Only today have I finally settled down. Up until last night, I was still drunk with joy. Between the game against Milan and the emphatic win at Juve Saturday, there was a veritable overdose of everything that is good in the world running through my system. In a way it was almost a waste having these two games/results so close to each other. But what a ride it has been, and what a birthday week did Napoli give me this year!

The come-from-behind 3-2 at Juve was historic, if nothing else because Napoli wins in Turin don't happen very often but when they do, they usually leave a pretty deep mark and are still talked about years later.

For those who didn't follow the game, a very good Napoli found itself down 1-0 in the first half after a brilliant strike by Trezeguet. Napoli squandered more than a few chances, and Contini allowed himself the luxury of heading a ball straight to an unmarked Giovinco in our box who easily put it in - a virtual Contini own goal. 2-0 early in the second half, and the game was apparently over. Like so many previous Juventus-Napoli clashes in Turin...

But this is a different Napoli. Juve barely had time to settle on their two goal lead before Datolo fired a great cross from the left wing. Marek Hamsik, our virtuoso extraordinaire, was there to pound it in at the far post. 2-1 and the game is wide open again!

Napoli pressed on. Corner for us. A mix in the Juve box, Buffon virtually alone in trying to keep the ball out with his defense watching, before Datolo barely manages to get his foot on the ball to tap it in. 2-2 with plenty left to play. At this point, there was only one final result that would satisfy us...

~~~

The impact of the game was such that one particular Napoli announcer made the front pages of Italy's major newsites because of his hysterical antics after Hamsik's winning goal (not that his demeaner throughout the game before that was tame by any means).

The scene starts with a corner for Juve. Napoli counterattacks, with Hamsik pounding on a rebound for his second goal of the game and the winner...


"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!
Mamma mia friends, forgive me for getting emotional. It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! It's too much! Mamma mia! Thank you! Thanks to God for making me a Napoli fan! Thanks to God for making me a Napoli fan! Thanks to our Lord I am a Napoli fan! Thanks to God, thanks to God I'm a Napoli fan! Thanks to God! We're in the lead at the Olympic Stadium in Turin! I don't want to believe it. Give me a big pinch, wake me up! It's a dream! Give me a - no, really, give me a pinch! All of you give me a pinch! I'm dreaming! I can't do this anymore, friends. I can't comment anymore. I'm too emotional right now! What I'm living here in Turin's Olympic Stadium is indescribable! The emotions we are living can't be described in words! Down by 2, and now up by 1. Napoli believed in it!"

Alvino continued his hysterics for several minutes after the final whistle, and contributed even more quotes that we Napoli fans will be able to reference for life...


"I AM A NAPOLI FAN!!!! I AM A NAPOLI FAN!!! I AM A NAPOLI FAN!!! I AM A NAPOLI FAN!!!!"

Not to be outdone, another historic Napoli commentator, Raffaele Auriemma, lived the moment with just as much emotion and provided even more quote material for us...


"Napoli in the lead! Napoli 3 Juventus 2! Napoli 3 Juventus 2! We want to die here! Bury us here in Turin's Olympic Stadium, with this Napoli! Grande Napoli! Hamsik embraced by the azzurri fans! Hamsik! 'Marekiaro!' Two goals by Marekiaro and Napoli is in the lead! This kid is recognized by the UNESCO World Heritage Center!"

I watched most the game with my friends Roberto and Massimiliano. We incredibly had somewhere to be, so we had to leave after it was 2-2. We listened to the game on the radio in the car, just like in the "old days," and almost got into a head-on collision with a car coming the other way, as I swerved, flashed my lights and honked my horn like crazy - not at the other car, but out of reaction to Napoli's third goal! Though the guy in the other car probably thought I was some random asshole on the road. Unless he was listening to the game too, in which case he understood.

And speaking of the old days...

Napoli's previous win at Juve dated back to 1988. And it wasn't a "routine" win, rather a 5-3 goalfest. Because in those golden days, Napoli could score five goals in Turin against Juventus, and it could thrash Milan 4-1 as that club turned around and won a Champions Cup. Maradona & Co. got us so used to winning in those days that even that 5-3 win isn't necessarily talked about as much these days, and we can be forgiven for almost neglecting it. Rather, it is the previous win before that one that truly entered the annals of Napoli (and Juve...) history in grand fashion. And it is to that game that I want to draw a few parallels...

