France A Complete Mess

That's a very interesting astrology discussion and all. Really.

From a footballing perspective however, Ireland just weren't ready to take eminently weak or fading teams. Mexico and Slovakia, South Africa and New Zealand showed the weak underbellies of France and Italy. Underbellies that Ireland either couldn't or didn't have enough confidence to exploit.

Oh, and Slovakia are in Ireland's group for 2012.

 

the fact can't be ignored that italy is an older team and certainly older now than when they played ireland. they've also just finished playing an entire season of club football which is harder to recover from when you're that darn old.

france is purely in 100% mental free fall at the moment which has killed any talent that they may currently possess. True, Ireland should have beaten them especially at Croke Park and had many opportunities but these two teams, France and Italy have such issues that have taken them down since even last fall that they were almost stymied from the start of this World Cup

 

That may be true, but FIFA did all they could to ensure some of those weak underbellies were not exposed by announcing the play-offs would be seeded, so teams like Germany, France, and Russia wouldn't have to play each other.

This coupled with the non-call on Henry's double dribble only increases the volume of subscriptions to conspiracy theories.

As long as FIFA goes out of its way to help those big (read "big revenue") teams that struggle to qualify, there is going to be resentment, so please forgive the smile that crossed my face as I watched a FIFA-aided, cheating promoting, win-at-all-cost, team crash & burn in the WC.

 

Germany were not in the playoffs.

 

Yeah, OK. But this is the Ireland forum. So discussing whateverr FIFA did or didn't do is pretty much irrelevant to the position of the team.

Fact is Ireland had 2 shots each at beating France and Italy and came up short both times. Given the crash and burn regimen that they were on, it's not a great comfort to Ireland to realise that for all their nearly stuff with France and Italy, neither of them are actually very good and were perhaps only marginally better, if at all, when Ireland played them.

And Ireland lost on away goals to Italy and on aggregate to France. Close all around, but it's not a feather in your cap to be almost as good a France or Italy these days.

 

At the time they announced the decsion to seed, Germany was in danger of being part of that playoff.

 

I'm going to have a poker tournament at my house next week and you're invited, and I'm going to give you a heads up tha FIFA never gave Ireland.

I add new rules in the middle of the tournament and stack the deck in my favor of me and my friends. I look forward to playing you because I like to play with people who think that whatever I do is pretty much irrelevant to the cards they have in their hands.

 

First off, I'm French. Let's get that out of the way.

I remember when The Thierry Henry Handball happened that i was one of the people that came into the Ireland forums and apologized for the incident and said that it was an unjust result. Not because I was personally responsible, but because I felt bad about it. At the time there were quite a few Irish people who thanked me for that gesture. I still believe that the handball was wrong.

But fast-forward to today and I'm wondering if Ireland fans will continue hating " the french" forever. Despite this outcome and all of the misery in the French camp, its like Ireland continues to see one man's action, that of Thierry Henry, as an excuse to hate a whole country. Or a whole people, or at the very least a whole team.

I'm not saying that its surprising. But when it happened 80% of the French population sympathized with the Irish. I was one of the people that made up the 80%. But since then all I see is hate in return from the Irish. Hate of Thierry Henry, ok fine. But then also hatred toward everyone in France as well. I cant even tell you how many posts I've read, and not even just from Ireland fans, but generally eminating from everywhere where the Anglo-American media has had its circle of influence, of just an endless stream of France bashing.

My question to you folk is: will it ever stop?

There was a hand ball, yes. But do the french still deserve this despite the "karma" that has befallen them?

After all, when Fabiano scored with his arm against Ivory Coast, I'm pretty sure the people from Cote D'Ivoire havent pledged an unending grudge against the Brazilian population at large. I dont know, maybe I'm wrong.

 

Relax mon ami. In the real world there is no hatred of France or the French. The tabloid media represent the lowest common denominator so I wouldnt worry about it.

