intense, Tyler Durdenish devotion among his disciples, and so it is that mention of Turin makes thousands of grown men - the sort who wouldn't flinch at a funeral - go misty-eyed . Yet as outstanding as Keane was in Turin, it's arguable that: a) he has played better; and b) the majority misunderstand the nature of his performance. When people think of Keane they think of a defensive midfielder, shutting down opposition teams through either snarling desire (see Arsenal in January 2000) or forensic intelligence (Liverpool in the 1996 FA Cup final, his best performance in the opinion of some). In Turin, however, his most significant contribution was offensive: not just his richly symbolic goal to get United back in the contest, but his rhythmic, hypnotic passing, particularly at 2-0 down, that got United going and broke the will of Juventus, who looked into his eyes and saw only an absolute certainty that United would go through. They would have been less scared had Keyser Söze walked on to the pitch.

That's the paradox: Keane did his very best work at 2-0, yet we hear constantly of how he reacted to knowing he wouldn't be able to play in the final – the result of a booking at 2-1. Sir Alex Ferguson said he "felt it was an honour to be associated with such a player," but the suspicion lingers that, had he not been booked, we would not have heard nearly as much about this performance. Indeed Tuttosport, able to appraise the game free of sentiment, concentrated on the football genius of – and you'll like this – Andy Cole, who they said produced "a truly wonderful display of football". Keane himself called the fuss "embarrassing", an appraisal we can only partly ascribe to self-deprecation. Not that it matters: the legend of Turin will only grow and grow.

2) Dietmar Hamann, LIVERPOOL 3-3 Milan, Champions League final, 25/05/2005

There is no knocking Steven Gerrard's contribution to Liverpool's famous Istanbul miracle: scoring the goal which kickstarted the mother of all comebacks, winning a penalty, and keeping Serginho quiet for the best part of an hour at right back is a fair day's graft for a fair day's pay. He's usually afforded man-of-the-match status for this, but sadly there's an elephant in the room: Liverpool wouldn't have been three goals down if Kaka, Andrea Pirlo and Gino Gatusso hadn't played ring-a-ring-a-roses around him during the first half, as Gerrard played in his favoured position, the Central Midfield Role He Doesn't Have The Nous To Fill (also known colloquially as The Beckham).

While Rafa Benítez might have made an initial balls-up of his half-time reorganisation – at one point, due to a chalkboard malfunction, he was going to field 12 men, then at another only 10 – he was wise enough to feature the substitute Dietmar Hamann in both of those line-ups. Hamann was detailed to get tight on Kaka, and put his foot on the ball whenever it came to him – before calmly lofting it straight down the middle of the pitch, forcing Jaap Stam and Alessandro Nesta to turn again and again. Hamann executed the plan perfectly. Tackles were won. Balls were looped forward again and again. Stam and Nesta became dizzy, then giddy, then sick. After Liverpool drew level, Milan reasserted themselves for the remainder of the match, but with the wise head of Hamann marshalling the Liverpool midfield, Kaka and co never had the same influence. Gerrard took the plaudits for his spectacular role in Liverpool's eventual win, but there was no doubt who was really pulling the strings. Although Hamann nearly did miss his penalty, but let's gloss over that.

3) Stan Mortensen, Bolton 3-4 BLACKPOOL, FA Cup final, 02/05/1953

Gerrard does have one unquestionably great performance on his CV: the 2006 FA Cup final, where he set up Djibril Cissé for Liverpool's exquisite (and criminally underrated) opening goal, then belaboured two vicious shots past Shaka Hislop, including that late equaliser. Hats off, but that match will always go down in history as the Gerrard Final, so we're sure he won't mind being passed over here.

Compare and contrast his situation to poor Stan Mortensen. The 1953 FA Cup final has gone down in legend as the Matthews Final, which on the one hand is understandable as 38-year-old Stanley spent the entire second half dancing up and down the right flank. Only problem is, he only started performing once Bolton's Eric Bell, stationed on his wing, lost the use of his legs after tearing a hamstring. Stan Mortensen, however, had by this time already notched one equaliser, and went on to score two more, helping his Blackpool side draw level from 3-1 down. Mortensen's hat-trick goal, which tied the scores at 3-3, was a last-minute free-kick equal in dramatic violence to Gerrard's strike 53 years later.

