Soccer SuperFans

By: Andrea Ditadi, Toronto

Imagine

Imagine you start betting on it a month before.

Imagine that you very well remember your first day in Paris. They introduce you to your new collegues and the last stop of Via Crucis is in front of a six-year-old photo (Trezeguet's golden goal against Italy) from Euro 2000.

So, you understand my 6 years of frustration towards the French. Not only am I still bitter about Trezeguet's goal, but now I have to live with the French!

Imagine what a mess I will be if we lose the game on Sunday.

Now imagine that D-day. I'm on the train coming back to Paris from a weekend in the countryside. All the passengers are wearing their French jerseys, all happy and convinced that it'll be an easy game against the Italians. A poll said that 82% of French already felt they were World Cup champions even before the final game.

The French friends were already discussing where they were going to celebrate after the game. "You'll see the mess on the Champs Elysees," said one Frenchman.

Six minutes from the kick off and I'm already sweating as though I'm standing outside the gates of hell.

A penalty shot is called against us, and I begin to question if this is really happening. I'm becoming delusional right? And they call the Italians "divers!" (I'll post the video of Malouda's diving later).

Your instinct is to show the finger to all the French, but you can't as there's already a group of French dancing under your window, mocking the huge Italian flag that's hanging. Okay, fine, I had four huge flags out my window, does that change anything?

But then, just a few moment later, the French show some weakness. Materazzi, the one everyone hates, jumps high in the sky and scores a beautiful header.

An invisible force propells me to scream unrepeatable words to the country of France. This is recommended by the moral obligation of a real supporter of course, that lists the rules that you follow strictly.

Then came the crossbar, the disallowed goal, and the infamous incident with Zidane and Materazzi. It doesn't seem like a walk in the park anymore, does it France?

And finally, the holy moment of penalties. Italy has never been lucky in penalty shots (Argentina in 1990, France 1998, Netherland 2000), but I had a good feeling this time.

Well, you all know how it ended. But just in case you forgot, this year will refresh everyone's memory once more!

FORZA AZZURI!