Italy Sees Only a Cup Half Empty : Reaction: City streets, gathering places deserted as nation mourns team’s loss to Brazil.
A funereal silence shrouded Italy’s city streets, beach resorts and countryside Sunday as Italians mourned their soccer team’s loss to Brazil in the World Cup final.
Small pockets of cheers resounded around the Brazilian Embassy in downtown Rome, while huge crowds of disillusioned Italians walked away from the piazzas and stadiums of Italy where the game was shown live on huge television screens.
One of the few celebrations that could be heard during the otherwise silent night was at the Brazilian Embassy, where a jubilant crowd of Brazilian soccer fans watched the game in an overflowing auditorium.
Customary television talk shows after the game showed a brief panorama of deserted city piazzas and streets pocked with police ready for the crowds that failed to materialize.
The city centers of Naples, Turin and Palermo were scenes of desolation after the match, with nothing but empty beer cans and broken bottles to mark the passage of thousands of eager, hopeful fans.
In Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo, the giant screen that had shown every Italian game to thousands of fans broke down Sunday night, causing a massive protest by a crowd of about 15,000 spectators, some of whom clashed with police before dispersing to other makeshift television setups. The city water company had turned off the water supply for those fountains that could become impromptu swimming pools for would-be revelers.
While many Italians had gone away to watch the game at weekend hide-outs and resorts, others had flocked back to city homes to see their team play what Italian Soccer Federation president Antonio Matarrese called “one of the most exciting World Cup finals.”
“This was the first time the World Cup was won on penalty kicks,” he pointed out in an interview from Los Angeles. “And perhaps it would be a good idea to abolish this system.”
Azeglio Vicini, the Italian national team coach of 1990, said, “We watched it with our hearts in our mouths.”
Most experts showed little surprise, however, at the travails of the suffering Italian team, several members of which played injured. “The team was in disastrous physical condition,” said Gianni Rivera, a former national team player. “The result was not unexpected.”
The consensus was that Italy had achieved an honorable second place against a more aggressive, fitter team. “To reach the finals in this World Cup was already a remarkable achievement for Italy,” was the upbeat comment from Enzo Bearzot, who coached the victorious 1982 national team.
Said former national great Paolo Rossi: “Brazil is a stronger team and Italy’s is an honorable second place, but it grieves me to see a World Cup final decided on the basis of penalty kicks.”
Italy’s honor was its strong defense, rather than its attack, which showed, according to another former national team player, Roberto Rosato, that “we were, in effect, the second team of the World Cup.”
“The Italian defense was great, but Brazil deserved to win--they had more chances to score,” said one fan, Marco D’Arro. “But I’m very, very sad just the same.”
Coach Arrigo Sacchi came under predictable criticism from soccer experts and fans for not substituting attacker Giuseppe Signori, leading goal scorer in Italy’s national championships, at least in the final, decisive minutes.
As disconsolate and weeping fans went home with their banners and flags still furled, newspapers were coming out with their disappointed headlines: “Shot Down Only on the Penalty Kicks,” said the Turin daily La Stampa. . . . “Thanks Just the Same,” said the Roman left-wing newspaper L’Unita.
