The winner of Sunday's Euro 2012 quarterfinal between England and Italy will advance to play Germany in the semifinals. Whoever it be, a match-up of historic proportion awaits. Germans and Britons share a historic rivalry, as do Germans and Italians; and if the former is far more storied from a footballing viewpoint, the latter is more socially significant. Either way, fun will be had. Football is a mirror of life, and life is much more than the aggregate score of our wins and losses. Life is a story, and few national teams in the world have more history than these three.
Germany-England may be the single most hyped international match-up in football, perhaps second only to Argentina-Brazil, and right up there with Italy-France. It inevitably reeks of Dunkerque and Berlin, but it would hold up even just competitively, as the two have dominated the European sports scene for the longest time.
At the 1966 World Cup, hosted on British soil, the two disputed a classic final. England led for most of the match, but Germany equalized with a minute left in regulation to force extra time. In extra time, Geoff Hurst scored an incredibly controversial goal. His shot bounced off the crossbar and on the goal line, and the linesman ruled it in after brief consultation with the referee. Video footage then subsequently proved beyond any doubt that the ball had not in fact crossed the line. Here you can watch this video of the goal (about one minute in) or even the full match. This is bad enough when it happens in any game, but in a World Cup final it's bound to leave scars. The ensuing rivalry has been largely defined by this incident.
Four years later, at the 1970 World Cup, the Germans struck back by knocking the Brits out 3-2 in the quarterfinals. This time, Hurst saw a legal goal mysteriously disallowed. Needless to say, conspiracy theories abound: "Revenge, revenge!" Nevertheless, this match did not turn out to be very notorious after all, perhaps because it happened relatively early in the tournament.
Fast-forward 20 years to the 1990 World Cup. England and Germany this time met in the semis. Bobby Robson's England had just survived a thrilling quarter against the surprising Cameroon, while Franz Beckenbauer's Germany had never looked more stylish and confident. Despite some excellent individual talent (Platt, Lineker, Gaiscogne, Shilton), this was a year of reconstruction for England. Instead, Germany could count on some of their best-ever players: Matthaus, Klinsmann, Voeller, Brehme, Kohler... an absolute wunder. Germany again defeated England, but this time it took a penalty shoot-out and two mistakes from the spot. Beckenbauer's team then went on to win the cup in a nerve-filled match against Maradona and his Argentine thugs (who had just knocked out the hosts Italy and thus had the entire stadium against them!).
The 1990 match is mostly remembered for British winger's Paul Gaiscogne's unstable behavior. "Gazza," as he was nicknamed, was notoriously hotheaded, at times harmlessly irreverent, at others violent and downright stupid. Gazza was booked early in the second half, and since he had also been carded in the Cameroon game, he would have had to sit out the final had England gone through. His tears upon seeing the yellow card are among the most iconic images of the whole tournament and have been broadcast more times than I can count. However, I prefer the picture that came right after and which is less often discussed: England's captain Gary Lineker, upon seeing his teammate become emotional and recognizing the early signs of instability gestured to his bench that they should keep an eye on him. Here you can see a brief video of those crucial moments. I caught Lineker's warning live when I watched the game (I was nine years old) and I still remember it clear as day!
The rivalry remained relatively dormant for twenty more years (but see below), until the 2010 World Cup. Germany were the star of the tournament after sweeping the group stage in grand fashion, while England was once again facing a generational shift and looked quite insecure. Surely it didn't help that Beckham was on the bench as a manager, wearing an ugly suit. Be that as it may, the two met in the quarterfinals, and it was the perfect next chapter to the never-ending saga. The score was 4-1, but this time for the Germans, and this time it was England who could recriminate. Toward the end of the first half, with the score still at 2-1 for Germany, a shot by English midfielder Frank Lampard bounced off the crossbar and on the goal line. Sound familiar? It was obviously in... like, by a full 5-6 inches... but the linesman ruled it out and disallowed what should have been the equalizer. You couldn't write a better script; or a worse one, depending. If revenge is a dish best served cold, how about 44 years later? To be fair, Germany would have probably still prevailed, and to be even fairer they had taken their fair share of revenge ever since that day at Wembley... but to me, this one takes the cake. It is just too perfect.
You can read more about this rivalry at this Wikipedia article, which is surprisingly well-balanced and very informative. It discusses more games than I cover here and in more detail.
Italy-Germany is certainly much less of a rivalry, internationally anyway. For one, they have played relatively rarely: only three major matches in the last 40 years. Also, it's not a real rivalry if one side dominates: Italy has won all three.
But those three were very important, and especially the first one: Italy-West Germany 4-3, which was the 1970 World Cup semifinal, is often referred to as "the Game of the Century." In Italy it is even known as "the best football match in history." While no one match should ever be called that, if one ever deserved it, it's this one.
