Life doesn’t always allow everyone to be happy. At least at the same time. The philosophical maxim of the zero sum, of the communicating vessels, works practically everywhere where money or luck is at stake: one’s luck usually depends on the other’s misfortune. However, the rule does not apply to certain football games at the end of the season. Recently Xavi was asked about the mess of the game between Barça and Getafe. And to explain it, he dusted off the effusive Calcium Dictionary. The tie was good for both, the coach admitted. But from there to there was “biscotto”… The term -biscuit in Italian – is used to denote those games in which both teams only need a point and the tie seems like a solution that doesn’t even need to be verbalized. Italy is the ideological and etymological cradle of this phenomenon.
Biscotto comes from Latin and means twice cooked. A candy that makes both parties happy when we think about the final score of a game. This is one version of his origin. The other must be found in some stables at New York’s racetracks, where horse betting has been rigged, generally with the involvement of the mafia. The horses that had to be left behind were given a biscotto impregnated with a sedative to keep their winning instincts from sending the gangster on duty’s winnings to hell. The strange thing is that the horse was often drugged by its owner, who bet on another Thoroughbred without raising suspicion. Applied to football: run less, shoot less, defend less.
Biscotto belongs to this unique and Italian universe of sfumatura. Leonardo’s signature pictorial technique, which could be defined as smearing, infinite nuances gently destroying any semblance of certainty or roundness. The magic that can make something invisible visible (in this Italy and rigid Spain we are very different). Topics that are on the table but not openly discussed because there are things that don’t need to be explained. For education or wisdom. Gianluigi Buffon explained the term 2012 like no other. “Better two wounded than one dead. Games must be won. But if you sometimes have to make accounts, you are entitled. Interestingly, Buffon was caught up in a betting chaos around this time.
The biscuit is a classic at world and European championships. This is where the newspapers dusted off during Euro 2004: Denmark and Sweden, in the same group as Italy, drew in the last game of the first half of the season. The only result that allowed both to progress to the final stages of the competition left Italy in the ditch who were eliminated. As the end of the season approaches, the biscotto flavor intensifies. In fact, part of the invention of the asymmetric league – the teams don’t play in the same order in the round – relies on disabling their magnetism. There are a thousand examples. Milan won the 1993 Scudetto in a similar situation as yesterday in Sassuolo. Berlusconi’s team was satisfied with the draw against Brescia, which also prevented them from staying up. After 80 minutes of awkward rallying, a shot from Albertini landed in the back net for the small Lombard team. Two minutes later, libero Luca Brunetti, as if he were Maradona, outwitted the entire Milan defense (Baresi, Maldini, Costacurta…) to restore the status quo.
The Biscotto is so accepted that even Roma and Lazio, bitter enemies, reached a neighborhood agreement on May 15, 2005 to avoid being relegated to the second division. Both had won the Scudetto four and five years ago. But the season was a disaster. The game, known as the Langweiler Derby, ended 0-0 and hardly any shots on goal. Something well considered when applied to everyday relationships would solve many problems of coexistence. If one thinks of Buffon’s phrase, the biscotto is a monument of civilization and progress. The zero point, in short, as the maximum expression of democracy.
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