After 95 minutes of typically boring-football, where the coaches were all the time looking to impede the opponents from scoring through their mind games and tactics, Uruguay edged it with a good header from their captain Godin. After such a game, the Italians had to wave goodbye to their World Cup aspirations as after a second-half rich of controversial decisions, Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez blew the final whistle and also blew Italy’s dreams. Another European giant has been eliminated, but the saddest part is the retirement of Andrea Pirlo, the man who despite not having the fastest of paces, for more than ten years managed to produce the most dangerous assists and vertical-balls. One of the best midfielders to have ever graced the field of play, one of the most complete midfielders to have every played football, an example for everyone. A true gentleman, both on the field and even off the field of play. You want to construct a building? Call an architect. You want to play football? Call "The Architect’ — Andrea Pirlo. Long live the Italian Maestro.
His Debut for Italy’s Senior National Team (2002) — Andrea Pirlo has been a key member in Italy’s National Team since making his debut against Azerbaijan in 2002. The rest is history.
His pass to Grosso against Germany (2006) — After almost two hours of spectacular football, it had to be Pirlo to find a narrow gap in the German defence which was wide enough to find Fabio Grosso and wide enough to send his team to the final.
The way he hugged Cannavaro during the penalty shootout (2006) — The air is always tense during a penalty shootout and it was no different for Pirlo. After securing the first penalty for Italy, he remained embracing Italy’s captain Fabio Cannavaro for the rest of the shootout.
The coronation to a legendary career with Italy (2006) — Winning the FIFA World Cup is every footballer’s dream and Andrea Pirlo surely longed and dreamt of attaining such a historic achievement. He was one of the major contributors to Italy’s winning campaign in the 2006 tournament where they made it to the top, eliminating Australia, Ukraine, Germany and France on their course. He was also named the best "assist man’. No wonder why he’s called "The Architect’.
His cucchiaio against England (2012) — After Montolivo’s miss, everyone expected the rest of the Italian penalty-kickers to play it safe, but Andrea from Breschia had other plans in mind as his instinct told him to just chip the ball smoothly over Joe Hart.
His tears after losing to Spain (2012) – After seeing his country getting demolished by the Spaniards, unexpectedly Pirlo was amongst the first to break into tears. More than tears of weaknesses, they were tears of Italian pride, tears of absolute patriotism.
His amazing free-kick goal on his 100th cap for Italy (2013) — Andrea Pirlo marked his 100th cap for Italy against Mexico in the Confederations Cup with a sublime free-kick goal which gave Italy an important 2-1 win over the Mexican side. The goal was surely worthy of the legendary Maracana Stadium. The crowd chanted Pirlo’s name throughout the entire game.
His speech to his Italian companions after the elimination from the World Cup (2014) — After losing 1-0 to Uruguay and being eliminated from the FIFA 2014 World Cup, Andrea Pirlo told his teammates to wait for him in the dressing room since he was called for an anti-doping test. He wanted to address all of them since this was his last match for Italy.
