Back 1966, when the World Cup was held in England, the Italian team was knocked out in the first round. That was bad enough for fans of the Azzurri, but losing 1-0, to a bunch of part-timers from North Korea, was far worse. The boys from Pyongyang made a big splash that year, almost upsetting Eusebio’s Portugal side to boot, and they could have been from Mars for all that anyone knew about them prior to their arrival.Italy’s swift exit, and the reaction it provoked at home, led the team officials to switch the team’s return site from Rome to Turin, so as to avoid a nasty demonstration. Your average Giuseppe was so pissed off, however, that security people alerted their friends about the switch. As a result, an incensed crowd pelted the team with tomatoes and insults at the Turin airport.
Yes, they take calcio seriously in Italia.
The Italians may now have had a hand in how the United States national team will be treated when it eventually arrives back home. Had they lost to Italy in the second game, after being humiliated by the Czech Republic in the opening match, the Americans would have deserved the same sort of jeering greengrocer’s welcome received by the Italians in 1966.
But the US sucked it up big-time against their European rivals in the second game. In one of the all-time wildest World Cup matches, the Americans spilled their blood and sweat to hold on for a 1-1 tie against Italy, despite playing nine men against 10 for virtually the entire second half. With blood from a three-stitch cut — courtesy of Italy’s Daniele De Rossi — streaming down his face, Brian McBride was escorted to the sideline for repairs. But this was the face of the American response — and if the US Soccer Federation doesn’t produce a T-shirt bearing this image, it needs to go to Marketing 101.
As we go to press, the US has a chance to proceed to the round of 16, provided that it can beat surprising Ghana, which upset the powerful Czechs, and that Italy takes care of our Eastern European friends. (Local soccer buffs might remember at least one former member of Ghana’s Black Stars, the charismatic Mohammed “Baby Jet” Attiah, who led the Rhode Island Oceaneers to the American Soccer League championship back in 1975 . . . or 1883, or 1775 — whatever, it was a while ago.)
Even if the US team exits June 22, these guys have shown the world that they can play this game. One need only consider three TV analysts to show how far we have come. John Harkes, from Kearney, New Jersey, is to my mind the finest player America has produced, and he led the way for others after his English First Division stint. Marcelo Balboa and Eric Wynalda also rode the view that Americans could walk on to a field anywhere and not be sneered at. Now we have the class — literally and figuratively — of Kasey Keller, Claudio Reyna, and McBride, who can play with any team in the world.
