Yes, I was there for all of Italy's games in 94. Baggio was so beautiful and actually he saved Italy against Nigeria by scoring a goal to tie the game with time running out in Foxboro to send the game into OT.
It looked like Italy was done.
The most incredible moment was at the end of the game. There was about four minutes left in the game. I was sitting even with the Bulgarian keeper in the lower level and a ball was lofted into the Italian area. The ball was being brought under control by the Italian defense but as that was going on, a Bulgarian player and another forward on Italy shook hands. They were doing this with several minutes left in the game.
The big moment that followed, I'll never forget. After time ended and Italy won 2-1 all the players were off the pitch. For some reason Baggio was the last player at midfield leaving the field. The whole stadium then broke out into applause for him. He was the only player on the field for either team at the moment. He acknowledged the crowd and it turned out to be Baggio's last great moment in the tournament.
Going into the final, his leg injury was something of constant concern. He played but should have let Signori of Lazio take his place. As he didn't, he landed up taking the eventual penalty with his injury and pulled up short sailing the ball over the left end of the crossbar. (I was behind the goal at the upper end of the stadium in Pasadena for that one.)
I had started a story, the Miracle that is Italia after the final. I never finished it as the internet was still young at the time. Such is life. I was there for all of it.
My son was playing in the PA State Cups indoors a few years ago. I put him in against Freddie Adu. He stuffed him. Asked him after the game, do you know who you just stuffed? He said, some slow guy. Yes, we beat DELCO in the championship. Pretty proud here.
I think I remember the goal against Nigeria. Wasn't that the one where he was coming in at that really sharp angle? The television replay shows him looking up at goal just before the shot for just a fraction of a second - that's all he needed - and then slipping it into the near post. I remember thinking at the time it was like watching a master sniper at work.
Such an amazing player. It's really a shame that it ended up the way it did because by all rights that should have been "his" world cup.
That tournament is where my husband and I got into soccer. I had won a weekend trip to NYC, and two tickets to a quarterfinal match. At the time, it was like, 'oh! that's cool, well, that might be fun; I don't know anything about soccer.' And we ended up at the quarterfinal match between Germany and Bulgaria at the mighty Meadowlands. It was an amazing roller-coaster game and we've been hooked ever since.