Masterpiece

The function of a World Cup is to produce a masterpiece. Without it, 
a tournament can have drama and excitement and passion and all those 
other good things, but it lacks the ingredient which keeps it in the 
memory for years afterwards. It needs a Brazil v Italy 1982, a Brazil 
v France 1986, a West Germany v Netherlands in 1988 (actually that 
was the European Championship; same point, though).

Last night we got our masterpiece and...I missed it. I’d gone out for 
dinner and taped the game. I still haven’t watched it yet.

On the other hand, I did once stand beside Alessandro del Piero, who scored Italy's clenching second goal last night, at a 
hotel check-in. This was ten years ago. I’d gone to Turin, invited by 
the Slow Food foundation. The flight got in at night and we went 
straight to the hotel. It seemed oddly lively—there was a crowd 
outside, the lobby was full of men in suits hanging about, it took an 
age to get registered at the front desk, the bloke getting the 
attention of both receptionists looked oddly familiar, a bit like 
Alessandro del...the penny dropped. Juventus were staying at the same 
hotel, on the night before a home game. (Staying in a hotel the night 
before a home game was once seen as a ridiculously decadent foreign 
practise; now all the Premiership teams do it.)

Therer were a remarkable number of hangers-on attached to Juventus—
agents, journalists, advisers, middle-men of one sort or another. 
They all seemed to spend all their time in the lobby, waiting for 
whoever or whatever it was they were waiting for. The area where they 
did this was directly opposite the lifts, so every time you went down 
in the lift, as the doors opened, you would see a little surge of 
expectation as the doors opened, followed by brutal disappointment, 
mirrored on every face, as they realised it was just some civilian. 
It was a lesson in just how much disappointment it’s possible to 
cause simply by being oneself.

Comments

[Des McGrath]

It is usually in the round of 16 or quarter finals that such masterpieces are made. Matches in which tougher opposition inspires teams to collectively rise to a new level, combining passion and elegance, capped by instances of sublime individual skill.
Not this year, though. The semi-finals were not up to that level, even if both Italy goals were beautiful.
More recent mastepieces were Brazil-Holland and Romania-Argentina in 1994, and Holland-Argentina in 1998. France and Italy produced a memorable final in Euro 2000, so there’s hope yet.
There were no masterpieces in 2002 because too many good teams got knocked out too early on. That excuse doesn’t apply this year. Maybe the pendulum is swinging back in favour of defence-minded teams.
Let’s blame Jose Mourinho!

[Gary Naylor]

Interesting aside re del Piero - does he look as much like Bruce Springsteen in the flesh? Bruce has been rather more impressive in stadium outings recently...

[John]

He was wearing a dark suit and looked alarmingly fit, skinny, and not very tall--which is to say, he looked the way footballers always look in the flesh. Born to run.