Word: cupful
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...great sorrow of Irish soccer fans, the fat lady of their sport sang on Friday, dashing what little hope Ireland had left of reviving its vanquished World Cup dreams...
...Friday, Nov. 20, soccer's international governing body, FIFA, rejected Ireland's demands that its controversial World Cup qualifying playoff match against France Wednesday night be replayed in light of the clearly illegal play by French striker Thierry Henry that set up the goal securing France's ticket to South Africa next June. The reasoning went along with FIFA's established habit of focusing on the letter rather than spirit of its rules: if referee Martin Hansson failed to spot Henry's use of his left hand to rein in the ball - and let the ensuing goal by teammate William...
...shot through with embarrassment and even shame. "The Hand of God" was the ironic headline in France's sports daily l'Equipe, a reference to the notorious hand punch Argentine striker Diego Maradona admitted he'd used to score the winning goal over England in a 1986 World Cup quarterfinal match. "Les Bleus: Hands Up," echoed Libération in its coverage of what it called France's "holdup" of the Irish team that had utterly dominated Wednesday's game prior to Henry's pawing of the ball...
...British press, not always friendly to Irish sports teams, went ballistic. "Ireland Cheated out of the World Cup by the Cruel Hand of Thierry Henry," blasted the Guardian. "Thierry Henry Is an Insincere Cheat Who Has Tarnished His Reputation for Good," wailed former Irish international star Tony Cascarino in a Times of London piece. (That last one came with a certain amount of irony, given Cascarino's admission in his 2000 autobiography that he shouldn't have qualified to play for Ireland's national team from 1985 to 1999, since the grandfather he cited as proof of his Irish ancestry...
...There is one precedent of a referee using video in soccer - and it happens to infuriate French fans, to boot. Toward the end of the 2006 World Cup final, the assistant referee peeked at a television monitor to witness a replay of French star Zinedine Zidane head-butting Italian rival Marco Materazzi to the ground. Shocked at the violence - and ignoring FIFA rules forbidding use of replays - the assistant referee signaled the offense to his unsuspecting central official, who promptly slapped Zidane with a red card. Few have faulted that sanctioning of an outrageous foul that the official never actually...