The Anonymous Widower

Roy Keane on Ireland-France

Roy Keane was very blunt about Ireland on the BBC yesterday.  There’s a video on the link, but here’s some of what he said.

France were there for the taking and Ireland didn’t do it. Same old story.

If I’d been there in the dressing room after the game, I wouldn’t be talking about the handball. I’d focus on why the defenders didn’t clear it. They should’ve cleared it.

I’d be more annoyed with my defenders and my goalkeeper than Thierry Henry. How can you let the ball bounce in your six-yard box? How can you let Thierry Henry get goal-side of you? If the ball goes into the six-yard box, where the hell is my goalkeeper?

He has a point, but there is one point that no-one has made in the media.

I play real tennis a lot and like anybody who plays these sort of games, you play to where the ball lands.  So if you know if an opponent’s serve is going out, you never run for it.  It’s the same in football.  Does a goalkeeper jump if the ball is going two metres over the bar?  Of course not!

I have not seen a shot of the face of Shay Given, but did he think that Thierry Henry’s handball was so blatant that the referee would blow his whistle?  So he didn’t go for the ball as it came back across the goal.

So perhaps the real fault of the Irish team was that they didn’t play to the whistle.

November 21, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Sport | Football, France, Republic Of Ireland, Roy Keane