That's funny, but after I got done laughing I remembered that it was nothing new. Rewind to the 2006 World Cup, which is played in Germany. After the quarterfinal match with Argentina, which the Germans won on penalties, a brawl erupted in the stadium tunnel between German and Argentinian players (there has been bad blood between the two nations since the 1990 World Cup final). Top German midfielder Torsten Frings was disqualified for his violent involvement in that brawl and thus prevented from playing in Germany's semifinal against Italy four days later. Italy would go on to win the semi and then the final too.
FIFA's decision to exclude Frings was of course unpopular with German crowds. The top (trashy) sports newspaper, Bild, accused the Italians of having exercised "undue pressure" on FIFA to force them to disqualify Frings. Yeah... as if Italy's super-corrupt football federation carried any international weight! The accusation was promptly dismissed by anyone who mattered and definitely not backed by die Mannschaft. Still, it remained a popular piece of gossip.
Bild's accusation was also garnished with the usual racial epithets (the German equivalent of "wops") and included a large picture of a pizza. You know how foreigners are often stereotyped as performing only one task or job? In the collective German imagination, Italians are either restaurant waiters or pizza makers.
Well, two days later, after Italy beat Germany 2-0 on the pitch, an Italian satire newspaper responded with the following picture:
Klinsmann was the German coach, and in the Italian press a "pizza" is slang for a goal. Lulz were had, not only because I'm Italian, but because it's always funny to watch whiners lose.
And now, in the semifinals of Euro 2012, it's Italy-Germany all over again. But this time the krauts will need to amp up their racial slurs, because now that Italy has Balotelli, we're not just wops: we're also niggers! (remember Fawlty Towers?)
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