France v Rep of Ireland ,WC Playoff 2nd leg,[Mod Warning Post #1/988/1169/1400]

L'prof

kryogen wrote: »

I dont know, it was a very high profile incident, in a very high profile game

The media will make sure it gets brought up when they can so it will stay fresh in the memory, and im sure alot of purists and just people who like to see the game played right in general, will remember this

He can never be held up as an unquestionable ambassador for the game anymore

Maybe you're right, I just don't see it as being as important to rest of the world as it is to us.

Snake Plisken

Happy Monday wrote: »

Robbie Keane has benefited in the past from dodgy decisions made in matches - Arsenal vs Spurs at Highbury 2006 anyone.

Can you remind me of that? Is that when one of the Arsenal players fell over pretending to be injured and wanted the spurs players to put the ball out but the ref quite rightly left the play continue? I'd say that's where the cheat tonight learned all the cheating tricks in the book of Wenger!

Pisco Sour

Warper wrote: »

Never proved btw.

So what are you implying?? Should Henry be banned??

Is so then surely the likes of Gerrard, Torres, Ronaldo, Rooney, Van Persie, Drogba et al should get a ban as well or does handball merit a greater penalty than diving? Keane was pulled up for handball 4 times tonight and would we have complained if a goal arose from any of them - NO (and anyone that says they would is lying).

We could and should have won the match, I dont mean to be harsh but we blew it (again).

I dont intend to go off topic so all I'll say is that yes it was proven, she was banned for 4 years for tampering with a sample which also (unknown to the ignorant, also contained a banned substance). Thats all I'm saying on that! Apologies for taking it off topic but had to clear that up!

Back to the football, yes things like that should result in bans! Absolutely!

Mr.Nice Guy

ScienceNerd wrote: »

We are making a fuss, but blaming Henry is not the answer, blaming FIFA is for not properly enforcing their rules.

Henry has to take some blame. No one forced him to handle the ball. It's like when a player dives - do we blame the referee for being fooled? Well yes sometimes, but the player who dived must accept responsibility for intentionally breaking the rules to give his team an advantage.

Kone

I am so very angry right now, all I can say is well done to the lads, they played out of their skins and deserve better than this.

ElaElaElano

kenon wrote: »

St.Ledger doesn't deserve to be excluded, he was excellent too.

Typing mistake, of course he should be in there!

kryogen

jasonorr wrote: »

Maybe you're right, I just don't see it as being as important to rest of the world as it is to us.

im sure it wont be as importnat around the world as it is here for obvious reasons, but i would imagine it will still be remembered, same as Maradona, Grobelaar (sp?) Zidane-(for the headbutt) and a few others who will always have some dirt against their name

monkey9

Theresalwaysone wrote: »

Edit: The fact you called him overrated means now I know your talking out your arse.

Yeah, you're right. Always the man for the Big Final!!! I'll treasure those sitters in the 2001 FA Cup Final, those one on ones in the Champions League Final, 2006. Yeah, you go Thierry on your one man mission against Man City in some meaningless match in the Premier League.

What's that you say? Four nil up at some already relegated sh!t team?? Sure why not go by a few players and build on your tally!!!

kenon

ElaElaElano wrote: »

Typing mistake, of course he should be in there!

I hope you'll edit it as it's going to be post of the day...

Happy Monday

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Can you remind me of that? Is that when one of the Arsenal players fell over pretending to be injured and wanted the spurs players to put the ball out but the ref quite rightly left the play continue? I'd say that's where the cheat tonight learned all the cheating tricks in the book of Wenger!

Yes - when Wenger went toe to toe with Martin Jol who replied "I did not shee thaat".
Robbie put THFC 1-0 up.
But Thierry equalised that day late on - using his head not his hands that time as I remember.

GLaDOS

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Henry has to take some blame.

He does, sorry I should have said that in my post

do we blame the referee for being fooled?

