The camera looks as though it is purposely cast upon Italy’s #3, Fabio Grosso, as he abandons his defensive duties to enter the German penalty area to meet Alessandro Del Piero’s corner kick delivery in the 119th minute. The golden printed characters on his shirt glisten under the stadium lights on a hot July night in Dortmund. The score is still deadlocked at zeroes. There are two minutes left in the period of extra time added to the fiercely contested semi-final match. The excitement mounts in the most cliché of ways, with Italy having struck the goalpost twice leading up to this moment. The stadium shrinks around the players as each of the 65,000 spectators lean forward eagerly. Italy’s corner kick is taken but cleared by a German header out to a waiting Italian midfielder, Andrea Pirlo, who takes the most elegant of touches to control it just outside of the 18-yard penalty box. The excitement in the commentator’s voice lifts, repeating the name ‘Pirlo’ multiple times as he dribbles the ball laterally, nervously confronted by four German defenders. Just beyond them lurks the aforementioned Grosso, a name directly translated from Italian to mean “big’ in English, and a role that he unwittingly accepts within the next moment. Pirlo threads the ball through a gap in the approaching defenders with a clever little pass to Grosso, who strikes a brilliant left-footed shot toward the goal with perfect form on his first touch. The ball curls just out of the extended German goalkeeper’s reach and just centimetres short of the far post. The spinning ball caresses the mesh majestically, suspended just long enough to prove to the audience that Italy was now up by a score of 1-0 with only one minute left to play. Grosso immediately tears away from the shocked and incredulous group of players lingering inside the penalty area, prolonging his own sense of doubt for eight more seconds as he sprints at full speed toward his team’s bench, shaking his head like he has gone mad, wagging his finger back and forth to signify an emphatic “no,” and screaming perhaps loudest of all in the stadium, “Non ci credo! Non ci credo! – I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!”
