World Champs!

Going into this year's World Cup, nobody gave Italy a chance. Nobod believed.

Earlier this year, allegations surfaced about a corruption scandal concerning four of Italy's top clubs... my beloved Juvetus and AC Milan included. Match fixing, ref bribing, and even player bribing accusations abounded, so much so that thecase went to court. This hung a dark, grey cloud over the Italians for several reasons.

1. The four clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, and Lazio are now faced with relegation to Serie B or C.
2. About 90% of the Italian National Team plays for those clubs.
3. All of a sudden, people are wondering if the Italians are any good at all. After all, they had to bribe people to win all those championships. And the marquee players of those teams (Shevchenko, Kaka, Ibrahimovic, et al) aren't even Italian.

So this lead to the odds being firmly stacked against the Azzurri, with everyone choosing instead to back teams like Argentina or Brasil or England.

I will admit to some England favoritism as well. Since 2000, I have bee none of the biggest Manchester United fans around. This was simply because a) the Premier League was the only league consistently showing in Manila, and b) my english is better than my Spanish or Italian.

Once the Premier league started showing, I HAD to pick one team to support. Was it Chelsea, with their strong contingent of Italians (at the time)? Was it to be L'Arsenal? Was it to be Liverpool?

Nope. I picked Man Utd because of one thing: Their team chemistry.

I like teams that play like teams. I like teams where the superstars aren't given deferred treatment. Man U is one such team. Case in point: when Beckham's head got too big, Man Utd shipped him out.

And leading up to the World Cup, Wayne Rooney began to shine like magic for Man U, so I couldn't help but support England. I even got myelf a Rooney jersey.

But I couldn't forget Italy.

I stated, right ta the start of the World Cup, that I would love to see an Italy vs England final, at which point I would relinquish my support for England and back Italy all the way.

But I feared for the Azzurri's chances.

I could not shake the accusations surrounding the players I loved best... most of whom made up the starting 11:

Juventus - Gianluigi Buffon (GK), Fabio Cannavarro (D), Gianluca Zambrotta (D), Alessandro Del Piero (F), Mauro Camoranesi (M)

AC Milan - Genarro Gattusso (M), Andrea Pirlo (M), Alessandro Nesta (D), Alberto Gilardino (F)

Fiorentina - Luca Toni (F)

In fact, of the starting 11, only 3 players were not involved - Francesco Totti and Danielle De Rossi of Roma and Fabio Grosso of Palermo.


I feared for my team... I feared that the cloud of scandal would hang over them too much and they woudl be unable to advance even out of the group stage.

My fears vanished after the first game.

Italy started strong. They showed that excellent defense they are known for, Buffon was Superman in goal yet again, and their midfield, led my Pirlo, was the best of the tournament. But most importantly... they were a TEAM.

Brasil relied too much on their stars and it showed. They flopped out. Spain relied too much on inexperienced youth. They flopped out. England used entirely wrong tactics and isolated Ronney, their star player. The flopped out. Portugal morphed into diving little cheats.

And so on.

But Italy, captained by the fabulous Fabio Cannavarro, played like a team. They played like MAnchester United. They played like each and every one of them came from Juventus or AC Milan. They communicated effectively, they worked their asses off, and they used the scandal to propel them to a prize no Italian team had attained since 1982.

The World Cup.

Some would say that the final should be remembered for Zidane's trocious headbutt.

I say "No."

Remeber the final for what it was... a team proving that when you play like a team, when you remember that defense is sometimes better than attack, when your goalie is the best in the world...

And when you play with heart...

The sky is the limit.

And the sky is always... always....

Blue.

Forza Azzurri.

Forza Italia.