World Cup final
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kicking and screaming
Amy Lawrence
Sunday July 9, 2006
The Observer
They call it Tardelli's scream. It is the most beautiful image in the history of Italian football, the enduring reference point. Marco Tardelli screamed for 60 million compatriots after he scored the defining goal in the 1982 World Cup final. And it was not just any old scream. It was so Italian, as if it had been formed by the docks of Naples and polished at La Scala.
Last week, Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero revived the spirit of Tardelli's scream as their goals transformed the spectacle of Italy's semi-final against Germany into a rampaging triumph. Such moments of extreme emotion do not come along that often, even during a successful career. 'I was stupefied. In 20 years I never felt like that after a goal,' said Del Piero. Grosso struggled to believe that it was real. 'I didn't sleep that night. Well, how do you after something like that?'
Does Zinedine Zidane, so inscrutable with his emotions during his extraordinary World Cup journey, share the sentiment? Has his electric charge kept him up at night? What must he be thinking this morning as he wakes up to prepare for a football match for the last time?
France, too, have their icon. But while Zidane takes so many of the plaudits, he is not alone as an emotive image of French success. There is Lilian Thuram, too - the player who most vocally resists the anti-Bleus sentiment propagated by Jean-Marie Le Pen. A fabulous defender and an intelligent, soulful man, his two goals to tip the topsy-turvy semi-final against Croatia in 1998 arrived like a miracle - he has never scored for France before or since. 'What I loved most was Thuram's face when he scored his second goal,' recalls Marcel Desailly. 'It is the type of thing that makes me love my job, it is what gives me my passion for football.
'It's the World Cup, he's just got his team into the final, he turns around and takes a few steps towards his team-mates, looks out into the crowd and realises what has just happened to him. He lost consciousness. It's not like he passed out, but he was unconscious with his eyes open. He just didn't know where he was.'
Today Thuram will pull on the blue shirt of his country for the last time. While the cameras will track every nuance of Zidane's grand farewell, do not forget that France are also bidding adieu to other heroes. Thuram, with 120 caps, is what the French call their 'recordman'. The World Cup final, the occasion so stirring it inspires Tardelli screams and the thought of which put Thuram in a daze, is an extraordinary curtain call.
The way that both teams have, in four weeks, established new momentum, new character, makes them worthy finalists. Worthier than Germany and Portugal, the losing semi-finalists who were not sophisticated enough to go farther. Worthier than Brazil, who failed to live up to the adverts. Worthier than Argentina, who peaked too soon. Worthier, certainly, than England, whose physical and strategic preparation fell alarmingly short of the standards set by the last men standing.
Although France and Italy always had the capability, before the tournament began there was little inkling that Zidane would seduce the football world all over again, that France would stop being so frustrating, that old heads and new legs would find harmony. There was little enthusiasm for an Italy squad caught up in a scandal so rotten that most of the players have no idea where they will be playing next season. For 90 minutes in the Olympiastadion, now is all that matters. Not before or after.
The difference tonight, according to Italy's cunning coach Marcello Lippi, will be desire. 'We will see who has the most hunger,' he said. 'They have won a World Cup and a European Championship, while this generation of Italian players have only got close to that. We know what is on the table. We have the fork in our hands.'
The Italians are quietly hoping that, as well as being hungrier, they are fresher. They have fewer golden oldies and have rotated much more frequently during the competition. The Azzurri have used 21 of their squad of 23 - only the two reserve goalkeepers are yet to play - and it is not as if they have had the luxury of calling in reserves to give key players a breather. Every substitution has been necessary. And every substitute has delivered.
Lippi has managed his squad exceptionally. Italy's defensive power is well documented (and how resiliently they responded to injuries), but where he was particularly shrewd was in selecting six attackers for the squad. Lippi knows that he does not have a modern-day Paolo Rossi, so he gave himself options. All six have scored.
It has been such a tremendous team effort, the Italians are still looking for a pin-up hero - a Rossi or Roberto Baggio. Gianluigi Buffon is closing in on a tournament record of minutes without conceding a goal. Fabio Cannavaro has been immense leading the defence and will win his hundredth cap. Gennaro Gattuso is loved for his indefatigable battling. Andrea Pirlo is a serious rival to Zidane in the playmaker stakes. But even if Italy triumph, this will not necessarily be remembered as Buffon's World Cup, or Cannavaro's, or Gattuso's, or Pirlo's. It will be Lippi's World Cup.
He has had to improvise constantly. He has employed five formations and six starting line-ups. Unflappable. Not all Italians supported his appointment two years ago, but there is now unity. Now they wait, anxiously, to see if he can end his run of losing finals. Lippi fell at the last in four out of five European finals with Juventus.
Not surprising, then, to hear fighting talk as his team arrived in Berlin. 'I absolutely refuse this attitude of "however it goes it will be a great occasion" and all the rest,' Lippi rapped. 'How many times in your life do you get to win the World Cup? We will be furious if we lose.'
