Soccer Goals Safari

Another little piece of football died tonight at the Stade de France. I’m talking FIFA Soccer World Cup second leg playoffs, that saw quite a few unexpected results tonight. Underdogs, the Republic of Ireland, lost 1-0 at home in the first leg, but played out of their skins in Paris tonight, totally dominating a lacklustre French team. One of my favorite players, Robbie Keane (because he’s an ex-Wolves player!), slotted away a great goal in the first half, and after several golden opportunities were missed by the Irish team, the match went to extra time.

Thierry Henry

Unable to create any realistic scoring openings using legal methods, the French stole a goal after Thierry Henry (right: photo obtained under Creative Commons) cynically handled the ball allowing him to cross to Gallas who scored the night’s equalizer – putting France through to the World Cup Finals in South Africa. Sorry Henry, but – shame on you! It would have been nice to see a little bit of honour, especially in such an important match. So this almost certainly looks like being Ireland’s “Hand of God” tragedy. Absolute soccer goal shocker! I’m sure any Irish fans will be incandescent with rage tonight, and FIFA, for the sake of its own reputation should get involved.

So despite playing France off the field tonight, Ireland get sent home while France have now booked their ticket to the World Cup. The other teams through after completing their playoffs during the last week, and on their way to South Africa next summer, are New Zealand, Algeria, Greece, Slovenia and Portugal. Uruguay are still to play their deciding fixture against Costa Rica.

I’ll update the full list of qualifying teams once all is done and dusted; and once I’ve fully understood and grasped the concept that in FIFA Soccer, cheats do indeed prosper.