Time to Believe It or Not
Today’s World Cup final involving France and Italy is too close to call.
Les Bleus and the Azzurri are mirror images, except that France will be wearing white at the Olympic Stadium while Italy will retain its traditional blue.
For France, it is all about belief and nothing more.
If Les Bleus go into today’s match against Italy at the Olympic Stadium believing they can win, and then play with that confidence, they just might prevail.
That is the theory in the French camp.
“They might be tired, but the final gives you wings,” France Coach Raymond Domenech said of his well-aged but not yet over-the-hill players. “They have to believe.”
Domenech’s charges have picked up on the theme.
“Italy will be tough, but when you’ve just knocked out Spain, Brazil and Portugal, you can keep your head held high and believe in yourself,” midfielder Patrick Vieira said.
Vieira is one of nine over-30s on the French roster and also one of six players who were on France’s team for the ages, the one that routed then-world champion Brazil, 3-0, in the 1998 World Cup final outside Paris.
In addition to Vieira, the other ’98 holdovers are Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry, Fabien Barthez and David Trezeguet.
“Those are the players who gave France a winning mentality,” Domenech said of the six veterans. “It would have been sad if they left on a failure. They deserve this final, and they can help us win it.
“What the elder players have brought us is their winning mentality, the calm belief that you can make it even when everybody says you can’t.”
All of Italy says they can’t.
The Italians are on song at the moment, demonstrated quite literally after their momentous semifinal victory over Germany, when the players burst into a spirited rendition of “O Sole Mio” in the locker room, with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi joining in.
Italy’s defenders have not given up a goal in this tournament other than the miscue by Cristian Zaccardo, who accidentally put the ball into his own net against the U.S.
An all-but-impenetrable defense has helped Coach Marcello Lippi’s team extend its unbeaten streak to 24 games and brought it to the verge of a fourth world championship. Italy won the World Cup in 1934, 1938 and 1982.
Redemption is a common theme for both teams.
France wants to put behind it once and for all the nightmare of four years ago, when, as the defending champion, it was ousted from the World Cup in the first round without scoring even one goal.
“We wanted to prove after what happened in 2002 that we were not rubbish,” said striker Henry, whose thankless task today will be to find a way to score against Italy’s rock-solid back line and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
Italy, too, has amends to make.
In 1998, the Azzurri were knocked out of the World Cup by France on penalty kicks in the quarterfinals. Two years later, when France added a European championship to the World Cup it already held, it was Italy that was the beaten finalist, falling to an overtime goal by Trezeguet.
“We have accumulated a lot of anger after two major disappointments,” said Italy’s captain, Fabio Cannavaro, who will be playing in his 100th game for Italy today. “We are turning that anger into something positive.”
If Italy has done nothing else at this tournament, it has shattered the stereotype of the Azzurri being a team that is all about defense, defense and more defense.
There were signs before the event began that Lippi wanted his World Cup squad to be balanced, with the offense just as proficient at creating goals as the defense was at preventing them.
A 3-1 victory over the Netherlands and a 4-1 rout of Germany, both in friendly matches, showed he was on the right track. The semifinal performance against Germany, when all of Lippi’s tactical changes were offense-minded and brought a 2-0 victory, exploded the myth.
“We beat a quality side, and there was everything you want from a game at that level,” Lippi said. “It was a very important victory, probably the most important of my career -- apart from Sunday’s, of course.”
Italy has scored 11 goals in its six matches in this World Cup, not a great total, true, but significant in that 10 players have scored, including all six strikers. Forward Luca Toni, the man described by one German newspaper as “a truck with a Ferrari engine,” is the only Italian to have scored twice.
France’s goal total is equally modest -- eight in six games -- but, like Italy, it also had a tournament-making victory on its road to the final when it defeated world champion Brazil, 1-0, in the quarterfinals while playing its best soccer in years.
“Of course we’re satisfied and even a little bit proud,” Domenech said. “[But] there is still one match we have to win.”
The French believe. But the gnawing doubt that Italy is a younger team, a stronger team, perhaps even a better team, cannot be altogether banished.
