Friday, June 16, 2006

Divided Loyalties for Italian Americans as Italy faces USA at World Cup

The ANNOTICO Report

Just as Mexican Americans Root for Mexico when they play vs USA, or French, German, English, or Israeli feel the Tugs to root for their  Ancestral Land, Italian Americans will be facing similar feelings come Saturday Afternoon when the Azzurri faces the USA.

 

Some will feel let off the hook, because they don't feel that the USA could possibly advance much, even with a win over Italy, whereas Italy is one of 5 teams expected to be in the Final.

 

It is amusing, but also heart tugging comments in the following article. One fan has shirts from Italy and the USA sewn together, half and half. Another says: my Blood is American, but my Heart is Italian.

 

 

DIVIDED LOYALTIES

 

It's ethnic roots vs. red, white and blue patriotism as Italian-Americans struggle

to take sides for tomorrow's United States-Italy match

 

Staten Island Advance

By Stephen Hart

Friday, June 16, 2006

If you have any errands to run or are looking to hit the mall, traffic might be a tad lighter tomorrow afternoon.

Of course, the sports bars and the saloons and most households with soccer fans and a working TV set will be packed.

At 3 p.m., some 4,000 miles away in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the United States and Italy will square off in the second World Cup match for each Group E team.

But in the living rooms and taverns of this borough -- whose population, according to census figures, is approximately 40 percent Italian-American -- a different sort of drama will play out:

Which nation will Staten Islanders be rooting for?

And if you think the party lines are clear cut -- like those born in the old country cheering for the Azzurri, while youngsters who've traveled as far as New Jersey are backing the Stars & Stripes -- guess again.

"I'm going for Italy," blurted Great Kills resident Anthony Pace, 22, a former soccer player at Susan Wagner HS, who proudly sports a tattoo of an Italian flag draped around a wooden cross on his right shoulder. "My blood is American but my heart is Italian."

Pace was born here, but his parents hail from Bari, Italy.

"And there's only about 5 percent of my family living here," he noted.

Pace even lived in Italy for several years before returning to Staten Island to attend high school, and he has dual citizenship.

"I came back a different soccer player," he said. "There's so many little soccer fields over there. The competition is so much better because the kids play all the time."

Sal Leanti, 30, who played professionally in the A-League, "didn't want to see (Italy and the U.S.) play. But since they are, I'm rooting for the U.S.," said the New Springville resident. "My father was born in Italy, so we won't be watching the game together."

Leanti takes issue with those who might be supporting Italy because they sense that nation has a better chance to advance.

"I think the U.S. can win this group," Leanti said before the U.S. lost its opener to the Czech Republic, turning tomorrow's match into a win-or-else game for the Americans. "Can they win the whole thing? I don't think so. But if Italy is in the way, so be it. You have to realize that if the U.S. ever won the Cup, it would do wonders for soccer in this country. If Italy wins, it does nothing."

CONFLICTING EAGLES

John Liantonio is a soccer junkie. A look at the hundreds of videotapes he's collected in his South Beach home, from World Cup matches to old North American Soccer League highlight films, will tell you that, to say nothing of the countless medals and trophies he received during a stellar scholastic and collegiate career.

The St. Peter's Boys HS coach has been playing the sport since he was an 8-year-old in 1978, the same year he started going to watch New York Cosmos games full-time with his father, a season-ticket holder.

It was also in 1978 that Liantonio accompanied his Italian-born dad to a closed-circuit telecast of the World Cup first-round match between Italy and Argentina at Madison Square Garden.

About 20,000 fans filled MSG and watched Italy beat the eventual Cup champs 1-0, and Liantonio was hooked on the Azzurri ("The Blues," the Italian team's nickname, derived from their familiar jersey color) from that point on. Four years later, he watched all the games on TV, en route to Italy's 3-1 win over Germany in the final.

"That, of course, was my favorite World Cup," he said. "I've been an Italy fan since '78, but I obviously root for the United States, too. It was just back in the 1970s and '80s, the U.S. didn't have a good team; (former Cosmos player) Ricky Davis was their only player."

Liantonio remembers watching in horror when the 2006 World Cup groups were announced on TV.

"As I was watching the draw, I said to myself, 'I can't believe this. The U.S. and Italy are going to be in the same division,' " he said. "It was very disappointing."

So who is he siding with? Liantonio thought he might root for a tie, but he finally came clean.

"The only way soccer will become big in this country is if the national team wins," Liantonio said. "That's how soccer will finally arrive here."

Ironically, three of his St. Peter's players -- sophomore Raffaele Ruggiero and freshmen Frank Pratt and T.J. Bongiorno, all of Italian descent -- said they'll be cheering for Italy.

"We've been following Italy since we were young," said Bongiorno. "With technology today, we can watch the games from Italy every Sunday morning. And you start rooting for certain players ... players who'll be on Italy at the World Cup. They're more well-known to us than the American players are."

MIXED EMOTIONS

The men in blue also have the support of former Family Court Judge Ralph Porzio, who is running for the vacant Civil Court seat.

"I'll be going for Italy because that's the team I've always followed," said Porzio, who also doubles as a youth soccer coach for his daughters' Notre Dame Academy teams. "When they won the Cup in '82, I went for a joyful jog -- a victory lap -- around Miller Field."

Carleen Rago, the Susan Wagner girls' soccer coach and former New Dorp HS standout is rooting for the Red, White & Blue.

"I'm Italian, but I was born here. I'm an All-American girl," said Rago, whose parents are both natives of Italy. "The U.S. has to go out and prove itself, and this is their chance. Knowing my father, he's probably rooting for Italy, though I haven't talked to him about that yet. I'm sure he has mixed feelings ... I'm sure that's true for a lot of people."

That's certainly the case for Joe Manfredi. While the Annadale resident is more noted for his highly successful automobile dealerships throughout Staten Island and Brooklyn, he's also been heavily involved in soccer since moving to New York from his hometown of Mola Di Bari, Italy in 1952 -- with roles ranging from Cosmos assistant traveling secretary to co-owner of the A-League's Staten Island Vipers to past president of the the Italian-American Soccer League in Brooklyn.

"As an American citizen, I must say that I'm rooting for the U.S. team. But I guess I could root for a tie," said Manfredi, who usually throws viewing parties at one of the Italian-American clubs he's founded, one of which -- Caduti Superga Mola, on 20th Avenue and 71st Street in Brooklyn -- is named in memory of the Torino Calcio soccer club, whose entire team perished in a 1949 plane crash in Turin.

No one embodies the split vote better than one of Leanti's old Wagner teammates, Michael Bonavita, who owns a half-Italian/half-U.S. shirt.

"I had both teams' jerseys, so I asked my grandmother, Carmella Ascioti, who is a seamstress, to put the two together," said the New Springville resident. "I had it made right after the draw. I wanted to show I'm partial to both teams."

But Bonavita -- whose father, Francesco, was born in Rome and whose mother, Maria, was born in Calabria -- is leaning like the Tower of Pisa ... to the United States.

"I'm pretty torn," admitted Bonavita. "But I was born here, I've followed this generation of U.S. soccer players, and I'm a product of American soccer. I'm siding with the Americans."

 

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