And we are live from the line out front of The George And Dragon Pub in C@L’s charming Fremont neighborhood. I figured showing up at 8 am would at least get me a decent spot. Nope. The line was around the corner at 8:30, and is a complete disaster at this point. The regulars assure me that I’ll be able to see, though I’ll likely have to stand in the parking lot. Charming.

Anyhoo, I’m pretty excited for the game, and have been doing some cogitating about just how crazy it would be if the Azzurri won, given that most of these guys are going to have to change jobs in the next couple days (when they dismantle Italian soccer). If nothing else, this should provide ample fodder for Marcello Lippi to speechify prior to the game.

Signor Lippi, here’s how I would roll with it; feel free to substitute clichés as appropriate:

“Boys, this is the end of a long road. It goes without saying that we have worked very hard to get where we are. Many doubted us. Many thought that the recent unpleasantness [grumbles of laughter] back home would distract us. They thought we would crumble. Instead, it has only made us stronger.

In many ways, we don’t know what tomorrow will hold. Many of you will change clubs. Some may leave Italy.

But that is tomorrow.

For today, there is only one game. One game between you and your destiny. No matter what happens tomorrow, no matter what the politicians and judges say, no matter what the newspapers write, today is your chance to be a champion forever. To be remembered as the best team in the world. They can take away your clubs. They can try to shame and embarrass you. But they can never take away what you will do today. They can never take away what you will do on that pitch.

There is only today.”

(Okay, I’ll stop now. Also, the other people in line are looking at me funny.)

As has been noted in this space many (comma many comma many) times before over the past couple weeks, we’ve become pretty obsessed with the Azzurri fans’ White Stripes chant. Essentially, they all chant the bass line of of “Seven Nation Army” in unison again and again.

I had no idea what the origin of the cheer was (this was the first time I’d heard it), so I did some sleuthing (and by “sleuthing” I mean I put “the white stripes italy soccer” in the search box). Turns out that it was something that the Italians nicked from a group of Belgian supporters a couple months ago, and which has since been adopted by the Roma fans, who in turn have shared it with the Azzurri.

See below a link to a lovely podcast explaining the whole thing, including some great audio clips (around the 1:55 mark) of what it sounds like in the stadium, as well as a clip of Totti trying to do the cheer.

Awesome.

Link:
Global Hit [theworld.org]