Berlin: A strange tension has always existed in Italian football, between beauty and Machiavelli, between a love of creativity and catenaccio. That tension may not appear so strange today. The inherent contrasts should combine to frustrate and conquer France's ancient regime in the World Cup final, bringing La Dolce Vita back to Italy.
An Azzurri team blessed with Andrea Pirlo's invention and Fabio Cannavaro's obduracy boasts the perfect blend, the right spirit and the look of champions. "For a long time, Italian football has been linked to catenaccio, but things have changed," the midfielder Gennaro Gattuso said on Friday.
Style exists amid the steel. Italy finished with four strikers on the field against Germany in the epic semifinal victory. "That was a signal from Marcello Lippi," said the peerless Cannavaro of his coach's adventurous intent. "We have shown we are a team who can play good football."
Those with a feel for history will have read extra significance into Fabio Grosso's extra-time goal. When his first-time left-footer curled around Jens Lehmann, he took off on an arms-pumping, finger-wagging dance of joy that evoked memories of another time, another place, another Italian gem.
Rewind 24 years and there was Marco Tardelli embarking on a delirious dash around the Bernabeu, eyes wide open, arms spread as if in high-speed supplication to a greater power that had created his moment of nirvana.
No one celebrates as classily as Italian footballers and one half expected the runs of Grosso and Tardelli to end waist-deep in Roman fountains. The link between Grosso and Tardelli, whose goals both came against German opposition, is inescapable and those lovers of sporting symmetry will be placing huge emotional wagers on Italy against France.
Both teams line up in 4-2-3-1 fashion, with more anchors than Cowes Week. Pirlo and Gattuso hold the midfield for Italy, with Pirlo creating and Gattuso running around like an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean.
"We do not have to charge him up," Marco Materazzi said, "otherwise he is capable of splitting the world in two."
Gattuso and Pirlo will thwart France, and then launch counter-attacks. "Italy are scorpions,'' Thierry Henry said. "Italy put you to sleep, all the better to sting you afterwards."
Harsh. Lippi's attractive side are not masters of Mogadon; they play with occasional panache, as well as the deep passion of those on a mission. And they will make life a hell on German earth for the chiefs of France's skill factory, like Zinedine Zidane.
