2006 Flashback: Italy wins against all odds

ROFLUTION

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For some reason this really touched me. Coming from the Calciopoli scandal, then making a number of narrow victories with late goals to clinch the title - just watching all the emotion on Grosso's face after his important semi-final goal is why I love football. I'm not even a fan of italian football except for Totti. But who can forget that tale. Amazing how both main-characters Zidane vs Materazzi also both scored the goals in the final.

Here's a video of their road to the final - everyone is just jumping with emotions.
 

11101

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Lots of Italians think that win was fixed to help them recover from the scandal.
 

ROFLUTION

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Lots of Italians think that win was fixed to help them recover from the scandal.
Watching the actual games, I don't really see how they got any crazy referee decisions their way - It was just a lot of effort if you ask me.

Even hit the crossbar twice against germany in the semi - You can't fix a Grosso goal or a Zidane headbutt.
 

kthanksbye

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One of the best days of my life as a Football fan, right up there with VdS saving Anekla's penalty. Still looking for a team to back this world cup.
 

prateik

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Lots of Italians think that win was fixed to help them recover from the scandal.
Fix the WC to recover from the fixing scandal.
Lots of Italians arent very smart.

***Lots of Italians is picked from his post, not me saying anything about people from Italy***
 

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I don't agree it was against all odds, in this WC the superfavourite was Brazil, Italy was on the classical lot of favourites maybe slightly behind Argentina, after that it was France, Italy, Germany.
 

Austria-Red

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Before the tournament, France was written off and the story during the WC was that they were only progressing because Zidane was playing a blinder. A France win would have been a bigger surprise.

Here in Austria it felt like an inevitable German win. Thank goodness for the Italians. Celebrated like crazy:D
 

led_scholes

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Definetely not against all odds. We are talking about a team consisted of Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti, Zambrotta etc. I think the problem was that everyone had overestimated Brazil. If I recall correctly Ronaldinho was out of form for a while, and people underestimated the absence of Gilberto Silva, who was replaced by a 36 years old Ze Roberto. It was a great tournament with many strong teams like Spain, France, Portugal and a resurgent Germany. IMO the best team was Argentina and was unlucky not to progress through Germany and the most exciting team was Ghana.
 

Gio

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They were always amongst the favourites for that tournament - it was simply a question of which of the top teams would fully gel and kick on at the business end of the tournament. It looked like Argentina in the groups, but Italy grew in the knockout stages. They always looked solid (impregnable defence), resilient (see the Australia match with 10 men) and became increasingly cohesive in midfield (building around Pirlo and Totti). And they never appeared as vulnerable as France did in their opening two matches when they struggled to string a couple of passes together.
 

Sarni

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Loved that tournament, was in high school back then and started my holidays early to go to Chicago where my brother lived at the time. All games were in the morning when he was at work so I'd pretty much watch all of them, the whole vacation was fantastic and I won some bookie money at a young age which was massive at the time.
 

Invictus

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To be fair, they were one of the 2 or 3 strongest teams in 2006 with Lippi at the helm, so winning the whole thing wasn't entirely unimaginable - especially once Argentina were knocked out in the quarterfinals. You could even argue that the 1982 win was a slightly bigger “against all odds” feat than 2006, in terms of the narrative. They had a lot of great players, but suffered a wobbly start to the tournament, then rescued by Conti against Peru before they found their pragmatic groove:


And the quality of opposition they overcame en route to the trophy was one of the toughest in World Cup history: beat the holders, a much-vaunted Brazil, and the European Championship winners. The 2006 team didn't even face a reasonably good team till the semis vs. Germany, with all due respect to the likes of Ukraine, an admittedly sprightly Ghana, and Australia.
 

the_irish123

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Italy had Totti, Del Piero, Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Cannavaro

Its crazy how much talent has dropped when they are still relying on Balotelli.
 

giorno

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Lots of Italians think that win was fixed to help them recover from the scandal.
Absolutely nobody in Italy thinks this :lol::lol::lol:

Where the feck did this come from
 

giorno

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I don't agree it was against all odds, in this WC the superfavourite was Brazil, Italy was on the classical lot of favourites maybe slightly behind Argentina, after that it was France, Italy, Germany.
Calciopoli. Plus the generation was getting older and was coming off years of underachievement

In hindsight it was the perfect storm, we always do well when the NT gets into an us against the world mentality, playing with a massive chip on the shoulder to shut up Italy first(and especially the media) and then the rest of the world
 

Bepi

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Calciopoli. Plus the generation was getting older and was coming off years of underachievement

In hindsight it was the perfect storm, we always do well when the NT gets into an us against the world mentality, playing with a massive chip on the shoulder to shut up Italy first(and especially the media) and then the rest of the world
Such a farce, Calciopoli, with 18 current or former Juventus affiliated playing the final with both Italy or France... the biggest fix ever by Luciano Moggi, alright? :drool:
 

giorno

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Such a farce, Calciopoli, with 18 current or former Juventus affiliated playing the final with both Italy or France... the biggest fix ever by Luciano Moggi, alright? :drool:
Don't wanna get into that. I believe what i saw on the pitch for years

Regardless, it's a fact that calciopoli turned the entire country against the team and shattered what little belief we had in them pre-WC(full disclosure: the reason there was already little belief in our chances was Brazil taking their 2nd/5th most talented team ever to the WC, with the freaking two best players in the world on it, plus Ronaldo and Adriano)

The combination of a seemingly untouchable Brazil team, a strong Argentina, us being the strongest european team on european soil, and big scandal rocking our football with all the negative feelings and pessimism it brought with appears to be perfect recipe for us to win the fecking thing

Calciopoli 2022, make it happen :lol:
 

RC89

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Bloody hell, how many reds did they get in their favour? :lol:

They definitely did seem like decent calls tbf.
 