France’s Thuram, who has played most of the last decade in Italy, has no illusions about the task that awaits Les Bleus.
“I know these [Italian] players, and I know how strong they are,” he said. “I know their quality, and it will be a very difficult game. It is probably the best team in the tournament.
“In Italian teams before, there were always small problems between the players, but now they are working together. It will be very hard for us.”
Lippi, the “Silver Fox” who in his days as a club coach led Juventus to five Serie A titles and to four European Champions League finals, winning one, isn’t buying that line.
“We have seen how France has improved as this World Cup has progressed,” he said. “I think it will be a very even final between two teams that are even in terms of skill.”
Still, France has that belief -- in itself and in the one player French fans everywhere are hoping has one last magnificent match left in him.
“We have got Zidane and Italy don’t,” said French defender Eric Abidal. “He will make the difference ... He will add the final touch.”
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5 keys to the game
With two of the world’s perennial powers squaring off for the World Cup title, here are five factors that could come into play in deciding today’s game:
1. The rock-steady goalkeeping of Gianluigi Buffon appears to give Italy an advantage, but France’s Fabien Barthez, however jittery he may appear, has a talent for coming up big in the big games.
2. What’s more debilitating, 30 minutes or a day? France, which played its semifinal Wednesday, has one fewer day’s rest, but Italy had to go through a grueling overtime Tuesday.
3. For someone experiencing his swan song, Zinedine Zidane is going out on a high note. The playmaker has been down this road before, leading France to the title as an underdog in 1998.
4. Defending seems to be in the DNA of the Italian player, and no one does it better than Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s captain, who leads a defense that has yet to give up a goal to an opposing player.
5. With the referees under the microscope the last month, the calls that official Horacio Elizondo makes -- or doesn’t make -- could decide a game that should be close.
Van Nightingale/Los Angeles Times
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Hard to beat
France and Italy enter today’s final on unbeaten streaks. France is 7-0-2 in its last nine games, and Italy is 15-0-9 in a stretch that has lasted nearly two years:
*--* FRANCE May 27 Mexico Friendly W, 1-0 May 31 Denmark Friendly W, 2-0 June 7 China Friendly W, 3-1 June 13 Switzerland World Cup T, 0-0 June 18 South Korea World Cup T, 1-1 June 23 Togo World Cup W, 2-0 June 27 Spain World Cup W, 3-1 July 1 Brazil World Cup W, 1-0 July 5 Portugal World Cup W, 1-0
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Note: France’s last loss was March 1 to Slovakia, 2-1.
*--* ITALY 2004 Oct. 13 Belarus WC qualifier W, 4-3 Nov. 17 Finland Friendly W, 1-0 2005 Feb. 9 Russia Friendly W, 2-0 March 26 Scotland WC qualifier W, 2-0 March 30 Iceland Friendly T, 0-0 June 4 Norway WC qualifier T, 0-0 June 8 Serb.-Mont. Friendly T, 1-1 June 11 Ecuador Friendly T, 1-1 Aug. 17 Ireland Friendly W, 2-1 Sept. 3 Scotland WC qualifier T, 1-1 Sept. 7 Belarus WC qualifier W, 4-1 Oct. 8 Slovenia WC qualifier W, 1-0 Oct. 12 Moldova WC qualifier W, 2-1 Nov. 12 Netherlands Friendly W, 3-1 Nov. 16 Ivory Coast Friendly T, 1-1 2006 March 1 Germany Friendly W, 4-1 May 31 Switzerland Friendly T, 1-1 June 2 Ukraine Friendly T, 0-0 June 12 Ghana World Cup W, 2-0 June 17 U.S. World Cup T, 1-1 June 22 Czech Rep. World Cup W, 2-0 June 26 Australia World Cup W, 1-0 June 30 Ukraine World Cup W, 3-0 July 4 Germany World Cup W, 2-0
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Note: Italy’s last loss was Oct. 9, 2004, to Slovenia, 1-0.
Source: FIFA
