Italy vs. Paraguay and Fabio Cannavaro

Italy vs. Paraguay and Fabio Cannavaro

I watched the Italy vs. Paraguay game today on ESPN and was listening to the commentary that the announcers were making. This was refreshing, because the other day, I had to watch the games on WGBO, or the Spanish-speaking channel in Chicago, because other networks weren't playing the U.S. vs. England game. The only real thing I could understand from those commentators was when a team made a goal, at which point the announcers would shout "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" and it would be pretty obvious that something big had happened.

Anyways, the ESPN announcers were talking about the captain of the Italian team, Fabio Cannavaro. He's now almost 37 years old, making him one of the oldest players in the 2010 World Cup (behind England's goalkeeper David James, the oldest in the games at 39, who didn't play in the starting lineup of his country's first game but may soon replace Robert Green after the uproar over his goalkeeping skills against the U.S). Man, this guy is almost 40 and he is still CAPTAIN of his team.

And as I was watching, before my eyes, at 3:38 on the clock, Cannavaro does this kick like nobody's business in an effort to stop the ball:

He is at least 4 feet in the air, even though you can't see it on the screenshot. But look at his leg! He is pushing 40 and he can still bend like that? This wasn't even a very important moment in the game; the ball was about to go out and he was just trying to stop it. It wasn't like he was about to make a goal or anything. No wonder he's captain of the reigning World Cup champion team.