Forza Azzurri, Part II

Last night was a spectacular game. Yes, Italia started the Mondiale a bit slow. Yes, they had only played “squadretti”, newcomers like USA, Australia and Ukraine whose World Cup history is not as replete nor full of stars like Brasil, Argentina or England, nor as strong as these teams, so they say. And yes, the Pope, though cheering for a good match, was obviously going to favor his native country– leading many to assume that he would pull some strings with God.

(For that matter, I saw an Italian flag last night with a piece of paper by it written in both German and Italian– Stavolta nemmeno il Papa puo aiutarvi— not even the Pope can help you now. A cocky comment that I firmly believe was directed at the German cardinal who said the Pope may fly a German flag out of his window. http://www.sportal.it/sportal/immagini/news/news220100.html

And yes, they beat Germany. I think it was not just a kick-ass victory (thank Del Piero for the 2nd “can’t win now, suckers” goal) but a genetic/historic victory as well. Barbaric invasions that trashed Rome, 1527 Sack of Rome, the burning of an amazing city for 9 months, not to mention the raping of its people, 1943-4 9 months of Nazi occupation with starvation and executions. Okay, I am talking ancient history here, and in particular Roman history. So let’s jump ahead to the present.

Italy has calciopoli. Scandals, demotions, scandals and all sorts of bad things that tell us soccer is not a pure religion. What is? Back to my penultimate posting. Underwear is pure. Thank you Azzurri for winning last night. Thank you Dolce & Gabana for the following ad.