No, we blame FIFA for not using the easily available technology that could make fooling a hell of a lot more difficult

ironingbored

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/sondage/2009/11/19/les-bleus-meritent-ils-leur-place-a-la-coupe-du-monde_1269027_3242.html#ens_id=1245881

For those who don't speak French basically asks did France or Ireland deserve to qualify.


86.3 % in favour of Ireland so the French public are showing much more fair play than their much vaunted captain.

This is going to be much bigger than the Zidane incident in 2006, which was a provoked reaction.

As I said in another post, Henry will rue this gesture tonight.

ElaElaElano

kenon wrote: »

I hope you'll edit it as it's going to be post of the day...

Done

L'prof

kryogen wrote: »

im sure it wont be as importnat around the world as it is here for obvious reasons, but i would imagine it will still be remembered, same as Maradona, Grobelaar (sp?) Zidane-(for the headbutt) and a few others who will always have some dirt against their name

Maradonna - absolute ledge for the hand of god
Zidane - Overreacted but, I can relate to that
Henry - Very disappointed now obviously and that will remain with me for quite some time, but who knows what anybody outside of Ireland thinks.

Melion

monkey9 wrote: »

Yeah, you're right. Always the man for the Big Final!!! I'll treasure those sitters in the 2001 FA Cup Final, those one on ones in the Champions League Final, 2006. Yeah, you go Thierry on your one man mission against Man City in some meaningless match in the Premier League.

What's that you say? Four nil up at some already relegated sh!t team?? Sure why not go by a few players and build on your tally!!!

Christ on a bike.

Frisbee

monkey9 wrote: »

Yeah, you're right. Always the man for the Big Final!!! I'll treasure those sitters in the 2001 FA Cup Final, those one on ones in the Champions League Final, 2006. Yeah, you go Thierry on your one man mission against Man City in some meaningless match in the Premier League.

What's that you say? Four nil up at some already relegated sh!t team?? Sure why not go by a few players and build on your tally!!!

LOL, so because he hasn't had an outstanding game in a final he's overrated?

I see you conveniently fail to mention the massively important goals against Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea...

Melion

And tearing apart Inter Milan

lintdrummer

ironingbored wrote: »

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/sondage/2009/11/19/les-bleus-meritent-ils-leur-place-a-la-coupe-du-monde_1269027_3242.html#ens_id=1245881

For those who don't speak French basically asks did France or Ireland deserve to qualify.


86.3 % in favour of Ireland so the French public are showing much more fair play than their much vaunted captain.

This is going to be much bigger than the Zidane incident in 2006, which was a provoked reaction.

As I said in another post, Henry will rue this gesture tonight.

link: http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/sondage/2009/11/19/les-bleus-meritent-ils-leur-place-a-la-coupe-du-monde_1269027_3242.html

monkey9

ironingbored wrote: »

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/sondage/2009/11/19/les-bleus-meritent-ils-leur-place-a-la-coupe-du-monde_1269027_3242.html#ens_id=1245881


As I said in another post, Henry will rue this gesture tonight.

If anyone saw Henry's interview on Saturday on RTE with Tony O' Donoghue, he had a smirk on his face that just annoyed me. He was being asked questions, and he was saying the right things. But his face betrayed his PC Bull****!!!!

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

Maradonna - absolute ledge for the hand of god

This is embarrassing tbh

Frisbee

Melion wrote: »

And tearing apart Inter Milan

Can't believe I forgot that.

I think I slept with a picture of him that night... :pac:

L'prof

p_larkin99 wrote: »

This is embarrassing tbh

I embarrassed you personally? I really should be more careful!

Kirby

Anybody who says Henry isn't a good player is just fooling themselves. He's a very talented footballer. No doubt there.

But Like I said in the other thread, you can't excuse cheating. I have to wonder, what percentage of the pro's would have celebrated that goal? Would DiCanio have? Its too easy to just say "cheating is part of the game" and let Henry off the hook. An honest player would have owned up to it.

