11 years ago today. I feel old. That's the day that Juventus overtook Inter on the last day of the season, to win the league. They used to show the full match at something like 1am, on Channel 4, and my parents wouldn't let me stay up to watch it (and I didn't know the score, because the internet hadn't been invented. Or if it had, it hadn't reached Scotland). So I had to get the late-night repeat of the match recorded, to watch the following morning. In this case there were extended highlights of Lazio v Inter, Udinese v Juventus and Torino v Roma, as all three were in the title picture.
That was the final season that Italian football was on Channel 4, and it now seems that day was the end of an era. Ask any of my friends about Channel 4 Football Italia and they'll smile, and recall watching the highlights of a previous weekend on a Sunday morning. The cry of "Golazo!" (great goal) in the title credits mistaken by almost everyone for "Go Lazio!" They had already dispensed with live matches on a Sunday afternoon, hence the match being shown at some stupid time in the morning.
Now kids, a video is a kind of big square DVD. Except it had some foil inside it, which the video was written on to. Or something. So I had to ask my dad to put one of these big square boxes of foil into the video player, and record the match that night.
Anyway, I got up at about 6am, without knowing what had happened. I'm not sure why, given it was a Monday (Italy's football day is Sunday, not Saturday like in this country) but I wasn't at school that day.
Anyway, it's 6am. Inter only have to beat Lazio to win the title. Juventus are a point behind, and playing away to Udinese. Roma are a point behind Juventus and playing away to Torino. So anyone could win it. I'm sitting in my bedroom, volume turned down to almost inaudible levels, so I don't wake the house up. Posters of Del Piero, Nedved, Trezeguet and Buffon, taken from the Football Italia magazine are on my wall. I'm wearing my replica kit - that season's one, with FASTWEB written across it. I didn't know what FASTWEB was. I still don't. Nor did I know what Roma's INA Assitalia was. It all seemed hopelessly exotic, depsite the fact I'm sure these were web providers or banks or something. I refuse to look it up. It will ruin the mystique.
Lazio's fans hate the thought of handing Juventus or Roma the title, so they're actually supporting against their own team.
Juve go up 2-0 within 25 mins. Meanwhile, in Rome, Inter take a lead through Luigi Di Biagio. Karel Poborsky, Manchester United legend (probably), equalises. But surely they'll be ok when Christian Vieri puts Inter back in front? Lazio have other ideas. Poborsky equalises again. Then, to the disgust of everyone in the stadium, they then score a further two in the second half to win 4-2. Simone Inzaghi and Diego Simeone putting the nail in Inter's coffin. Roma win 1-0 at Torino with a lovely Cassano chip. So Inter go from 1st to 3rd within 90 minutes and Juventus take the title, on the bench for Inter, Ronaldo cries.
Nostalgia basically. Nostalgia for the days when you couldn't just check the scores from the Belgian league on your phone. Taping a match from Serie A to watch in the morning is something that won't happen to anyone growing up these days. You can get it all on the internet. Nostalgia for sight of James Richardson holding the Gazzetta Dello Sport on Channel 4 on a Sunday morning. Nostalgia because most of the players involved in those games have retired or moved on. Nedved, Ronaldo, Peruzzi, Vieri, Thuram. All players I grew up watching. All retired. Del Piero is in Sydney. Trezeguet is in Argentina. Only Buffon and Totti are still with their clubs.
Antonio Conte who played that day is now Juventus manager, and can win his second title today. A player I grew up watching is now the Juventus manager.
Maybe it's the lack of sleep. Maybe it's because I think of my life in football seasons. Maybe it's that your football team (or teams, as I am hopelessly devoted to Kilmarnock and Juventus) is pretty much the only constant in your life (You can change pretty much anything: job, car, haircut, spouse, gender... but you can never change your football team). But this morning I'm very aware of the unstoppable movement of time. 11 years. 11 years from now I'll be 32. Yet I still remember this like it was yesterday. You think I had to look up the names of the goalscorers from that day? Ha!
They say time waits for no man. I think they're right.
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