French-Italian translation
The French openly admit Italy taught them how to win and now the Azzurri are back to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs.
First, a quick lesson in modern football history. In 1986, in the last 16 of the World Cup finals in Mexico, Michel Platini’s France defeated Italy 2-0.
Platini, who scored in that match, was playing for Juventus at the time, a club he guided to European Cup glory against Liverpool a year earlier, when Italy’s Serie A was starting to flourish. The mid to late 1980s proved to be a golden era for Italian football, which was boosted by the arrival of many superstar foreigners.
The likes of Platini and Zbigniew Boniek were soon followed by Diego Maradona, Careca, Alemao, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten, Jurgen Klinsmann, Lothar Matthaus and Andreas Brehme.
In other words, with many of the world’s best players in one league it created a dynamic learning environment incorporating various styles that gave foreigners an insight into the secrets behind Italy’s World Cup success.
By the time Platini and Juventus conquered all that Italy, Europe and the world club scene had to offer, the Azzurri already had three world titles to their name.
Then, at the World Cup in 1990, a red hot Italy failed on home soil against Maradona and company at the semi-final stage, while Brehme scored the winning penalty to beat Argentina in the final in a West German side that included Matthaus and Klinsmann.
Again, the Italians, rather arrogantly, claimed some credit for helping Germany in the art of winning. ‘They’ (i.e. those in the Italian press and many well known figures in the game) suggested Inter Milan’s trio of Klinsmann, Matthaus and Brehme learnt how to combine their individual strengths with the shrewdness of results-driven tactics in high pressure situations, something synonymous with Italian football.
Make of that what you will. The Italians may be clutching at straws, but a similar theory was resurrected many years later when France took out the 1998 World Cup. In that tournament, Italy lost to Les Bleus in their quarter-final showdown, albeit after a scoreless draw and a penalty shoot-out.
The French squad, assembled under the guidance of Aime Jacquet, possessed a much greater ‘Italian’ influence than what Platini brought to the national team back in 1986. No less than seven of the 22 players were based in Italy’s top flight, including the backbone of Jacquet’s starting eleven: captain Didier Deschamps, Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff, Lilian Thuram and Marcel Desailly.
Zidane and Deschamps, incidentally, helped Juventus return to the top of the European game, beating Ajax Amsterdam in the UEFA Champions League final eleven years after Platini had left his indelible mark on the Turin giant.
Italy’s current national coach Marcello Lippi was in charge of that highly successful Juventus side, building a resume which effectively propelled him into the country’s top job all these years later.
Once the French class of ’98 returned to the Serie A to complete a Masters Degree in ‘Winning Football’ that saw it go on to claim a rare double with victory at Euro 2000, the Italians were convinced they had been well and truly beaten at their own game.
I even discussed this issue with Jacquet, who acknowledges part of his team’s World Cup success may have derived from the maturity of those key players who benefited from living in the cut-throat world of Italian football.
Perhaps Italy’s most painful defeat suffered at the hands of France was in the final of Euro 2000 when Marco Delvecchio struck first, only for Sylvain Wiltord to equalise in the dying seconds. David Trezeguet scored the golden goal winner in extra time.
Apart from the change of coach, with Jacquet having made way for Roger Lemerre, this French side had many things in common with 1998. It still functioned around Zidane, the architect of all things great, and while some players may have moved on to leagues in other countries, nothing changes their education base or where they came from.
From Platini to Zidane, the French have been taught by their Italian masters who now sense it is time to put things right again, as it was in the beginning when Italy defeated France in the 1938 and 1978 World Cups.
In fact, Italy was almost unbeatable in matches between these great rivals, winning 16 of the 25 clashes, losing just three times before ‘78. After that, France suddenly took control with six wins from seven attempts, if you include the penalty shoot-out in ’98.
All this may look like just numbers, facts and figures to some, but they amount to much more, fuelling Italy’s burning desire to get even.
Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro is more than aware of how history turned against his country in recent times. He experienced the heartbreak of those defeats in ’98 and 2000 first hand. He says revenge is a factor when they meet in the 18th World Cup final, in Berlin, a match in which Cannavaro makes his 100th international appearance.
On the other side, Zidane takes his final bow before retirement, hoping to inspire yet another win over Italy, ably assisted by a new cast of heroes who transformed this team from potential flops to peak performers.
Something about that trend sounds very Italian as well. Knowing how to pace yourself, growing and improving as the tournament progresses is another quality of Azzurri teams, past and present. It was definitely the case in 1982 when they collected the last of their three world crowns.
USA ’94, where Italy last reached the final on the back of Roberto Baggio’s individual brilliance, also produced a team that misfired in the group stage before storming home to the brink of glory, only to lose against Brazil on penalties.
Indeed, the French might have more in common with Italian football than they think having also adopted the slow start approach, which failed them badly in 2002.
However, as prepared as France may be, Lippi’s men are in simply outstanding form both mentally and physically. It seems no team can beat - or score against - Italy at this World Cup other than Italy itself.
Defender Cristian Zaccardo’s own goal in the lacklustre 1-1 draw with the USA is a classic example of how Italy loses concentration and tends to become a little complacent if, by its lofty standards, the occasion offers no real challenge.
There are six French survivors from ’98: Zidane, Barthez, Vieira, Henry, Thuram and Trezeguet have done it all before, but Italy seems a fraction more determined this time. It means the French are in for a long evening in Berlin.
http://www.theworldgame.com.au/worldcup/index.php?pid=blogs&cid=139
great article by Andrew Orsatti...