I certainly won’t be posting about sports often, but I have to take a moment to add just one more voice of congratulations to the Italian national team for their victory in the World Cup semi-finals against Germany. Both sides played beautifully, but in the last two minutes of extra time the Italians delivered two magnificent goals to win the match. I have a soft spot for the Italians, as a former student of Italian culture, and was happy to see them advance.

I was watching the game on Univision, the Spanish channel, for the great enthusiasm of the announcers, though I don’t speak the language. Here’s an explanation of the term “golazo,” and here’s my partial transcript of the end of the game, from memory:

1st goal: Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollll![a breath, then in higher voice:]

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLL!

Que golazo de Grosso!

2nd goal:

Golazo! Golazo! Golazo!

Goooooooooo…

[clears throat]

oooooooooooooooooolazo!

Azo! Azo! Azo!

Golazo de gol! Golazo de gol!

Viva el futbol! Viva el spetaculo!

[The throat-clearing was my favorite part.]

Update: My adopted second country won the Cup, for the first time in twenty-four years. It wasn’t as picture-perfect as the semifinal with Germany, but the incredible Italian defense and a couple of lucky chances got the job done, and restored order to the universe after two World Cup penalty-kick defeats in ‘94 and ‘98. I was happy to see so many of my friends and neighbors following the game, and even happier to see the good sportsmanship among the fans here in New York.

Fourth star.

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