At Euro 2000 they were just 46 seconds from victory.
Here there was two
and a half minutes to go when Panucci, the elegant Cary Grant of the side,
so uncharacteristically fumbled, slipped and fell to allow an equaliser.
Cruel, unjust, football was ever thus, as Shakespeare would no doubt have
said if he'd been a 'tifoso'.
Conspiracy theorists apart, five goals disallowed in just four games is a
bit difficult to explain within football's normal margins of error.
But then if you do manage only one win in four, over the mighty Ecuador, and
the best forward line manages just five goals, perhaps the bloated domestic
game should own up to asking too much of its star exponents.
Back at Sendai station, a giant Del Piero poster has him still biting into a
pair of boots.
"Till the next time then Ale?" Arrivederci, or as they say
so charmingly in these parts, sayonara.