The precise year eludes my memory but it is with certainty that I claim that it was sometime between the 1974 World Cup in Germany and the 1978 World Cup in Argentina that I decided to see what all the hullabaloo about football was when I decided to join my father in watching a match. It is not that I do not remember who was playing but I just did not think to ask as I was more concerned about learning how the game was played.


Italy had qualified but this meant very little to me at the time since they had not won. As for the period that followed between then and the World Cup I would go on to see Italy play another match against Spain which again they lost 2 to 1 in Spain though this being a friendly as my father told me did not mean all that much. However it was in the time leading up to the world cup that I became a huge fan of football by reading as much as I could about the sport and those who had played it in the past. I even saw some footage of the previous world cup which put even more doubt in my mind as to weather Italy could really play this game since they did not manage to qualify to the quarter finals loosing out to Poland and Argentina; the first of which they lost to by 2 to 1 and second of which they barely managed a draw at one a piece.



I naturally had read about Italian greats like Gianni Rivera; player for AC Milan; thanks to whom I am even up to this day a Milanista (fan of AC Milan), Gigi Riva, Giuseppe Meazza, Piola and other greats but these had played a long time ago making me believe that perhaps Italy no longer had great football despite what my father told me. Regardless of my doubts the world cup in Argentina started with the first match that bore my stiff with Poland and Germany keeping a blank score through out the game.



By the time the Italian National team which I knew to be called the “Azurri” took the field against France I was ready and hopeful of seeing them win and see for myself that those whom I descended from could still play the game of football. Well looking back on this I can say that if Italy wanted to get off to a good start this could not have gone any worse. 38 seconds had gone by and France thanks to Lacombe was already up one nil making me want to just watch something else but it was my father who told me it was not over yet. I really thought Italy was going to loose because I had seen France beat Brazil (1 to 0 goal by Platini) before the world cup in Paris and hold them to a draw (2 to 2) in Rio but I stayed tuned after all even I could see then the world cup in football was a huge deal.


Italy was forth which was not bad but better days would come for the us the “tifossi” in 82 and 2006 when we would win the world cup and 90 when third place would be all we would get despite playing at home and in 94 when suffer we would in loosing the first final decided by penalties. During the years football has given my many great moments of glory and defeat though perhaps none greater then loosing to Argentina in Naples in the semifinal but in all I will never forget that time from that match in Wembley Stadium to the final in which Argentina beat the Netherlands 3 to 1 as it was this time that would see me become a great fan of the sport we Italians call “calcio”. Football of course was a different game in those days then it is today but it was this time that allowed me to see the beauty of the sport and how it really was an international game played by so many nations from all over the world with Italy being one of the top teams as they showed in “Argentina 78”.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/soccer-articles/are-italians-good-at-football-445853.html