Balloteli,why Always Me

“At the end of the game when I went to my mother,” Balotelli said after the game. “That was the best moment. I told her these goals were for her.”

Italy,finally,won, 2-1, advancing to the Euro 2012 final Sunday against Spain. Both its goals had one name written on them: Mario Balotelli.

Chiellini did the simple thing and helped the ball on to Antonio Cassano. This was where the magic began. Cassano is a player whom others have doubted, and who had minor heart surgery last October. But Prandelli told him to take his time, get fit for June — and he would pick him.

The first goal was a beautiful amalgam of that. It began deep in Italy territory, where Andrea Pirlo was shoved. Rather than go down, he wheeled around and fed one of his laser-beam passes to Giorgio Chiellini on the left.

Cassano has been delivering with increasing cunning, game by game. His turn was too smart for Mats Hummels, his cross was measured for the 6-yard box, and when Holger Badstuber mistimed its flight, Balotelli was right there, heading the goal with fearsome power.

So that makes him Super Mario again, no longer the unreliable volcanic Balotelli whom plenty of critics said Prandelli was a fool to trust.

Maybe one goal does not excuse all, but a second just might.

Italy sprang this one the length of the Warsaw field. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon beat out a corner kick, straight to the red-shoed Riccardo Montolivo. He looked up, saw Balotelli lurking and struck the ball 35 yards from left to right to him. Balotelli took it on his chest, turned, outran the remnants of the German defense and lashed the ball high into the net. This one was merciless in its force and direction.

Those goals, at 20 minutes and 36 minutes, devastated the Germans.

Germany’s goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, had no chance, and he did the decent thing: He applauded the strike that so comprehensively beat him.

He dedicated two goals for his lovely mother:Silvia Balloteli.