Road to World Cup 2010

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Ball go to hand, but Henry push clearly the ball on the second touch.
But cheating is part of soccer, and of human beeing.
It's a shame, but it's over.
FIFA must use video, not only in WC Final...
 
I don't see what Henry did wrong. He's running sees the ball leans towards it, controls it with his hand. So what? It's not his responsiblity to not react naturally. It's the referees.

It's a shame that France are going through, not because they're French or anything, but because they didn't show a pair of balls between the 11 of them in both matchces combined. Fluked through on a handball and a deflected shot off the post. Outplayed by a nation with no skill and 4 million people. What happened ot French football? Zidane must have wondered in the stands...
 
I'm finding this 'hoo-ha' very amusing. People are very quick to attack the offending player/team (always not theirs) when something like this happens, but if it were their own team in a crunch game (Champions League, World Cup etc), would they react with the same anger?

I'm not defending Henry. It was a blatant handball. I'm just highlighting the rife hypocrisy in football.
 
Shame on u Henry.... shame on the ref and shame on the French Nt who played so badly they should be embaressed....
Ireland will be missed in this WC. PERIOD.
 
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i gotta say there's something really sick in all this henry bashing.

every season, despite the countless ammount of matches played all across europe, we witness just a few fair play episodes. last season de rossi admitted he touched the ball with his hand, and asked the ref to stop the game (class act, but let me add, that was just a normal serie a match, a away fixture...... he wasn't playing in front of 50 thousands fans of his own club, a decisive match... and that wasn't a decisive play, so it doesn't really compare to henry's situation). there are probably a few more i don't remember right now.... anyhow how many could they be? 5, 10, 20 episodes like this one?.... in an entire season... in europe.....hundreds of matches, thousands of handballs and dives and tough referee calls, and yet less than 50 episodes of true fair play.

that doesn't surprise me tbh. and not because i'm a cynical bastard.... i'm not gonna say that cheating is part of the game, as i don't believe that (neither i'm trying to say people who believe that, are cynical bastards, of course).
i'm not suprised because i can easily imagine how hard it must be to stand up, take a look around, look those 50 thousands fans around u screaming and celebrating and shut them up like that.
i also understand how tough it must be to get back in the dressing room afterwards and face your teammates.... "i'm terribly sorry guys, i know u've been waiting this chance for 4 years, but it wouldn't have been fair to take advantage of a handlball like that.... i'm sure u'll understand"..... yeah sure.... and also those 20 millions french people will understand... they won't get mad at all, they won't think "hey why can anybody dive or touch the ball with his hands (without the ref noticing it) and get away with it.... and we can't? why we had to throw away a chance to get to the world cup, to show our fair play, while nobody else does it?"

touching the ball with the hands, sometimes(in some specific situations, like that one yesterday), is not a voluntary act. any of u who played football will know that. your in the middle of the opponent's box, a cross comes to u, but it's too quick, and u can't hold the ball with your chest or foot; then your arm starts moving by their own will, it's a conditioned reflex, a response u can't control (sometimes).... so it's not like diving. in order to dive, u have to force your body to do something it won't naturally tend to do. while sometimes (and that one yesterday seems to be one of those cases) a handball is nothing more than an uncontrolled response (pretty much like a 4 steps foul in basket). a couple of years ago Corini made a handball during a uefa cup tie (against schalke) our goalkeeper couldn't get the ball, as he was way too far.... there was just corini between the ball and the goal, so he just stopped the ball (with both hands). it was the most blatant handball i've ever seen and corini almost couldn't believe what he just did. after the match he said "i don't know why i did it... everything happened so quickly, i just couldn't think... so my hands started moving as they were out of my control.... i knew the ref couldn't not notice it.... and i knew that would have been the stupidest thing to do, as the consequence of that handball would have been heavier than a goal itself (red card + penalty), but i just couldn't control it"

of course that doesn't justify henry's attitude afterwards. he could have admitted his foul... he could have stopped the game and told the ref it was a handball.....
but let's be honest, how many of u would have done that???? u all seem to have such a high sense of moral integrity.....but let me tell u, it' easy to take the right decision with your ass on a couch and a bottle of beer in your hands.

have u ever played a football match in front of 50 thousands people?..... have u ever took a decision IN REAL TIME, with 50 thousands voices screaming for happiness and joy?
and what if that decision would destroy the hopes off all your teammates (who will inevitably blame u for what happened)..... the hopes of those 50 thousands fans watching the match and those 20 millions french people in front of a tv?

do u really think your first real time reaction would have been to stop the game and admit your mistake with the ref?
if u really think u would have done that, than either u guys are saints, or you're hypoctites.... and to be honest, i find it hard to believe that so many people in one single thread have such a strong moral integrity.... that'd be too much of a coincidence.

of course we will never know that... coz u weren't there... henry was there, and since u guys won't ever have to prove u would have reacted in a different way, it's sooo much easier, to blame henry and to call him a cheating cunt..... rather than think about his alternatives and the consequences of those alternatives.