Web of Bissaka

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Against all odds? Italy is one of the favorites to win it that time. No doubt their squad is strong and they played so well in that tournament.

Maybe a lot of vocal football fans don't want them to win it because of "those", so it's against low popularity of winning "Which NT you want to win?" thing.
 

Infordin

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Italy 2006 had

The best goalkeeper in the world
The two best centrebacks in the world
The best midfielder in the world
One of the best 10s in the world

Not exactly a spine this.
 

Foxtrot

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Italy was 10/1 to win the World Cup back in 2006. Its like betting on Belgium to win this 2018 World Cup, not very likely IMO so they are far from the favourites. Italy did go against all odds to win that 2006 World Cup.
 

giorno

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Bloody hell, how many reds did they get in their favour? :lol:

They definitely did seem like decent calls tbf.
IIRC 3. 2 against USA(farcical game) and 1 against France. To go with 2 reds against (USA and Australia)
 

Revan

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Definetely not against all odds. We are talking about a team consisted of Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Totti, Zambrotta etc. I think the problem was that everyone had overestimated Brazil. If I recall correctly Ronaldinho was out of form for a while, and people underestimated the absence of Gilberto Silva, who was replaced by a 36 years old Ze Roberto. It was a great tournament with many strong teams like Spain, France, Portugal and a resurgent Germany. IMO the best team was Argentina and was unlucky not to progress through Germany and the most exciting team was Ghana.
Argentina should had win the damn thing, but then Pekerman substituted Riquelme in order to rest him for the semis. And since that moment, Germany started controlling the match and eventually scored to send the game in extra and then penalties. And Germans, just aren't allowed to lose in penalties. It was definitely the most exciting team though, and that front three of Riquelme, Crespo and Saviola/Tevez had such an amazing chemistry with each other.

Italy had arguably the best defense I have seen in my life. Buffon was the best keeper in the world, Cannavaro was the best CB in the world, Zambrotta was the best fullback in the world, and Grosso with Materazzi were having the best matches of their life. And they had Gattuso ahead of them, at times helped by De Rossi, with Pirlo being arguably the best midfielder in the world and directing things. Not surprisingly the only goals they conceded was from a dubious penalty and an autogol. They were lucky against Australia with the referee decision, no doubt there, but they won the other games fair and square, and France arguably shouldn't have got that penalty on the final.
 

Revan

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Like who? I'm italian i live in Italy and i've never hear anyone say this :lol:
Lived there for 4 years, and never heard anyone saying that too, so I guess that the poster is inventing things.
 

led_scholes

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Argentina should had win the damn thing, but then Pekerman substituted Riquelme in order to rest him for the semis. And since that moment, Germany started controlling the match and eventually scored to send the game in extra and then penalties. And Germans, just aren't allowed to lose in penalties. It was definitely the most exciting team though, and that front three of Riquelme, Crespo and Saviola/Tevez had such an amazing chemistry with each other.

Italy had arguably the best defense I have seen in my life. Buffon was the best keeper in the world, Cannavaro was the best CB in the world, Zambrotta was the best fullback in the world, and Grosso with Materazzi were having the best matches of their life. And they had Gattuso ahead of them, at times helped by De Rossi, with Pirlo being arguably the best midfielder in the world and directing things. Not surprisingly the only goals they conceded was from a dubious penalty and an autogol. They were lucky against Australia with the referee decision, no doubt there, but they won the other games fair and square, and France arguably shouldn't have got that penalty on the final.
IIRC, France got a dodgy penatly vs Portugal in the semis. Also, Portugal vs Netherlands, the fights, the reds, the players in the end watching together the last minutes. What a game! :drool:. And who can forget Trinidad & Tobago! with our Yorke leading them. What an exciting tournament. I am also glad that other share my opinion about Argentina. I had a bet on them..

Back in Italy; they had to cope for 4 games with De Rossi missing, but they could always count to the coolest substitute -after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer-, Alessandro Del Piero.
 

giorno

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I live in Italy too. In 2006 a few people said it to me after they won.
Those few people are the only italians to ever think that then

I mean FFS, Blatter even pretended to be stuck in an elevator so he wouldn't have to be the one handing Cannavaro the cup :lol:
 

Bepi

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Bare naked ignorance, insularity or condenscension making Italy 2006 WC campaign appear such a joke then? I am back to being 13 and want a poll, a phone number and a scratch card for an exclusive date with the Spice Girls!