Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Job Will Not Save You

If the status updates of my Facebook friends is representative of Ireland’s collective psyche, then we were a nation in mourning last night. The word “gutted” was used by not a few, as the general air of gloom and doom loomed large. My initial -- and rather cynical -- reaction to all of this was, “These people obviously haven’t seen Ireland’s other qualification games, otherwise they’d be used to the post-match depression that inevitably follows”. The away fixture against Cyprus springs to mind. There’s an old saying in football - When Cyprus have more possession than you, then WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THAT!?

But I digress. Last night’s match was no Nicosian nightmare. For large swathes of the game, Ireland were the better football team. Our goal was one of real quality; and one of the utmost rarity, with Zinedine Kilbane providing the penetrating through-ball which unlocked the French defense. It was a pass that the onlooking (and let’s face it, cool looking) Zinedine Zidane would have been proud of.

And there were chances after that. Oh there were chances. Damien Duff managed to make a horlicks of a one-on-one. You could argue that he is not a right-footer, but that is no excuse. You’re a professional football player who gets paid thousands of pounds per week to kick a ball. The least you can do is be able to kick it with both of your feet. Robbie Keane managed to out-do Duff by missing an even more glorious opportunity to bury the French once and for all. With only the keeper to beat, he decided the best way to do so was to take it around him. What he didn’t seem to factor in was that he had almost no space in which to accomplish said task, and he simply ran the ball over the end line. What Robbie attempted -- taking it ‘round the keeper -- was indeed possible, but he needed to shift the ball onto his left foot quickly rather then merely let the ball run and hope to catch up with it. If you want to see how it should have been done, click here.

With those two chances spurned, you couldn’t help but feel that it “wasn’t our night”. The circumstances surrounding France’s winner confirmed as much. It could have been disallowed on roughly three accounts, but it wasn’t. Our sense of injustice was tingled. We became the righteous sufferers who bore the wrath of FIFA. We were its sacrificial lamb, who took the punishment of no World Cup trip upon itself. We were the scape-goat the was banished to the wilderness of a quiet summer outside of South Africa. And we were not one bit happy about it.

Thierry Henry has been branded a cheat. Go 6 minutes 41 seconds into this clip, and you’ll hear the sentiments of a million Irish people. I’ve never been a fan of the former Gooner, and so as with Rawls and McNulty, if Henry was a big cheat then I’d be the first to say it. But what he did was simply act human. It was instinctive, and something I wouldn’t put past any of the Irish players.

Cast your mind back to Ireland’s ridiculous penalty to equalise against Georgia. Nobody knew what it was for, and yet Kevin Doyle had his hand up appealing for it. Why? Because he’s a big cheat? Maybe, but there’s also the possibility that he was so desperate for Ireland to score that he would instinctively brand something legitimate “illegitimate” in order to influence the referee. There was no handball, or whatever, by any Georgian player, and yet Ireland got a penalty and secured a much needed result.

Henry handled the ball, but it was not deemed a foul. A Georgian player didn’t handle the ball, and yet Kevin Doyle got the penalty he so badly craved. I wonder what the Georgian reaction to that was on Facebook. Something about FIFA favouring the more established nations, perhaps.

Of course it’s perfectly okay to be upset about this injustice (we wouldn't be human if we weren't), but I think that taking our anger out on Henry for his handball is misguided, as is branding him a “cheat”. There are plenty of other reasons to dislike the Barcelona forward -- he’s arrogant, he’s French (there’s two to get the ball rolling) -- but to call him a cheat is to go too far. It is to misunderstand the game of football. Think of Eduardo of Arsenal getting booed for his dive against Celtic. Is he a big cheat? Not exactly. He simply did what almost most all footballers do in that situation. If you want to boo him then you are free to do so, but on that principle you had better be prepared to boo almost every football player that walks out onto a pitch. And while you’re at it, remember to boo those people who surf the internet during work hours, or who take an extra fifteen minutes for their lunch break.

Ireland lost, and we can all be upset about the way it happened. We can even be “gutted”, because our group of hard-working players deserved to be rewarded for their noble efforts. But right after the game, my brother put all of our collective misery into perspective. Four young women died in a car on their way to do some Christmas shopping a couple of days ago. There are greater injustices in the world than Henry’s illegal use of his left arm. Think also of Robert Enke, the German goalkeeper who recently took his own life after a long battle with depression. How did we let this happen? Could anything have been done to prevent it?

Football is not a matter of life and death, but it tells us a lot about ourselves that we often act like it -- or something similar to it -- is. Life goes on, people. Listen to the wise words of Lester Freamon and pay heed to what he says: the job will not save you.

