| La qualification de la honte (A Most Shameful Victory)
international Par Consultant Yugo - Sinitch Logistic (autres articles du même auteur) Nov 18, 2009 - 5:25:49 PM |
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A Most Shameful Victory
I am very sad. Very sad. I know football isn't fair but sometimes it is difficult to satisfy's one's intelligence solely by slick reminders of the logic of realpolitik home truths. The heart will not buy into such grim logic, especially when it is accompanied by such insidious consequences.
I am sad, but not outraged; resigned and demotivated, but not angry. I am not punching my fist through the wall and ranting up and down my house. I am simply filled with sadness and a dull feeling of hopelessness. It's a similar kind of feeling I felt when the U.S. was invading Iraq. I think it's the kind of feeling that people all around the world get when they see the rich, powerful and the corrupt get away with theft in broad daylight.
Because that is exactly what tonight's French win, achieved solely on the basis of Thierry Henry's cheating handball, can possibly represent. It's like watching Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and their cronies rob and steal from Iraq and their fellow Americans in broad daylight, unashamed in their arrogant conviction that it is nothing but their due.
The analogy may be far fetched in terms of colliding those two worlds together, but think about how much disingenuous and self-righteous bile those shameless crooks fed the American and the world public before being (almost simultaneously) revealed in their true ugly form for all to see. Who does it remind you of in the football world? For me, what just happened has exposed Mr Thierry Henry, the supposed cool guy with a conscience and prototype model of the "new man" footballer, always there for the right good cause photo shoot opportunity, as the real unscrupulous and unsavoury character that he really is.
The moment of shame
There is nothing redeeming about what has happened. Comparisons will wrongly be drawn with Maradona's hand of God. Nothing could be further from Diego's incredibly audacious gesture than this horrendous shame. In 1986 in that incredible game against the English, Maradona not only scored one of the most amazing goals in football ever, but his other goal by handball was the outrageously cheeky and slick conclusion to a deft footballing move that had seen the little Argentinian set himself up in a scoring position for an eye-to-eye duel with Peter Shilton. I am not excusing it per se but at least it punctuated and occurred in a context of a truly thorough display of world class, history-defining footballing skill.
Thierry Henry's goal, on the other hand, has nothing graceful or artistic about it to redeem it from its chilling consequence. It is sly, ugly (even from an athletic/footballing point of view) and smug, especially given how clearly visible it is on the replay. If we really have to make parallels with divinities, than it's more like the goal of Pain and Panic, the two little imps of Hades in the Disney Hercules movie.
Gallas & Henry
It's too bad for Henry. He had seemed to have become more humble at Barça, as if he had finally understood the need to no longer display - at least in public - that despicable smug attitude of aristocratic-like entitlement to success that he always displayed previously when celebrating his goals, and especially in Arsenal colors.
In a sense, from a totally emotional personal point of view, it's not a bad thing altogether, considering how much he has climbed back up to the top of my personal shit list after this. Not just because of the handball, but because of his shameless statements after the game, where he claims that the ball "hit his hand and he played it" (1). Fortunately in today's high definition replay age, we can all see that he not only controlled the ball but directed it to the direction of the goal and the desired pass with the second touch.
That's right, give yourself a hand
Hopefully he will achieve the same pitiful status in the eyes of many others as he has now done for me, so that this callous steal will forever sully his contribution to the game, eclipsing all his other achievements.
And that would really be the only potentially fair compensation for such an unbalanced outcome. It would have been worth it even just so that the whole world could have once again been able to witness the class of Geovanni Trapattoni, who himself abstained from displaying bitterness after the game and only spoke of the importance of fair play in general (2). But in fact, judging by the physical stamina, commitment and skillful play in front of goal over the 210 minutes that the two teams fought through, the Irish bid for the World Cup in South Africa was every bit valid and deserving of another showing. They were the better team; but it wasn't to be.
One of the greatest gents of football, Mister Geovanni Trapattoni
Had the French qualified on the back of the penalty that could have legitimately had been awarded on Shay Given's dive into Nicolas Anelka's feet a bit earlier in the second half, at least the sense of outrage would have been mitigated by a basic acknowledgment and comfort that the rules of the game had been applied as per the rule book and nothing more. As it happens, the French were woeful, pathetic, invisible, and shambolic. These are the words of their own TV and media pundits. Indeed they have qualified on the back of a lucky double re-bound (1st game in Dublin) and a disgusting piece of cheating tonight, in the context of 2 games that the Irish had dominated from head to toe, even if woefully inadequate in their finishing, including in the first game.
So yes, this one is up there in the top 5 of my saddest moments in football (more about that another time). There are only 2 consolations to it:
1. Nicolas Anelka: the Chelsea forward's relative superior class to his teammates is becoming clearer to all by the minute. Nico is the only Frenchman (with Hugo Lloris in goal) to have earned his right to wear the colours, and with a solid display of class to boot. He is the only one that I am happy for that he will appear in South Africa (and I do hope that he does).
Nico's class act
2. There is still Domenech.
And you know how much I love revenge.
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(1) See Yahoo link: http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/19112009/29/thierry-henry-il-y-avait-main.html
(2) Read transcript of Trapattoni's post-game statement: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/2009-11-18-4232948951_x.htm
