May the Best Story Win (Part I)

The Archive

by starksfor3

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A look at how two World Cup teams reached Sunday’s final

One could never have known which two teams would reach the final from their group play matches, nor their round of 16 contests. In 2006, unlike in other years, dominance is not the name of the game. In fact, out of the 32 entries into the Cup, four went 3-0-0, undefeated and untied. None of those four, which includes perennially underachieving Spain, upstart Portugal, odds-on favorite Brazil, and host Germany, are still standing (unless you count Saturday’s third-place match, in which case, both Germany and Portugal are still left). Additionally, a team which did not allow a goal in any of their matches, Switzerland, managed to get eliminated as well via penalty kicks to Ukraine in a 0-0 standstill in the round of 16.

So who does that leave us with for Sunday’s final match? Italy vs. France, the Azzurri vs. Les Bleus, which if you haven’t noticed, is an exercise in redundancy in any language. Fittingly, both teams struggled at times through group play and drew sharp criticism from fans and media alike.

The Italians went 2-0-1 in group play, with the one being a startling 1-1 draw to the United States in the middle of their three games. This displeased many Italian rooters as the United States had not fared well overall in this year’s Cup. Italy assisted the United States in a goal that allowed the score to be tied, and nearly lost despite having a bizarre 10 versus nine player advantage through much of the second half.

An apparent DaMarcus Beasley goal for the United States that would have vanquished the Italians was disallowed due to a passive offside call. This overshadowed their previous 2-0 victory over Ghana which was much expected.

Prior to their third game against the Czech Republic, Italy still could have been eliminated, had they lost and the United States lost to Ghana. Italy would have been left with four points while the Czech Republic and Ghana would both have six to advance from their groups. The United States, in fact, did lose to Ghana 2-1. However, Italy took care of business with the Czechs, winning their game 2-0. The victory was not secure until striker Filippo Inzaghi scored in the 87th minute to double the final tally for the Azzurri. This gave Italy seven points and made them the winner of their group over close-second Ghana, which has six.

In their round of 16 match against the surprising Australians, Italy did not look impressive, and, in fact, appeared to be outplayed by the Socceroos for much of the match. Yet after 90 minutes, there was still no score. Four minutes of stoppage time were added on, and controversy ensued. As the stoppage time came to a close, a highly questionable penalty was called against Australia inside the 18 yard box (the national frustration of which has manifested itself via a satirical article on this very site from an Australian citizen reporter, criticizing the referees throughout the Cup, with emphasis on that particular call) when an Italian player with the ball tripped over an already fallen and seated defender who made no obvious motion to trip his opponent up.

Captain Francesco Totti was to take the penalty kick, which proved to be the final play of regulation. Totti nailed it and Italy celebrated a stunning victory, albeit not necessarily a deserved one.

Aside from not performing well against an unheralded Australian team, weighing on the Italians were a number of subplots that must certainly have provided emotional baggage for many of the team members. The now-infamous Italian Serie A match-fixing scandal had been uncovered just prior to the World Cup, with four powerhouse club teams implicated. Twelve of the national squad’s 23 players belong to one of those four clubs.

To add to that turmoil, on June 27, only a day after Italy’s 1-0 win over Australia, former Italian national team representative and current manager for Juventus, one of the four Serie A teams involved in the scandal, Gianluca Pessotto, attempted suicide by jumping from a second-story window while clutching rosary beads. For the record, Pessotto’s name was not implicated in the scandal, but was said to be feeling a great deal of stress as a result of it.

Pessotto survived the impact of the fall, thanks to surgery and a blood transfusion, and while currently hospitalized, his life is no longer in danger. Yet, those on the current World Cup team undoubtedly played with heavy hearts and were forced to temper those emotions of sorrow in order to persevere.

Despite all this, Italy came out with their strongest showing yet in the Cup quarterfinals, dispatching of overmatched Ukraine by a score of 3-0. Luca Toni became the first member of the team to score twice in the tourney by scoring the game’s last two goals. This set the Italians up with a date against Germany, the ever-dominant hosts.

