The teams who will participate in the World Cup finals in South Africa next year are all but set, but it wasn’t with out shock, controversy and surprise. Heading into the days action, six places in the world’s biggest soccer competition were up for grabs across Europe and in Africa.
The biggest story of the days action revolves around the France v. Ireland game. With a precious away goal scored in 1-0 win during the first leg, France seemed to be in good position to make their way to South Africa. The tie was turned on its head when Robbie Keane of Ireland struck to even things up on aggregate. When full time was reached and overtime began, the match seemed destined for penalties and a terrible way for one team to lose. The thought of losing on penalties would not turn out to be half as bad as what actually occurred. In the 103rd minute, Barcelona and France striker Thierry Henry blatantly used his hand to corral a free kick before popping a pass in front of the net for teammate William Gallas to head home. The obviously illegal goal somehow stood and pushed France through to World Cup 2010. Ireland’s manager and the whole of a country were rightfully fuming when the final whistle blew. In this situation, there is no one to blame but the referee and his linesman as they failed to communicate and make the correct decision on such a gigantic ocassion. This event will not be forgotten; be sure to keep this in the back of your mind when future talks heat up about the use of replay or a goal line official in professional soccer.
Happening thousands of miles away, was something just as shocking, if not more. The playoff between Russia and Slovenia looked to be in total control of the Russians after 80 minutes of the first leg. Down 2-0 and being dominated for much for the game, the Slovenians scored a massively important late header to secure an away goal which meant they could advance with a 1-0 win at home in the return leg. Needing a single goal and a clean sheet, the Slovenians shocked the soccer world by doing just that and sending a highly rated Russia side home to watch the summer’s festivities on their couches.
In Bosnia, a Portuguese side minus the world player of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo, entered the final match with a slim 1-0 lead from the first leg in Portugal. While the lead didn’t look like much on paper, the Portuguese could all but lock up their place in South Africa by scoring a goal in the away match. Doing so would essentially mean the Bosnians would need at least three goals in order to advance due to the away goals rule. Ronaldo’s dream of returning to the World Cup was sealed when his Portugal backup and former Manchester United teammate Nani put Raúl Meireles through to slot home the winner.
More surprise was seen in Europe as 2006 World Cup quarter-finalists Ukraine were robbed of a spot in next summer’s finals by Greece. The Greeks punched their ticket to South Africa with an early strike by Dimitris Salpigidis that left the home Ukraine fans in shock.
Maybe the most passionate and fierce match of the day featured bitter rivals Egypt and Algeria. After Egypt secured a near impossible 2-0 result in the first game, the two teams were forced to play a sudden death playoff in Sudan. The hatred between these two countries can be summed up by the fact that 15,000! police and military were assigned to the game in order to create a ring of protection around the field. Ultimately it was the Algeria fans celebrating wildly as Antar Yahia cracked a smashing volley in the 39th minute that would turn out to be the winner.
Henry is a cheat but he did something that almost any player would do to get their team to the World Cup. I don't know how the ref or linesman missed that but they did and now I have the pleasure of rooting against France at the World Cup.
Next step–the World Cup Finals 2010 South Africa. Congrats to the teams who advanced, and apologies are in order for the teams who were cheated out of a chance. The french, once again on the brink of qualification found a way to get a result against a heart broken country and team in the Republic of Ireland. This is nobody but the referees fault, the refs involved should have put their heads together and come to the correct decision dispite time confliction. This is a massive decision, to get it wrong would be criminal. Look at the chaos this is going to cause, the discussion about video replay will certainly re-show itself. To input video replay, I have NEVER been a fan of. It would take too much out of the game, BUT in situation like this replay could prove to be very helpful. Lets see what happens.
It's great for our sport and for the tournament to see Portugal qualifiy, dispite not playing the best soccer in moments. It would be criminal to have the two best players in the world sitting out of the world biggest tournament. Although people don't think much of Portugal and Argentina chances as a team, they cannot be over-looked by any country. They have the individual abitlity that can break down any team. Don't count them out.
Sad to see a quality side like Russia not make it, they have shown lots of people that they can compete at a high level and have improved greatly. I cant wait to see what is to come of them in the future, the sky is the limit for the great Arshavin.
Captain Fantastic, why are you going to root against France in the World Cup? They obviously have a very good team on paper and on the pitch. I'm just curious, I really want France to do well again dispite a bad showing in qualification. Viva la Fance..ZIDANE IS GOD!!!
All I can say is my heart and 5 million other Irish hearts have been crushed. To spend 3 years qualifying for the greatest sporting event in the world, only to have it end in a second, is more than I can take. I don't blame France or Henry for playing until the whistle blows. I tell all my teammates the same thing. But the officials should be ashamed.
As far as the Referees are concerned….it's a shame that out of 67,000 live fans and millions of viewers, the only people that didn't see the offsides or hand ball were the 4 officials. I can't understand why referees don't voice their opinion more to their governing organizations. They need help making the correct calls and we have the technology to address these issues WITHOUT "ruining the integrity of the game". It took at least 3 mintues to have the kick off after the goal…plenty of time to yell at the ref and have an official review the play. Referees should all be ashamed of themselves for not standing up to the powers that be. As a player I will take any help I can get on the pitch to make myself better, but apparently referees don't mind all the bad comments or hate mail they get weekly for the horrible calls they make or don't make.
The refs get paid to keep the game fair and it is clear to see that didn't happen. Millions of people saw that hand ball and 4 guys ON THE FIELD THAT GET PAID TO MAKE THOSE CALLS DIDN'T? All those refs should lose their jobs because they have not fulfilled their duties.
Here is a thought: History has a funny way of repeating itself. With that said, Argentina won the world cup after Maradona's "hand of god". I am just sayin….