Do not take the forbearance for complacency though. Andrea Pirlo was out there at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, displaying his immaculate passing ability in all its spectacular pomp, eagerly deliberated and calibrated like it was forensic science. The regista of registas pumped a delightful ball from the corner which was headed home by Marco Materazzi to equalize for the Italians after Zidane had put the French ahead.
He was there to take the first spot-kick in the shootout and coolly slotted it past Fabian Barthez to ease the nerves of his teammates.
No, Pirlo did not just show up for the finals and got the headline writers to throw bouquets at him. He was the general of an army of coarsened warriors and boy o’ boy, he lived up to that billing, one game after the other.
Remember Fabio Grosso’s astonishing strike against the Germans in the semi-final? That was set up by some unblemished playmaking by Pirlo. He gathered the ball right outside the area and with the supporters urging him to go hell for leather, he took a couple of touches and shifted the ball to the right and gently guided it into the path of Grosso who had absolutely zero reservations about raining on ze Germans’ parade that night.
He had not just finished the World Cup of their lives on a high, he had also kicked it off in grand fashion. The Italians usually receive a lot of stick for being a bit boringly pragmatic in the early stages of the tournament. Pirlo took it upon himself to ensure that wasn’t repeated. He scored the decisive goal in their opening game against Ghana and won the man of the match award.
The answer to how crucial he was to the 2006 World Cup champions and their campaign is Pirlo’s 3 man of the match awards from the tournament; one of them came in the semifinal against Germany and the other the final against France.
And it’s not that Pirlo picked his games to shine. He shone right through and his performance against a dogged USA side that refused to back down is severely underrated.
In a game marred by red cards and controversy, Andrea Pirlo stepped it up and made sure the Americans did not laugh at their expense at the end of the night. He set up Alberto Gilardino for Italy’s only goal on the night. But his greatest contribution came after Daniele De Rossi was sent off for criminally elbowing Brian McBride.
The Italian midfield was in threat of getting overrun, but with the belligerent Gennaro Gattuso playing by his side, Pirlo held the fort down and Italy came away with a vital point.
Pirlo says, ‘I don’t feel pressure. I don’t give a toss about it.’ A poet on the field who weaved magic with the ball faster than David Blaine could scribble your friend’s name on a hanky, Pirlo pootled around the centre of the park like a saint meditating for an aha moment.
Pirlo’s head is perceivably cooler than the freezer that houses your morning bacon. In Euro 2012, Italy and England would face off in the quarterfinals and the players would have a long night as the match got dragged into a penalty shootout.
With Joe Hart looking more confident about his abilities than a terrier who was acing ‘fetch’, Andrea Pirlo knew he had to put him off his game. As Pirlo approached the ball, you can see Joe Hart, all smiles and full of belief.
He talks about it like a convict defending himself after being accused of first-rate murder. It was indeed that. Pirlo had committed a filthy crime. He murdered Joe Hart’s booming conviction in himself with a panenka that hit the net about 2 seconds after the English goalkeeper had hit the ground.
That was Andrea Pirlo. If Cosa Nostra took over the footballing world in 2006, Andrea Pirlo was their Don Corleone. For being the alpha dog in a world of hounds spoiling for a fight, Andrea Pirlo is one of our 50 Greatest World Cup Players.
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