Italiano’s beautiful game is just a critics’ prize. The defeat of Fiorentina seen by the Franchi

You should never compliment the defeated. There Fiorentina lost their second final within a few weeks, with the same result and with the same regret. The rhetoric on the team that deserved more is endless, it’s probably an easier way to tell a sixty-game long season. One of the most abused expressions is that of ‘broken dream’, nothing further from the cynicism of football. The ball game is not an abstract thought, it can be unfair, but it declares a winner without proof of appeal.

If Inter’s victory rationally lay in the logic of the strongest, West Ham’s follows the same path. You don’t have to look at the Premier League standings to use the balance of who was the favorite yesterday in Prague, the English league is much richer and allows you to have players who unlock a game even for the poorest team in the group. As happened yesterday.

In Italy it is different, especially in squares like the one in Florence. To say that Fiorentina play well is as easy as it is questionable, the Italian certainly had the merit of having achieved objectives in two years that seemed to be far away in the minds of the fans. Sure, the cynics will say, just playing doesn’t give away trophies and the bulletin boards fill up with victories in decisive races. All true.

A city at the stadium for a game that doesn’t exist

The fan does not think about all this. It’s good that way. Florence is not the only city that has a seamless relationship with its football team. However, Florence is not as big as Naples or Rome. In reality it thinks it is, this thing even makes it unpleasant to those who have never had time to know it, even if if you think about it, it is a contradiction in terms for a city known all over the world and which feels international. A double dimension that could be breathed yesterday: most of the Florentines had someone to call in Prague on what seemed like one of the many trips to the Liceo made from half the city. It had already happened in the spring away matches in Cremona and Rome, it was repeated along the Vltava. The sad news was the presence of some imbeciles, indeed too many, who preferred to use violence instead of the sharp tongue of the Florentines, but the Czech police will take care of them.

Those who didn’t leave, friends permitting, made an appointment at the stadium so much so that, at 9pm, the Franchi was full as for a cartel match despite the fact that it was played over a thousand kilometers away. Everything that had happened up to that moment no longer existed: with the kick-off, the controversies about the giant screens (which then existed) and the admission ticket disappeared. It looked like everything was ready for a party. The elders remembered such a night in 1996, with Fiorentina winning the Coppa Italia in Bergamo, but many things have changed since then except one. Those who have seen a trophy arrive in Florence have aged, while an entire generation has never had this satisfaction. To understand it, it was enough to look at the shirts worn in the stands: some had Mario Gomez’s jacket, some that of Giuseppe Rossi, others even those of Edmundo and Batistuta, not to mention Salah, all protagonists of different stories that have always given less satisfaction than expected.

Because Fiorentina wins (and loses) with Italiano

Disappointment is not the only protagonist, a defeat is more reminiscent of a victory because Florence was the city of the Guelphs and Ghibellines.

After the final whistle, the fans’ comments were already divided between two contrasting narratives. Both with their own truths, both with their own distortions.

The fact is that the Viola are eighth in the league, a position that best reflects the compromise between a squad that would like to be something more and a game that actually gives something more. The point is all here. Also this year Vincenzo Italiano, on the eve of spring, had managed to find the team of a group that managed to make the most of the opportunities that had arisen in the various competitions: on the one hand the Coppa Italia, on the other the championship in a comeback started in Verona, finally the Conference League. The team did many things wrong, the cynics will always say the same things again, but this is how Fiorentina plays. Loses at home against Basel, comeback in Switzerland emphasizing their limits and heart-pounding peculiarities. He loves to play like this. In recent days Ikoné, one of the most talented players, but also one who didn’t meet expectations so much as not to play in the final, told the Equipe that he likes Florence (and who doesn’t?) and the coach’s game. In short, he said, he enjoys himself here and he will certainly stay here if there is still an Italian or someone who plays like him.

Yes, the Italian game. The sports chronicles obsessively tell of the ninetieth error, but the most difficult thing is having to admit that in the postponement of Terracciano it was right to have such a high defense. We are a world that thrives on screenshots, it’s easier to share a snapshot of an image than a few seconds of video. There were no errors, please. Maybe someone would have imagined Nico Gonzalez as the protagonist, the feeling is that without this type of game these results (and these defeats) would not have been seen. Saying who did wrong is easy, even easier to talk about bad luck (Jovic’s offside was more physiological than intended, ditto the hand ball for the 1-0 penalty) but the only thing to avoid are compliments. Being defeated is a reality, a final has no half measures. The critics’ award is an accessory recognition, it is not put on the bulletin board.