The Beautiful Game
"I don't know if life is shit because Arsenal is shit, or the other way around." ~~ Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch
Friday, June 30, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
before you judge
Craig Forrest already started the bad mouthing of thierry henry, but before you jump on the anti-henry bandwagon I would like you to consider something:
[After Arsenal's Champion's League loss, a month ago, to Barcelona,] an emotional Henry claimed the official ignored a series of challenges on him and insisted Arsenal had "made ourselves proud".
He added: "I don't know if the referee had a Barcelona shirt on because they kicked me all over the place. Maybe next time I'll learn how to dive. I expect the referee to do his job but I don't think he did."
Now, in the six years I have been watching Henry regularly I have never seen him dive -- EVER. And yes, today I did. When Carles Puyol came flying across in front of Henry, Henry saw Puyol's arm come up and faked an elbow to the face. It led to a free kick which led to Vieira's game winning goal. Should we be pissed at Henry for "losing his honour"?
I say no. We should be mad at a game that forces a player of Henry's calibre to make such plays to attain any semblance of fair play. A game where defenders can head hunt attackers at will and never get called if the attacker doesn't become theatrical is a game that forces theatricality. And if that's whta it takes for Henry to win that's what it takes.
Allez les Bleus!!!!