I spent some of my childhood in Argentina, and later spent two years as a missionary in Italy. So on July 3, 1990, when Argentina faced Italy in a World Cup semifinal, I had to decide where my soccer loyalties lay. It wasn’t until the penalty kick phase that I was able to finally realize that I favored Argentina. (Argentina won that game, but went on to lose to West Germany in the final.)

This year, I bought two flags to display in my office: Argentina and Italy. If they had faced each other, I would have rooted for Argentina, but Germany eliminated them in the quarterfinals.

Today I had the tremendous satisfaction of watching Italy avenge my pain by beating Germany with two brilliant goals scored in the final couple of minutes of overtime.

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