[Dismounts from high horse.]

There is light at the end of the tunnel, however. The Premier League starts back on Saturday, with Liverpool playing Man City in what could be a pivotal fixture for both clubs. International football was always just a nuisance anyway, wasn’t it?

12 comments:

  1. First of all, Henry, though he may not be a cheat, cheated. All your nonsense 'acting like a human' rationalisations won't change that. He deliberately handled the ball. If you hadn't already dismounted that High Horse, I'd push you off it.

    There's little worse, or more patronizing than someone trivialising a football game to people who really care about it. It should be lesson one for girlfriends. If your fella's team loses, leave him be. Whatever you do, don't poke the bear.

    You could argue, rightly so that we didn't deserve to qualify if you look at the campaign as a whole. The thing is though, that we were always trying to finish second, always trying to get the playoff place. So in that light, and with the playoff place achieved, this was our chance and the boys did us proud. The crap displays in the group were justified by our achieving our goal. Then, come playoff time we completely outplay our opponents and are put out partly due to our own inadequecies and partly due to misfortune. Whatever about it, this was the game Trappatoni knew mattered, all that preceded it was just a means to an end. And in the end, we suffered massive injustice.

    I'd guess I'm not too far wrong in saying you had little vested interest in seeing Ireland qualify. Fair enough. I doubt Dave did either. Each to their own. But to turn around and say it doesn't matter cos some girls died in a car crash is ludicrous. In that case, why care about anything? Surely if something goes wrong in your life there will always be some other tragedy somewhere else that will 'put it into perspective'. It's insulting, and I'm insulted.

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  2. declan, the thing is that there isn't any prestige lost by taking an extra fifteen minutes at lunch or surfing the net at work, but there is by missing out on the world cup. this is also made worse by the fact not that henry handled it, i agree if it had been an irish player they would not have acted guilty either, but that he vlatantly cheated when he caught it the second time and threw it back into play to cross it. the anger at henry is better directed at the officials who missed the offside and the handballs. and at fifa/uefa who screwed us to save face, largely for platini so he could have his country there. an average bunch of players, unified by a great manager and given a sense of purpose were beaten by a crooked organization and poor officiating, full stop. the people need to vent, and henry's actions were ludicrous, especially sitting beside dunne after and saying he had handled it and felt ireland were deserving of the place, not france, really doesn't help his situation. at least anelka looked totally ashamed by what had happened, henry looked as smug as ever.

    and also, enke had been treated for depression and panic attacks since he was dropped at barcelona in 2003, so while it is a tragic loss, it is his wife who shoulders a large part of the blame for letting his irrational fears of losing his adopted child be kept secret. that is legally significant, not morally.

    and declan, such an average bunch of players can only be commended for their actions throughout the campaign, sure there were controversial moments, but they had an entire country of 4.5 million believing ireland could genuinely beat france in paris to the world cup despite fifa's actions, so they surely must be

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  3. Niall,

    Did Henry break the rules? Of course. Was he the only person to break the rules during the game? Certainly not. I only said that “acting like a human” nonsense because the way some people are talking about what he did you would swear he spent his life raping and pillaging, with this being the final straw. The sport is full of what can be considered cheating; defenders pull attackers’ jerseys, strikers fall before the goalkeeper actually touches them, players appeal for phantom goals and penalties, and players handle the ball. I’m not condoning what Henry did; merely putting it into context.

    Accusing me of trivialising the game is grossly unfair. I watched most of Ireland’s games, I was emotionally invested in last night’s encounter. On what grounds can you write that I had little vested interest in seeing Ireland qualify? Because I haven’t come out and called Thierry Henry a cheating bastard? Ireland are just about the only team I consider myself a supporter of, through thick and thin. I may poke fun at international football as a whole, but I still watch it, and I still care about it.

    And where did I write that the game didn’t matter? Where did I say to people that the only thing we should care about in life is people dying? You make me sound like some hack football fan who only watches the odd game or two, as opposed to someone who has no social life on account of iraqgoals.com.

    One last point that I read elsewhere. Contrast the dignity of the Irish players in the face of injustice with the actions of Didier Drogba after Chelsea were dumped out of the CL last season. They didn’t go up to a camera and proclaim the whole thing an f’ing disgrace. They took it on the chin, and it is a credit to them. Some of the Irish fans who have posted things on various websites could learn a thing or two from the people they support. In fact we all could.

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  4. Ian,

    All fair points. I never said venting wasn't allowed. I didn't even say anger at Henry is off limits. I just think that his blatant breach of the rules of football should not be the focus, no matter what the outcome of it was. (I hope I'm not being negative by bringing up the fact that without that goal we were still headed for penalties, where France would have been substantial favourites.)

