'It's Coming Rome': The Renaissance of Italian Football
Wow, what a Euros. What more could we have possibly asked for? Every single match was a nail-biter, even with some of the smaller national teams. Fans were back in the stadiums, there was chanting, jeering, whistling, a lot of high moments, some that we wish we never had to witness (glad Eriksen is doing ok), and last night, the champions were crowned. Italy came into this tournament as a potential winner but nobody seemed to truly rate them as a full-on contender. Yet, what we witnessed over the course of this month-long journey was the return to one of Europe's greatest teams. After that penalty shootout against England, it was very clear to me, and the rest of soccer media: Italy is back. Italy's revival was not by accident. Instead, it was a careful, strategic approach to returning to glory. Italy hadn't won an international tournament since the 2006 World Cup, another match that is forever hallowed into the Italian footballing culture. They missed out on the 2018 World...