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I think I feel the way about Italy being eliminated the way most people feel about France. The really weird thing is how attractive I find most of the cultural products of these countries otherwise. Lots of people hate France on principle, but for me the puzzle is how two countries this great produce football teams that are so reprehensible…
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Agreed in the strongest possible terms.
Same here. I have no special feelings for the French team one way or the other, but the Italian team appears to lead the world in a certain kind of indefinable dickishness, most prominently displayed today deep in the net after Italy’s first goal. I did root for them against France in 2006, who’d won two times earlier, and when they win they often do it in style. But yeah, happy to see them go.
I don’t think the Italians have ever been noted for their style in the last generation. Certainly they appeared to play for penalties against France in 2006, as well as in their previous WC final against Brazil in 1994.
Italian fans, particularly in North America, are simply unbearable.
I agree with you about the dickishness though.
Can you explain the details of the dickishness and what happened deep in the net after their first goal?
If you haven’t seen it and are curious, I suggest watching it. If you disagree with my characterization, I suggest being more up-front about it.
I don’t disagree at all. I didn’t see the game so have no information to go on. Just wanted an explanation, wasn’t trying to be snarky
Italy scored their first goal. The goalie was retrieving it out of the back corner of the net when two Italian players, presuming, I suppose, to hurry play along, tried to take the ball from him (it should be noted the goalie was certainly not dragging his feet) but essentially pushed him down into the corner of the net. The goalie reached up in an apparent attempt to shield himself and likely made very light contact with Iaquinta’s face. Iaquinta proceeded to drop to the ground and writhe around as if impaled in the face by Excalibur…yes, he was most certainly play acting.
Apologies for the overreaction, it was hard to tell.
Maybe style is the wrong word too. I really mean that they thrive in an underdog position (as they did today, once they were really up against it), and have the capacity to surprise when they seem out, things like that. I call that “style” — didn’t mean to imply that they were secret Brazilians.
France only won once, in 1998.
I was trying to say that they weren’t the reigning champs, but the reigning champs once removed, they had won two tournaments earlier. That’s why I was rooting against the scrappy Italians in 2006. Sorry for using misleading language.
I meant for the scrappy Italians — today is not my day, word-wise.
My mom’s people came to the U.S. from Slovakia right before WWI started. Can’t tell you what a joy it was to see the Slovaks send the preening, flop-happy Italians home.
This is a third-hand story but what the heck: My brother was in Argentina last summer (Argentina is the Italy of South America in more ways than one), and he got to know an English guy who was a soccer fanatic. The Englishman told him that he was watching a father and his little boy, who must have been no more than five, practice soccer in a park. At first he was puzzled and slightly disturbed by the fact that the man kept knocking the boy down when the boy would try to dribble past him. So he started listening to what they were saying to each other, and he suddenly realized that the father was teaching his little son how to dive.
Argentinians are Italians who speak Spanish and think of themselves as French (I’ve heard Englishmen here as well).
France and now Italy, sent home in the first round. What a beautiful World Cup so far…
Scott’s last sentence is spot on. Saw an article recently by some Italian or other, complaining that all those people slagging the Italian side are motivated by anti-Italian prejudice. Wrong, loser! I for one love Italy madly, and so do most of the rest of us. Do not confuse anti-Italian prejudice with justified contempt for the Azzurri.
As an aside, the first commenter in this thread has a nym worthy to stand next to Sadly, No!’s The Goddamn Batman [fill in the blank].
Hey, thanks. Nobody’s ever really seemed to notice it before.
practice, practice, practice!
btw, football is played on a field with uprights, for field goals and extra-points, soccer isn’t.
Yes, because it makes so much sense to call a sport “football” and then almost never touch the ball with your feet.
yeah, i’m more partial to American football, but if you showed American football and “soccer” to a person who had never seen either before, then asked them which one should be called “football,” I don’t think they’d have to mull it over for long.
It’s dumb enough that we call the sport with the oblong ball and the minimal foot-touching “football,” but insisting to the rest of the world that they shouldn’t use that name for their sport, which is nothing BUT foot-touching, is downright fucktarded.
kickoffs, field goals, punts, free kicks, two of which can score points. really, that’s about the only time your foot needs to touch the ball.
I’m with you. Of all the cheating, play acting sons-o-bitches in world football Italy are number one.
Even more seriously, FIFA really has to do something about the quality of world cup refereeing. The last world cup was bad, this one has been horrendously bad. It’s a f*cking disgrace.
world cup reffing will only improve when fifa limits the refs to those with true major league experience (i.e., epl, serie a, primera liga).
i have vague memories of the 1966 world cup finals, but basically, my world cup experience dates back to 1974: since then, there have been attractive and unattractive french and italian teams (hell, there has even been an unattractive brazilian team, the ’94 champs).
i therefore have no frickin’ clue what scott is talking about: it would be one thing if world cup (and euro championship) in and out, italy and france were unattractive, but of course, that’s simply not true.
This post from TNR is pretty interesting on the subject of bad behavior from the Italians — and also points the way to a change.
[...] the finalists from last time have been sent home in various combinations of sorrow and shame. As one observer noted, “The really weird thing is how attractive I find most of the cultural products of these [...]