Hero? or Villain?

Legend to Villain?

During France’s friendly against Spain yesterday, the home crowd was booing Henry at every touch of the ball. According to many sources, this was in light of his obvious cheat-like behavior (shown below) against Ireland some months ago that caused an international buzz around the legendary gunner. As someone very perplexed by this truly bizarre situation, I must ask French fans – Why?? Why are the French, the one contingent who profited from his handball, mad at him? His act of cheating got them into the World Cup! Were it not for his handball, France would have not qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 30 years. I know that Henry’s handball was despicable, but the fact of the matter is, that handball resulted in the France’s qualification, as well as the press turning all their attention to him rather than criticising the deficiencies of Les Bleus. As far as I’m concerned, they owe him a lot at this point for 1) getting them in the world cup 2)enduring the crap that they would have had to deal with. At the very least, he doesn’t deserve boos from his own fans. I simply can’t understand fans who boo their all-time top scorer for doing something that saved their asses. Talk about biting the hand.

 

Oranje!

Check out Nike Football’s new Oranje promo. The Orange defeated Team USA 2-1 yesterday, but there wasn’t much hope for the Americans from the beginning. Not only were Holland favored, but Team USA was missing Sochaux attacker Charlie Davies and Fulham veteran Clint Dempsey. I was excited to watch Bolton’s rising star Stuart Holden, but he was taken out early through a rough tackle. Owen Coyle will not have his American playmaker for another six weeks, which is a blow considering Holden’s impressive debut two weeks ago. I’m sure Coach Bradley wasn’t pleased either. Team USA needs to get all their players fit and ready for the World Cup if they want to show the world how much they have improved. Speaking of which, Landon Donovan is set to return to MLS soon, and I believe his next game is supposed to be his last with Everton.