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Date Posted: 07:23:38 08/18/05 Thu
Italian MPs overwhelm their Canadian colleagues at 'Battle of the Parliaments'
By Alan Patarga
The resistance of the Canadian Parliamentary team lasted more or less three minutes, last week on the Centennial Park field in Etobicoke, where it clashed with a team of Italian Deputies and Senators.
However, the celebration lasted over three hours, amidst hugs, photos, soccer and the noble cause of the Universal Youth Foundation, an organization founded and chaired by Mario Cortellucci to assist poor youth all over the world. The Italian team has certainly dominated the game, burying Canada under an inequivocable 7-1. The result was heavy but nobody found it unjust: not the Italians, of course, nor the spectators who enjoyed the game (played in two 30-minute halves), nor even the Canadian team, well aware of being at a disadvantage.
Canada's three minutes of glory came at the very beginning, when MPP Tim Hudak - playing forward - managed to score their only goal. But just four minutes later Italy evened the score with a nice shot by Carolina Morace, the only woman in a team of men, former captain and current coach of Italy's women's national team. The music changed with her goal and with those of the Italian bomber, AN Deputy Luca Bellotti from Veneto, who scored three (28th f.h., 4th and 12th s.h.): he also missed two other goals, one in each half.
The final tally, as we said, was 7-1, with two different goalies defending Canada's goal: MPP Kevin Flynn, who suffered all seven Italian goals, and Vaughan mayor Michael Di Biase, who managed to avoid taking any more. Di Biase was not the only Italian-Canadian who held his own on the field: Federal MP Maurizio Bevilacqua and Senator Con Di Nino brushed up on techniques learned a few years ago. Real technique, however, was displayed by star player Bob Iarusci, former captain of Team Canada and former teammate, in the New York Cosmos, of Giorgio Chinaglia and Pelé. This is the summary of the "Battle of Parliaments", as the event was nicknamed by its organizers. Even Peter MacKay, Tory vice-leader, took to the field, even though minister Belinda Stronach wasn't in the bleachers to watch the athletic prowess of her former fiancé and former party colleague.
The public included other VIPs, such as UYF president and former MPP Annamarie Castrilli and UYF treasurer and former RCMP Chief Superintendent Ben Soave. Castrilli explained the objectives of the charity that managed to put the two Parliaments against each other on the field and together in the solidarity for unfortunate children. "Our purpose is to build schools for disadvantaged kids in various corners of the world. Education can be their opportunity to come out of poverty."
Charity was the protagonist the following night at the Renaissance Banquet Hall, with a big gala dinner attended by the MP-players, the organizers and many supporters.
For someone, however, the forte of the event was the chance to see from up close (and have pictures taken with) Miss Universe, Torontonian Natalie Glebova, a dark-haired lady of Russian origin and a beauty to leave people breathless. She's the godmother of the Universal Youth Foundation, whose officials also include Emergency Preparedness commissione Julian Fantino and former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci.
As to Miss Glebova, she acted like a magnet, as everybody tried to get near her: members of the public, players of both teams, coaches, and literally everybody else.
Consul General of Italy Luca Brofferio gave a brief speech thanking those in attendance and advocating increasingly cordial relations between Canada and Italy, thanks also to events of this kind. The 300 or so in the hall, judging from their enthusiasm, seemed to like the idea.
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