VotD: Remember When?

September 22nd, 2011 | by: elaine | Comments Off

Remember the Confederations Cup? For the most part, we try not to. But there was one game and one very bright spot within that game that I do like to remember. The game was against the USA, and the bright spot was Giuseppe Rossi.

As an American, the story of Giuseppe Rossi is very intriguing. For fans of American soccer (all 29 1/2 of them) it is difficult to understand why an athlete born in “the greatest country in the world” would play for any other team than the US. Yet fans of football outside of the US understand exactly why Giuseppe Rossi would aspire to play for the Italian National Team instead.

Back in 2009, most American fans had never even heard of Giuseppe Rossi. So the Confederations Cup matchup between the two countries served as a double slap in the face for them. The first being the aforementioned “Why would anyone play for any other country?” question, which they’ve never actually gotten past.

The second and much more stinging slap that had Americans seeing red was the Rossi-DeRossi-Rossi sandwich of goals that gave Italy the 3-1 victory in that tournament. For me, it proved exactly why someone who could play for Italy instead would. The irony of him scoring a brace against the country of his birth made the victory that much sweeter, and to be honest, I was never more proud to be an American.

Shamefully, the lack of American understanding of Rossi’s choice has since led to a lot of hate toward him. I like to believe that is counterbalanced with the amount of Italian love he has also been afforded. He is an amazing player, and if the best team in the world saw that from early on, then who cares what the currently 31st ranked team thinks when the 4 time World Cup winning team wants you in their starting lineup?

As a sidenote, it’s funny how non-Americans get this. New US National Team coach Jurgen Klinsmann is said to have a list of about 100 players with dual citizenship that he is trying to instill some US national pride in. He would have never let a player like Rossi slip through his fingers without a lot of recruiting effort. I will be curious to see how his current crusade works out for him. But even to be able to play for a coach/former player of that caliber, I can’t see why a player like Giuseppe Rossi would play for the US when he could play for Italy.

Grazie, Giuseppe. You definitely made the right choice.

Forget following Elaine on Twitter, follow Giuseppe Rossi @GiuseppeRossi22