After seven years away from Serie A, Bari, once coached by Conte and Ventura, reached the Serie B promotion play-off for the third time in five years. The pace and atmosphere of the World Cup are not related to them for the time being, and the Barry players have set their sights on the opponent who will arrive in early June, Cittadella.
In fact, Bari's players are not far from the World Cup, and when they have nothing to do, they are only a year old, fluent in French and studied political science, and they can tell the whole team about the great German summer 12 years ago. After all, Fabio Grosso, the current manager of the Bari team, who has inherited the excellent tradition of Italian football, once stood in the center of the World Cup stage like an open hanging.
Grosso is now Bari's manager
Andy Warhol, a leading figure in Pop Art, once said, "In the future, everyone can be famous for 15 minutes". For Grosso, italy's left-back 12 years ago and inheriting Italy's glorious tradition, the World Cup in Germany that he ushered in at the age of 28 was expanded from "15 minutes" to 15 days of classic existence.
At that time, in italy's star-studded midfield, Grosso was surrounded by some cross-era celebrities: Buffon, Nesta, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Gattuso and Pirlo, and he only had the label of debuting from the lower leagues, playing in midfield, good at assists, playing for Perugia and Palermo. In the book "A History of Italian Football", written by John Ford, Grosso's once obscure is obvious: "To be honest, just before the start of the 2006 World Cup, not many Italian fans could put the name in the right place".
Wei Zuo
That year, Lippi recruited four players from Palermo, including Zakardo, Barzagli and midfielder Barone in addition to Grosso. Second in numbers to Juventus and AC Milan with 5 men.
In the "Silver Fox" early vision, Italy's main full-back for the World Cup in Germany is Zambrotta on the left and Zakardo on the right. However, due to Zambrotta's injury before the game, Grosso was ordered to play the starting left-back against Ghana in the first game of the group stage, playing all over the field. But in the second game against the United States, Lippi did not change his original intentions, and the expected Zambrotta and Zakardo finally appeared in the starting lineup. It was also the only match in which Grosso did not play in that World Cup.
2006 FIFA World Cup Italy squad
Without Zakardo's disastrous performance, Grosso's trip to Germany might have ended on the bench. But the fate of the plot is that the gate guarded by Buffon is breached by teammate Zakardo, while Lippi uses a new combination of left-back Grosso and right-back Zambrotta in the third game of the group stage until the last second of the World Cup final.
The story that follows is the familiar 1/8 final stoppage time, semi-final extra time scoring, and the final penalty to win. In an interview in April 2010, Grosso also talked about the quarter-final fight with Australia, "the fall may have been exaggerated", he recalled, "but in the final moments of the game, everyone was very tired, I did not pretend to fall to the ground, because I did have physical contact with Neil".
Against Australia, Grosso made a point in stoppage time
On that night 12 years ago, Italy and Germany met, and 65,000 people poured in from Westphalia, and the two sides staged a peak showdown. In extra time, after Lippi replaced Perotta with Piero in the 104th minute, italy had already piled up four strikers on the field: Gilardino, Totti, Yakunta and Piero. In midfield, Italy has only 2 men left: Pirlo and Gattuso.
Semi-final against Germany, Italy's start
In the 119th minute of the corner attack, Grosso had a premonition of Pirlo's mysterious pass, he first took a step forward, then two steps back, waiting for the opportunity to come: "Yes, Andrea is like this, even if he does not look at you, the ball will still pass at the perfect time".
Suddenly, Grosso did not look at the German team's goal, because the line of sight was blocked, he claimed to be just imagining the far corner of the goal, and then directly left foot bombardment...
It was an unstoppable arc, and Grosso's full moon curved knife, which flashed through the hands of Barack, Ram, Kyle, and Lehmann, impeccably, fell like an empty brush into the net.
"I don't believe, I don't believe," the mad Grosso read almost out of control as he shook his head and rushed to the Italian bench. No way, the entanglement of football and fate is so fascinating.