So Italy triumph after twenty-four long years, silencing the doubters and heartening a nation.

For those of us lucky to have been around for 1982, Italy’s triumph would probably have had even more significance, a sense of history coming full circle.

In 1982 it was Marco Tardelli who roared with joy after scoring in the World Cup Final against then West Germany. Twenty-four years on it was Fabio Grosso, a left-back who coach Marcello Lippi picked out from Palermo of all clubs, yelling with no restraint against Germany in the semi-final.

Or maybe some shrewd observers also remember how Italy triumphed against the backdrop of match-fixing then as they have done now.

Whatever the case, it is a summer to savour for Italian football. It is also a time for Italian football to navel-gaze about its domestic game but doing that in a backdrop of glory will ease the toiling.
Italy coach Marcello Lippi and his men have not given a nation a panacea but definitely tremendous hope. Italian football, despite its internal inconsistencies and flaws, is a wily and impressive beast. It will live to see several more glorious days.

While it suffers under the influence of crooked men it also blossoms under brilliant ones like Lippi. The coach deserves enormous amount of credit for taking Italy to triumph in the most testing circumstances.
The World Cup win is a testament to his mettle and the players at his disposal. Lippi was the man who kept his troops focused.

Some journalists who visited Italy’s training camp in Duisburg were taken aback with how conducive it was to work.

There were no designer label shops for some distance and the players seemed focused on simply the task at hand — winning the World Cup.

With Calciopoli’s miserable tidings constantly arriving from Italy, some would have forgiven the team for buckling under pressure. But Lippi is not the one to wallow in self-pity and he led his players to glory with defiance.

The twenty-three players that comprised Italy’s squad were not the best in recent years but had a common sense of purpose. It was team that finally privileged the greater good over personal ego.

They did the talking on the pitch and seldom indulged in pre-match bravado, something that was the hallmark of many teams in Germany.

From the opening win against Ghana to the defeat of France, it never seemed like Italy would give up on the task or on each other.

Every World Cup has had an individual who has stamped his authority on the tournament. But 2006 will be remembered as the year of the Azzurri, a year in which a team ethic outshone the individual.
Ho realizzato il mio sogno. Forza Italia!

-Hasan Saiyid
For more insight, opinion and anything to do with Italy check out Hasan Saiyid’s Italia focus section on his site: http://www.totalsoccer.ca