It's not often a player praises an opponent's character after a loss, but Southampton defender Claus Lundekvam, who grabbed Thierry Henry's shirt in the box 20 seconds into the match, sung the praises of Henry after the match. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2003230101,00.html I must take a moment to applaud Lundekvam's class and graciousness in defeat. It's something we don't see enough of in sports.
Even with a poorly executed dive it would have been 1-0 and SOTON down to 10 men. Henry also had the class to be honest in the post game interview where he admits to diving in the second half. Its nice to see a defender admit his wrong doing and give props to the opponent.
Soton's class shown after the defeat is a nice change of pace from the "class" shown by Sir Red Nose and the rest of ManUre FC. Congrats, once again to our boys. Rein Mais le Quad! OPArsenal
Maybe Henry was thinking more of breaking his goal-scoring drought at Cardiff. I've heard that there's a rule amongst the players at Highbury that whoever gets fouled for a penalty doesn't take the kick. So if Henry had gone down, someone else (probably Pires) would have taken the penalty kick.
Sure, class. The kind Arsenal always shows... Wenger: Campbell red card a 'complete joke' Arsene Wenger described the red card set to rule Sol Campbell out of the title run-in and The FA Cup final as a "complete joke". Vieira: Arsenal are the best "I have seen Manchester United so many times on television this season and they were playing really poor football - really rubbish," Vieira said. The irony is delicious.
Wenger was correct it was a complete joke that Sol Campbell missed the F.A cup final he didn't even connect correctly with the baby faced assassin.Then the English F.A relaxed one of their rules which states that a player serving a domestic ban can not play for his country hoping that Sol would play,thankfully he is injured. Ruud the diver is rumoured to be giving his medal to referee Mike Riley for all the penalties he awarded him for his blatant dives throughout the season.There are two words that can not be used when talking about Ruud the diver that is honest and fair
just thought i would mention... and TH14 is my favourite player on the earth... BUT~~ wot is the deal wiv Ruud van nistlerooj?? the guy is a brilliant centre forward with all the goal scoring touch that im sure every gunner can appreciate.. does he go down? yeah sure.. but the guy WILL stick it in the back of the net on a PK (unlike henry sadly) and always tracks back to assist his midfielders... i know we all crack on him cuz he does truly dive, but that is a small bit to wot is a great player (i may be biased as i fancy the dutch).. my 2 cents~ phishy
phishy, Ruud is a great talent, but he's also a cheat, plain and simple. I really wish every time he dove, he'd get a yellow, as he'd only play in about half of ManUre's matches due to suspensions. But referees like Riley always seem to reward him for it, so why should he stop? The real irony of this whole thing is that the article is about Henry being praised for not diving, and yet Achtung supports a team featuring the greatest diver since Greg Louganis. The article even says that, if van Nistlerooy was in the same situation that Henry was in, he would have dove twice. True class acts, those Mancs.
So coming in here and making a single post to point out the hypocrisy of the situation makes me a troll? I wonder what you'd call some of the Arsenal fans who come into our forum. I generally have nothing but good things to say about Arsenal's play on the pitch. Their style has made them one of the most exciting teams in the world, often times more exciting and even better overall than Man United. I think that they were indeed the best team for the first half of the Premiership season, and I applaud their successes. But the comments made by Wenger and Vieira in the past few weeks have been anything but classy. And yet I saw plenty of support for those views in here. Now, when Arsenal comes out on the winning side of a tournament, one which they fought hard in and deservedly won, class and graciousness are shown by Southampton and are "something we don't see enough of in sports." But apparently when Arsenal don't show class, its accepted by fans. I'm sure all fans don't feel this way, but its enough to appear like a double standard. As for Ruud, I really am not sure how to respond. I know that some people see him as a diver, but he doesn't seem to get carded for that, so I guess either he is not diving, or he does a really good job of it. Only Ruud knows for sure what really happens in those cases. I personally think he is a pretty big target because of his scoring abilities, and so he gets fouled a lot. But then my opinion is probably a bit biased. If Henry never dives, good for him. That is a very classy way to play the game, and its the part of the game which I hate most. For what its worth, I thought the red card against Campbell was a bit harsh, but unfortunately you have to live with it. The same goes for a call against Man United. In the game at Highbury, sure the players could have stood around and complained about Henry's second goal that was blatantly offsides. But they didn't, instead choosing to march straight down the field and score. That's the last you'll hear from me on this subject. I didn't come here to troll, but I just felt that it was wrong to praise graciousness in one situation while ignoring it in another.
See here's the thing. Since Man United clinched the title a good handful of United supporters have come here, often with less than a dozen posts to their name, and rubbed our noses in it one way or another. So, when you came in as an unknown, as opposed to say Bufflo Soldier or Captain Splarg, and gave us a poke you got branded as a troll. Your follow-up post shows that clearly you aren't a troll. But that first post followed some classic troll patterns. As far as Arsenal fans and what they say in your forum, well I simply don't know of any that go into the United forum. Please prove me wrong if you can, but I doubt you'll find any posters who are regulars here who posted smack on the United board. You may have seen some support for Wenger and Vieira, but I think there were just as many of us who thought it did indeed sound like sour grapes or classless. It's a fine line and often an unfair double-standard. It's one thing if you blast us on our board, or we blast ourselves on our board. Here's an inflammatory analogy: If I'm black and call some of my friends n*ggers, it doesn't become an issue. If you're white and you call me a n*gger to your friends in your house, it doesn't become an issue. But if you come into my house and call me a n*gger, well then we're going to have a problem. Perhaps there should be a separate board where fans of different teams can get together and flame the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks out of each other and it isn't taken personally. I think the MLS area has such a "rivalry" board. Moderator Andy, any thoughts?