WORLD CUP USA 1994 : Spotlight : SO MUCH FOR IT’S ONLY A GAME

“If it all comes down to the passion that moves mountains, to the hunger that lifts genius from the gutter, to ambitions that transcend personal gain, then there can be only one winner in the Rose Bowl.

“Italy is driven by a pride so intense that it borders on vanity and by a fear of failure so acute that (players) may not dare return home to face a population for whom football is the most fervent expression of nationalism.

“But for Brazil, the World Cup final is much more important than that.

“The men in the most hallowed yellow jerseys of all are playing for a future for their vast country, to inspire hope in its teeming population, to displace the corruption of poverty with the capacity for salvation.

“Do we exaggerate the significance of 22 grown men kicking a ball across a field? Not if we listen to the players who raise that simple boyhood pleasure to an art form on this, the weekend when the game reaches its highest pitch.”