~~~

9 November, 1986. 23 years almost to the day since last Saturday. Maradona's Napoli and Platini's Juventus were tied for first place when Napoli traveled to Turin's then Comunale Stadium. Same stadium, different name...it wasn't until the 2006 Winter Olympics that Turin's stadium changed its name. And let's not talk about the dreadful Delle Alpi stadium that was used for most of the past couple of decades...

Maurizio de Giovanni recounted that day in his brilliant short book entitled Juve-Napoli 1-3: The Seizing of Turin. Simply put, it is the best 40 pages written about soccer anywhere. It reads like one of my blog entries, only 40,000 better. In those few short pages, de Giovanni describes virtually every aspect of the psyche of the Napoli fan, particularly when facing northern teams and especially great ones like Juve. The inferiority complex. The condescending spirit with which northern Italians view everything Neapolitan. The inexplicable passion that drives four random dudes to drive across most of Italy against all odds. All in the name of their "faith," because as de Giovanni states:

On that historic November day in 1986, de Giovanni and three friends drove up to Turin for the game in a car "borrowed" from the body shop of one of the guy's father. They didn't even know who the car belonged to, adding further to the surrealism of the experience. De Giovanni, being the better educated of the group, was the one in his words tasked with "negotiating with foreign authorities, such as the Florentine rest area cafe' attendant or the Roman toll booth employee." Indeed, with Italy's dialectic differences, a lesser educated individual who speaks only his particular dialect well can be forgiven for being intimidated at the prospect of interacting with people from other parts of Italy...

Upon arriving in Turin, the crew call up a Turinese journalist friend - and big Torino fan - who offered to take them to eat at a private club across the street from the Comunale/Olimpico, where illustrious Juventus alumni normally ate prior to home games. The friendship was probably developed due to "the same destiny of being historic losers, with a great past behind us, or maybe the common zebra-like enemy." The five men enter the club, with our four heroes all decked out in Napoli colors, much to the surprise of everyone present. The looks they got proved embarrassing to them, "but the embarrassment was soon replaced by the pride of the poor but honest."

At one point, the men end up at a table they shared with a certain individual:

But the inferiority complex was still there. The Comunale stadium, with its illustrious past (for others) remained very intimidating, even though it was smaller than the San Paolo stadium in Naples.

The intimidation and inferiority complex didn't end there:

De Giovanni goes on to describe in detail the physical shortcomings of the Napoli players, the one bowlegged player, the other one's jaw, the other one's mop of hair, all of which served to emphasize the contrast between the "aristocratic" northerns and the "poor but honest" southerners.

After a scoreless first half, Juve took the lead early in the second:
The game turned when immediately after the Juve goal, Maradona and Salvatore Bagni looked at each other and decided that they were to win this game.

~~~

Saturday's Napoli, with Lavezzi and Hamsik, reacted to the downturn of events in much the same way. Even after Contini's ridiculous blunder appeared to seal the fate (and outcome) of the game, Napoli responded by playing the best soccer it has played yet this season.

~~~

On that mild November 1986 afternoon, Napoli charged ahead. Even the defender Bruscolotti got off a shot:

I can't help but think back to Aronica's brilliant first half strike on Saturday night. All you have to do is change the name in the above quote, and the remaining details are virtually identical...

Napoli would tie that game with a goal from Ferrario Moreno off a corner kick, but it was only the beginning. "Those blessed sons of bitches wanted to win!" remarked de Giovanni on that day in 1986, as did many thousands of Napoli fans just last Saturday, on the last day of October, 2009: we blessed sons of bitches wanted to win.

And then destiny was fulfilled. Off another corner, the ensuing cross was kept in play by a header from our Renica...the ball headed towards Bruno Giordano, who could never go for the easy shot. He always had to try the impossible stunt. On that afternoon, his bravado paid off:

And after 31 October, 2009, there are many, many more of us who understand what he is talking about.

In 1986 as 2009, Napoli would score three goals. The former game, itself the first Napoli win at Juve in 29 years, marked the beginning of the most beautiful four years in Napoli's history, a span that saw us win (up until this point) our two league titles, another Coppa Italia, and a UEFA Cup. That game exorcised decades of humiliations, inferiority complexes, and downturns, introducing us to a sort of renaissance after centuries of dark ages. Saturday's game may not be followed by as much fortune as that game in 1986. But we wait.

Because sooner or later History comes by.