    I would only add that I agree with your comments about the Irish team. They should of course be commended. That I didn't do much of that in this post doesn't mean I think they let us down or whatever. As I said, they were the better football team on the night and deserve to be going to SA.

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  5. Declan, I feel let down. Not by your sentiments regarding Henry but by the 'perspective' which you claim to have gained. I can't stand when people do that. It matters to people. Football matters and it makes people care and it exposes people to the full spectrum of their emotions and that's a really good thing. To then undermine those emotions by delivering platitudes like 'it's only a game' or 'it's not life or death', well I expected better. For if we were to take such a position we would be apathetic towards all things in life and would find it very difficult to derive pleasure from anything. I care a great deal more about the Irish team going out than I do about those people that died. People die every day... the WC is only on every four years!

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  6. Gav,

    The opening to Football Weekly Extra last week reminded us of the exact same perspective. I don't remember you expressing disappointment at that, so why now?

    Also, why do you think that if we keep the unquestionably more important things in mind that we won't have room to be passionate or moved by anything else? I'm not sure where you and Niall got that deduction from, but I'm not seeing it.

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  7. The difference with Enkle was that he was in the game and therefore his death was intrinsically linked to the game. The expression "it's only a game after all" was appropriate because 1. You worried that he might have killed himself because of on field matters and its not worth killing yourself over & 2. To stop people from suggesting that a professional footballer doesn't have the right to be depressed. But to say that people should chasten their emotions because some girls died in a car crash is ridiculous. It's something I'd expect of a deluded, self righteous prick. I think Cleary's with me on this one cause if a team lost a game I was emotionally invested in and somebody turned around and dismissed my feels by telling me to get some perspective he be told in no uncertain terms where to go.

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  8. I don't believe I have dismissed anyone's feelings, or chastened anyone's emotions. When I said that "Football is not a matter of life and death", that was not a throwaway platitude written to quench all feelings about everything. I wasn't suggesting that we all think about the 4 dead girls instead of the football, or whatever. It just struck me as I was writing that I can get so riled up about football, and go completely unmoved by genuine tragedy, or attach less significance to things like family, friendship and love and so forth. Perhaps it was unwise to stick that into the piece, but whatever it's intention, it was not to diminish a love for football. If I wanted to do that then it would make little sense to (half) keep a football blog. (Of course it could be argued that reading my blog actually DOES diminish one's love for football, but that's neither here nor there.)

    If I came across as a deludedself-righteous prick then I do apologise. It was never my intention to be self-righteous; just a deluded prick. :-)

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  9. Niall

    I was merely putting my own sense of loss and hurt over the match into perspective, in comparison to the hurt the families of those dead girls must feel.

    Sport is sport. Lives are lives. i could go much more in depth, but I wont.

    I won't apologise for making that statment.

    PS. "No vested interest in ireland qualifying"

    What's that all about. I didn't have money on the match?

    I was as passionate as any fan last night. I have no voice now to prove it.

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  10. Everybody,

    I'm still upset about last night. I'm not angry at anyone, not Henry, not France and certainly not the UEFA/FIFA/Lee Harvey Oswald Conspiracy. (Ireland got their fair share of refeering last night) I'm just upset. Heartbroken, I would call it. If there's one thing I've learned being a Newcastle and Ireland fan it's that football is built to break my heart. I deal with it.

    What I was annoyed about in this piece is that it smacked of someone telling me to get over it. If you didn't mean it that way, then fair enough, but that's how I read it. The worst, and I mean this, the worst thing that can happen after football heartbreak (or any sport someone loves I suppose) is someone attempting to get you over it. I don't want to hear it. Dave, you're entitled to your opinion, as I said, each to their own. Lord knows there are more important things in my life than the result of last night's game. But when it was over, all I could see was it. Nothing else seemed to matter at all. Certainly not the travails of people I don't even know.

    My assumption that you didn't care as much as, say, I did is borne out of your attitude to Irish football. I can't quote you, so I won't. But I suspect the football purist in you would beat the Irish fan in you in a fight any day of the week.

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  11. Niall

    Fair points. Appreciate the honesty.

    To be clear, I was gutted for the whole day, and still am. My first thought this morning was "Crap, we lost".

    It's a great shame. I think what makes it worse is the fact that we lost to France of all teams. The most gutless shower of individuals you are ever likely see.

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  12. wow....heated debate if ever i read one......

    for the record.....i didn't even know ireland were playing.....what does that make me??!

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