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Italy's moment of glory

When Italy's football captain Fabio Cannavaro climbed on to the podium to hold aloft the trophy he added the finishing touch to the fairy tale of the FIFA World Cup finals. His was a team that had played under a cloud of scandal. Its margins of victory over Ghana and Ukraine flattered its performance. The Azzuri had also struggled against World Cup minnows, Australia and the United States. While the Italians did sail through the semi-final against Germany with incandescent brilliance, they still had to deal with a French team that was living out a fantasy of its own. A little over five minutes into the final, Italy appeared to be looking down the barrel after Zinedine Zidane struck a penalty with unimaginable insouciance. That was when Cannavaro and his men showed how they had grown in the course of the tournament. Instead of the self-doubt and cheap theatrics that had marred their earlier performances, the Italians displayed steely nerve to impose themselves on the game for the rest of the first half and duly equalised with a stunning Materazzi header. If anything, their resilience was even more pronounced during the second half and extra time when France repeatedly threatened to take the game away. It was appropriate that at the end of the game the spotlight was on an Italian captain who many would acclaim as the player of the championship. The Azzuri's hallmark was coolness under fire, best exemplified by the calm with which Cannavaro stood by as his men fired in five penalties,

Football-lovers all over the world had hoped that the championship game would be a fitting finale to the glittering career of another magnificent player. Instead of stepping forth into all-time greatness, Zidane made his way into ignominy. This was not the first time that Zizou's dark side has exploded on to the world stage. But the French would be fooling themselves if they think that the expulsion of their captain for his vicious head-butt was the main cause of their defeat. Apart from the regular time penalty and a header conjured up from memory, there was not enough magic to suggest that Zidane could have won the game in the last 10 minutes. The Frenchmen who stood out were the defenders and the attacking threesome of Henry, Ribery, and Malouda. An aging team had progressed much further in the tournament than even most of its supporters would have thought possible. The final proved to be one match too many. In the reckoning of most pundits this was not the greatest final of all. It was still a good match that added lustre to a tournament superbly organised by the hosts and viewed with ardour by the generally well-behaved fans. This championship did not herald a change in football's dominant philosophy. In the strategy of the leading teams as well as the rules of the game, the accent is on defence rather than attack. However, Italy and France deployed an enlivening variant when they each released three midfielders to assist the lone striker.

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