When Jermain Defoe wakes up tomorrow morning he won't have to wonder why the sun is winking at him or why bluebirds are pulling back his sheets and why hot blondes are fondling his man junk. No, all he'll have to do is watch the replay of last night's match ... Click to continue reading...

What an emotional, mentally draining week its been.� Monsieur Henry's handball has been talked to death at this stage, im sure some people will be rolling their eyes at another article over this much talked about topic, but I haven't given my two cents yet and I've got some things to get off my chest.

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The France-Ireland match and the aftermath have been extremely emotional for all involved.

The Match

France humiliated themselves with a pathetic performance, arguably the worst of the Domenech era, which is saying something.

Ireland played very well, but blew multiple goal-scoring chances that would have booked their spot in the World Cup.

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From Fox Sports:
'Victory skipper Kevin Muscat refused to shake hands with Brisbane rival Matt McKay after the match. "It's the first time I've ever refused to shake hands with a player after a game,'' said Muscat. "I won't go into details why, but he and I both know what he did. "I'm a great believer in what happens out there should stay out there. Click to continue reading...

Referees have once again made their way into the headlines and for once MLS has no apologies to make. In the second leg of a UEFA World Cup Qualification playoff, Thierry Henry made a vital assist, crossing across the face of goal to William Gallas' head to score the tying goal. The goal pulled France level in the match and ahead 2-1 on aggregate.

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Ireland have been forced to admit defeat in their efforts to be granted a replay of their World Cup play-off clash with France.
Having seen FIFA reject their appeals to have the second leg of the tie replayed because of Thierry Henry's handball in the run-up to William Gallas' decisive goal, the Football Association of Ireland, backed by both French skipper Henry and Ireland captain Robbie Keane, had turned to the French Football Federation. Click to continue reading...

Prizes, thats what points mean, and today we are going for the Brucie Bonus

I am still smiling from a comment London made yesterday. The wise man had found out that our game against Sunderland was being shown live on Italia television and that all we have to do is find a good Italian bar, sit down with a few beers and watch the game.

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Everyone is having their s(pr)ay about the already notorious Thierry Henry incident. That his act was abominably unethical is undisputed; the more significant fallout from his brazen piece of gamesmanship is likely to be yet more discussion about the issue of video assistance for referees.
To clear the ground first: the calls for a replay of the match are essentially unfounded. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry now says that a replay would be the fair thing, but FIFA won't have any of it. Roy Keane thinks FAI should drop the cause and move on, and France's coach Raymond Domenech seems just happy to have qualified.
The KC Star got in on the act today, as Matt Schofield chimes in on the story, laying out the details for those who haven't yet heard of them and offering a modern-day morality lesson. Click to continue reading...

Right then, whilst I'm here I might as well sort this shit out.

First things first, I WANT the game to be replayed. Having said that it would be an absolute travesty if FIFA ordered a rematch of the game, as it would set an extremely dangerous precedent in football whereby the result on the pitch isn't final.

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The appetite for commentary on the farce in Paris still seems strong, and I thought Arsene Wenger had a very wise take on the entire situation today.� Wenger is, obviously, a French supporter and very close with Henry.� In fairness to the Irish fans, the world football community, and for the sake of Henry, he called for the game to be replayed.

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Big Story
UEFA yesterday revealed more information about investigations into over 200 individuals alleged to have fixed matches in nine different countries with a press conference. This revealed that the vast majority under suspicion are domestic matches, with the German authorities having requested information from UEFA's Betting Fraud Detection System in a number of cases, making 17 arrests yesterday.

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Since Thierry Henry's handball on Wednesday, the former Arsenal striker's reaction has gone from arrogance, to indifference to being contrite. From where I sit, this simply proves that Henry is a Public Relations driven phony. He's cultivated an image for over a decade in conjunction with his handlers and now sees the possibility it can all come undone.

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Should Georgia get a replay? Roy Keane reckons the Republic of Ireland could not have expected their game against France to be replayed on the grounds of Thierry Henry's handball. The Ipswich manager launched a scathing attack against the Football Association of Ireland for their protests following the match, and accused them of hypocrisy on the [. Click to continue reading...

Thierry Henry's legacy will never be the same. Like when Brett Favre started his rope-a-dope with retirement.
Both will forever be honored greats, but each will have a little negativity added to their reputations.
There were all sorts of stories on the wire yesterday regarding Le Hand. Click to continue reading...

To echo our host's views on this, what took place between France and Ireland on Wednesday night really was a travesty. And lo and behold, here to rub salt in still-fresh wounds is soccer's top authority, FIFA.
For those who don't know, FIFA is about as honest, fair-minded and interested in bettering the world as your average African dictator -- and even that's probably an insult to African dictators. Click to continue reading...

It´s official FIFA has rejected the call to replay the France vs Ireland World Cup 2010 qualifying match which was won by France afterThierry Henry handballed twice in the last moments to allowteam-mate Gallas to score the qualifying goal.As expected the "blacklash" has been Worldwide with responses fromall around the global. Click to continue reading...

