Memories of Germany v Italy

When I think of Germany v Italy the first image that comes into my head is Marco Tardelli and his famous 'scream'. Voted the fourth best Italian goal ever, by viewers of Channel 4's Football Italia, it formed part of a strange summer for me personally back in 1982.

I was living in a caravan at the time close to the SBS base at Hamworthy and everybody was concerned with the Falklands War that summer. The war had actually finished the day after the World Cup began but there was still the waiting for the families of the serving armed forces. Everybody had hoped that, once England were knocked out, France would progress to the final but events in Sevilla when a tired French side went out on penalties to West Germany changed neutral allegiances to Italy.

Germany had some old fashioned figures of hate in their side, Harald Schumacher for obvious reasons, Uli Stielike the Real Madrid sweeper who kicked anything that moved, Hans-Peter Briegel whose name sounded like it should belong to a Dutch painter and Horst Hrubesch surely the most useless centre forward ever to play for Germany. On the plus side they had Paul Breitner (a survivor from the 1974 winning side) and they were captained by Karl Heinze Rummenigge one of his country's most elegant players.

Italy on the other hand came into the final courtesy of a last minute save by Dino Zoff in the second phase match against Brazil and a comfortable 2-0 win over Poland in the semi's thanks to two goals from Paolo Rossi. Italy had been poor in the competition up to the point where they played an over confident Brazil side, a Brazil side which some people rate as second only to the 1970 side which is an insult to the Garrincha inspired side of 1962.

The final itself played down to pre-match fears, Italy looked afraid throughout the first half, they played within themselves. Apparently the team talk at half time consisted of Enzo Bearzot telling his players that it was there's to win if they believed it. Twenty five minutes into the second half they had won it, thanks to goals from Paolo Rossi and that famous Marco Tardelli goal. I remember the Italians passing the ball from back to front and then a series of three passes inside the Germans box before Tardelli hit his shot and ran towards the Italian dug out.

Italy scored a third through Alessandro Altobelli ten minutes from time before Paul Breitner made history by scoring in two World Cup Finals seven minutes from the end.

Any omens that can be taken from that match?

1. Italian football was just recovering from a bribes and match fixing scandal in 1982 as it is now.

2. In 2006 the goalkeeper (Buffon) and the captain (Cannavaro) both play for Juventus. In 1982 the goalkeeper and captain both played for Juventus (okay that's stretching it as Dino Zoff was both)

3. In 1982 Italy played an Eastern European country (Poland) and an African country (Cameroon) on their way to the final, in 2006 they have played Czech Republic and Ghana.

4. In 1982 they scored 9 goals on the way to the Final (1 v Peru and Cameroon, 2 v Argentina and Poland and 3 v Brazil) - in 2006 they have scored 9 so far (3 v Ukraine, 2 v Czech Republic and Ghana and 1 v Australia and U.S.A) - so they would have to win today on penalties.

5.Today will be their sixth match in this competition, in 1982 the final was their seventh.

(It's a good job I've got the day off and time to do this research)