Italy World Cup Team History (Pt III: 1978 – 1994)

May 4th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

With the lean years over, it was back to the top of the footballing pyramid for Italy. No longer the first round disappointment, always a contender, and occasionally champion.

World Cup 1978 – Argentina

Looking at their group today, it’s like a who’s who of footballing history: Italy, Argentina, Hungary and France. The other Europeans are certainly no slouches, but France’s time had yet to come – they’d failed to qualify for three of the last four World Cups – and Hungary’s footballing legacy seemed to have ended in the 1956 revolution. So once again, four years later, it was Argentina and Italy, the favorites to break from the groups. Of course that battle wasn’t quite on even ground: Argentina were hosts, and playing at home is like playing with 11.5 men.

Italian football at the time was dominated by Juventus with another scudetto in the midst of Juve’s run by Torino, so 15 on hand plied their trade in Torino. In fact 8 of the 11 in the starting lineup against France wore zebra stripes on domestic weekends, including the vaunted defense of Dino Zoff, Claudio Gentile, Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini and Mauro Bellugi. Safe to say, the team was familiar with one another. With catenaccio gone and Enzo Bearzot at the helm it was a brand new Italy – a stylish, offensive Italy, with Franco Causio, Roberto Bettega and a certain youngster named Paolo Rossi leading the charge, along with Marco Tardelli and the lone aged ranger in Romeo Benetti. It was to be a bright platform for Bearzot and Italy.

But not before France stunned hem with a goal within the first minute of the opening game. A quick run down the flank, a simple cross inside and a header just beyond the reach of Zoff. As horrible a start to the World Cup as could be imagined. Then it would be the great Rossi – in less than great fashion. A scrappy goal evened the game, and a second half nap by France’s keeper meant Italy ran out 2-1 winners.

Next up would be Hungary, no longer the football power they met in the 1938 final, and leapfrogging goals by Rossi and Bettega in the 34th & 35th minutes, as much through Hungarian collapse as anything, gave the Azzurri all the breathing room they’d need in coasting to a 3-1 victory. An enormously welcome victory, because it meant the final group game clash with hosts Argentina would take place merely for the fans, fitness and final group positioning. They’d win 1-0 and take tops with a Roberto Bettega goal that displayed this Italian team’s smooth skill.

Now heading into the second group stage, Italy drew defending champions West Germany, the Total Footballing – but Cruijff-less – Dutch and Austria. It’s a wonder they didn’t just plant the group in Switzerland.

Here, the goals would dry up. Only Paolo Rossi managed to scored (when gifted the chance), in the second game against Austria, a 1-0 win, but holding watertight at the back over the first two games meant they’d sealed their date with the Dutch for a chance at the final. Only the group winner of the second group stage was allowed into final, and both teams were sitting on three points, making it all important and largely the semifinal. It was also a fan’s dream: the free flowing Dutch versus Italy’s offensive force.

It wasn’t, however, Italy’s dream. Ernie Brandts gifted them an own goal before taking it back with a hammer of a shot, only to see Italy go down and out on Arie Haan’s infamous wondergoal. They’d find themselves in the third-placed game, but lose that by the same score, 2-1, to Brazil.

A disappointing final stanza, but it laid the groundwork for the 1982 team, two squads inextricably linked, and announced to the world the stardom of Rossi and Cabrini, the Young Player of the tournament.

World Cup 1982 – Spain

The years between Argentina and Spain weren’t kind to Italian football. The Totonero scandal had hit Italy in 1980, which saw 7 teams punished, include immediate relegation for Milan and Lazio. The bright young star, Paolo Rossi, was banned for two years – while maintaining his innocence – and had only played 3 games before the finals, so even his inclusion wasn’t guaranteed due to a lack of fitness. He was called up, but that lack of fitness showed, and he was a shell of the player in ‘78 in the beginning.

However, some of the best news to come from 1978 was that the team was very young, which meant they’d peak as a side in 1982, while they’d also added Bruno Conti, the little winger to be a star at the tournament. On the other hand, Dino Zoff was 40 years old, which didn’t matter to Enzo one bit.

If starting slow and finishing hot is the route to World Cup glory, Italy did it to perfection in 1982. They didn’t win a single game in the groups amid lofty expectations; a nil-nil with old foes Poland and 1-1 draws with Peru and Cameroon meant 0-3-0, but it also meant advancement by the most narrow of margins: they’d scored one more goal than Cameroon, who’d also run out a 0-3-0 line. They’d in essence become Argentina of 1974.

