Thierry Henry

Ireland today was a state of vitriol and anger. Well mostly that, but also combined with nationwide sadness and depression. Not a happy place today, I have to say. The reason is: Ireland last night lost to France 2-1 on aggregate, for World Cup qualifying, and therefore are not going to the World Cup, whereas France is. And its not that they lost, but the way they lost. It has been all over the news here in Ireland, but also probably France, maybe the UK and the rest of Europe as well. What happened was, France pretty much cheated to win. And the Ref didnt catch it. Theirry Henry, one of my favorite soccer players by the way, batted down a pass with his hand down to his feet, then passed over to Gallas for a wide open header and consequently the winning goal. Youtube it, youll see what Im talking about. Soccer is not Volleyball, or pattycakes, its called football for a reason, you're not allowed to use your hands. And here, in this situation, in probably the biggest and most important gamer either team has had in the last 1.5 years, the result was decided by a crystal clear rules violation. And now Ireland as a country is livid.

Heres the fascinating thing though, my insider perspective from the Republic: the Irish for some reason love suffering, and they are going to eat this shit up and hold on to it forever. Its how they do, they love to complain, and all Irish will completely admit it as well. A little bit of a background, the national soccer team has taken a beating over the last, oh, I dont know, maybe 4 years. Once highly favored within the country from 1990 to 2004 , the general public has fallen out with the team lately because of mismanagement, poor results, and what seems like the depletion of the decent talent they once possessed over the early part of the decade. They were not good anymore, playing terrible soccer, and missing out on qualifying for the last Worldcup and the last two European Cups. Thats 3 international tournaments in a row in which the Irish were outsiders looking in. And after a head coaching / manager debacle two years ago, this team was in complete shambles, and the nation lost interest. A majority of the team were young unknowns, and most of their best players were only maybe rated 'midranged' in the domestic leagues. No upper tier Lebron James or Peyton Mannings. It was mostly at best one or two Lamar Odom types, and then another few other 3rd line, off the bench type guys: the Jordan Farmars and Scotty Walkers. Then the rest were young and unproven. Basically you were not going to be intimidating any opponents with a team lead by one or two Odoms, and the rest utility guys.

They hired a new manager in 2008 though for the start of World Cup Qualifying; an Italian manager that spoke limited English, Giovanni Trapattoni. Personally, I think anyone name Giovanni is dead cool to begin with. Trapattoni was the former manager of the Italian National Team, along with powerhouse clubs Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich. Although he was old, 69 when he joined, he had a decent and proven track record, unlike the hopeless guy he replaced, local Dundalk boy Steve Staunton, who knew shit all about dick, figuratively speaking. He took this 2nd rate team, grooming and molding it to play a style to best suit its limited talent, and proceeded to go undefeated in World Cup Qualifying over the last year and half, finally earning a playoff against France for a spot in South Africa 2010. Along the way the Irish as a Nation started falling for the team again. They turned themselves into a hard working, nose to the grindstone, sum is greater than its parts (or any other cliche you can think of) type team, that no other country enjoyed playing against. And they hadn't lost. Not until this France match. So the country is understandably heartbroken and disgusted at the same time. They played well against France, a team with 3 times the talent the Irish had, and also a finalist in the last World Cup in Germany. They played so good, no one could argue that they did not deserved the win against a much better team on paper, this would probably even include any of the French press. But they still lost at the end of the day, in the worst way possible, complete controversy. Thierry Henry even felt bad, admitting to it, somewhat. Some, in an ode to Diego Maradonna, coined the whole thing 'the Hand of Frog'. He is now public enemy number #1. Personally I think, Dont hate the player, Dont hate the game, Dont even hate the coach... hate the Ref.

Even the Irish government got involved today, making calls to UEFA and FIFA, the governing bodies of Football within Europe, and Internationally, respectively. The Taoiseach (Gaelic Irish for the equivalent of Prime Minister, Head of Govermnent, pronounced TEE-shock. I know, dont get me started with pronounciations in Gaelic, its not logical, and definitely is not how I would of pronounced it) was desperately plea-ing for a replay. Deep down, the country, stuck in a terrible and debilitating recession, needed good news, needed something, anything to cheer about. The country needed a boost, and were relying on the Irish Soccer team to provide that, to provide unity, because to be honest there is nothing else to keep National pride up right now. Apart from a pretty good Rugby team at the moment, the overachieving soccer team potentially playing in the World Cup was the only other bright light they got. And it was taken away on an illegal ball slap.

It will be days, weeks, months, possibly years before the Irish will let this go. It hurt too much, and the Irish love wallowing in self woe. I was pretty devastate myself. Although I openly cheered against the Irish team when first got here, out of spite mostly, I did start slowly liking and then devoting myself to the team, especially once Trapattoni took over, theres just something about Italian accents, maybe. Also everyone loves the hard luck underdog. Surprisingly I didnt even watch the match though. I, instead, was in a photography studio taking pictures of a couple models. Umm, I guess Ill save that for another post..