Italy, soccer champion of the 2006 World Cup!

Alessandro del Piero is my favorite soccer player. He used to be #10 on the Juventus team but now he is #7. They always bring him in for the shoot out. I bought a jersey with his name in 2000, when he was the star of the Euro Cup. Everybody is still trying to buy my jersey off my back, probably because I wear it so often. Our Italian class watched the finale at Giovanna's house. We had 3 generations watching the game together. Extended family is a big part of our culture. Looks like he is shaving his head these days.

Buffon, our goalie, is the best. His charisma on the field is obvious. Great hands!
A sea of blue as the French "Les Bleu" play Italy's "Azzurri" in the 2006 World Cup soccer final.
Vittoria, Italia, calcio campioni del mundo! Italy is the soccer champion of the world, beating France 1-1, and 5-3 in an overtime shootout. Here, Fabio Grosso has just made the deciding goal. Fabio used to play for Palermo but now plays for Inter Milan. Their colors are blue and black. The last time Italy won the World
Cup was in 1982. Despite the current scandal of 4 top Italian teams bribing officials, and former Inter Milan player Gianluca Pessoto trying to commit suicide by jumping off the roof in Torino, the dark horse team pulled off an incredible win, thanks to the French player "ZZ" Zidane who head butted a trash talking Italian
player and got thrown out of the game. They must have no morals as ZZ got most valuable player of the tournament anyhow. Dio benedicti, Gianluca!