Fate Cruel To Ireland
That’s putting it mildly. One can say, they were robbed. After a hard fought match in which the Irish struck and took a 1-0 lead thus equalizing the two-legged confrontation with France, an absurd non-call by the referee off a set play lead to a French goal filled Irish eyes with tears.
Throughout the entire match, the French and their misplaced self-confidence manufactured pretty much nothing by way of clear scoring chances against the well-organized Irish. But all they needed was one moment of fortune. Looking to control a cross, Thierry Henry clearly handled the ball – twice by the way – with his hand and directed it to William Gallas who headed the ball into the back of net.
On top of that, there was an offside on the play.
Double whammy. Sure. Soccer doesn’t need instant replay. Sure. It’s pretty awful to have teams lose this way. It’s annoying to watch teams lose this as a fan myself.
France managed to get by Ireland on what amounted to two lucky goals. Recall in Dublin Anelka’s “goal” deflected off an Irish player. And then they manage to get “La main du dieu.”
The Canadian Press reported, “I will be honest, it was a handball. But I’m not the ref,” Henry said. “I played it. The ref allowed it. That’s a question you should ask him.”
He’s right. FIFA should ask.We shouldn’t go overboard with this. I’ve read some fans demanding Henry be excluded from the World Cup. That’s ridiculous. Stuff like this happens…all…the…time in sports.
All this could have been avoided if there was video replay.
Instant replay could have helped this ref out. Why deny it? When will the sport modernize? And no, it doesn’t have to interfere with game. You can come up with sensible ways to integrate into the game. You can give each side one “flag” to use at their discretion and one to be used at the discretion of the ref. Cripes, baseball and tennis use technology to strengthen their games, why not soccer?
Now. All that being said, Ireland did have the entire second frame of extra time to try and get that magical second goal. Alas, they couldn’t recover their bearings and it proved elusive. Ireland had a couple of clear chances in close but French keeper Hugo Lloris was equal to the task making key saves.
France joins Slovenia, Greece and Portugal along with Uruguay and Algeria in South Africa in 2010.
Ireland can only look back and think about what should have been.
***
Quick word on Slovenia. What a great story for that tiny nation of 3 million. Down 2-1 in the first leg, they managed a 1-0 win over Russia propelling them into soccer’s greatest tournament.
