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Pitifully Italy Nation sinks into sorrowful stupor, like its players
Posted: Sunday July 02, 2000 06:25 PM
ROME (AP) -- Like their players who remained for what seemed endless minutes sitting in tears on the Rotterdam soccer field, Italians sank into a kind of sorrowful stupor Sunday night after watching the Euro 2000 championship slip away only seconds from the end of recoup playing time. During the game, Italians whooped and honked, setting dogs barking, as the Italian team scored the first goal of the match and for more than 90 minutes kept France from scoring. But the cobblestone streets of the capital, where hours before Italians drove around on motorbikes waving red-white-and-green flags, were silent after France scored the "golden goal" and won 2-1 in stoppage time. One violent incident was reported in Rome. A half-dozen Italian fans, waving sticks and bars, started chasing a group of jubilant French soccer supporters who had just emerged from a bar near Piazza Navona after the victory, RAI state radio reported early Monday. A French fan was injured in the face, RAI said. The Italian fans fled before police arrived. In Milan's main square in front of the city's duomo, or cathedral, a few fans hurled bottles to vent their anger. Police quickly intervened and the square emptied out in a few minutes with no injuries reported Even before the game ended, Italians seemed to realize quickly that time -- too much time -- could be their doom. "Two more minutes of suffering. Mamma mia!" cried out a commentator on TMC TV halfway into the stoppage time that saw France tie the score seconds before the clock was to run out. Commentators concentrated their finger-pointing mainly at Del Piero's disappointing performance. "One of those two goals he should have made," said veteran RAI play-by-play commentator, Giampiero Galeazzi. Said another RAI state TV sports commentator, Marco Marzocchi immediately after the game: "Paradoxically, Italy played one of its better games and game out the loser."
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