And it was in the second groups where Italy would come alive and Paolo Rossi would become a hero. They were drawn into the South American groups with Argentina and perennial favorites Brazil, rendering Italy heavy underdogs. The first game against Maradona’s Argentina, the defending champions, was Bearzot’s Italian goalscoring at its finest, with phenomenal movement on Tardelli’s first and a phenomenal save by Zoff at one end beginning the movement, which had a few hiccups, on the way to Cabrini’s second. Italy would win 2-1, rendering Diego a nonfactor, setting up the all decisive date with Zico’s Brazil.

And that would be the day Paolo Rossi made Brazil cry. Bearzot was running Rossi out without fail despite his form, and in the final of the second groups, he ran him out again. This time, Paolo would repay the faith with a performance befitting of legend. A game largely dominated by Brazil, but the goals dominated by Rossi: Paolo 3 – Brazil 2. To the semifinals they went on his shoulders.

And on his shoulders they stayed. Paolo 2 – Poland 0. An extraordinary spring back to life from Paolo, and with that, they were in the final.

Cabrini would miss an early penalty, but it was once again the hero, Paolo Rossi’s head, who would open up the scoring. And despite all the scoring his head was doing, it paled in comparison to the second goal, one of the most famous celebrations of in the history of the sport: Tardelli’s cry. It was the 69th minute, Tardelli dove in and hit the second into the back of the net, putting Italy up 2-0 and building a mountain in front of the Germans. With his fists clenched and arms half-raised, he ran screaming to the bench in tears, having scored a goal which would help make Italy champions.

A third from Alessando Alotebelli would come and Italy were soon to be champions. An eventual 3-1 win, and a third World Cup title, then equaling Brazil’s record. Paolo Rossi was to win every trophy under the sun – scoring title, Golden Ball, European Player of the Year – Dino Zoff was to become the oldest player ever to win the World Cup, and Enzo Bearzot is today Italian lore. A long, long 44 years later, he’d taken Italy back to the summit.

1986 World Cup – Mexico

Mexico had good and bad memories for Italy. Sixteen years earlier they’d participated in, and won, one of the greatest games in World Cup history, but at the same time they lost the final.

Bearzot was back for a third, and final, go ’round shepherding the Azzurri, and he continued with many of the the men who’d won him glory in ‘82. He’d also get to look across to a familiar face in Argentina, having drawn them once again.

Paolo Rossi was in the squad, but he was no longer himself, his career coming to a close at 30, and didn’t win a minute. In contrast, it was another final scorer from ‘82 who took to the highlights. Alessandro Altobelli had ended the Italian scoring in 1982 with the third goal, and he ended up doing all their scoring in ‘86. Four goals in four games, all of them in the groups, including a penalty scored on a Diego Maradona handball which was actually called in 1986 (!).

Again they trotted through the groups, beating South Korea but drawing with the other two qualifiers Argentina and Bulgaria (FIFA’s ever changing tournament structure and all that), before drawing France in the opening stage of the knockouts. They fell to Michel Platini’s France 2-0, and their hopes of repeating as champions were dashed before they’d seemingly begun.

It was the end of an era as Bearzot stepped down and the 1990 World Cup squad had a fresh new look in front of many friendly faces.

1990 World Cup – Italy

Absolute heartbreak, in a word or two. No one knew better than Italy – though the first-hand generation was dwindling – what having the World Cup at home means.

Azeglio Vicini graduated from the u21 setup to take over the senior helm, and with him he brought a talented new generation of players, namely two who would become Italian demi-gods: Paolo Maldini and Roberto Baggio.

The first game, in Rome, where they’d played their last World Cup game on Italian soil, with plenty of good memories, was the ol’ Italian scoreline, 1-0, with Gianluca Vialli sending in an outrageous cross while falling down to substitute Toto Schillaci. The header was wonderful, but Schillaci was making his Azzurri debut and he’d been on the pitch all of four minutes before scoring his goal. The underdog of underdogs who’d been in Serie B at 25 – not too unlike the recent cases of Fabio Grosso and Luca Toni – before turning Italia ‘90 into his own. He scored the goal and then celebrated like Tardelli, and damn well he should’ve.

Their second victory, another classic Italian scoreline, saw them defeat the US with a bit more time on the clock – the 11th minute. The final against Czechoslovakia in Rome – the group stage final, excuse me – brought together old friends and thrust Baggio into the spotlight with his wondergoal after coming on as a sub, but it was Schillaci again, making his debut in the starting XI, who’d scored the early, and winning, goal.

It was a pristine Italian showing in front of the home, or Rome, crowds: three wins, zero conceded.

