"Kiss me, I'm Irish"? Not even 100 wet ones could make the Irish feel better.
Ireland fought back from a 1-0 Saturday home loss to France and seemed in position to upset Les Bleus in their own stadium on Wednesday, playing into overtime after a Rob Keane goal made it an aggregate 1-1 tie in the playoff worth a World Cup ticket. Then, 16 minutes away from a take-all penalty shootout, France pulled its own version of the (in)famous "hand of god."
Thierry Henry did not score the qualifying goal ala Argentina's Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup Quarterfinals vs. England, but he might as well have. The use of his hand to control a deep pass into the Ireland box in the extra period helped him set up an easy (but of gigantic magnitude) score for teammate William Gallas. Gallas took a short pass right to his head two inches away from the goal line and, with not even the goalkeeper close to him, headed the ball in.
The French took off to the sidelines to celebrate. The Irish took off after the referee (the goalie more than anyone). It had been a blatant violation, but the man in orange had missed it. He had a bad angle, his eyes had played a trick on him. Whatever.
Never mind that there was still 16 minutes to turn the story around. France hung on to win with a goal that could be a feature on "Cheaters." Afterwards, Henry showed that he at least is an (somewhat) honest trickster. He admitted that he indeed used his hand (like he could deny it), but said it was unintentional (Right!).
If the ball hits a player's hand once, maybe then it can be labeled as unintentional. But in Henry's case ... he almost palmed the ball and gained control. The whole world has seen the replay at least twice. There's no denying it: a brazenly-obvious fraud of a goal has France in South Africa 2010. And worse: it has Ireland out and green with fury. Many even want to cry.
''It's cost a lot of us our dreams - as a boy I used to dream of playing in the World Cup, and now I'm not,'' Ireland defender Sean St. Ledger said.
You can almost picture St. Ledger's quivering lips as he talks. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has complained formally to FIFA and requested a replay of the match. FIFA confirmed on Thursday it received the complaint and that it will look at it, but such a grant is so unlikely that even Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni deemed it as "impossible."
There have been occasions in which such requests are granted. Uzbekistan had to play Bahrain over in a qualifier for Germany 2006 after a referee made a mistake during a penalty kick. But the situation was different. Uzbeks and Bahrainis had to play again because of a lack of rules' knowledge by the ref and not because he failed to see something. The referee charged an indirect free kick against Uzbekistan because one of their players encroached the Bahrain penalty area as his teammate scored. The correct call would have been a re-kick of the penalty.
It might be what seems fair, but it's not going to happen. Ireland will continue to complain, with all reason; the U.N. will have the world unite in a minute of silence for the death of soccer's integrity (that's a joke), and that'll be the end. On the other hand, France will just take its ticket and head to South Africa ... quietly, as it should. There isn't much they can say. They're in and it's them against the world, now and in 2010.
"(It's up to the French in particular) to recognize there was a travesty (Wednesday) night, an injustice." said John Delaney, FAI's chief executive.
Poor Ireland.