Thierry Henry cheated. He admitted he cheated. And when they scored, he ran away screaming and celebrating with the rest of the French team. He was dishonest and unsportsmanlike.
And this is the example the captain of the French team chooses to set for the youngsters watching the game? Please have a read of this article
[link], here is an extract:
Thierry Henry had about five seconds in which to decide to join the immortals. While William Gallas wheeled away from the point-blank header which gave France the lead over the Republic of Ireland during extra time in their World Cup play-off last night, Henry's reaction could have gone one of two ways.
In the act of controlling the ball before providing Gallas with a perfect cross, France's captain had handled it. Not once, but twice. The first time might have been almost inadvertent, a pardonable reflex action as it was about to go out of play. The second, in which he scooped the ball with his left hand, redirecting it to drop nicely on to his right foot, was clearly intentional.
...
For this was no ordinary piece of cheating. National pride and tens of millions of euros were at stake. So much greater, then, would have been the admiration of a decision to own up. Instead Henry chose to go down a path which exposed not just his own human frailty but the paranoid fear of failure running through a French squad (and their manager) haunted by comparisons with the glories of the recent past.
Henry was a hopeless captain at Arsenal and he is a hopeless captain of France. On Wednesday he did not have the gumption to say, "OK, that wasn't a goal" – an admission on which the referee would have been obliged to act – "but we'll use the remaining quarter of an hour's play to demonstrate that we are better than the Irish and more deserving of a place in the final 32 in South Africa next year."
Tell me I'm wrong and I'm overreacting, but when I see ridiculous threads like "the Hawks game was fixed" and other tripe then I feel justified in labeling this French team arrogant and cheaters. And nothing without Zidane.
Finally, I'm not saying this game was fixed, yes, the referee made a dreadful error, but I sincerely doubt this was on purpose. I think FIFA are a disgrace; video replays should be allowed and the proposal to change the seedings of the World Cup Playoffs so that the "big teams will qualify" (Michel Platini) is so bad I can't find words to describe it. It's pathetic and Sepp Blatter needs to step down because he has done a terrible job. God help football if Blatter and Platini remain in charge.