Germany ... 0 Italy ... 2A sudden end. A nation halted. Imagine it. Finales don't come any crueller. A great and epic game is lurching towards the death-by-penalties routine. Two sides have left their guts on the floor on a field in Dortmund. And suddenly the narrative is exploded by two strokes of genius.
There were tears in the high stands as Germany's long odyssey of football and self-discovery came to a strange end.
Eighty seconds left and Andrea Pirlo picked up the ball from a corner and threaded a wonderful pass to Fabio Grosso. The full back curled the ball around the arms of the despairing Jens Lehmann. One-nil.
And Germany still dared to dream. They got up and kicked off, and here in the heartland of the game where they had never been beaten they girded themselves once more. They couldn't know the story had one last twist. Alessandro del Piero, no less, clinically drove the ball into the German net with virtually the last kick of the game.
It was over then, this classic. The ending was explosive, orgasmic, wondrous. Even the Germans, shellshocked and tearful, looked as if they could scarcely understand what had befallen them.
The preamble had been war drums and tough talk. The game itself promised to be a little war. Kudos then to the Mexican referee Senor Archundia, who has obviously seen a thing or two in his lifetime. He caught the spirit of the evening by letting go most tackles not involving the use of weaponry. The match benefited from his wisdom.
The interpretation of the team selections was that Juergen Klinsmann had blinked first. With Torsten Frings hoist by TV's petard, Klinsmann went for not one but two defensive midfielders in his stead, dropping Bastian Schweinsteiger into the bargain and starting with a local hero, Sebastien Kehl, and with Tim Borowski playing out left but cutting inside a lot.
The absence of Frings was almost painful to see. Without him Germany were just about able to cope in midfield when it came to defending but when they moved forward they pined for the pace and adventure Frings provided. They looked stiff and cautious as if their youth had been sapped.
As such they failed to make their usual whirlwind start and played a more studied game, waiting for the Italians to produce some moves. The Italians didn't need to be asked twice. They cut through the German midfield as if practising one-touch around traffic cones. Pirlo was majestic but Mauro Camoranesi and Francesco Totti were up to what he demanded of them as well.
An Italian prosecutor demanded yesterday that many of these players be consigned to Serie B and C (Juventus) in future seasons as punishment for their clubs' part in the unfolding match-fixing scandal back home. That punishment may be just, but they showed something last night about the quality and honesty they have as players.
The Italians were full of invention while the Germans were still settling themselves. When Pirlo took a free kick out near the corner flag there was much excited jostling for position among the big men in front of Jens Lehmann. When the excitement was at its peak Pirlo just brushed the ball fast and low back to Totti. His shot was blocked, which, aesthetically speaking, was a pity.
Around the half-hour mark the nodding and bowing to each other ended. An earnest game turned very serious indeed. Fabio Grosso, the adventurous Italian full back, took a hike down the left wing, and just when the Germans were expecting a cross he cut inside and found Luca Toni at the near post. Toni spun but didn't make meaty contact. A series of corners followed, with the denizens of Fortress Dortmund growing anxious and voluble.
Arguably the best chance of the half came on 34 minutes when Pirlo lost possession in midfield and the Germans scampered forward in numbers. Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski kept feeding the ball out right till it came to Bernd Schneider, who was maybe 15 yards out. He thumped it and it scraped over the bar with Gianluigi Buffon little the wiser as to what had transpired.
Somehow we got to the break without either goal being breached. Podolski was playing his best game of the tournament so far for Germany and leading the attack as if he was the veteran and Klose the novice. His size and his physicality were giving Marco Materazzi plenty to think about and there were times when Cannavaro needed to make emergency interventions.
The second half began as we'd expected the first to. Germany breaking all sorts of speed limits as they rediscovered the urgency they've had to the last month. Klose, so well shepherded in the first half, even had the luxury of squandering the first real chance when Buffon left his line to make a good save.
With the balance of possession you could sense Klinsmann's impatience. He sent on Bastian Schweinsteiger and another local star, David Odonkor. We prayed to see some of the latter's legendary unpredictability.
We didn't. The game lurched towards 90-minute stalemate. A few good chances in the last 10 minutes though, Totti latching onto Alberto Gilardino's judicious flick and lobbing a pass over the German defence to Simone Perrotta. The Italian may have wished Totti hadn't bothered. Lehmann came, launched himself and took the ball and most of Perrotta's upper torso.
Very Harald Schumacher. Which recollection of 1982 and the first World Cup game ever decided on penalties prompted us to think that there was a certain inevitability to this. Extra time. Penalties anyone?
The game though reached new heights in extra time, like a symphony which keeps searing and soaring.
Extra time as it happened brought the good stuff forth but not enough to throw up a goal. Gilardino, much maligned, began with an unlikely run, cutting in from the endline. At the edge of the six-yard box he poked the ball past Lehmann on the near side. It hit the post and ran across the width of the open goal. A stadium held its breath and we had scarcely exhaled when Zambrotta, that musketeering full back, cannoned a shot off the bar.
Lehmann looked stunned, an expression he retained till long after the final whistle.
SUBSTITUTIONS
GERMANY: Schweinsteiger for Borowski (72 mins), Odonkor for Schneider (83 mins), Neuville for Klose (111 mins). Subs not used: Jansen, Huth, Nowotny, Hanke, Kahn, Asamoah, Hitzlsperger, Hildebrand. Booked: Borowski, Metzelder.
ITALY: Iaquinta for Camoranesi (90 mins), Del Piero for Perrotta (104 mins), Gilardino for Toni (74 mins). Subs not used: Zaccardo, Barzagli, Peruzzi, Nesta, Amelia, Barone, Inzaghi, Oddo. Booked: Camoranesi.
Referee: Benito Archundia Tellez (Mexico).