Its important to remember that we do it too though. Ireland were awarded a phantom penalty earlier in the year and one of our lads should have told the referee. Same thing.

This is not club football. Its not about money. People play international football for the glory and the pride. The standard of fair play should be at its peak when the world is watching.

Sportsmanship is a rarity in todays game. There are very few honourable footballers left.

Morf

jasonorr wrote: »

Maradonna - absolute ledge for the hand of god
Zidane - Overreacted but, I can relate to that
Henry - Very disappointed now obviously and that will remain with me for quite some time, but who knows what anybody outside of Ireland thinks.

What? Seeing anything out of place here?

OPENROAD

jasonorr wrote: »

Maradonna - absolute ledge for the hand of god

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

I embarrassed you personally? I really should be more careful!

No and theres no need to be a wise ass about it mate.
It should be he was a ledge in spite of it.

monkey9

jasonorr wrote: »

Maradonna - absolute ledge for the hand of god
Zidane - Overreacted but, I can relate to that
Henry - Very disappointed now obviously and that will remain with me for quite some time, but who knows what anybody outside of Ireland thinks.

I know you support Arsenal and you won't call him a cheating f*ck!!! But he is. He is!!

Frisbee

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055744109

L'prof

p_larkin99 wrote: »

No and theres no need to be a wise ass about it.

It should be he was a ledge in spite of it.

Look, I may be in the minority but, I enjoy it more every time I see it. Of course I'd have a very different opinion if he did it against Ireland like Henry!

L'prof

monkey9 wrote: »

I know you support Arsenal and you won't call him a cheating f*ck!!! But he is. He is!!

I'm very disappointed right now, just like everybody else. He does cheat occasionally and that is very unfortunate as it does taint peoples views of him.

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

Look, I may be in the minority but, I enjoy it more every time I see it. Of course I'd have a very different opinion if he did it against Ireland like Henry!

I know it hurts at the moment but that's really sad.

FWIW I can relate to the sympathy that Arsenal fans are kind of showing towards Henry. I was the same when it was England getting knocked out by Portugal and Ronaldo was made a scapegoat by our fans and our press. Same applied when It was Beckham who got sent off.

ironingbored

Nice to see Domenech doesn't mention Ireland in his post-match comments.

Just says I'm happy, it was tough...blah blah blah. Shows the contemptible nature of the man.

L'prof

p_larkin99 wrote: »

I know it hurts at the moment but that's really sad.

FWIW I can relate to the sympathy that Arsenal fans are kind of showing towards Henry. I was the same when it was England getting knocked out by Portugal and Ronaldo was made a scapegoat by our fans and our press. Same applied when It was Beckham who got sent off.

I'm not sure you took me up right, I'm not showing sympathy towards Henry. Not condemning him, not happy at what he did but, not sympathy either!

kenon

I just watched the full version of Kevin Doyle's interview and I cant help but be very impressed by the man in what must of been such an emotionally high strung moment.

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

I'm not sure you took me up right, I'm not showing sympathy towards Henry. Not condemning him, not happy at what he did but, not sympathy either!

No my main gripe is what you said about Maradona being ledge for the hand of God.

The rest is in relation to what a few Arsenal fans have said.

DazMarz

The better team lost

The big teams get all the big decisions

Etc. Etc. Et-fúcking-cetera...

All the clichés in the world won't help... We lost, they won. Not fair, not right, not good... But in the end, it's what the powers that be wanted and the powers that be always get what they want, unfortunately. The only result that went against Blatter and Platini tonight was the Russia/Slovenia one.

3 outta 4 ain't bad for FIFA and UEFA. The fact that they would trample and walk all over the smaller nations is nothing new. But it is still suprememly nasty when it happens to us.

Long live the boys in green... You all did us proud, lads, you all did each and every one of us proud...

L'prof

p_larkin99 wrote: »

No my main gripe is what you said about Maradona being ledge for the hand of God.

The rest is in relation to what a few Arsenal fans have said.

