Berlin – You could have picked two more unlikely soccer teams to play in today’s World Cup final, but you’d have to leave Europe and South America to find them.
Ghana was the only African team with any pluck, Asia spent less time in Germany than it took to spell some of the players’ names and four CONCACAF teams went 1-9-3.
But in some ways, today’s finalists didn’t have a lot more going for them than the likes of Saudi Arabia and Togo.
Italy arrived with a corruption scandal so deep, some of its players don’t know if their next club match will be a third-division game in a plowed vineyard somewhere. France was coming off the worst repeat performance of any World Cup champion, with a coach under more pressure than all Yankees managers combined, coaching players his age.
Yet at noon MDT, they will meet at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in the biggest planetary sports event of the past four years.
Start with Italy. It hasn’t won the World Cup in 24 years and hasn’t played much like a regional power the last couple of international competitions.
One month before the World Cup tournament, the well-documented referee scandal rocked the country from Sicily to Sestriere. High-level resignations pelted Italy’s feverish soccer environment, and four clubs, accused of manipulating referee assignments, face demotion, with 29-time champion Juventus in possible free-fall to third-division Serie C.
Yet no other team has played more consistently, combining offensive flair with blue-collar defense, than the Italians. Ten players have combined to score 11 goals, and the only goal Gianluigi Buffon has given up in six games has been off teammate Cristian Zaccardo’s leg in a 1-1 tie with the United States, Italy’s lone blemish.
Scandal? The teeming masses filling piazzas all over Italy suddenly don’t care which referee was assigned Juventus-Parma in February.
“Yes, the confusion of the past two months has given us all the desire to respond in an appropriate way,” coach Marcello Lippi told reporters at their training base in Duisberg. “It’s brought this group of guys together. We wanted to show what Italian soccer really means.”
Lippi, 58, has been a major reason for the turnaround. Four years ago, Italy faced a different crisis. It went to the 2002 Cup in Asia loaded with dangerous strikers. Then-coach Giovanni Trappatoni emphasized defense, the equivalent of turning the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s into the 1948-49 Fort Wayne Pistons.
Italy lost to South Korea in the second round, went out with a collective yawn in the first round at Euro 2004 and Trappatoni was sent packing to Portugal’s Benfica.
In came Lippi, late of leading Juventus for eight years, and put the emphasis back on offense.
He made sure dangerous midfielder Francesco Totti was part of the plan through a broken leg and made room for Filippo Inzaghi, who was lighting up Serie A with AC Milan.
Italy’s 11 goals are tied with Argentina for the tournament high.
“Now,” Lippi said, “we’ve got to complete the opera.”
While favored Italy is the star baritone today, France is in the background screaming down its many critics. After encoring its 1998 World Cup crown by not scoring a goal in 2002, France had more critics than its government. In came Raymond Domenech, who in the 1990s built Lyon into the national power it is today before joining the national federation in 1993. He helped cultivate current stars Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry on under-21 teams.
Processed cheese was more popular in France than Domenech. His emphasis on defense bored the nation and many blamed him for the early retirement of Zidane as well as Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele.
He convinced them to return, but France tied Israel twice in barely qualifying for the World Cup. In Germany, France picked up where it left off in Asia, tying Switzerland 0-0 and then tying South Korea 1-1.
But after advancing with a 2-0 win over crumbling Togo, France took off in the knockoff stages. It beat Spain 2-1, then pulled the tournament shocker: a 1-0 win over heavily favored Brazil, ending an 11-game Cup win streak dating to its loss to France in the 1998 final.
“Don’t go thinking that I’m on some sort of personal revenge mission,” Domenech told FIFAworldcup.com. “I don’t look at it like that and I’ve never held a grudge against anyone. I still think I’ve done what needed doing. Perhaps the criticism was as well-founded as my own belief in this side.”
He’s done it with a defensive mentality that has been called “vomit football” at its worst and “pragmatic” at its best. It socked into its own goal against Portugal in the semifinals and won on Zidane’s penalty kick.
Portugal’s Fernando Meira was so perturbed with the style of play that he said afterward, “Portugal deserve to be in the final more than France and obviously I’m sad because our opponents took their only chance in the whole game.”
Then again, five of France’s starters are 30 and older; some complained of fatigue after the win over Portugal. That alone gives Italy the edge, but France also has six players from that 1998 team.
“My players are not old,” Domenech said. “It’s true that some have reached a good age, but with the right preparation they can still run.
“Seriously, though, they believe in themselves and that’s more important than anything.”
While France is old and possibly tired, it also has inspiration in Zidane, the French hero of 1998 who is retiring from competitive soccer after the World Cup.
Italy, meanwhile, will be without star defender Alessandro Nesta, still out with a groin injury, but gets back Daniele de Rossi, who finished serving a four- match suspension for elbowing U.S. player Brian McBride in the face.
Look for Lippi to go at France’s defense with all legs kicking and France hoping to slip in a goal on counterattack. A major key is how much is left in the old legs of Zidane and company.
“They may be tired, but the final gives you wings,” Domenech said. “It is the belief that makes the difference.”
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
