Italy and Germany Rivalry Heats Up Off the Pitch
Yesterday, we showed you how the German and Italian media have been slugging it out over their respective roles in Torsten Frings being suspended for today’s semifinal match. The rivalry between the two countries doesn’t stop there, however. A Berlin newspaper is doing its best to upset Italians living in the German capital.
The Tageszeitung newspaper printed the telephone numbers of pizza shops around Germany and urged its readers to call them right at kickoff.
The paper printed a picture of pizza chefs serenading guests with a guitar above the caption: “The Italian dough-kneaders are singing now but they’ll have to bake thousands of pizzas instead of watching football tonight.”
Quite clever, but I would imagine that the pizzerias might just take their phones off the hook before kickoff or at the very least make some pizzas with some less than appetizing ingredients for the German fans.
Meanwhile, Italy is demanding that Germany repatriate the body of Bruno the black bear. Bruno was quite the story here last week. The wayward bear from the Austrian and Italian alps ran amok in Bavaria and was subsequently shot dead by a hunter.
The Germans have been planning to stuff Bruno and put him in a museum. Italy was none too pleased about this and wants Bruno back, but probably would be willing to let Germany keep the dead animal in exchange for the World Cup trophy.
For those looking to get out a little aggression while you wait for kickoff, you can duke it out as Germany against Italy in the mascot smackdown game.
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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 40 comments.
Read the rest of the comments
By Natalia | July 4th, 2006 at 6:17 pm 
Look here , host teams are always under pressure to win. Even England won the cup once when they hosted FIFA. That was in like 1966.
By MooDy | July 4th, 2006 at 6:18 pm Many posters’s location coming From Bahrain … Am i the only Bahrainian guy arround ?
Posted from 
Bahrain
By Michael | July 4th, 2006 at 6:25 pm Even if we loose to Italy today, in some way we already won: We lived up to the motto of the World Cup … “Time to make friends”.
I thought i’d never see the day English fans are actually supporting the Germans and the German “Mannschaft”, but if you look at various newspaper sites and forums all around the world (esp. English/African/Australian), you’ll see people praising us for our friendliness, organization and party-atomsphere.
Whoever wins today doesn’t matter to me (much /smirk) anymore. We already accomplished more than anyone could hope for before the World Cup (football and friendship-wise), so despite of what some obscure local newspaper might be suggesting, i’ll just enjoy this evening, eating a Italian Pizza and drinking German beer ^^
Posted from 
Germany
By Kaiserslautern's girl | July 4th, 2006 at 6:26 pm why the hell don’t my flag show up?!?!??!
by the way, this is posted from Canada>
By JasonM | July 4th, 2006 at 6:26 pm I also feel it’s clever. Just an innocent way to had some good old fashion rivalry to the game. Who knows, maybe the Italians will have some record breaking pizza sales figures in Germany!!!
Posted from 
United States
By JasonM | July 4th, 2006 at 6:31 pm Oh yeah…That Italian offense was so strong they beat the up and coming Americans by how many goals…GO
DEUTSCHLAND!!!
Posted from United States
By Massimo | July 4th, 2006 at 6:37 pm True we were kicked out of the world cup by the USA
i forgot that detail
dammit
Posted from 
Italy
By pao | July 4th, 2006 at 6:39 pm i don’t care about some tabloid, all that really matters is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZdw-9nNUpw&search=tardelli
Posted from Italy
By spooky | July 4th, 2006 at 6:43 pm It will be a glory day for us.
And it will be the revenge of 1970 and 1982.
3-1 Klose, Podolski,Ballack
Take it, dont cry!
Posted from United States
By Deutschland uber alles! | July 4th, 2006 at 7:00 pm Way to trot out ancient history, poo.
Anyhow, we Germans will show that they are the superior race tonight.
Not greasy and sticky pizza makers like you Italian diving crying babies with your pathetic defense and zero attacking skill.
We’ll make you salute the fatherland!
By squiggle | July 4th, 2006 at 7:08 pm So boring. Passion is not synonymous with being an idiot.
By ETucker | July 4th, 2006 at 7:12 pm The pizza thing is just clever. It shows a good spirited rivalry, which is always good for the game.
The bear thing is stupid politics.
Italy has not won a World Cup since I was born, so all this talk of the great Azzurri squads means nothing to me. Germany has been the better team recently (Forget the 4-1 loss in Italy) and will probably win tonight via penalties.
Posted from 
Dominican Republic
By dirk | July 4th, 2006 at 7:12 pm Who cares what some stupid tabloid prints. The game is played on the field, not in the newspapers, and thank goodness, not in the blog rooms. The teams show more respect for each other than the supposed fans. Germany 2-1 in OT
Posted from United States
By Bye Bye | July 4th, 2006 at 7:15 pm Ha ha Germany could not beat Argentina on it home turf in full time and extra time it hade to be done by penalties how can you even say that you beat Argentina? LOL! Argentina looked much better then you guys 100 times.
Posted from United States
By Charley | July 4th, 2006 at 7:15 pm I just read that the referee (fool) that was in charge of the US/Italy game was place in charge of the semifinal between France and Portugal….if this is true, it is one of the reasons that ultimately you cannot take FIFA and soccer that seriously…
By dirk | July 4th, 2006 at 7:22 pm Bye Bye, Argentina had more possession time and that’s about all. A lot of that was sideways passing anyway, so if that qualifies as being better, then I suppose you view a 0-0 game as a victory for the team that keeps possession more. And how many shots did Argentina have on goal in the game. Fact is, games often come down to PK’s and Italy will fail if it comes to that.
Posted from United States
By Suzie Q | July 4th, 2006 at 7:23 pm Yeah… do not ever ridicule the USA. We are coming…next time, with California Klinsi as our couch…. USA will begin to take the game very seriously and then watch out, world!
Go Germany
Posted from United States
By Suzie Q | July 4th, 2006 at 7:24 pm Aqvamare… in the USA Daimler Chrysler is bombarding us with commercials… somehow they must compensate…
Go Germany!
Posted from United States
By dirk | July 4th, 2006 at 7:32 pm are those commercials coming in the middle of the reporting of the top sports event we apparently have today? The hot dog eating contest being covered by ESPN (now there’s a sport, huh?)
Posted from United States
By Suzie Q | July 4th, 2006 at 7:39 pm careful, miri… did you choke on a bratwurst? you sound like there is no oxygen going into your brain.
Posted from United States
By Suzie Q | July 4th, 2006 at 7:40 pm Bye, bye: Is that why Argentina went bye bye?
Posted from United States
By dirk | July 4th, 2006 at 7:43 pm Charming Miri. Hope you find your medication before the match starts
Posted from United States
By Deutschland uber alles! | July 4th, 2006 at 7:48 pm Miri, I am sorry your country is not respect like mine
By Massimo | July 5th, 2006 at 12:00 am Italy is in the final
Never doubted it
Germany kiss my ass
Posted from Italy
By dirk | July 5th, 2006 at 12:25 am I doubt anyone will ever kiss an Italian ass, especially one as wide as yours.
Posted from United States
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