In 1970, Italy has one of its youngest-ever teams and is trying to get back onto the international scene after a streak of disappointing World Cup performances. It is especially important that the Italians wash away the humiliation of Chile 1962, where the Azzurri were knocked out by the home side in one of the most violent football games in history (the "Battle of Santiago"). On the other side of the pitch, the Germans hunger for revenge after 1966, a loss that is burning now more fiercely than ever. Also at stake is a chance to defeat the divine Brazil of the divine Pele in another epic Europe-South America showdown. To put it mildly, the match is charged.
That kind of match is usually boring, but not this time. Just look at the lineups! Rivera, Mazzola, Riva, and Boninsegna for the Italians... Beckenbauer, Vogt, Muller, and Seeler for the Germans. Italy goes ahead and dominates far and wide, but Germany shows an impressive resilience and equalizes with minutes left in regulation. The extra time would be remembered for its five goals in just under 20 minutes. Muller scores almost immediately for Germany. Burgnich equalizes for Italy not five minutes later, and soon thereafter Riva sets the score 3-2. It seems over: all players are exhausted, and the psychological impact of Italy's sudden comeback should prove too much for the Germans. However, Muller puts one in for the 3-3. This is now devastating for Italy and they should be demoralized... except not, for it takes Rivera all of 45 seconds to score again for the definitive 4-3! As soon as Rivera's ball crosses the line, two German defenders collapse on the pitch in an obvious sign of defeat. Despite a few more attempts, Germany would not score again. Italy would then lose a one-sided final to Brazil, in which they scored first but were overtaken 4-1 by Pele & Co. But as you can read below, that was almost irrelevant in the big picture.
You have to understand the social influence of this match in the lives of average Italians. Ever since the end of World War II, the word "German" had been synonymous with "murderer" and "monster." Even the adjective tedesco is sometimes used to mean "unusually cruel." Now, Italy is a non-nation of heterogeneous people held together by an empty state formality and little common history; Italian sociology is thus notoriously difficult to interpret. But given the alternate fates of Italy in the war, such a deep-rooted hatred for Germany is not surprising and it brings together Italians of different stripes where common ground would otherwise not exist. Germany was never really an ally, during the war. It was always perceived as an invader, as Hitler held the reins of his puppet Benito. Post-1943, then, the SS took out their resentment on Italian civilians in a series of barbaric massacres that killed thousands. Now Italy-Germany is a complex relationship (as is every relationship in Europe), with light hints of penis envy and dark tints of Stockholm syndrome. And all this cultural baggage was poured out into the match, which was suddenly elected, in the minds of many Italians, as the first true shot at vendetta. My father, who was 25 at the time, recounts of bars and taverns filled to the brim with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the only television available in the neighborhood; of scenes of jubilee in the streets, as if Italy had already won the world cup; and of how Riva and Rivera's names were exalted like those of saints, eliciting cries of blasphemy from our Vatican neighbors (themselves foreign invaders, of course, but that's another ballpark).
In current-day Italian, "Italy-Germany 4-3" is a common idiom. It signifies a pivotal struggle that, no doubt, you're going to win in the end if you just hang in there. The sports section of any major bookstore always carries a few books related to the event. A major motion picture, Italia-Germania 4-3, was a huge box-office success. I have seen at least three different feature-length documentaries on the history of the match, featuring interviews with all the major Italian and German players. It is, in short, an iconic cultural symbol whose importance has not yet waned.
That is not to say, of course, that the history of Italy-Germany ends there. In fact, the two major matches that followed were even more crucial, competitively speaking. At the 1982 World Cup, Italy and Germany played in the final, which Italy won 3-1 in a dominating performance. No doubt the Germans were exhausted after a prolonged semifinal against France, just as the Italians had been in 1970 against Brazil! Still, the goals by Altobelli, Rossi, and Tardelli would prove to stick with the Italian public, especially Tardelli's celebration, which is still dubbed "The Scream" (see the video here). From a strictly footballing viewpoint, this win is as clearly remembered as the one in 1970, for this was Italy's first World Cup since the 1934-1938 double. This meant, of course, that there was a whole generation of Italians who had never witnessed such an event, and it stuck in their memory. Alas, I was only one year old and remember none of it! Shucks...
Finally, at the 2006 World Cup, Italy and Germany again squared off in the semifinal. Germany hosted this edition of the WC, and they had looked dominant as ever. Italy, instead, had been cunning and resourceful, but hadn't displayed great prowess. The match was a tight 0-0 until the end of extra time, when Italy scored an impressive double whammy in the 117th and 119th minutes. Grosso's bender was especially momentous, and his celebration brought back memories of Tardelli in 1982. Here's a video of the last two minutes of that match with a colorful Italian commentary. For Germany it was a nightmare. For Italy it was the start of a dream, as they then went on to defeat France in the final in the latest chapter of that rivalry.
But, as they say, that's another story!
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