Internationals 18 November 2009

[Kenneth]

At least you Irish lads will have England there to support.

[McDermotX]

No contact, Anelka dived. That was a superb piece of refereeing.

Yep,
apart from the lack of yellow card for Anelka

[Reece]

There was contact from Given IMO - minimal - but contact all the same. Anelka certainly exaggerated the "fall" though.

[Scratch]

There was contact from Given IMO - minimal - but contact all the same. Anelka certainly exaggerated the "fall" though.

There was definite contact, so even tho Le Sulk made a meal of it, it was a penalty, whatever way you look at it.

Sadly the Irish couldn't take advantage of their fortune then, and paid for it later, albeit by another piece of dodgy refereeing.

[Shaggy]

Anelka was going down before he got near Given. Any "contact" was utterly minimal. Football is a contact sport, and that was not a foul.

[Scratch]

Anelka was going down before he got near Given. Any "contact" was utterly minimal. Football is a contact sport, and that was not a foul.

Football is a contact sport, but catching the man and not the ball is a foul, anyway you want to look at it. The Irish had luck on their side then, but not later on.

[Shaggy]

The ref saw Anelka falling to the ground before he even reached Given and quite rightly decided he was looking for a penalty. The only mystery is why he didn't book Anelka for cheating. "Contact" while someone is in the process of falling over is not a foul.

[ronanm]

Football is a contact sport, but catching the man and not the ball is a foul, anyway you want to look at it. The Irish had luck on their side then, but not later on.

Luck my hole - please see my earlier post. We got no luck.

[The Erectile Banana]

The ref saw Anelka falling to the ground before he even reached Given and quite rightly decided he was looking for a penalty. The only mystery is why he didn't book Anelka for cheating. "Contact" while someone is in the process of falling over is not a foul.

I'm with Shaggy on this one. Anelka threw himself over Given.

This modern definitiomn of a penalty being any contact in the penalty area is not always right.

[Shaggy]

It's bull****, that's what it is.

[greenbloodred]

At least you Irish lads will have England there to support.

Absolutely, I'll be getting right behind England although i would also like to see Spain do well. I ****ing know now how gutwrenching it is to be denied by a slice of cheating and poor decision making.
I am now officially a bitter Irish begrudger that hopes them fickle french ****s fail at the WC.

Hopefully we can get a bit of revenge in the 6 nations.

[Shaggy]

Absolutely, I'll be getting right behind England

Surprised to hear that although my Uncles over there and other family do tend to support "us"/England once the Irish interest is over. I think it's a family thing...we all get on great and my family is 50/50 split English/Irish.

Question for the less honourable Irishmen...those of you who'll support ABE (anyone but England) - England draw France in the quarters, who do you cheer for?

[Exiled_red]

No contact?? Are you sure? I know we all hate the french, but no contact?? No contact was N'gog and the brummy keeper, Given caught Anelka good and proper, but the ref missed it.

The Birmingham keeper wasn't the one involved in the Ngog incident, it was Lee Carsley, so it would have been one hell of a dive if he'd gone over the Birmingham keeper's challenge

[The Erectile Banana]

It's bull****, that's what it is.

Let's use an illustrative example. If I was an attacker and Shaggy was a defender. I have the ball, enter the penalty area, lose control and throw myself into Shaggy who has simply stood his ground. I bounce off his chest, fall over and start waving my arms around like Didier Drogba on speed. Is this a penalty? There was contact.

Surprised to hear that although my Uncles over there and other family do tend to support "us"/England once the Irish interest is over. I think it's a family thing...we all get on great and my family is 50/50 split English/Irish.

Question for the less honourable Irishmen...those of you who'll support ABE (anyone but England) - England draw France in the quarters, who do you cheer for?

I'll admit to being one of the less honourable Irishmen. I can never bring myself to cheer for England. Some of my favourite memories of recent tournaments have been your penalty shootout losses to Portugal. Your Euro 2004 exit was particularly entertaining.

If that draw happened I would be torn but I think I would have to support the English team. Every time Thierry Henry sets up or scores a goal in the tournament will be a dagger through the heart. He has gone right to the top of my most dispised footballer's list.

[Exiled_red]

Anelka was going down before he got near Given. Any "contact" was utterly minimal. Football is a contact sport, and that was not a foul.