World Cup 2010

[ripper868]

Right. Sportspeople cheat all the time, whether Irish hurlers, French strikers, NZ number eights, Australian props or Saffa flankers. Struggle to see the difference between this and an unfair tackle which isn't given as a free kick tbh...it should be seen, but it wasn't, and there really is no other option but to carry on.

Football players don't have a duty to abide by the rules, and the handball rule is a rule on par with the other twenty-odd. No one is going to lambast a player who pushes an opponent in an attempt to score a goal - perhaps the ref gets a shellacking if he doesn't see ze inzident, but not the fouling player. Should players who foul put their hands up and say "sorry, ref, that was a free kick, won't do it again"? Or, by converse, should the Irish players in that Georgian match have owned up and declined the pen?

Kevin Doyle of Ireland agrees, ftr

There is a difference between playing hard and on the edge of the law (Richie McCaw for example) and blatant cheating.

HE GRABBED THE BALL, GUIDED IT ONTO HIS FOOT TO SEND HIS COUNTRY TO THE WORLD CUP. WHILST BEING THE CAPTAIN OF HIS COUNTRY.

What the **** kind of reaction did you expect?!

"oh lol look at that, good onya thierry! you're a right old chap!"

^ what he said.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

People seriously need to let the Grosso thing go. There's a million worse dives every game. Neill shouldn't have gone in two footed in his own box with just seconds to play IMO.

 

[Burgey]

People seriously need to let the Grosso thing go. There's a million worse dives every game. Neill shouldn't have gone in two footed in his own box with just seconds to play IMO.

There are a hundred handballs every year as bad as Henry's though. Some get caught others don't. Doesn't make either instance less dire mate.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

If there is anyone who isn't a particularly large fan of Henry that fancies a cheap laugh, go and take a look at some of the revisions to his Wikipedia page that have happened over the night. It's been locked to protect it from vandalism at the moment but you can still read the vandalised versions by looking into the history tab. One version right near the top by a guy called Fletchlives2009 makes liberal and poetic use of the c-word and had me in stitches.

Hahaha, a high quality effort.

 

[Uppercut]

There are a hundred handballs every year as bad as Henry's though. Some get caught others don't. Doesn't make either instance less dire mate.

Grosso's was a still a foul IMO. He dived, but he still got fouled.

Can't remember very many similar instances to this one. Dider Drogba got in trouble for it a couple of years back.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

There are a hundred handballs every year as bad as Henry's though. Some get caught others don't. Doesn't make either instance less dire mate.

Don't know what games you're watching but in my lifetime I've never seen a handball even close to as bad as Henry's.

 

[Burgey]

Don't know what games you're watching but in my lifetime I've never seen a handball even close to as bad as Henry's.

What's the differnece if he knocks it down once deliberately or juggles it Harlem Globetrotters-style deliberately? Still rank cheating.

Really still trying to work out how every official missed it tbh.

 

[Craig]

People seriously need to let the Grosso thing go. There's a million worse dives every game. Neill shouldn't have gone in two footed in his own box with just seconds to play IMO.

I always figured it would be no different if it was Kewell who did it, and Australia had gone through, Kewell would be a legend.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Kewell didn't play the game tbf, but yes Craigos your point is well made.

 

[duffer]

I'd like similar hate campaigns launched against every player who's commited an intentional foul in football. Then the reaction this is very fair. Otherwise it's just a bunch of people crying because Ireland didn't make it to the World Cup.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

1 | 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CW Respect-o-meter mk II.

 

[Burgey]

I always figured it would be no different if it was Kewell who did it, and Australia had gone through, Kewell would be a legend.

No Australian playing any sport anywhere in the world would cheat or act in an unsportsmanlike way.

Michael Clarke told me so

 

[ripper868]

No Australian playing any sport anywhere in the world would cheat or act in an unsportsmanlike way.

Michael Clarke told me so

So did Chapelli

 

[duffer]

No Australian playing any sport anywhere in the world would cheat or act in an unsportsmanlike way.

Michael Clarke told me so

Haha

 

[BoyBrumby]

Don't know what games you're watching but in my lifetime I've never seen a handball even close to as bad as Henry's.

Pique's against Chelsea in the CL semi was just as blatant and similarly unpunished. & Maradona, obv.

Whilst in no way attempting to mitigate Henry, as grecian observed, the levels of self-righteousness in our press would be comical if they weren't so predictable. It was a blatant piece of cheating that should be punished, but the real issue is why the ref (who until then had had a good game, despite what Trap said afterwards) doesn't have a TMO to check such calls with.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Pique's against Chelsea in the CL semi was just as blatant and similarly unpunished. & Maradona, obv.

Whilst Pique's was stupid and blatant he didn't use his hand to change the course of the ball by guiding it onto his foot, he reacted and knocked the ball down with his hand. And "in my lifetime" generally means "during the period of time since I was born", in which the Hand of God does not fall.

but the real issue is why the ref (who until then had had a good game, despite what Trap said afterwards) doesn't have a TMO to check such calls with.

In your view. In my view, the real issue is that one of the most prominent players in the world and FIFA's fair play campaign decided he'd violate the most basic rule of the game so horribly. Whilst it should've been seen, it also should never have happened.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Whilst Pique's was stupid and blatant he didn't use his hand to change the course of the ball onto his foot. And "in my lifetime" generally means "during the period of time since I was born", in which the Hand of God does not fall.


In your view. In my view, the real issue is that one of the most prominent players in the world and FIFA's fair play campaign decided he'd violate the most basic rule of the game so horribly. Whilst it should've been seen, it also should never have happened.

Forget I'm such an old **** compared to everyone else, sometimes.

& I'm not defending Henry, which is why I prefaced what I said with "Whilst in no way attempting to mitigate Henry". He shouldn't have done it, in the same way Anelka shouldn't have dived a few minutes beforehand. I'd quite happily see him banned for it. My point is that if the ref and lino haven't seen it (which is plausible as, hand on heart, I didn't notice it originally) there's no further recourse. We're stuck with an obvious injustice.

 

[Uppercut]

Roy Keane tells it like it is.

""If I'd been there in the dressing room after the game, I wouldn't be talking about the handball. I'd focus on why the defenders didn't clear it. They should've cleared it.

I'd be more annoyed with my defenders and my goalkeeper than Thierry Henry. How can you let the ball bounce in your six-yard box? How can you let Thierry Henry get goal-side of you? If the ball goes into the six-yard box, where the hell is my goalkeeper? These are skills and lessons you learn as a schoolboy.

Ireland had their chances in the two games and they never took them. They had chances at Croke Park and they had chances on Wednesday. They didn't take them, but it's the usual FAI reaction - 'we've been robbed, the honesty of the game...' It's rubbish. There was one match against Georgia where Ireland got a penalty and it was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen which changed the whole course of the game. I don't remember the FAI after the game saying we should give them a replay."

 

[sledger]

Wish more people had that attitude tbh, not just in football but life in general.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Roy Keane tells it like it is.

Got to love the caption

"Keane was typically robust"