Italy-Germany 4-1

You may not like football (football, not soccer), but it's a matter of fact that football is probably the most important sport on the planet and when China and India will start playing it for real, it will be the only thing that will unite our divided world . Where else you could see 11 americans and 11 iranians peacefully facing one another and playing (and the latter winning) if not on a football field, as happened in the 1998 World Championship, for instance?

Yesterday, in a friendly game while preparing for the coming World Football Championship, Italy and Germany played in Florence. Now, just as a game between two teams of the same city has something very special for the rivalries that are always present, the games between Italy and Germany have their own meaning.

To be noted that they played against each other 29 times and italy won 13 of those, Germany 7 and the other 9 were ties (and we could add that in the 4 games we played against East Germany the balance is 1 victory each and 2 ties). To be noted also that several of those games raised to the rank of sport legends: the Italy-Germany 4-3 in the semifinal of the Championship of Mexico 1970 (which we eventually lost against Brazil 2 or 3 days later) is still regarded here as one of those moments that start a whole age, closed 12 years later, again against Germany, with the victory for 3-1 that gave us the world champioship in Spain, 1982. Italy has not won a single thing ever since (we lost a World and an European Championship final, in the meanwhile) and so, 24 years later, we find ourselves with our 3 world titles...just like Germany.

Anyway, what's the point? The point is that we won 4-1! No, I mean 4-1! If my girlfriend wouldn't be the little nationalistic hooligan she is when it comes to Germany playing, I could have really celebrated yesterday :)

A side note for the uniforms of the teams: why on earth Italy played with those darker patterns around the armpits of the blue shirt that looked like sweating rings (but at least we got back our classic white shorts...), and even worse, why Germany played with a red/black/white uniform rather than the classic, immortal, white one? Questions without answers...