Four years prior, the Italians had also battled a host nation in Korea in a knockout stage in a truly epic contest with disastrous results. The golden goal found its way into Italy’s net by way of an Ahn Jung-hwan header in one of the most devastating losses in Italian history. It seemed in many ways in that contest that it was the overwhelming Korean fans, the home field advantage, and the possible effect that advantage may have had on the referees, that proved to be the deciding factor.

This year’s script proved to be very similar, with both teams proceeding deep into extra time. No score had been tallied and much was made of the fact that Italy had never won a penalty kick-shootout in a World Cup in their history. Yet a mere two minutes from time, left wing Fabio Grosso sent a brilliant shot by German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann that narrowly evaded his dive while hooking just inside the far goalpost. To add to the degree of difficulty, Grosso released the shot from inside the box with a defender in front of him and somewhat off-balance. The score gave the Italians the lead in the 119th minute, and Alessandro Del Piero added an extra goal for good measure in the first minute of stoppage time, en route to a 2-0 win and an entry into the final match.

Now, Italy is known for having only allowed a single goal in the Cup, that being an own goal, so no opposing player has actually scored on them. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is recognized as perhaps the best keeper in the tournament and likely the world. Buffon has amassed 34 saves, tied for the lead, over the six games he has played, only allowing the one goal. Portugal’s Alexandre Ricardo has also made 34 saves, although he has allowed two.

Not much was expected from France in this year’s cup. The winners of the 1998 World Cup in which they had been the host nation considerably lost steam in 2002, a year in which they failed to qualify for the knockout stages. The only reason much national attention was focused on France throughout was because of the noted pending retirement of star midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who will retire after France’s last Cup match. Zidane is widely considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time.

France started their competition on very shaky ground. Their first match was a scoreless tie against Switzerland. Their second was a game they led 1-0 against Korea throughout. Park Ji-sung tied the match in stunning fashion in the 81st minute, perhaps a carryover of the momentum they had built up from their 2002 Cup run. That match ended in a draw as well, and through two matches, France had no wins and a mere two points. They trailed the Koreans and the Swiss, both of which had four points. The French also trailed both teams in goal differential in the event that the Swiss and Koreans were to play to a draw in their last match and France was to win against Togo.

However, France had to win against Togo to have any chance. A tie did them no good. The match would be the first of many to be hailed as possibly Zidane’s last. Luckily for their star, the beleaguered nation of Togo played like one would expect Togo to play. They went down to France 2-0 just as they had fallen to their other two opponents by a collective score of 6-1. Patrick Vieira scored in the 55th minute and Thierry Henry made it 2-0 in the 61st. France finished pool play with a lackluster 1-0-2 record and five points.

Switzerland then did the French a favor when they downed Korea 2-0, allowing for the French to pass the Koreans and move into second place in group G with five points, thus clinching a spot in the knockout stages. Their first round opponent however, was no easy draw. Neighboring Spain was one of the four 3-0-0 teams in the Cup and they were next. Spain also had a goal differential of +7 which was tops in the tournament, only tied with the Argentineans, who were only 2-0-1. Essentially, Spain looked to be a juggernaut, and France merely seemed to be in the way.

Spain took the early lead in their contest on a David Villa penalty kick in the 28th minute, but Franck Ribery tied the match four minutes before the half ended. The second half remained tied almost throughout, taking a frantic, yet tense, tone.

In the 83rd minute, a Spain penalty set up a Zidane free kick from a considerable 33-yard distance from goal. The head-shaven star sent the ball hovering into a pack of players in front of the six-yard box. It was then headed by a Spaniard into the far corner of the aforementioned box where Vieira was waiting to spike a header on goal. The shot deflected downward off another Spanish defender (who may have in fact inadvertently screened as well as prevented his own goalkeeper from making the save) and bounced into the back of the net. 2-1 France. (continued in Part II)

Written June 28, 2008