Murder on ‘Main’ Street

Thanks for posting this. Now can you give me papercuts between my fingers and dip my hand in vinegar? Because that might be less painful, you see.

BTW, the Chicago Bears have contacted Thierry Henry’s agent, because Henry is faster than any of their receivers, and definitely has better hands.

I’d rather see Titi playing for the Bears than Domenech’s hot mess of a team.

Titi’s buddy Steve Nash would be proud of that bounce pass.

Both times were deliberate, but it’s the 2nd one that kills me.

And oh yeah, he was offsides, too. Unbelievable.

Maybe I’m blind but I only see one touch. Granted it’s about the most blatant handball ever… Bummer, this will forever be linked to one of the 2 or 3 best players ever to grace the grounds at Highbury.

@PR – I only see 1 touch as well, but whatever.

Also, the only player offsides was Squillaci – both Titi and Gallas were on.

Lost in all of this… Henry actually makes a nice stab with his right foot to find Gallas.

There are definitely two touches. The ball bounces up on his arm, and you can clearly see him move his arm/hand and hit the ball again.

OK – just saw the slo-mo from Sky Sports News that showed the 2 touches.

@NYK: does that make a difference? he’s still a cheat. a dirty f**king cheat.

This would be a non-issue if Robbie Keane could finish.

But yeah, On-ree cheated. Poorly.

I am gutted for the Irish. Cheated

The emails and texts from my friends named Doucette and Giguere, respectively, claiming to be “Canadian-French” after seeing the replay don’t make me feel much better. But beer helps.

love the arsenal frenchies here rationalizing what happened. youre all guilty! arsene, vieira, gallas, henry,.. down the line. They should have their epl titles revoked.

Cheating whiny s**tes. Titi, what the f**k is that about? Such a talent yet he cheated. That will be remembered more than the goals and trophies.

Jesus Christ, he flat-out slaps the ball down to himself! F**k! Still, if it wasn’t Thierry, it would have been Sepp. FIFA would have found a way

I’m not rationalizing anything. It shouldn’t have been a goal.

That being said, there’s not a whole lot he could do to make me dislike him. He could kick my puppy and I’d probably be okay with it.

The best part of this whole ordeal will be when FIFA gives France a seed.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Europa League 5 referee scheme. But if that system was in place today, you have to think he would have been right on top of that.

We can, nay, we MUST, take some solace from the fact that this French squad will fail miserably in South Africa.

@Ryan: agreed, but how the f**k were the 3 refs already on the field not aware of it? Regardless of which side of the field the linesman is on, there is only one rational thing that can keep that ball in the field of play, and its Titi’s arm. Even if he’s somehow blocked by either Henry’s back or the goalposts (don’t know which side he was on), the ball was going out of the field of play and clearly neither his feet or chest are involved. And this even disregards WTF the lead ref might/should have seen…

Yeah, I was thinking about that while I was walking around earlier. Maybe the referee saw all the Irish hands raised and thought they were claiming the ball had gone out, and was looking for that instead of for a handball? That’s about all I can really think of.

@ Ryan: I would think that Given screaming “That’s a handball! He hit with his hand!” then grabbing the ref’s hand for emphasis would have dispelled any doubt he might have had about what their complaint was.

@Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I should have made it more clear, I am talking about at the exact instant it touched his hand. I think sometimes ARs can be talked into those calls based on the hand motions of players.

No doubt. And let’s not forget that after 110+ minutes of hearing Keane screeching like a banshee as he ran about had probably rendered that official a bit mute to anything sounded remotely Irish.

Both Refs could have been screened, it’s not like these sort of plays happen in slow motion or a vacuum. I never thought it was fair proving the ref missed something from a camera where a referee clearly can’t be.

I would say that it’s part of the match official’s job to keep on the move so that he’s always in proper position to make the call.

phil: the ref would have needed to be either out of bounds or right in the middle of the group of players to see that. Now maybe the linesman should have had a better angle but I’m guessing he was focused on the possible offside.

Obviously, the linesman wasn’t focused on the offside, or he’d have called the offside. Squillaci was offside when the kick was taken.

Phil: here’s where I deviate slightly from my complete agreement with you up to this point. The referees do their best to maintain proper positioning, but honestly, the right spot for him in this situation is outside the box and central to play. His linesman are there to note skirmishes and/or incidents in the box from their vantage points that he does not have access to himself; in that stage of the game, he is placing himself as correctly as can be.

And furthermore, asking him to be in the proper position to make calls is like asking him to predict the future and adjust his movements accordingly. There are so many flashing incidents within the course of a 90-minute game, and no way of knowing where on the pitch these things will occur. All he can hope to do is to be within 10-15 yards of the play, in a position that neither interferes with the passage of play nor hinders his ability to call the game. Those two nonces on the sidelines are supposed to make the most of their fairly static positioning to see things that he cannot. If he misses something, they flag accordingly and bring an infringement to his attention. If they both miss something, there’s no recourse for a replay.

