Thierry Henry

[JanusStorm]

For anyone who follows sports, and probably even many who don't, you've likely heard of the goal that France scored against Ireland to eliminate them from the World Cup. Thierry Henry took a ball (which also happened to be an offside pass) off his arm/hand, and from there set up the infamous goal.

Not being a huge fan of football, my interest in the whole thing would've been mild, save for the fact that the reaction of people has been ridiculous. I mean, am I missing something? The play was entirely reactionary, it doesn't even remotely qualify as cheating. It was no worse than a hockey player knocking a puck in with a high stick, or a basketball player goaltending.

When MSN ran a story calling it the worst cheating incident in sports history, when 8 of the other 9 events mentioned were blatant premeditated acts of cheating, I just laughed.

I'd love to hear some other viewpoints on this, especially from anyone who disagrees with me, as I'm curious to see how anyone can rationally call what he did a gross act of cheating.

[Mixer]

As a soccer fan I can add to this. Essentially soccer is a HUGE world sport that gets a ton of attention. The fans in Europe are much more die hard than we are. The World Cup is as big or a close second to the Olympics and we are only talking about one sport being played. The U.S finally came up with a national soccer league but it's young. Even so we pay 50 million for players like Beckham which is a sign of what is to come for the sport at least here in the U.S.

That play enraged an entire nation along with grabbing the attention of other fanatics looking to vent about a rule in the game that some want changed. At least that is my take on it. Just wait to 2010! Game on...