As many of you will have seen, the Coppa Italia final took place last night, as is customary, at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. However, it was a different kind of final, a strange final which, at the same time, left us both bored and excited. It was a match that will certainly not be remembered for the spectacle on the pitch, but rather for the context in which it was played. The beauty of this sort of match, apart from the great players who take to the pitch and make us jump out of our seats with incredible moves, is also the atmosphere that builds up before kick-off. Fans take to the streets to sing and cheer on their team hours before the big match kicks off. But this year, none of that was possible. We saw no fans either on the streets or in the stadium. Instead, computer-generated graphics were used during the television broadcast, something that many felt was excessive and ill-advised.
But let’s look at the final in more detail. As we’ve already mentioned, at times it felt like a pre-season match, with a slow pace and few chances. However, little by little the game began to pick up speed and become more dynamic. After several saves by the Napoli goalkeeper, Meret, the team captain, Insigne, crashed a free-kick against the post. From then on, the match lost its excitement again, partly due to the lacklustre performances of some of the star players on the pitch. It all came down to the 90th minute, when Maksimovic forced Buffon into a superb save with a header. Although the rebound wasn’t ideal, the Italian goalkeeper also managed to parry Elmas’s follow-up shot, which ended up crashing against the post. That brought the 90 minutes to a close and the Juventus players prepared to take the first penalties. Dybala stepped up to take the first, using his left foot and his adidas Copa football boots, but Meret read his shot and managed to save it. Danilo also missed from the penalty spot, whilst Gattuso’s players didn’t miss a single spot-kick and managed to take the Cup home.
But beyond the football itself, we also saw plenty of interesting football boots and goalkeeper gloves. Cristiano Ronaldo, just as in the match against Milan, wore the new Nike Mercurial boots, which went on sale just yesterday. We’re talking about the Nike Mercurial Safari, a reissue of boots that Ronaldo previously wore in 2010 whilst at Real Madrid, and which we’ll see him wearing from now until the end of the season. We also got to see the latest football boots from virtually every brand. For example, Puma unveiled the Rise Pack, with Buffon sporting the Puma One boots and Puma goalkeeper gloves. We also saw the various adidas models in the Uniforia Pack. As well as Ronaldo’s Nike boots, we were able to see Nike’s latest releases and their different models. But, in addition to all these new releases, we also saw boots from previous generations in colourways that are no longer available. A good example was Fabián Ruiz, who wore a pair of Nike Tiempo boots from previous editions.