As the Henry business slowly and painfully dies away, I just want to cap off my soccer journalism post from Wednesday. I finished with offering one or two reasons why the traditional long-form journo model may in fact not be dead, and speculated on what the introduction of an across the board pay-wall for newspaper on-line editions would mean. Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia The Irish Justice Minister had already asked Football's Highest Governing Body, FIFA for a replay match for the World Cup qualification after the controversial incident of Thierry Henry handling the ball in the Irish penalty zone before passing the ball to teammate William Gallas who headed home. Click to continue reading...

They Think It's All Over... considers Ireland's appeal to replay their match against France. Do they have a chance? And what would it mean for football? Click to continue reading...

Its not just the Egyptian and Algerian governments having a holy go at each other.

The replay request is now being echoed in the upper echelons of the Irish government as Brian Cowen, the Irish PM is now suggesting that he will approach the French premier Nickolas Sarkozy to discuss a replay and circumvent FIFA's objections.

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The Football Association of Ireland or FAI has officially submitted a request to replay the 2nd leg of the UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying Playoffs against France on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. The match ended in controversy as France scored in extra time on a goal from William Gallas. Thierry Henry clearly had a handball before passing to Gallas for the goal but it wasn't called by the referee.

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Bath City have drawn Forest Green Rovers for a home match next week in the Second Round of the FA Cup. The selection was actually almost two weeks ago, but because Forest Green and Mansfield Town failed to produce a result in their Frist Round match, City could not be sure who their opponents would be until the replay two days ago. Click to continue reading...

This past week(s) we've have a couple united boys playing for their countries, attempting to qualify for South Africa. While its not directly "United Related", there's no way I cannot bring up the most blatant handball since Maradonna's "Hand of God".

So a quick roundup of the scores and the United personnel playing before I get to more on to what is going to be the single most discussed play in recent times:

France 1 1 Ireland (2-1 Aggregate)
France : Patrice Evra
Ireland : John O'Shea, Darren Gibson

Portugal 1 B&H (2-0 Aggregate)
Portugal : Nani

Okay, so the handball (seen/touch/heard) 'round the world.

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The Irish FA is calling for a replay. Will it happen? Who knows, but there is no doubt that it was a hand ball. Thierry Henry even admits it:

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Briefly:

*In praise of Galaxy GM and Coach Bruce Arena.

*For Real Salt Lake MLS Cup equals redemption.

* Former Chivas USA Coach Preki was officially unveiled as Toronto's new coach today. Wonder how much longer Amado Guevara will be around?

*Want to party like it's 1989?

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Yes, that was a handball. Deux handball, no less. Thierry Henry's last-gasp equalizer sent the French through to South Africa and sent Ireland scrambling to try to force a replay "in the interests of fair play."

I agree that's the fair thing to do. I don't think there's any way in hell it'll happen.

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Everybody is talking about it, so I thought I'd join in. It has been dubbed the Hand of god II. As if the plot of this sequel is similar to the first one.

Before we can go into further debate, I'm not denying that it wasn't a handball. It will be very difficult to suggest otherwise. The actual handball happened in two parts, the first seemed accidental but the second most definitely wasn't.

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The FRANCE vs. IRELAND game has transcended all frontiers.This is the French goal from Gallas that eliminated a brave Irelandside from the 2010 World Cup:(LOWER THE VOLUMEN!, incident replay 1.15min)Two points:1. There was off-side2. Thierry Henry handled the ball twice.According to the player:"Yes it was handball, evidently I would have wishedit to be differently, but I am not the referee"It is Click to continue reading...

Seems like a whole lot of past and present Arsenal connections have played or are playing a very influential part in the France vs Ireland match and its aftermath.

The latest is Liam Brady calling FIFA for a replay which he says would be only fair given that it was a clear handball by Thierry Henry that set up William Gallas equalizer.

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Trap's dreams denied by missed chances and underhand tricks
Cascarino: Henry is an insincere cheat
Richard Williams: How Henry could have handled it all so differently
Maher: Ireland hard done by
Barclay: Lucky Domenech spared trial by video
Lee Dixon: Henry has tainted his reputation
Amy Lawrence: Trap finds no luck
Bitter Keane blasts FIFA, UEFA & Platini
Fifa rejects calls for replay after Henry handball Click to continue reading...

I was reluctant at first to write about this, and everyone from my non-soccer life was soliciting opinions on Henry's handball against Ireland, but I do have one or two things to say.
I first want to echo Brian Phillips remark yesterday: "Don't call it a "controversial goal." It was a visibly illegitimate goal. Click to continue reading...

This is a picture of what's currently going down in the center of Paris. No, that is not a Frenchman celebrating the lack of video replay in football. No, that is not an Irishman infuriated by the lack of integrity by one Thierry Henry. Hell, it's not even the CEO of Caran d'Ache.

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How to begin making sense of this week?� We start out with the crazy happenings between Ireland and France today - if ever there was a case to be made for instituting replay, this was it.� Sadly, the case of the Irish is not likely to be sufficient to make it happen.� Until a major team (that draws major crowd and sponsorship support) misses out on the World Cup or Champions League because of a Click to continue reading...

Jon-Paul Pittman saw thirty minutes as Wycombe Wanderers fell to fellow League One team Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup first round replay, wrapping up the first round of the tournament. Click to continue reading...