7. The 13 year rivalry
When most people think of the America/Japanese rivalry in Street Fighter, they think of Daigo and Wong. But the original rivalry is Daigo vs. Alex Valle. Way back in 1998, a baby Daigo flew out to San Francisco to face American champion Alex Valle. It's one of the most classic SF matches of all time and probably the only really big SFA3 match.
Check out Valle's hilarious wifebeater getup. Talk about a bad way to represent America.
So here's Daigo, the best SF player using the best character against Valle, sticking with the nerfed Ryu. Valle should have gotten destroyed here, but he read Daigo super well and put him on the verge of actually losing. At one point he's sitting on no life and reacted to an ex rush punch - a move that's pretty much instant - with a dp to stay alive. It was beautiful. Valle pushes Daigo down to no life and finally runs out of luck as he gets hit by a stupid dive kick.
Valle puts his head down, dejected. He shakes it and goes right back to it. Just like he always has.
This match was a fantastic throwback to two old rivals and Valle alllllllmost pulled it off.
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xyzzy