When the music's over

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Italy won.

But I'm happy for them. Of the four semifinalists, they were the best, and they stopped playing their cynical brand of football to really give an excellent game against Germany, followed by a hard-fought draw against France in the final. And of course they managed to win a stressful penalty shoot-out.

Also, as a defender, I am happy to see two superb defenses battle it out in the final. Perhaps the Golden Ball will go to a defender this Cup? Nope. In a horrible decision, FIFA gave the Golden Ball to Zidane, a player who had one celestial game (against Brazil), had a serviceable but by most standards average tournament, and earned a red card in the final for unprofessional and violent conduct. FIFA basically rewarded his shameful headbutt and spinelessly gave the award based on, I think, his cumulative career. FIFA is bad for football.

Italy had no goals scored against them in the flow of play: USA's was an own goal and France's was a penalty. Italy had, I believe, 13 goals from 10 scorers, which sounds more like Dutch Total Football than Italian Catenaccio.

But to the game itself...I went to the Fan Mile an hour before kickoff, wearing my Vieira Arsenal jersey. I thought Italy would win 2-1 but I would pull for France anyway. But when France was awarded a penalty for a (well-executed) dive, I felt a little dirty, and hoped that Italy would equalize. They did, and the first half was (abnormally) rather good. The second half was comparatively dreary. France had more and better chances, though neither team looked especially creative. Overtime was even more dour, and then came the headbutt. Nevermind his legacy: how could he do that to his teammates, leaving them a man down and without their leader in the biggest game in the world? Zidane also got a red card in 1998, by the way. His legacy will be tarnished, like Maradona's, Best's or Gascoigne's, and not impeachable like Pele's, Lineker's or Beckenbauer's. So even a man up, Italy didn't look up to the task to produce a winner. Which is odd, because Italians normally fear PKs. Flashback to the USA game, and note that Italy couldn't win either game for which they had a man advantage. ???

The Fan Mile became a very big party for a lot of shirtless drunk Italian men aged 16-35. There were also a lot of very drunk Germans, some of whom had been there since noon when the German national team held there "Danke" event. Some German fans rooting for France started a Mussolini chant (four syllables make it easy), which seemed to me to be a good way to invite some troublesome counter-chants. The standard German anti-Italy chant was, in translation, "Italians are pizza delivery boys." There's another I head from some Irish on the S-Bahn: "You can buy a referee in Italy." After the win, Gennaro Gattuso felt the need to take off his pants with one billion people watching. Oh, and the trophy awarding ceremony was a little disorganized, and in my mind a little debased. Many Italian players touched and kissed the trophy before it was awarded to them, which is poor form.

I would love to post some photos, but my camera batteries died last night.

Congrats and thank you to Germany for hosting a superb competition. Shame USA, Australia, England, and the African teams did go farther. Maybe next time. And well done to Germany's coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, for shutting up his critics most convincingly. Maybe he'll coach the USA. Please.

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Comments

[dad]

excellent review
Excellent analysis of the last day! Too bad about the camera batteries. We look forward to your arrival home in 2 weeks.