World Cup Corner

Italy’s history in the World Cup was a long, arduous journey marked with long stretches of success, and even longer stretches of defeats. Theirs is a portfolio that started out quite splendidly and ended in a so much lesser status. However, despite their recent fruitless attempts to win the Cup, they still hold the succeeding place as the third most successful teams in the history of the World Cup, following right behind Brazil and Germany. Let’s look closely at Italy’s journey through the Cup.

Their impressive successes in the 1930’s set up a rather high stage for the team. During that time, Italian dictator Mussolini was placing intense pressure on his home team to win the World Cup, as part of his political aspirations and propaganda. Thus, the two consecutive Italian victories during the 1930’s were plagued with rumors that there was politics involved in the backstage. There were also speculations that Italy was at a better stance, given that the South American teams forfeited because the Cup was held in European soil. However, with outstanding players like Piola and Meazza, Italy still managed to maintain their credibility that their victories were well-deserved. Indeed, they were pressured by their nation’s leader to win, and it seems safe to assume that Italy worked well under pressure. They came out victorious over Spain and Austria, even after enduring an over-stretched draw and a rather tense match. The second 1930 victory was once more held in Europe. The team seemed to have had no difficulties in beating out its competitors such as France, Brazil, and Hungary. Back then, Italy was easily the crowd favorite.

It seemed, however, that their ride to success was a short one. In 1966, they suffered a sharp defeat from North Korea. The embarrassment that sprang from the loss may have been too much for them to take, that as the World Cup once more rolled over four years later, they sprang right back with a vengeance. After getting tackled by Sweden at 1-0, they failed to score against Uruguay. Not taunted, they moved on and finally beat Mexico at 4-1, and Germany, in a well-remembered game in World Cup history, at 4-3. Their only failure, however, was not managing to overpower the new crowd favorite, Brazil.

After the winning streak, they sank into the background for over a decade, before coming back out during the 1982 World Cup. The 1982 Cup was a troubled year for Italy, given the controversies that surrounded some of their players, which even led to suspensions. Luckily, they got through the tough Cup and won against Argentina, Poland, and West Germany in one sweep.

As the 90’s rolled by, they breezed through the World Cup and very confidently entered the finals. The result was a third-place rank, however, that was caused by penalties. It was at this point that their downhill slip started. It seems that bad habits die hard for the Italians. In 1994, they lost to Brazil due, once again, to penalties. In 1998, they suffered yet another penalty loss to France. The Italians probably needed to learn from their mistakes, which they still didn’t do when they lost to South Korea during the 2002 World Cup.

And now, what does the future hold for Italy? Will the team be able to reclaim all or even just some of its previous glory? Maybe some stress has to be put on the team, because as history shows, the Italian team strikes with a punch when placed under pressure.