Italy mourns after soccer team misses World Cup
ROME – Italians reacted with shock, grief and tears Tuesday, a day after the unthinkable occurred: a loss by the national soccer team that knocked Italy out of the World Cup for the first time in 60 years.
“It feels like the pope died,” lamented Sandro Lucchesi, 68, a retired bank clerk who was just 8 the only other time Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup. “Usually, everyone loves to talk about soccer, whether it’s to complain or brag. But this time, all my friends are just hanging their heads.”
Italy’s 0-0 tie with underdog Sweden in Milan sent the Swedish team into next year’s tournament — the first time it qualified since 2006.
Only Brazil and Germany had played in more consecutive World Cups than Italy, which has won the title four times.
“This is one of the cases where you can’t really be guilty of hyperbole,” said Paddy Agnew, author of Forza Italia: The Fall and Rise of Italian Football. “One of the few areas where Italy can claim to truly excel amid all the countries of the world is with (soccer). We should all stand by now for a long period of weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”
La Gazetta dello Sport, Italy’s top sports newspaper, called the result “the sports equivalent of the (sinking of the) Titanic.” Il Corriere dello Sport, another sports daily, called it an “Apocalypse.”