Tomorrow is today

It is perhaps the single most crucial reason why sports fans are who they are: The Future.

Italy are the champions of World Cup 2006, it says here, and all adulation to the latest version of one of football’s great powers. The sports page is cranking up the red, white and green today, pounding out snappy headlines, quoting quotes, pondering Zidane’s sanity (Pourquoi, Zizou? Pourquoi?) and loving all things ITALIA ITALIA ITALIA!

But then something out of the sidebar catches my eye. August 16: Poland at Denmark.

We don’t know who’ll be coaching the Bialo-Czerwoni or what the roster will look like. We do know this, however: There is a future, and anything can happen.

Yes, Team Italia is the defending champion forever to be immortalized in the World Cup history books. But as they say in baseball, today everyone is in first place.