This brought Uruguay, a team which had barely made it past the groups, in the first knockout round phase, again in Rome. Another day, another win, another clean sheet, another Schillaci goal – his third in four games. Is this getting repetitive? Quarterfinal, Ireland, Rome: 1-0, Schillaci goal. After five games, all in Rome, they’d yet to concede a goal. This would call forth the semifinal against Argentina, as well as their first trip outside of the capital – to Napoli they would go, the home of one Diego Maradona. Via Argentina’s history:

Big because Maradona was a local legend having just dribbled Napoli to a second Serie A title.

However, Maradona pushed things a little too far by suggesting the people of Naples should support Argentina instead of Italy in the World Cup semi-final. Brilliant New York Times story from 1990 about that request here. Any sane person could tell you that wouldn’t work, but Maradona has been famed for his sanity. The result was a bit of a backlash, as Italians in Naples booed Maradona.

And in Napoli, they would concede – but not before Toto had done it again. A 17th minute goal, and then Claudio Caniggia finally got one past Walter Zenga. The game would go to extras, where Ricardo Giusti was sent off for Argentina, and then to penalties. Absolute heartbreak. Donadoni missed his, Maradona made his, Aldo Serena missed, and the dream was gone, 4-3. They’d win the third-placed game in Bari against England, Baggio to score, but it wasn’t the same. There’s no place like Rome.

However, there was a silver lining: Roberto Baggio had arrived and Toto Schillaci had enamored the world with his six goals, tops at the World Cup. He would retire with seven.

1994 World Cup – USA

Absolute heartbreak: part II.

Baggio had arrived in ‘90 and four years later he was perhaps the best in the world, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, with the weight of the world riding on that divine ponytail – and ride it he would. However, not before he rolled in with an ankle injury, and not before things got awfully complicated to start.

Italy isn’t really a “groups” team – not consistently, anyway. Slow starters, particularly when they plan to go to a final (it’s always a plan, right?), and 1994 was no exception. The opener saw Ireland peg them back with a reverse of the 1-0 in ‘90, which setup a very meaningful affair in the second game with Norway. In that game, Arrigo Sacchi would unleash two of the biggest watermelons the World Cup has ever seen.

In the 21st minute, keeper Gianluca Pagliuca was sent off. With the World Cup on the line, Sacchi was forced to call for a change, and he called for #10. He’d called for Roberto Baggio.

It was one of the boldest substitutions in the game’s history, even though Baggio was struggling through injury, which is precisely why he was taken off – they couldn’t play with 9.5, even if that .5 was divine. It also turned out to be a stroke of genius, as Italy would go on to win the game via a Baggio goal of the Dino variety (no relation).

Ninety minutes of Roberto Baggio and a 1-1 draw with Mexico polished off one of the strangest group tables the World Cup will ever see:

The Azzurri barely snuck through as the fourth best third-placed team, which means of the 16 teams in the knockouts, they were 16th. Not the greatest of omens.

But like Paolo Rossi 12 years earlier, it was here, in the latter stages, that Baggio would come alive. With an unlucky assist in the 25th, Nigeria had gone one up and Italy were still scrapping for the equalizer in the 74th when Gianfranco Zola was sent off. It looked another disappointing exit in the wake of heightened expectations, but Il Divin Codino stole the show, scoring the equalizer in the 88th and slotting home a penalty in extra time.

They were to meet Spain next in the quarterfinals, with a bloody lasting impression. The Baggio boys scored goals one and two (Roberto’s an extraordinary switch from defense to attack), each bookending a Jose Luis Caminero Spanish goal, before the game descended into controversy in second half stoppages. Mauro Tassotti elbowed Luis Enrique in the face on a cross, which drew plenty of blood, but the referee called no penalty and Italy ended up victorious. Tassotti was suspended for eight games by FIFA, and he’d never play for the Azzurri again.

The semifinal handed the Hristo Stoichkov’s surprise outfit of Bulgaria, who were met with a furious five minutes from Roberto Baggio, scoring two brilliant goals in five first half minutes, eventually winning the game on those goals, 2-1.

The final was to be one of Italy’s worst moments, and no help on the back of the disappointment at home in ‘90. Most know the story: the game scoreless through extra time, Franco Baresi and Daniele Massaro missed their penalties, which meant the fifth and final spot kick fell to the tournament hero, Roberto, hurt for much of the festivities, to keep Italy alive.

The hero would miss. The lasting images of Italy’s World Cup hands on hips, head hanging with eyes to the grass as Brazil celebrated in the background.

Italian history: Pt. I
Italian history: Pt. II

- More World Cup Moments.