Italy Is on Top of the World

With the score still tied at 1 after 120 minutes, penalty kicks were used to decide the winner. Italy converted five to France's three; Grosso slammed in the decisive kick. Earlier in the tournament, Grosso had helped Italy advance first by drawing a controversial foul that gave Italy a 1-0 win over Australia, then by scoring the game-winner with three minutes left in overtime against Germany in last week's semifinals.

The Italians, who have long been one of soccer's powerhouses, came to Germany under a cloud. A month before the tournament began, Italy's premier domestic league, known as Serie A, was rocked by allegations of match-fixing against four of its top clubs. Thirteen of the Italian national team's members, more than half the roster, play for one of the teams (Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio) involved in the scandal. Then, shortly before Italy was set to face Ukraine in the quarterfinals, Juventus General Manager Gianluca Pessotto, a friend to several of the current players, fell from his office roof with rosary beads in his hand and was hospitalized in critical condition.

"The belief grows as the matches grow," said Lippi, whose team's only blemish was an ugly tie against the United States in the first round.

Back in Italy, where the population takes the sport it calls calcio quite seriously, the victory was met with jubilation from Naples to Rome to Milan. Fans expressed their joy with car horns and chants, flags and fireworks.

Meantime, exuberant street parties in France, which was temporarily propelled out of its national malaise by the World Cup finals, collapsed in the final seconds of the game.

"I'm crying inside," said Sam Pancaldi, a 32-year-old lawyer who joined more than 200 people spilling into the street from the Cafe au Dernier Metro in Paris. "No World Cup, no party. I just want to go to sleep."

The final game transfixed the nation, giving it a momentary release from a year of riots in its immigrant suburbs, student demonstrations in its urban centers and a recent spate of political and business scandals. The multiracial team also lifted the spirits of minorities in a country where race has been a tension point.

In Germany, the tournament slogan was "A time to make friends," and if the play on the field didn't exactly live up to it -- a total of 373 cards (345 yellow cards, or cautions, and 28 reds, which result in automatic ejections) were issued for infractions ranging from overly physical challenges to unsportsmanlike play -- the atmosphere around the games certainly did.

The 12 host cities, ranging from the small (Kaiserslautern, population of 99,000) to the big (Berlin, 3.3 million), created "Fan Fest" areas where supporters who didn't obtain game tickets could watch games televised on giant screens and drink beer. The city of Frankfurt placed its enormous television screens in the middle of the River Main, and thousands of fans lined both banks; a reported one million people watched the quarterfinal between Germany and Argentina at Berlin's Fan Mile, which began at the Brandenburg Gate and stretched into the Tiergarten.

The World Cup reached more Americans than ever, with ABC and ESPN reporting record ratings for soccer (although the numbers still do not approach those of baseball, basketball or football). Many point to increases in immigration in recent years as a factor in soccer's growing popularity in the United States. The U.S. team's performance did not help, as the Americans failed to advance past the first round. Despite uninspired play, the U.S. team could say this after Sunday -- its high point was tying the eventual champion, 1-1 on June 17.

In Washington on Sunday, interest in the final match reflected this trend. At a social hall adjacent to the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in Northwest, more than 100 Italian Americans gathered to watch the game. They ate pasta and said their prayers when things got tight at the end.

"All Italians are playing with them," said Monsignor Claudio Cricini of the Vatican Embassy in Washington.