I have no problem with Henry or the French team or people. After all had he not handled we could have still lost on penalties.

You should have felt the need to apologise.

I hope it does stop because it is getting very old now. There is an element of Irish people who feel that they were sinned against personally. I liken their hatred to all the fruitcakes who believe in conspiracies.


KOH

 

At least the ither Irish players didnt go on strike in support of the player who didnt want to play for his country.

 

You cry foul about people making generalizations about the French, yet you've just made one helluva generalization about the Irish. We have a word for that in English, not sure if there is a French equivalent.

...and then you extend your generalization to the whole world (since that pretty much covers where the Anglo-American media has had its cirlce of influence).

If all you see is hate, then you need to get out more. Might I recommend a holiday in Ireland? Let's us know how much hate you personally experience at the hands (pardon the pun) of the Irish.

"Yes, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time", is one of my favorite quotes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

On behalf of everyone in Ireland and the entire world, please accept the following apology I just posted on twitter:

"I'm not the referee...but if I hurt someone I'm sorry."

 

Do you mind if i quote you, Pablo?

 

Not at all, as long as you can tell me how my quote equates to:

Go ahead, take your time, I'll wait.

 

Umm, but.......what? Trying to follow this one, but it's not really happening. Emmmm........what? Yeah, not so much. What?

 

Actually there was a poll taken. There was one guy in Kerry who said he liked the French, another in Longford says he wasn't sure, but everyone else in the rest of the country, even tourists changing planes, voted in favor of hating the French forever.

'Hate The French' classes have been set up in every town and city of more than 300 people and the Government has a monthly exam lest anyone doesn't hate them sufficiently. We've heard rumors of re-education camps in places such as Achill if you are seen eating Camembert and drinking even a Californian Cabernet leads to a loss of broadband for 3 months.

The red, white and blue colors have been outlawed in sequential order.

Also, The Committee To Remove All French Words And Phrases From The Language (CTRAFWAPFTL for short) is well established. You have to go before a committee if you want to name your child Henry and all French sounding names have been banned. We have also been told that we no longer pray to the same God that the French do, so that's a comfort.

Obviously this is not much, but we're doing what we can.

Of course not. It's against the law - I'm even in danger replying to this post, lest some Frenchness rubs off on me. But I am going to extra classes this week and I will get a certificate so I should be ok. But maybe you'd pray to your God for me, just in case?

 

Ok, I'll spell it out for you.

You took the position that whatever FIFA does is irrelevant to the position of the team.

I disagree and countered with a poker tournament analogy (link) that illustrates your position in my poker tournament is unduly influenced by my ability to change the rules mid-tournament, just as Ireland's position in qualification was influenced by FIFA's last minute decision to seed the playoffs so FIFA's favorites wouldn't have to play each other.

In short, the stunt that FIFA pulled was relevant to the positon of the team.

 

You mean we should stop having so many showers? Once a month is fine?

 

Ummm.........YEAH! Or OK!

Either of these the right answer?

 

This is BS. There are no right answers.

 

Domenech has been the most hated man in France for a long time. The fact that anyone thinks this man's behavior is representative of the French norm sends chills down my spine.

 

My point was that Thierry Henry is the only person who caused any harm to the Irish people. Henry has basically been reduced to a substitute in the French squad and admits that he's been seen as an outcast.

My second point was that although I was initially very sympathetic towards Ireland fans, now I find them to have a victim mentality and unwilling to accept that their behavior (not everyone...but the majority) has been pretty petty for a while.

I would put you, Pablo, in that camp, based on your posts.

 

First Fifa shaft us by changing the rules on the draw to help get the seeded teams in and then that shameful cheating by HIM and we're to meant say 'aw well'.??

What most of us are most pissed about is the fact that we were better team by far over the two legs.

Then your lot go to SA and make a holy show of themselves and their country, whilst back here 100's of publicans are killing themselves at the loss of revenue.

Yes we are bitter.