by Frank Schnittger
Wed Nov 18th, 2009 at 08:44:51 PM EST
France 1, Ireland 1. France win 2:1 on aggregate
France controversially knocked Ireland out of the World Cup Finals tonight with a "goal" scored by Thierry Henry. There were two French players off-side when the ball was played in, then Richard Dunne was fouled as he tried to head it away, and finally Thierry Henry handled the ball not once, but twice in plain view of everyone bar the referee and his officials before guiding the ball across goal for Gallas to score the winning goal.
Keane hits out at authorities - The Irish Times - Thu, Nov 19, 2009
Henry admitted the ball did strike his hand and claims he told the referee, who chose to allow the goal to stand.The Barcelona striker said: “The ball hit my hand, I will be honest. It was a handball, you can clearly see it. (Sebastien) Squillaci went to jump with two Irish players, I was behind him and the next thing I know the ball hit my hand.
“It was a handball, but I’m not the ref. I told (the referee) but he said to
me the same: ‘You are not the ref.”’
The goal came after a colossal struggle where Ireland's journeyman professionals frequently outplayed their much more illustrious French counterparts and scored a fine goal through Robbie Keane. In truth, Ireland should have won the game anyway, creating several clear chances, and much credit is also due to an excellent performance by French goalkeeper, Lloris, from Lyon, for saving France from a humiliating home defeat - Melanchthon should be proud!
There is a history of Ireland being knocked out of major competitions by controversial referring decisions and some see in this a consistent pattern of Fifa favouring bigger soccer playing nations as a means of maximising their revenue from the game. The "goal" has renewed calls in the Irish media for "video referees" to be employed in Soccer - as in Rugby - to decide contentious issues like goal or penalty decisions.
Keane hits out at authorities - The Irish Times - Thu, Nov 19, 2009
And Keane claims Fifa president Sepp Blatter and his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini got the result they would have wanted last night.
He said: “They’re all probably clapping hands, Platini sitting up there on the phone to Sepp Blatter, probably texting each other, delighted with the result.”
The Tottenham forward also criticised the late decision to seed the play-off ties when it emerged that established football powers such as France, Portugal and at one stage Germany could be involved.
Keane said: “Germany had a chance of being in the (play-offs) as well. With two massive countries there’s no way in a million years is there going to be fair draw.”
Henry’s handball was another incident in support of video evidence being used during matches to support referees.
However, once made, those decisions cannot be altered, and so we must wish France bonne chance in the World Cup this summer. Cheating and diving is not exactly unknown in soccer and the frustration of Irish fans is directed not so much at Thierry Henry for doing what he did, but rather there is a certain incredulity that the referee and both his linesmen could have missed seeing the rather obvious infringements leading up to the goal.
Irish domestic soccer is going through very hard times at the moment with several clubs broke or on the verge of going broke. Missing out on the World Cup will cost the Football Association of Ireland several million Euros which it badly needs to keep the domestic game solvent. Virtually all of Ireland's international players play in the English professional leagues but very few play for the top clubs which have any chance of winning anything. For many of them this is probably their last chance of playing in a World Cup or making a lucrative move to a more successful club.
Nobody claims that this Irish team has many particularly skilful players (unlike the team which made it to the World Cup quarter-finals in Italy in 1990) and so they probably would not have done all that well in the Finals. However they played their hearts out tonight and, on the balance of play, deserved to win against a nervous and disorganised looking French side. Defeat is so much harder to take when you have worked so hard to play above your natural level of ability.
Soccer is a minority sport in Ireland - behind Gaelic Football, Hurling and Rugby - and whilst the Rugby team are the reigning European Grand Slam Champions and have genuine pretensions to world class, Soccer is nearly always going to be the poor relation. However the Irish public have taken this team very much to heart and this defeat will not help the national mood of despondency.
Many people attribute the start of the Celtic Tiger era, in part, to the success of the Soccer team in the 1990 World Cup finals, and there is no doubt that sport plays a huge role in the Irish psyche. We don't want to go back to the years of "moral victories" and conspiracy theories for defeats, so only real success on the playing fields matters now. France had better watch out when the Irish Rugby team come to Paris on February 13th. They will be on a mission to avenge their wronged soccer cousins!
