Tardelli has always been up for the fight

If Ireland are to regroup and successfully renew their World Cup campaign after Friday’s humiliation, Marco Tardelli might be the man to get the players to put it behind them.

For he has experienced a shocking defeat against the Germans before, although never such a battering.

The biggest disappointment of his career was against a German side, and it came less than a year after his biggest triumph.

Athens, May 25, 1983. Juventus were hot favourites to win the European Cup for the first time. Six of the side had beaten West Germany in the World Cup final 10 months earlier. But their opponents in the final, Hamburg, had no inferiority complex. Ten minutes into the game, they scored, and that was that.

“That beating was the fruit of so many mistakes,” Tardelli recalls. “We arrived at the ground early because of worries about the traffic. We were calm, but empty inside. Everyone thought we’d win, the game was a formality. We weren’t able to read some of the warning signs, like those we’d seen in our previous match in midweek. Disaster.

“When they scored, we crumbled. That evening every one of us gave less than he should.”

It still hurts; as a player Tardelli always wanted to give 100%. His commitment was legendary. He holds the world record for the fastest-ever booking in a match — three seconds, for a foul on Gianni Rivera of Milan — unsurpassed even by Vinnie Jones.

Interviewed this week by Italian football magazine Guerin Sportivo, he was asked about the red card he received in a friendly between Argentina and the Rest of the World.

“There are no such things as friendlies,” he replied. “Only matches.”

That commitment to winning is equalled only by his commitment and affection for team mates. Italians naturally — Dino Zoff, Antonio Cabrini, Roberto Boninsegna, Paolo Rossi — but up there with them, Liam Brady.

Among his biggest regrets about that season when Juventus lost to the Germans was that Brady had to leave because they had signed Poland’s Zbigniew Boniek and France’s Michel Platini and at the time, clubs were restricted to two foreigners.

“We were all very attached to Liam — he was a wonderful lad,” he says. “We felt bad when he left, some were in tears. We’d won two consecutive titles with him. Magic Liam — a great professional and a true friend.”

It is a friendship that has obviously stood the test of time and you can’t help feeling that Tardelli regrets more than the loss of Brady’s coaching ability and understanding of players when he stepped down as assistant manager two years ago.

“Liam almost got me drunk on one occasion. He’d recently arrived at Juve and I was one of those helping him settle in. One evening, after a cup game, he invited me for a beer at the hotel where he was staying. He was drinking away peacefully, I was already flat out after the first.”

The side of Tardelli we usually see is the affable, friendly man. But he was never afraid of a fight. In the wake of that World Cup win, he led a delegation of Italian players to seek a pay rise from Giampiero Boniperti, Juve’s autocratic president.

“We were world champions, it seemed fair to ask for an improved contract. Added to which we knew the two new foreigners would be guaranteed a higher rate of pay.

“So we went to the president and tried to negotiate. He took it very badly, he wasn’t used to that type of situation.

“He was especially angry with me, Claudio Gentile and Paolo Rossi. We didn’t play in the first warm-up game of the season and he set the fans against us. I didn’t like that at all. And obviously we got much, much less than we hoped for.”

Tardelli comes from a tough background: the youngest of four brothers, born and brought up in the mountains of the Garfagnana, in the north of Tuscany: scorching in summer, brutally cold in winter. His father worked building roads and moved the family to Pisa to seek an easier life. Tardelli says he had a wonderful childhood — but the family had nothing.

They were years of political upheaval in Italy and young Marco became a bit of a rebel. He says now that teenagers went on demonstrations to bunk off school rather than because of any great commitment, but he’s maintained some of the commitment of his youth. “I was always on the left,” he says, referring to his political outlook rather than his position on the pitch.

That was also an issue in his playing days. He felt more comfortable in midfield but at the outset of his international career he was at left back and was worried about losing his place in the national team.

The manager who confirmed that midfield role at Juventus was Giovanni Trapattoni, but eight years later it was Trap’s decision to play him at left-back that made Tardelli decide to leave.

Trap was also in charge on that May night in 1983 when Juventus failed to show up against the Germans. Could he have done anything more?

“On such occasions, there’s only one thing a manager can do,” says Tardelli.

“Make the sign of the cross.”

But the record books show that Juventus did retrieve something after that defeat.

Two-nil down from the first leg of the Italian Cup final against Verona, they gritted their teeth and battled through to win the return game 3-0. The winning goal came in the last minute of extra-time.

Everyone will be looking for a similar determination on Torshavn this evening from management and players alike.