Blue on bleu How can Italy NOT be favoured? By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun Fri, July 7, 2006

BERLIN, Germany -- They have 10 goals from 11 different players and haven't been scored upon by anybody but themselves.

And they're going against a team which drew with Switzerland, drew with Korea and was nil-nil with Togo into the second half.

So where's the catch?

Why are bookmakers having trouble figuring a favourite for Sunday's World Cup final between young Italy and old France?

It's Les Bleus wearing white vs. the blue Azzurri. And maybe this is good vs. evil; Zinedine Zidane and the Over The Hill Gang vs. the alleged match-fixing nation with several players who will likely be banished to second- and third-division play if Juventus, AC Milan and others receive the punishment expected any day now.

But even if you hated Italian soccer all your life, how can you not like this team that four years ago lost to Korea by substituting three defenders, but won Tuesday in Dortmund with two goals just prior to penalty-shootout by substituting three forwards?

How can you not like a team which has managed to put the scandal at home behind them to come together and do what they are doing here? How can you not favour Italy for what Marcello Lippi and his team have accomplished to get to this game?

And wasn't that win over Germany more likely to win friends and influence people than the much less spectacular game which followed between France and Portugal?

'SPREAD A WAVE'

"I don't know where it belongs in history, but it is without a doubt the most important match of my entire career," said Lippi at the Italian camp a half-hour outside of Dortmund. "It spread a wave of excitement throughout Italy and throughout the entire world. It was a shame I was too busy doing interviews to miss Prime Minister Romano Prodi sing O Sole Mio."

Lippi said the scandal at home has helped make this happen.

"It created a desire and a determination to respond and show that Italian football is effective, real and strong on a technical and moral level."

Because host Germany was ousted, because overwhelming pre-tournament favourite Brazil is gone along with England and Argentina, this isn't a final anybody saw coming.

But now that it's here, it definitely has some sizzle.

France-Italy has no lack of historical background, which is never far from the surface when it comes to soccer. And if it is just soccer, these two played in the final of Euro 2000.

Six years ago, Zidane's penalty kick with three minutes left in extra time gave France a win over Portugal in the event and set up a France-Italy final won by the roosters who were coming off their 1998 World Cup win.

Italy has won it three times, the last time in 1982. If the Italians win this they will be alone only one back of Brazil, the all-time World Cup champions with five. If France wins they'll have won two of the last three and will have done it when nobody could see it coming.

"If we win it will be wonderful for those who have supported us," Zidane told reporters in Munich. "I'm not talking about the ones who jumped on the bandwagon, but those who supported us start to finish."

It's a small group.

Despite the 12-year cycle of Italy getting to this game (1970, 1982, 1994 and 2006) there seems to be more fascination with the French getting back eight years after winning their first and with Zidane getting a chance to go out in his last game being the World Cup final.

France, remember, didn't win a game or score a goal at the last World Cup.

"We weren't a team there. We didn't feel like a solid group and we had the impression we were wasting our time," said veteran defender Lilian Thuram.

"There's become a lot of solidarity between us," he explained to reporters upon making the final. "There were some ego problems before, but not anymore. I'm 34 and I feel like the 10-year-old boy who watched the World Cup and found it beautiful. Being there is a dream."

11 GOALS, 10 PLAYERS

Maybe people prefer fairy tales. But in the end how can you go against a team with 11 goals from 10 players and only one, an own goal, against themselves?

Put me down for Italy, I'm headed out to find one of those German betting shops.