The home leg dismantling of Freiburg was remarkable. It had every hallmark of an all-time great match for West Ham: one of the best team performances in living memory, stunning football, and goals galore, all inspiring an atmosphere of celebration in the stands.
It was certainly the best game of the season so far – but does it earn a spot in the greatest West Ham games in our memories? As a 37-year-old who grew up in the United States and didn’t move to England until the autumn of 2004, I’ve probably missed more games than I’ve been to.
I’m too young to have seen the boys of ‘86, too foreign to have witnessed the Di Canio volley, too removed from a Bond Seat to earn a ticket to the European Conference final, and too ill to have been at Seville at home – but here are my picks for the best games I’ve attended in my little lifetime.
Middlesbrough 0 – 1 West Ham, FA Cup (Semi-Final), 23 April 2006
The FA Cup run in 2006 was a thing of beauty. The results kept coming in for then-manager Alan Pardew, and it was such a moment of pride to make it to the final, where Steven Gerrard and Lionel Scaloni combined to break our hearts right at the death.
Although I was in that number in Cardiff, the game that stays in my heart and my mind is the semi-final against Middlesborough at Villa Park. I hadn’t lived here for long, and only knew one other person who was going, so I bought myself a train ticket and a match ticket (oh to be back in the days where 54 priority points weren’t needed to attend an away cup game…) and pledged to make an adventure of it.
I ended up sat behind the goal next to the nicest older gentlemen who brought his own packed lunch and offered me some grapes at half time – and what a game it was to eat grapes to. Middlesbrough started stronger – and this was a team with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Yakubu in it, so no pushovers on the pitch – but West Ham fought well and bided their time until the 78th minute.
Dean Ashton, who could truly have been one of the greats of English football, knocked the ball down for Marlon Harewood, who powered home in front of the West Ham fans, ripping his shirt off and screaming in delight. Villa Park went wild – and West Ham went through to the final, with a party atmosphere spilling out into the streets of Birmingham and all the way back to London.
This goal and win also qualified West Ham for the UEFA Cup – but the less said about that, the better.
Blackpool 1 – 2 West Ham, Championship (Play Off Final), 19 May 2012
Few things beat a successful day out at Wembley and this was no exception. After a year slumming it in the Championship, West Ham couldn’t quite grasp automatic promotion – but they did come out swinging in the play-offs.
Hammers legend Carlton Cole opened the scoring for West Ham, but our joy didn’t last long – Thomas Ince, son of Judas, scored just two minutes later to equalise for Blackpool. The Hammers never gave up – but they did leave it late, with Ricardo Vaz Te delivering the match winning goal just three minutes before the final whistle.
Being in that crowd at Wembley – the celebrations, the joy, the sense of achievement of restoring our place in the Premier League, it was perfect. It might just be my happiest moment at a football match.
It’s amazing the joy that can come from finishing third in the Championship, but days like this are well worth celebrating – and I’ll always hear strains of ‘Allar! Allar! Allardyce’ when I hear a certain Coldplay song.
West Ham 2 – 2 Everton, FA Cup, 13 January 2015
Try as they might, West Ham could not find a way to beat Everton in the FA Cup Third Round. The first game ended 1-1, forcing a Tuesday evening replay under the lights at Upton Park. The second game finished 2-2, with neither side able to make the breakthrough.
With the two teams at a stalemate, we went to extra time, and we went to penalties – and again, both sides held their nerve. Crucially, Everton had an outfield player sent off, meaning that when even penalties failed to settle the score, with each team having one saved, both team’s goalkeepers had to take a penalty.
Everton keeper Joel Robles hit the crossbar first; if our keeper, Adrian San Miguel scored, we were through. My season ticket was in the Bobby Moore Upper. When we got to the penalties, everyone was on their feet, and the entire ground surged forwards.
You couldn’t move, and the stewards were powerless to keep people from the gangways – everyone wanted to be as close to the action as possible and the tension was electric. As long as I live, may I never forget our goalkeeper, Adrian San Miguel, unstrapping his gloves and throwing them off as he ran up to slam his penalty past Robels, winning the game for West Ham and taking us to the next round of the FA Cup.
He knew he would win it and wouldn’t be going back in goal. It was simply the best ‘limbs’ I’d ever seen at West Ham – the ground absolutely erupted and it’s a small wonder no one fell off the upper level in the celebrations.
West Ham 3 – 2 Manchester United, Premier League, 10 May 2016
West Ham ended their 112 years at Upton Park with an ‘I was there’ spectacle against Manchester United in our ‘Farewell Boleyn’ match. Before the match, thousands took to the streets to drink in the sunshine on Green Street and soak up the atmosphere one last time, and maybe intimidating the Manchester United team bus.
The game was an end-to-end battle, with emotion running through every pass, every ball. West Ham went 1-0 up; Manchester United pulled two back. Michail Antonio netted to make it 2-2 and then Winston Reid soared through the air to head past David De Gea and score the final goal of the game and the ground to win it, 3-2.
We celebrated with a closing ceremony to rival any Summer Olympics. Wonderfully, our seats were right next to players from the 2010s squad, including Martin Samuelson (remember him?), Anton Ferdinand, Thomas Hitzlsperger, and Marlon Harewood – all of whom happily chatted away to fans and posed for photos.
It was a good game, emotional, meaningful, important, and Winston Reid’s goal to win it for the Hammers was one of the most meaningful goals of my lifetime, even if it did mean very little in the league.
I rarely cry at games – and even more rarely cry at wins – but I cried at this one. So many years of memories and community and history, all tied up and cemented into the bricks of the place. It meant everything to us to leave on a high.
West Ham 0 – 1 Ipswich, Premier League, 17 March 2001
A loss is an odd choice, but hear me out. You never forget your first time – and this game will forever mean something to me as the game that made me fall in love with English football.
My Dad, a Hackney-born West Ham supporter, and I, a lowly American teenager, flew from the USA to England and pledged to see as much football as we could in a week. We saw an England game at Anfield, watched Leyton Orient, and even braved a West Ham youth game in the snow – but nothing resonated as strongly to me as watching West Ham lose to Ipswich.
I remember the crowds, the stalls selling badges and scarves on the street up from Upton Park station, the chanting, thinking West Ham scored and accidentally throwing my sausage roll a few rows away, but most of all, I remember going with my Dad.
We don’t get to go to many games together, living in different continents, but I’m forever grateful we went to that one together. This was the game that started it all – and now, 23 years later, West Ham is part of my story and my history.
This is the best game for me, the happiest memory, and it’s a loss – but West Ham’s loss is my gain. This game gave me a love for football, and more crucially, a love for West Ham United. Three years later, I moved to east London, found myself going to Cardiff to watch a play-off final on TV, and realised this was important to me.
West Ham gave me a sense of community, a passion for an English pastime, and now 18 years of football related highs and lows as a season ticket holder. It’s the game that changed it all – and it’ll always be the greatest game to me.
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