THE NEW ITALY

By John F. Molinaro

Honour, dignity and integrity.

They are words you would have a hard time using in reference to the Italian national team in the past, but they are fittingly appropriate to describe the Azzurri of 2006.

The knock on Italy has always been that it is too defensive and that it falls back into a lamentable turtle shell the minute it enjoys a 1-0 lead.

Catenaccio is a dreaded word that continues to haunt Italy to this day. Translated into English catenaccio means "door-bolt," but in soccer parlance it refers to a system, perfected by Italian teams, that emphasized a highly organized defence and tactical fouls, a system that was intended to prevent goals, not score them.

Catenaccio was the scourge of the game and even though it's a system that hasn't been used in close to 30 years, critics still use the word (incorrectly) to describe any Italian team that shows the least bit of defensive acumen.

Compounding Italy's image problem over the years has been its reputation for gamesmanship. Italian players have been known to dive, fall over under the most benign contact and writhe in feigned pain on the ground in order to draw fouls. As a result, all Italian players have been unfairly painted with the same stereotypical brush over the years - that of a "diver" and a "cheat."

But in Germany, there hasn't been the slightest whiff of catenaccio from Italy and the gamesmanship has been kept to a bare minimum.

Instead, it's been a stylish and cultured Italian team that has marched on to the final, a side that has balanced a miserly defence with a bristling attack.

Italy has given up only one goal - and an own-goal at that - in six games. Not only have teams not been able to pick the lock on the door-bolt, they haven't even been able to get sight of the front door.

And what of the Italian attack? Often maligned for lacking invention and creativity, Italy has scored a tournament-leading 11 goals. More impressive is the fact that 10 different players have found the back of the net, a testament to the balance of Italy's attack.

Italy won a tough opening-round group (Czech Republic, Ghana and the United States) before running into a bit of trouble in the second round. Some have suggested that Italy was lucky to beat Australia in the round of 16, the Azzurri being benefactors of a controversial penalty called deep into injury time.

If Italy was lucky to defeat Australia - a very big if when you consider the Italians were unjustly reduced to 10 men early in the second half - then it was full value for its victories in its next two games.

Italy thrashed Ukraine 3-0 in the quarter-finals, Luca Toni awakening from his World Cup slumber with his first two goals of the tournament. More impressive, however, was the play of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and defender Fabio Cannavaro.

The dynamic Juventus duo did a masterful job of containing Andriy Shevchenko for the duration. The Ukrainian, voted European player of the year in 2004, hardly looked the world-class striker he is reputed to be, as he remained in Cannavaro's back pocket for the entire game.

Small in size but grand in stature, Cannavaro has been flawless in this tournament. No defender has ever won the Golden Ball award, the honour given to the tournament MVP, but if ever one deserved to walk away with the hardware, Cannavaro has earned the right in Germany.

When Shevchenko did manage a shot on net, it was expertly parried away by Buffon, who did his reputation of being the world's best goalkeeper no harm by earning his fourth shutout of the competition

With Ukraine duly dispatched, Italy took on Germany in Dortmund, a city where the hosts were undefeated (13 wins, one draw) in 14 previous matches. With extra time almost over and the spectacle of a penalty shootout looming, Italy scored two beautiful goals to send the hosts, seemingly destined to win their fourth World Cup crown, crashing out of the competition.

Even the British press, notorious for taking every opportunity it can to slight Italian soccer, gave Italy its proper due following the dramatic victory in Dortmund. Wednesday morning's newspapers in England glimmered with shimmering prose hailing the spectacular effort by the Azzurri.

"No one, not even the most one-eyed Germany fan, could or should begrudge Italy victory. Their goals were special, destined to go down in World Cup history as shimmering with class and significance," wrote The Telegraph's Henry Winter.

That the Italians advanced to the finals for the sixth time in such a convincing manner speaks to the quality of their character, especially in light of what's going on back home.

As we speak, a Rome tribunal into allegations of a match-fixing scheme in Serie A (Italy's first division) for the past two seasons is expected to hand down a decision on Sunday, the same day of the World Cup final.

The pall of the match-fixing scandal has been hanging over the Italy for two months now, with four of the most storied Italian clubs facing relegation to Italy's lower leagues. Many of the Italians players' pro careers are teetering in the balance.

On Tuesday, prosecutor Stefano Palazzi asked for champions Juventus to be relegated to Serie C (the third division) and for them to be stripped of both their 2005 and 2006 league titles. Palazzi also asked for Fiorentina, Lazio and AC Milan to be relegated to Serie B (the second division) and called for lengthy suspensions for the majority of the 25 defendants, mostly referees, league officials, team owners and managers.

At the same time Gianluca Pessotto, a former national team member, lies on his deathbed in a Turin hospital.

Pessotto, who is best remembered for marking Zinedine Zidane completely out of the Euro 2000 final, jumped (some say he fell) from the roof of the Juventus headquarters in Turin with a rosary clutched in one hand - his wife said the former Juventus defender had been dealing with a serious bout of depression, leading many to believe that his fall from the roof was a suicide attempt.

And yet, even with the scandal hounding them and the thought of a dear colleague fighting for his very life, Italy bravely and courageously pressed forward.

So how did Italy do it?

By playing with honour, dignity and integrity.

John F. Molinaro is the editor of CBC Sports Online's 2006 World Cup website. John covered the 2002 World Cup, 2003 Champions League final and Euro 2004 for Sports Online. He also won a CBC.ca Award of Excellence for his work on Sports Online's Euro 2004 website.