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Thursday, May 18, 2006

The Art of Losing Gracefully

One of the most refreshing things about last Saturday's F.A. Cup Final was the spirit in which the game was played. West Ham took their undeserved defeat on the chin and refused to blame referees, or anyone else for their fate, even though the free kick from which Liverpool scored their second goal was a dubious decision to say the least. Contrast The Hammer's admirable attitude with the snarling, bad sports of Arsenal. Thierry Henry was a total disgrace, blaming everyone but himself for Arsenal's defeat. His manager, Arsene Wenger wasn't much better. Nowhere in Henry's tirade against the match officials (which should have got him a fine from FIFA) was there any mention of the highly debatable decision to award Arsenal the free kick from which they scored their goal. Henry was also incensed that the referee gave him a yellow card- does he feel he has the right to commit fouls without punishment? He also questioned the referee's decision to send off his team's goalkeeper. In fact Arsenal were lucky that the referee did not award a goal to Barcelona AND send Lehmann off, which he would have been quite entitled to do. In all my years of following football I can't remember a team who have reacted to a defeat in such a disgraceful and unsporting way as Arsenal did last night.
If Thierry Henry really does decide to leave the Premier League, I for one will not be sad to see this petulant, ill-mannered, individual go.
And if there is any justice in this world, it will be a long time before Arsenal get anywhere near a Champions League final again.

1 comment:

Itinerant said...

How many times have we seen Henry behaving like this.
Personally, i think he has a point.The barca players did foul him time and again.
He is one of the most well behaved footballers....