Italy Loses and I Feel OK

It is surprising to me how comfortable I was with Italy's loss this morning. Yes, I was angry at the two disallowed goals, and the goal scored against them in the New Zealand game. Sure, there was a part of me that wished the referee had given the Slovakian goalie a yellow card instead of a just a caution, so that later in the game, after he had punched the Italian forward in the face, he would have been sent off, leaving Slovakia down to ten men and with their back-up goalie in net.

But, I knew going into this that Italy was highly unlikely to repeat as World Cup Champions and I knew that they would have to lose at some point. I think knowing that made a lot of their lacklustre play in the first round tolerable, as if I was participating in some kind of four-year hangover (making it to the 2008 European Championship Finals was kind of like dragging the party on through breakfast) but in that bright South African light we finally realized just how old everyone was; that everything had truly run its course.

The last fifteen minutes of the game was agonizingly wonderful. Italy presented the form and emotion that I often curse them for hiding. Yes, the one linesman, on Italy's right flank, is my scapegoat for the two disallowed goals, continuing my criticism of the linesmen at 2010. Regardless though, as always, Italy fell into the hole they dug, and despite it all, I'll look forward to seeing them in 2012.