Why Root for France?
A poster below makes an eloquent case for Italy, writing:
You said: "How can you not root for France?" Quite easy as a matter of fact.
If you were here in Tuscany you would have seen the spontaneity of the celebrations in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after the Azzurri scored those two classically beautiful goals. It is easy, therefore, to root for a team representing a country that, unlike its Sunday opponent, lives life joyously.
On another note...one thing, once again, struck four of us watching the Portugal-France game last evening. For a country that is so blatantly racist,there was some typical French hypocrisy, in this case in fielding a team with so many (outstanding) black players. But then again, unless the country can use them (e.g.North African Arabs, Jews, blacks), to its advantage, the history of France is replete with far too many instances of degradation (and worse).
It should be a good game on Sunday. Vai Azzurri!I have no doubt that the celebrations in Tuscany were wonderful; trust me, I'd have been more than happy to be at them, in which case I would have kept my support for France to myself. And as I wrote before, those two goals were gorgeous, and all credit must go to the Italians for coming out in that overtime fired up and determined to win, which they did.
Moreover, I take the point about France and racism, but a World Cup victory by a team dominated by black players might help that problem.
The poster ignores completely, however, my argument that the Italians degrade the game with their readiness to flop and their histrionic acting. It's no surprise that, to illustrate
a story about the abundance of called fouls during this World Cup, the Times chose a picture of an Italian looking like he's trying out for
Le Nozze di Figaro.
Until the Italians start to play like real men, I can't root for them.
Remember the Socceroos!
An Italian player plummets to the turf...dramatically.
Not to mention the hair.