Like I said, I know that opinion may be frowned upon, etc, etc but, it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

Daysha

Anyone here if there's trouble in Paris? Andy Burton from Sky Sports just tweeted this...

"Went to find a McDonalds on Champs-Elysee. Found a riot. Shops looted, the lot. Decided to opt for room service"

Didn't say if it was directly related to the match, but it's a worrying development.

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

Like I said, I know that opinion may be frowned upon, etc, etc but, it's a guilty pleasure of mine.

errr ok. I guess theres no reasoning with you if thats the way you feel about it. I am sure you would think its sad if some would see the Henry handball as a guilty pleasure.

Racing Flat

...would we have:

a) scored
b) conceded
c) won on penalties
d) lost on penalties?

The pessimist in me reckons we'd have lost on penalties .

Just wondering. There seems to be such focus on the hand-ball, and claims that it robbed us or cost us a place at the World-Cup...not necessarily. Would be interested to see what the general consensus is - would we have gone through?

CHD

Let it go already!

We could have killed the game off before this. We were unlucky, played brilliant. Move on.

Kirby

Daysha wrote: »

Anyone here if there's trouble in Paris? Andy Burton from Sky Sports just tweeted this...

"Went to find a McDonalds on Champs-Elysee. Found a riot. Shops looted, the lot. Decided to opt for room service"

Didn't say if it was directly related to the match, but it's a worrying development.

Highly suprised if that was our lot. We are generally quite well behaved. The looting sounds like a local bunch who took advantage of the police being surrounding the stadium.

Corcs001

I don't know what would have happened but if we lost on penalties at least it would have been fair.

L'prof

p_larkin99 wrote: »

errr ok. I guess theres no reasoning with you if thats the way you feel about it. I am sure you would think its sad if some would see the Henry handball as a guilty pleasure.

Are you trying to change my opinion?

Paul Tergat

jasonorr wrote: »

Are you trying to change my opinion?

Not at all. I was leaving it at my last comment.

Kirby

CHD wrote: »

Let it go already!

We could have killed the game off before this. We were unlucky, played brilliant. Move on.

Quiet you. Its a good question and he is right in asking it. Some of us care about our national side more than some foreign club that only care about our money from tickets and shirts.

In all probability, extra time would have played out and we would have seen penalties.

They have the more skillfull players but thats irrelevant in peno's. Penalties are about Nerve and practice. If practice your penalties every week or two, you are going to score 90% of the time in my opinion. If you don't practice them or lose your nerve you have every chance of missing them.

I'd like to think our lads would have held their nerve and the Frenchies would have buckled under the pressure of their crowd.

Mrmoe

CHD wrote: »

Let it go already!

We could have killed the game off before this. We were unlucky, played brilliant. Move on.

Moving on would have been easy to do if we had lost fairly, the fact that we were cheated makes it unbearable.

gary82

Just had a look on the Fifa website to see what they're saying about the result and I'm just outraged at this match report....

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1136804.html#gallas+breaks+irish+hearts

Fifa Website wrote:

France secured their FIFA World Cup™ spot in dramatic fashion with a thrilling 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland at the Stade de France.


Giovanni Trapattoni's visitors, beaten 1-0 in Dublin last Saturday in the first leg of their play-off, had taken a shock lead in the 32nd minute through Robbie Keane and the Irish were unlucky not to score more before forcing the match to extra time. In the first additional 15-minute spell, France had an appeal for a penalty correctly turned down after striker Nicolas Anelka tumbled to the turf under pressure in the eighth minute.


Five minutes later, William Gallas bunled the ball home to win the match for Les Bleus. The goal enabled France to qualify and avoid a repeat of their humiliating failure, at the hands of Bulgaria, to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup finals.


The Republic, especially captain Robbie Keane, had the lion's share of the chances in regulation time, and they will be kicking themselves having last qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the Round of 16.