Lippi may have had his furies in the past, but he is also the man who has won almost everything - five Italian league titles and one Champions League top an imposing CV. Raymond Domenech, however, has won nothing.
Does the France coach envy the way Lippi has absolute control over his players? Despite the glowing references of Willy Sagnol, there remains ambivalence about Domenech's command.
Is he leading the players or are the players leading him? Although he has been credited with bonding a divided squad, it was interesting to observe how the senior players reacted to the problems caused by Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo as their semi-final got under way. Zidane, Thuram and Patrick Vieira talked to each other and redirected the team, to find a solution. Not once did they look to Domenech for advice on tactical adjustments.
Arsene Wenger, who has watched all his country's displays in Germany, salutes the experienced men. 'This team now, they have gone with three different coaches to three major finals. Domenech has done a good job, but I believe this group of players is exceptional.'
Those who know him well argue that Domenech is very smart and perhaps his cleverest move has been to let this team do the job on the pitch, while taking care of the talking and organisation off it.
It has taken him a while to feel at ease in this job. As a player he was a renowned hard man - on his debut for Strasbourg he claimed to have broken an opponent's leg even though one of his team-mates had been the offender, because he thought it would give him an instant reputation.
As a coach, he worked for the French federation with junior teams for more than a decade but turned up for interview when the senior-team position became vacant in 2002 wearing a T-shirt. By 2004, suitably advised by his mentor, Aime Jacquet, he had smartened up his act and arrived in collar and tie.
During the early stages of this World Cup it seemed that Domenech was having a Lemerre - the pressure visibly gnawing away at his composure and bonhomie as it had with Roger Lemerre in 2002. What is clear is that Domenech was disliked by the senior players, the press and the public until midway through this campaign. After France set out with uninspiring draws against Switzerland and South Korea, a quarter of a million fans replied to a poll in the newspaper L'Equipe on the subject of whether France would reach the final - 88 per cent answered 'Non'.
After the resurrection of the team against Spain, there was such a dramatic swing, 90 per cent changed to 'Oui'. It is amazing what winning matches can do.
And that is why France and Italy arrive in Berlin as such compelling stories. Both flirted with catastrophe but found the strength to pursue happiness. Now the France players think Domenech has balls. They respect him. The fact is, France have not lost a competitive match under him.
This has the air of immovable object versus immovable object. Italy have yet to concede a goal scored by a foreign body (only Cristian Zaccardo's slice passed Buffon against the United States). France are only marginally more yielding.
Do Italy's attacking options give them the edge? 'Italy have more variation going forward than any team we have played, even more than Brazil,' says Wenger. 'During the game they have a lot of weapons. They can change the game.' One surprise weapon could be the return of Daniele De Rossi after serving a four-match suspension for a viciously jabbed elbow. He may play a part because he is particularly strong in the air. It has not gone unnoticed that France won their past two knockout games with a set piece.
Italy will find it difficult to suppress the impulse of revenge, considering how France have made them suffer in recent meetings. The European Championship final in 2000 remains one of their most abject memories. Del Piero should have killed off a game in which Italy excelled before France had time to recover. Not to be.
The goal Italy did score that day, incidentally, was made by a well-crafted cross from Gianluca Pessotto. Today Pessotto is recovering in hospital after a fall from a top floor of Juventus's offices. His plight, added to the Serie A investigation, has put the Azzurri under tremendous strain.
For Italy, this final offers redemption from the sadness, the fear and loathing, back home. A sport riddled with corruption means the players have been tarred with the brush that has swept so many crooked administrators from positions of power. This is the only way for calcio to save face and save faith. It is their last chance, against Zidane's last dance.
The fans' verdict
Mafia stereotypes whip up Italian passion - but Zizou won't roll over
Luca Frazzi: Italy fan
We fully deserve to be in this final, especially after the way we performed against Germany. We arrived after a press campaign full of ridiculous stereotypes and slurs about pizza and the Mafia. The team were angry and that showed in the passion of the semi. I thought both teams looked very tired in the other semi, especially France, so we'll see today how it'll affect them. I think we're the favourites now, but only just. The only thing I'm really worried about is the enthusiasm, the overconfidence. Here in Italy the press campaign is too strong and too triumphant. Too many people believe we're already world champions. Too many, too many...
Mathieu Bournazel: France fan
Our last game of the tournament will certainly be the hardest. We're going to have to be much stronger in midfield than we were against Portugal to stand a chance. The Italians still haven't got over the Euro 2000 final and all the talk is of revenge: they seem very sure of success. As were Spain and Brazil. Zidane will not hear of it, this is his grand finale. The team have been living by a motto this World Cup, 'On vit ensemble, on meurt ensemble' (living together, dying together). They will be sweating blood to win this match. It's the least they'll have to do bring back the cup.
