WORLD CUP USA ‘94: SEMIFINALS : After Some of Best, It’s the Worst for Italy : Soccer: Two quick goals show Italians at their finest, but Costacurta won’t be around to play in the final on Sunday.
There were five magic minutes when the soccer was exquisite, al dente. The crowd was loud and friendly, the sun shone and fortune smiled. But not even winning calms the stormy passage of the Italian team that has climbed to near the pinnacle of the soccer world.
Like a big, loving but fractious family, a good time is never had by all. In victory Wednesday, Italy advanced from unresolved contretemps to fresh uncertainty.
Hero Roberto Baggio wept with joy: “This is my work, this is my life. It is made up of sweat and tears. This time I cried because I am very, very happy.”
Goat Alessandro Costacurta could not be consoled. The 28-year-old AC Milan defender helped win a game, but lost every player’s dream and stalked off the field in disgust. In the first half he was part of an in-the-box flurry that gave Bulgaria its penalty kick goal. In the second, he fouled another attacker and received a yellow card, his second. It will keep him out of Sunday’s final game.
“The fact that we have made the finals still hasn’t hit me emotionally,” said Italian captain Paolo Maldini, “but we all are very upset about Costacurta. A player may get only one chance in his life to play in a Cup final.”
Costacurta was conspicuous by his absence after the game, but every Italian player seemed eager to commiserate, a platoon suddenly missing one of its squad leaders.
“I’d give anything if he could play,” said midfielder Roberto Donadoni. Said midfielder Demetrio Albertini, another AC Milan teammate: “We have another chance to show our stuff. My feelings are all with Costacurta. He’s a charismatic leader and we’re going to miss him.”
The absence of Costacurta, injured captain Franco Baresi and the suspended Mauro Tassotti will complicate Italian defensive strategy in Pasadena on Sunday, just as it will add new scenes to the theatrical Italian quest for an unprecedented fourth World Cup championship.
Armed with great tradition and some of the best players in the world, Italy has seemed more novice than nifty for much of its 1994 Cup trail.
It qualified with difficulty in its European group, played indifferently in pre-tournament warm-ups and lost its first Cup game to Ireland. It had to come from behind to finish third in its group, and needed last-minute dramatics to beat second-round and quarterfinal opponents.
Under iron-willed Coach Arrigo Sacchi, it has been a draining month in America, both for the players and for Italian fans who deported themselves in the streets and fountains of major cities until the wee hours this morning. “A heart pill Cup,” an Italian commentator joked.
American summer heat has particularly sapped the Italians, despite Draconian conditioning under Sacchi, a former AC Milan coach. It was a stifling 93 degrees in the steamy Meadowlands at game time Wednesday.
All week, the Italian press has quoted Italian players, complaining about the heat and Sacchi’s demands that Italy play a hard, running, pressing game. Commentators have urged a more controlled, Brazilian style of play.
But Italy came out running again Wednesday, and for five breathtaking minutes in the middle of the first half it played some of the best soccer America has ever seen. Roberto Baggio scored twice, and two other attacks came close, to the delight of 77,094, most in buoyant red, white and green.
“There were moments there in the first half when I thought it could have been 4-0,” midfielder Dino Baggio said.
The brilliance seemed to prove the value of Sacchi’s pressing style of play, but as it did in the quarterfinal against Spain, Italy quickly wilted in the heat and wound up hanging on in exhaustion.
“It’s hard to keep that rhythm up,” Roberto Donadoni said.
“It was our best game for the first 35 minutes, but then after the penalty the heat slowed the game,” Dino Baggio said.
Can Italy risk running out of steam against formidable Brazil on Sunday? That key question, together with the question mark of Roberto Baggio’s injured leg, is bound to fuel family debate within the lively Italian camp.
Still, Sacchi seems to thrive on the mini-controversies and jostling within La Famiglia , as much as he welcomes the sense of unity that emerges when a player like Costacurta is lost to the team.
Italy, says Sacchi, has progressed steadily during its bumpy American sojourn.
“If you look back at how we started in this very stadium (losing to Ireland), you will have to consider that in soccer, as in life, nothing is certain,” he said.