exactly as it's a lot easier to blame fifa for not introducing video support in football. "those damn scumbags at fifa are destroying football, why they can't take the right decision? why they have to be so stubborn and stupid?.... why they can't be as smart as ME!? oh if only i were fifa's president! i would introduce video support and solve all the problems in football!!"

yeah, yeah, yeah......

reacting like a child and blaming "those who are in charge" is definitely easier than THINK..... it's definitely easier than asking yourselves "why through all theese years, everyone in charge in football, platini, johansson, blatter, havelange.... people so different, with different ideas about almost everything in football.... why they all agreed only on 1 single point: no video support in football?
could it be that maybe there are some very good reasons i just can't think about (probably coz i'm too busy telling people how wrong they are, to actually think about what i'm talking about)"

and it's not just easier... it also makes u sound more cool. if u would think about the actual pros and cons of video support, then u'd be force to admit there are actually some very valid reason not to introduce it....
and u couldn't take a controversial position on the matter like "those bastards are destroying football with their arrogance, their stubborness and their stupidity..... i know better!"

yeah sure, they are the stubborn arrogants....:LOL:

i feel about irish fans, and i can certainly understand they feel robbed, as i went through that too, as well as every other fan in the world, coz all the football fans in the world, were victim of this kind of situation at least once in their lives.
what happened yesterday is not fair, that's for sure. but it's even less fair to blame henry for not taking such a tough decision in real time.....

and it's extremely shortsighted to blame fifa for not introducing video support as a rule in football.... yeah this was one of those few extremely evident call.... of those few situations that wouldn't have happened with a video support.
but what about those other thousands of tricky calls that couldn't be solved with a video support? what about the fans reaction in those cases?

oh well, criticizing is always easier than thinking, espacially when u're not the one in charge.

sorry for the long post
it's kinda frustrating to notice that professore nutmeg summed up my whole post in just 3 lines :P
 
lo zio said:
and it's extremely shortsighted to blame fifa for not introducing video support as a rule in football.... yeah this was one of those few extremely evident call.... of those few situations that wouldn't have happened with a video support.
but what about those other thousands of tricky calls that couldn't be solved with a video support? what about the fans reaction in those cases?


sorry for the long post
it's kinda frustrating to notice that professore nutmeg summed up my whole post in just 3 lines :P
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Not sure I agree with that, the game has moved on from the "good old days", it's now a massive corporate business, where simulation is common place and money rules the day.

The only way to address the issue is to make changes within the game itself, be it bringing in technology or having more referees. Football evolved in the past, off side rules, cards, even crossbars.
It will/have to evolve again, imagine if that was the goal in the final that lifted the World Cup... :P
 
The only way to address the issue is to make changes within the game itself, be it bringing in technology or having more referees.
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it would be great to find a way to solve this issue... but it must be a solution that would solve this situation without creating much bigger problems in all those cases where an undebeatable decisione just can't be taken.
and that's not video support.

the only thing that stops us from screaming "conspiracy" every time a refs take a shady decision is the the fact that they have to take decisions on real time, based on what their eyes saw.

with video support, refs wouldn't have this "umbrella" anymore and violent fans all over the world would cause much bigger troubles, just cause, even after watching all the replay and slow motions on tv, they still disagree with the refs decisions.
fifa just can't have that happening.
 
Think lo zio dropped the Nuke(MW2)...game over! :) throughout the years in every sport including one`s that use video replays still gets it wrong so we know it could help , but it won`t be the messiah to cure all of human errors.
 
beboq said:
throughout the years in every sport including one`s that use video replays still gets it wrong so we know it could help , but it won`t be the messiah to cure all of human errors.
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yep, nfl experience proves it; video support can be useful in just a few cases. but at least in usa the video support doesn't cause any troubles in all the rest of the cases..... because, let's face it, americans have a much healthier approach to sport.

an nfl ref can take the wrong decision even after watching the video, and yet u don't see american nfl fans causing riots for that.....
but do u think roma or lazio ultras would do the same? and what about psg fans, eastern european league fans, argentinian fans, german fans?
let's be honest, we all know what would happen.... and that would be much more tragic than having france to go to the world cup thanks to a foul.
 
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See for me the argument that we shouldn't implement a rule change because of the possible cons doesn't hold true for the powers in football. They just don't want to change anything that will upset their personal image of the beautiful game. My best example of this is timewasting. As a supporter of English clubs, it riles me to no end watching in the CL when, and I'm going to ahead and call them out here, from personal experience, say a team from Portugal goes 1-0 up. They then do their very best to play as little actual football as possible for the rest of the match, feigning injury, diving, feigning cramp (in the 55th minute!!!), starting fights, goalkeepers not collecting the ball, walking to the opposite corner before a substitution and so forth.

Now someone please tell me the one argument FOR this behaviour. Other than 'it's part of the game'.

All of that could be eliminated in one sweeping second if instead of a 90 minute rolling clock, we used, say, two 25 minute stopwatched halves. Yes it's radical, yes it's different but there you go, problem solved. Teams can take all the time they want doing throw ins, rolling around and so forth, and it won't help them one bit. You watch how quickly they stop doing it.