That Matthews set up the cross for Bill Perry to run in Blackpool's injury-time winner is neither here nor there: Mortensen had scored a hat-trick in a Wembley FA Cup final. Given nobody else has managed one, that's no mean feat. Given this was in an era when the FA Cup final was (rightly or wrongly) considered to be the biggest game in the world, that's simply amazing. Mortensen never gets his props for this outstanding feat - to the point that one wag suggested, at the time of his death in 1991, his wake will be remembered as The Matthews Funeral.

4) Tim Flowers, BLACKBURN 1-0 Newcastle, Premiership, 08/05/1995

The peculiar thing about this one is that it is better remembered for his Flowers' maniacal post-match interview, but the only reason he was being interviewed in the first place was because he had produced one of the all-time great goalkeeping performances. Flowers was so extraordinarily wired that his wife either got very lucky or very unlucky that night. As usual, context is everything: in their penultimate game, Blackburn had to win to keep the title race in their hands, but most of their outfield players had long since shot their bolt, and after Alan Shearer's early goal they were put under increasing pressure by a good Newcastle side.

Newcastle could not, however, get past Flowers, who had been wound up enormously by suggestions that Blackburn might bottle it, and played with an almost demented refusal to concede a goal under any circumstances. After one glorious first-half save, when he leapt to his right to fingertip a scorching long-range shot from Peter Beardsley over the top, he tensed his body and let out a blood-curdling cry to the heavens. If this was proper over-my-dead-body stuff, it was also infused with enormous technical excellence: as Newcastle's momentum gathered in the second half Flowers produced a variety of high-class saves. He bounced to his left to claw away Rob Lee's wobbling long-ranger, plunged to his right to keep out Ruel Fox and then changed direction brilliantly to repel John Beresford. With it being 8 May and all, Rovers fans christened it VE Day – Victory at Ewood Day. Yet, really, Flowers had gone to war on his own.

PS There are more great goalkeeping in displays in a Joy of Six we did back in the day.

5) Jürgen Klinsmann, WEST GERMANY 2-1 Netherlands, World Cup second round, 24/06/1990

You can tell a lot about a man by his shoes, his golf swing or the number of injunctions he has against him, but you can tell even more by the way he reacts to adversity and injustice. This was the ultimate sporting example, a brutally intense night against the Dutch enemy on which Klinsmann visibly went from very good to great. He had been left alone in a 10-a-side match after his strike partner Rudi Völler was sent off for repeat offending in the space of a minute: in order, Voller was scythed down by Frank Rijkaard, spat on by Rijkaard, avoided a potentially dangerous challenge with the goalkeeper Hans van Breukelen and then tripped over his own feet while trying to backpedal as Rijkaard lumbered in for a tear-up.

Klinsmann could reasonably have gone into his shell, or sulked at the staggering injustice of Völler's red card. Instead he basically decided balls to everything: he truly did the work of two men, producing a performance of mind-boggling desire and class that inspired West Germany to a gloriously emphatic trouncing of the Dutch. "I have never seen Jürgen Klinsmann run so much, play so well, and take on such responsibility," said his manager Franz Beckenbauer afterwards. Klinsmann scored the opening goal with a beautifully dexterous volley, clattered a breathtaking shot off the post and generally ran the Dutch ragged. He ran himself ragged, too: he had to be substituted with cramp with 11 minutes to go. Given how much running he did, it's a miracle he lasted that long.

6) Claudio Gentile, ITALY 2-1 Argentina, World Cup Group C, 29/06/1982

For Italy, it started with a kick. Every tournament victory has its tipping point, but in 1982 it was more a tripping point: after three miserable draws in the first stage they only got going when Claudio Gentile did a number on Diego Maradona, allowing Italy to win 2-1. If he did it through foul means and fouler – he fouled Maradona alone a record 23 times, despite being booked early on – then it's also the definitive demonstration of the ignoble art of man-to-man marking. Gentile ensured that two became one, though not in the Spice Girls sense; he was tighter against the body than a pair of skinny jeans and equally horrible to look at. Su camisa es mi camisa. Dogs don't hold on to a bone so determinedly. Gentile shared that uncomplaining animal willingness to serve his master, in this case the manager Enzo Bearzot. Look at the absolute terror on his face at the fact he has lost Maradona. And Maradona isn't even a yard away. Four years before the Hand of God, Gentile introduced Maradona to the Boot of Satan.