I’m thinking the linesmen were watching for the likelihood of the ball crossing the line to make sure that they spotted it.

@Dustin… The linesman was not screened. There was no one between him and Titi

I was going to post about how this incident might finally be the straw that breaks the resolve to FIFA to ignore the use of instant replay and a 5th official. How hard would it be for a 5th official to signal the ref before the re-kick to disallow the goal and penalize Henry in this case? Not very. Like the NFL, FIFA could lay out the scenarios in which the 5th official could help the ref catch simulation and cheating.

The NHL manages to have folks in Toronto review EVERY GOAL, scored in every game, every night AS IT HAPPENS. There should be a way for a 4th official in the press box to handle this in soccer. By the way, I was watching the Stars game tonight and the refs blew a call when they disallowed a Brad May goal for the Dead Wings… even when the replays showed that the goal scored before the whistle blew. So no plan is foolproof but at least it would be an improvement.

I’m just disappointed in Henry. That’s it.

Not only that, hockey started using the goal judge system (you know, a guy that sits behind the f**king net and decides whether the puck crossed the line in real time) OVER A HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS AGO. But yeah, such a system clearly isn’t feasible in soccer and would hurt the sport’s tradition.

Make that 5th official in the second paragraph.

Oh, I agree with Sarah, no rationalizing the undeserved goal, but Thierry is still a legend… can’t wait to get my pic with him when NYRB play at Pizza Hut Park in a year or so. And only Spuds fans will chose to remember this as Henry’s legacy (oh and Georger… he hates everything ;-P )

F**K YOU!

;)

Reading the Irish papers, and seeing other Henry quotes about, it appears that he admitted to the Irish players that he did handle the ball (although he claims he didn’t mean to; let the replay be the judge of his intent, it’s clear). Nevertheless, one suggestion, I think from Trap, that merits attention: why didn’t the referee just ask Henry whether he handled the ball?

Would Henry have told the ref. the truth, given the situation there?

He should have… I mean, if he honestly did tell the Irish players at the time, why wouldn’t he tell the ref?

I hate to do this, but let’s not forget the number of gilt-edged chances fluffed by Keane and Duff in the 2nd half. They could have buried the tie long before extra time. That said, doesn’t excuse Henry of his rather blatant handball. It had to be intentional, didn’t it? He slaps the ball out of the air so it lands at his feet!

NOOOOOO Cheating is cheating. Deliberate. Its outrageous. Told the ref? Looks like he celebrated when i saw the replay.

I agree with ned here. Dont let Henry get off with the “I told the ref” He celebrated the goal like he did nothing wrong. He should have been embarrassed. Ginola speaks some sense

Former France international David Ginola on BBC Radio 5 Live: “I’m very embarrassed by the situation. I don’t feel very proud to be French this morning. The Irish played very well and they deserved to go through as much as France, maybe more. I’m very surprised Fifa haven’t mentioned anything about it – the whole world saw the handball. This is a pure injustice. Everyone in France, the press and everyone, says there should be a replay.”

Ok, here’s what i’m conceding:
1. it’s obvious he cheated
2. it’s obvious FIFA and the lot made this seeding nonsense with the sole aim being to favor teams like france and portugal
3. it’s obvious that Ireland didn’t deserve this end and played incredibly well and France were lucky in both goals over both legs
4. it’s obvious this was one of the most catastrophic no-calls i’ve ever witnessed

but what i’m getting tired of is hearing that Ireland “deserved” to go through.

Game 2 stats per ESPN:
16 shots 8 on target vs 5 shorts and 2 on target
7 corners vs 4
even amount of possession (53 vs 47)

Game 1 stats also favor France

Ireland deserved to not have it end like this but neither team “deserved” to go through based on their play alone

I can’t remember if it was pointed out above, but Trap seems to be the only one associated with the Irish team that acknowledges that if that goal was disallowed, the most likely outcome for the Irish was a cointoss–PKs. There’s way too much whinging out there that assumes the team was already through without the goal. The game was in ET for a reason.

Besides, without watching the match, I’m sure there were at least a dozen times the Irish team got away with a non-call yesterday. It happens in every match, and the key is not to get beat by it. That’s where they failed.

(Not that there was much any of them could have done in the half-second between the hand ball and the goal. Best case is that Given maybe could have not focused on Henry’s hand and instead where the ball was going, but even that is a reach.)

Yeah, I don’t buy the Ireland deserved to go through bit, either.

But they did deserve a chance to play the 2nd period of ET at 1-0 and possibly have a shot at penalties.

A blatant handball, yes, but where was the defending on Gallas who is standing unmarked almost in the goal…another case of my least-favorite thing in football, when defenders stop and put their hands up when they think its offsides instead of playing to the whistle…the hand up doesn’t do s**t for the ref, play to the end and this may not have happened