There is no argument against this approach, other than 'well it's not how we used to do it'.

Video replays - i don't think they'd ever work in football. Extra officials on the lines - well they're on the way. But I don't honestly believe there is the same mentality in the powers that be in football as in other sports - where they want the best team to win. I think that Platini and Blatter look back on the hand of god fondly, thinking it a moment taht brought even more fame to football. Platini himself admits that he used ot like a dive. It's aprt of the game.

Just because it was part of the game in the past, does not mean that the game would be better with it in the future.
 
gerd said:
I know why the Portugese react: Euro 2000 semi-finals...
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Oh, finally someone found the reason for my comment...

gerd said:
It's a litle bit ironic that some Portugese are talking about cheating...isn't Christiano Ronaldo a Portugese ???
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Yes, he is the one who is considered the best player in the world

gerd said:
It's sad for the Irish (like Thomas pointed out), but if FIFA/UEFA would blame Henry and punish him, and would do that consequently, there would be a world cup without stars...remember England-Portugal...i don't think those Portugese complained after that match and Rooney's sending off...
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:SHOCK: If it is a red card, why to complain about?
 
I hope you guys are not offended by the Henry jokes, memes, or you gonna tell they are not hilarious?

Like I always say in events like this chill out and realize that a game has few more than 90min, Ireland missed some chances and were clearly tired when France scored. But Henry used the hand period.

Now what I don't take is the fact that FIFA is most of the time political correct, they don't have an opinion over the fact they used video for the Zidane thing, in Confederations Cup they used for a penalty in Brazil Egypt, and boooh I'm brazilian and that penalty was for us, just a small note.
So the rule is only for official FIFA competitions? Just some kind of events?

To be honest I would see no problem in the reserve referee using the video and telling his opinion on their exclusive channel on that radio thing, immediately after it happens.
But obviously that would not be available for every match since there are loads of competitions that doesn't have 38 cameras.

Now lets chill out and post more Henry memes and jokes cause if we can't laugh at football I don't wanna follow it anymore.
 
beachryan said:
timewasting. As a supporter of English clubs, it riles me to no end watching in the CL when, and I'm going to ahead and call them out here, from personal experience, say a team from Portugal goes 1-0 up. They then do their very best to play as little actual football as possible for the rest of the match, feigning injury, diving, feigning cramp (in the 55th minute!!!), starting fights, goalkeepers not collecting the ball, walking to the opposite corner before a substitution and so forth.
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Yeah thats why Benfica beat Everton 5-0.
What you said is typical at our own league when small teams are beating the "3 giants" (Benfica, Porto, Sporting). To be honest I don't remember this happening at CL or UEFA. For example, Porto did a fantastic exhibition at Stamford Bridge playing attacking football every time. Don't generalize Ronaldo's syndrome. I recognize sometimes he is a cheater.
 
Henry is a cheat. He dived at the last WC too. He should eb ashamed of himself. But cheating is all too prevalent in the game.

di Maria loves to exaggerate a dive for instance. Unfortunately most football fans are hypocrites. If it goes for them good if not bad.

We need video technology and retrospective punishment as soon as possible to help the officials.

Unfortunately with the idiotic administrators we have in charge that seems a distant prospect. Which is mind boggling considering how other sports have moved forward on this front and the amounts of money linked to qualification ,cups,leagues and the like.

Ireland may well have lost on penalties, Keane should have finished his other chance (he handballed as well) ,however crucially a moment of cheating have helped France qualify and no doubt most supporters of other teams would like to see them knocked out as soon as possible.
 
kdjac said:
gutted :(
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Believe me we feel very sorry, yesterday only Algerians celebrate in France (Algeria vs Egypt), not the French (only Domenech...)
but Keane do 4 hand balls, one make a assist, if the Ireland score like is same story.

gomito#10 said:
all goals should be subject to video review... not sure why this has not been implemented yet... it would solve these issues
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I agree, for PK too and just for see if a ball cross the line or not.
 
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Henry's glory days are over and he has to cheat every possible way to win? I couldn't trust Henry after leaving arsenal " Arsenal will be my club forever"
 
What is ironic though is after Zigic was fouled /dived in Belgrade the vitriol certain sections of the French support were almost ready to invade Serbia not to mention throwing wild accusations and insults at them.

If this had been on the other foot I'm sure Pratini,the shameless fool who masqueraddes as UEFA president, would be reconsidering his options now.

It's okay to suddenly order the playoffs to be seeded but it's not possible to have a replay.

When will technology and heavy punishments(retrospective if necessary) be introduced ? 2100 ?
 
At the and France deserved it (won away 0-1) and the neutral spectators are all happy for watching Benzema, Henry, Anelka, etc on WC2010.

It's very sad for the Irish people for sure, but blame the referee and not Henry...
 
It's a very bad to see France in World Cup after that goal. Football has no justice. So, i'm sorry about Ireland, they didn't deserved that.

I always support France in big tournaments, I dont know why but I always have a sympathy to France because of Henry and Zidane. But this year, it wont be the same.
 
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