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The World Cup is making me miserable. I’m deprived of sleep, I’ve started scheduling social appointments around matches and I’m missing episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, The Fairly Odd Parents and other wonderful shows to watch 20 sweaty men chase after a ball.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve always supported Holland and Italy in their World Cup campaigns (although the former failed to even qualify for the 2002 tournament). Holland, because I was first awed by football after watching old footage of Johan Cruiyff and the "Clockwork Orange".

And Italy…"Because they have the best-looking men?" people often snort to me.

Ahem.

Well, yes, most of the squad do look like they belong more in a Giorgio Armani ad than on a football pitch. And they did look pretty fine in the tight jerseys they wore for the last WC…And defender Alessandro Nesta is a stud and a half…Sorry, what was the question again? Haha.

Truth is, I became a fan in 1994, the year Italy unluckily lost to Brazil on a penalty shootout in the final. It was not a good year for the Italians - they struggled through their group games and their goalkeeper was sent off in a match, the first time such a thing had ever happened in the WC. But Roberto Baggio impressively and almost single-handedly steered his team through these obstacles to land themselves in the final.

He was a brilliant player, an attacking forward in an otherwise dull and defensive team.

So how very tragic that the same saviour of Italy would fail to deliver at the very end by blazing the penalty right over the crossbar. I felt for the guy.

And thus, that’s how I became an Italy fan. Through sheer pity and admiration for their resilience in trying to capture their fourth WC title.

And also through sheer amazement of the fact that Italy always underperforms on an international level when they have such abundance of talent. Heck, some of the players on the current squad have even made it to the legendary Pele’s list of the greatest living footballers in the world. (Then again, I think there were also one or two Americans on the same list - wtf? Pele is so diplomatic and generous with his praise he should just go and join Kofi Annan at the UN.)

But still. Let’s look at the current lineup. Make fun of his name all you want but Gianluigi Buffon is definitely no buffoon as he’s currently the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. Luca Toni is the most prolific striker in the Serie A this season. And Nesta…can just kill opponents with his looks. Haha.

Oh, and not forgetting Francesco Totti the playmaker. Hailed by both Pele and Michel Platini as possibly the best player in the world right now, Totti has always been one of my favourite footballers. His detractors would call it hype and overinflation of his share value, especially since Signor Totti seems to have a penchant for diving. And I don’t mean the deep sea kind.

But anyway, with talent like that, you would’ve thought Italy would be making spaghetti and meatballs out of the Yanks. Instead, it was almost the other way around.

I like to root for the underdog but come on, this is the US. A country where football is allegedly something like the thirteenth most popular sport - after tractor-pulling. The US team will go home to indifference and ignorance. If you have a team like England or Italy being sent home early for poor performance in the WC, you can bet they’d be pelted with tomatoes by their fellow countrymen upon arrival. People in England pummel each other to death not because of differing views on politics or religion, but because of allegiance to rival football clubs.

Which is why there are high expectations for footballing nations like Italy. Well, yeah, they put up quite a good game against Ghana. But they don’t look like world champs at all. Which is a shame because all of them play excellent football with their respective clubs. Where’s the teamwork and rhythm that you would expect from them? Where’s the hunger and the drive?

The Azzurri better watch their backs. Paolo Rossi would be so very ashamed of them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 11:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.