A clearly relieved French coach Raymond Domenech said France had had to scrap to the end. "It was hard, laborious and indeed miraculous," he told French television. "I was sure we would make it though. My forecast was 1-1!"



"It was hard, laborious and indeed miraculous. I was sure we would make it though."
France coach Raymond Domenech





French President Nicolas Sarkozy saluted a "gallant Irish" team before praising his countrymen. "It's fabulous - we're really glad to get through. Qualification is important as it's a major event," Sarkozy told TF1.


Domenech was forced to reshuffle after the first leg victory in Dublin last Saturday after injuries to midfielder Jeremy Toulalan and central defender Eric Abidal. After just nine minutes, Abidal's pre-match replacement, Julien Escude, came off injured to be replaced by Sebastian Squillaci.


The unexpected turn of events would set the tone for what was, for them, a frustrating first half from which a more enterprising Republic team emerged with a 1-0 lead. While France looked dangerous in the opening stages, they went on to look exceedingly mediocre up against an astute Irish defence given plenty of protection by the assured Shay Given.


Damian Duff and Liam Lawrence had already shown their ability to carve openings in the French defence and it was Duff's cutback from deep on the left side of the French area that found Keane, who side-footed the ball first time to beat Hugo Lloris in the France goal. In the 39th minute, France striker Nicolas Anelka turned his marker nicely on the edge of the area but his shot was deflected by an Irish body and went for a corner.


A subdued Stade de France welcomed a more hopeful French team for the second half, but Ireland quickly stated their intent as Keane won a free kick on the left flank and Lawrence's kick found John O'Shea unmarked at the back post. However, after controlling the ball the Manchester United defender's shot was struck over the crossbar from four yards out.


France began exploiting Irish weaknesses on the right flank and a Henry free-kick was well turned away by Lawrence and eventually gathered by Given after Gourcuff had driven the ball back in. Just after the hour-mark, the Irish were given another golden opportunity, Duff racing through only for Lloris to block his effort.


Keane, one of the survivors of the 2002 tournament, was left frustrated after he missed a golden chance to put the Republic 2-0 up when he put the ball wide from a tight angle with only Lloris to beat. After struggling all night to overcome a packed Irish defence, France's late stroke of luck finally proved the visitors' downfall.

They didn't even mention the handball!!! :mad::mad::mad::mad: There is a serious pro-France tone about the whole report!

Some might say well maybe they don't want to discuss referee decisions..... but they do say "France had an appeal for a penalty correctly turned down after striker Nicolas Anelka tumbled to the turf under pressure in the eighth minute." . If that decision gets a mention I think there is another one that could be slightly more important...

Also did you hear Henry's Interview? He admitted that he handed it, not like he had much choice. If it way any other sport he would be expected to go up to the referee and come clean after he awarded the goal.

Interview on BBC website (audio): http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/8367588.stm

If we don't get a replay then I'm giving up on soccer!

DirkVoodoo

Yeah, these speculations are pointless:

What if Duffer had got the ball on his left foot, what if Toulalan had been playing, what if Benzema had been put on, what if Doyler had hit that header on target, what if Anelka had got that penalty, what if Trap had kitted out and subbed himself on...

BUT, I think if it had gone to penalties it was obviously anyones game, as the penalty shootout has shown so many times. Probably unfair on both teams to leave it to that, I still think we should have won it in 90 minutes...but then he would have brought Benzema on....which means they would have scored...but, but....

Great performance!

CHD

Kirby wrote: »

Quiet you. Its a good question and he is right in asking it. Some of us care about our national side more than some foreign club that only care about our money from tickets and shirts.

In all probability, extra time would have played out and we would have seen penalties.

LOL. If you knew me you would realise how retarded your little dig is. Implying I care more about the club I follow than Ireland is crazy.

We could have put that game away, we had 3 great chances too. Blaming all this on this on the handball is stupid. It is our fault that the handball goal made the difference.

Also talking about what might have happened if the goal never stood is silly. Lets talk about what life would be like if we didn't discover the wheel.