Berlin - About this time four years ago, Italians were crossing the Alps and marching on FIFA headquarters in order to seek retribution after South Korea had inflicted on the Azzurri one of the biggest shocks in the history of the World Cup by knocking them out in the second round.
Italian Luca Toni (L) vies with French Lilian Thuram (R) during the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup between Italy and France at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, Sunday 09 July 2006. EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI
Their anger was directed at the game's world governing body because instead of signalling a penalty for Italy in extra-time, Francesco Totti was given a second yellow card and his marching orders for falling in the box. The score was 1-1. Minutes later, Ahn Jung-hwan headed home the golden-goal winner.
'It was obvious from the start which way the wind was blowing,' then coach Giovanni Trapattoni said after the exit of an Italian team that also had five goals disallowed during the 2002 finals.
'There is a lot of bitterness and anger on the part of everyone. Inability and low attention in the end caused a disaster like this. You can't play a World Cup with incompetent linesmen. I've never experienced such a negative moment in my career.'
Fast forward four years and there is the distinct possiblity that Switzerland may well be invaded from the south again - though instead of bombarding the Zurich buildings with tomato pizzas, they might be inclined to baptise FIFA's new edifice by showering it with risotto- rice confetti.
To say 10-man Italy got out of jail, as the Australians might, when Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo handed them a 95th-minute penalty this time in the second round is a bit of an understatement.
Australia had been raining in shots for much of the second half before Fabio Grosso broke down the other end, tripped over Lucas Neill, who was already on the ground, and none other than Totti himself walloped home the spotkick for redemption.
There are no more golden goals now, but it felt like one for the gobsmacked Socceroos watching it all in the early hours of the morning on the other side of the world.
'It's cruel, very cruel,' Australian captain Mark Viduka said. 'This was a game we really dominated. We had the feeling that if the game went into extra-time we were going to beat them.'
But Trapattoni's successor Marcello Lippi was quickly on the defensive after suggestions the referees had given his side a helping hand.
'I'd like to say something about all this talk that we have been lucky. We had Francesco Totti ruled out for three months with injury, then (Gianluca) Zambrotta, (Gennaro) Gattuso and (Alessandro) Nesta all got injured.
'On top of that we have to deal with the unprecedented mess happening in Italy,' he added referring to the match-fixing scandal in Serie A. 'Yeah, you can say I have been really lucky.'
For the moody Azzurri and perhaps for Totti, who had also been sent off in the following European Championship in Portugal, it came as something of a catharsis.
With belief restored, Italy brushed aside Ukraine 3-0 and then, approaching the daunting prospect of penalties against Germany, last- gasp goals from Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero brought a dream date in the final.
France, their vanquishers in 1998 and at Euro 2000, are supposedly Italy's bogey team, but Marcello Lippi was smiling broadly at the end of Sunday's final - won in Italy's first successful World Cup penalty shootout.
It was a close victory, with France looking the more likely team for much of the match until the madness of Zinedine Zidane and his red card.
But unlike four years ago, a fourth title for a nation reeling under the football-fixing scandal was something Lippi, his squad and the entire nation were all going to take with no complaints at all.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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