Baggie boys up for the World Cup

Albion blogger Jarrod Hill is getting all excited at the prospect of a real Baggies presence at the World Cup when the Championship campaign is done and dusted.

This week has seen the clarification of who is and controversially who isn’t going to South Africa, and everyone’s talking about next year’s World Cup.

Before I briefly talk about the Republic of Ireland debacle, I would like to focus on a fact that seems to have slipped somewhat under the radar. I have watched World Cup football since the late seventies and like most fans I love them.

Football matches everyday for four weeks feels like I have died and gone to heaven, but this World Cup has an extra special attraction for me.

The fact I will be able to enjoy the World Cup while also seeing some of our boys in action is just fantastic. The players who have an excellent chance of being in South Africa include, Marek Cech (Slovakia) Robert Koren (Slovenia) Chris Wood (New Zealand) Abdoulaye Meite (Ivory Coast) and Gonzalo Jara (Chile).

Our goalkeeper and captain Scott Carson is also a rank outsider to make the England squad, although others ahead of him would need to be injured.

I cannot ever remember us having so many international players with an opportunity to go to the World Cup. So does it point to us having an improved squad?

An interesting point is that three out of the five are struggling to get into our first-team, so that does highlight our squad’s strength at Championship level. I cannot imagine there are many sides in our division who have a similar situation.

Onto to the furore surrounding the France versus Republic of Ireland game. As Albion fans, we can all relate to felling like the underdog cheated by the officials. The fact FIFA changed the rules to ensure both Portugal and France played perceived lesser teams, due to their quickly organised seeding system, only adds to the sting in the tail when Thierry Henry cheated France into the finals.

Yes, Henry cheated and it has further questioned the integrity of the sport we all love. He is one of my all time favourite players to have played in this country, but has severely sullied his worldwide reputation in the same way that Diego Maradona did for Argentina back in the 1980’s.

For him to come out and blame the officials for not spotting his handball does not excuse the fact he cheated. I have heard all manner of sportsmen from differing sports come out this week in defence of the French striker, saying that it is now a part of all sports and he should not be blamed for trying to get away with it.

Personally I find that hard to stomach. It’s cheating, he cheated and – although I am still amazed neither official spotted it – to say Thierry Henry is in some way innocent is ridiculous. It’s like me coming round, burgling your house and saying ‘well I haven’t done anything wrong, the police should have caught me.’

OK rant over; now let’s take a look at tomorrow’s game. Bristol City continue to punch well above their weight and are having another good season. Gary Johnson is a manager who is always overlooked when it comes to the “bigger jobs” coming available, yet I view him as one of the brightest stars in the English game.

Our own manager Roberto Di Matteo will have a fitter squad available than at many other times during our season due to a number of players declaring themselves fit.

Youssouf Mulumbu and Roman Bednar are back and with both of our first choice wingers fit in Chris Brunt and Jerome Thomas, I am looking forward to some exciting attacking play. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod tomorrow and as I haven’t done it in a while here is my choice for tomorrow’s game.

Team: Carson, Zuiverloon, Meite, Olsson, Mattock, Thomas, Jara, Dorrans, Brunt, Moore, Cox.

Subs: Kiely, Cech, Texeira, Wood, Bednar, Mulumbu, Koren.

I just hope the players who have been away on international duty have returned fit and well, on previous occasions we have struggled after the international break with players looking a little lethargic. Taking this into account I wouldn’t be surprised if Di Matteo makes one or two changes.

Either way I am looking forward to it, up the Baggies!

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This article was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 9:10 am.

1
Jeff

November 20, 2009 at 11:36 am

Agree.

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2
Happy_baggie

November 20, 2009 at 12:06 pm

Its hard not to feel sympathy for the Irish – they were the better side and deserved to go through. We English can empathise with how they feel having suffered the Hand of God back in 86 – and that was in the flippin semi final !!!

However – if england score the winning goal in the final next year against germany after Gerrard takes yet another dive in the box or lampard uses his hand before passing to Rooney to score – how many of us will refuse to celebrate ??

How many of us will be demanding a replay in the interests of fairness ???

I know i won’t – i will be wrapped in me flag, dancing drunkenly down the street cheering me head off – cos all fans know that one day it goes for you, and the next it goes against you.

I feel sorry for Ireland – but thats just how it goes.

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3
Baggiebob

November 20, 2009 at 12:58 pm

Remember Baros at Wembley? I agree with Jarrod, cheating undermines the whole nature of sport. If winning is everything and nothing else matters, might as well start supporting Man United…

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4
Proud Albion Fan

November 20, 2009 at 1:51 pm

Happy – Yes Ireland were unlucky in the way they conceded the goal, but I wouldnt say they deserved to go through?

What about the chances that Keane and Duff fluffed when through on goal? No one seems to point that out? No one blames them for not wrapping up the game?

If you score goals you win matches, and frankly, Ireland did not have the sufficent quality up front to finish the job when the scores were agg 1-1.

I watched the Ireland v Georgia qualifier game on the net and if it wasn’t for an EXTREMELY dubious and contraversial penalty to Ireland, they would have drawn the game and maybe not even got to the play offs…. we didn’t hear the Irish offering a replay on that unfair decision did we?

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5
The Real Bully Hoo.

November 20, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Good blog and good comments, especially 2 Happy. I’ve heard so many different views on this and it seems that unfortunately most modern day footballers seem to think cheating is oksy as long as you get away with it. Should we be surprised? Cricket with the honourable exception of the Australian Adam Gilchrist has gone the same way, how long before golf and snooker follow?
I agree with Jarrod, would I mind if England cheated in the Final to win the World Cup? Perhaps if it was against Argentina or Portugal there would be a certain Schadenfreude but if it was against Brazil, I’d rather lose than sink to that level but I seem to be behind the times in a lot of things.
Perhaps what this proves more than anything is that we need TV replays for the Referee. I’ve always been against this but if it’s limited to big decisions at the Ref’s request we should embrace it.

PS. Good to see what I guess is the real Baggie Bob back at No 3.

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6
Robin Brittain

November 20, 2009 at 2:43 pm

I think the best thing to come out of the Henry saga is the reaction of the French general public who seem annoyed at what Henry did. At least we can see there are people of a sporting nature even if FIFA are only interested in making money from the World Cup. As for Henry himself I would think he will lose all his sponsors and advertising contracts as companies will not want to be associated with a cheat. The best thing that could now happen is for the French selectors to leave Henry out of the World Cup squad.

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7
Proud Albion Fan

November 20, 2009 at 4:04 pm

6 – Wishful thinking mate… leaving Henry out?

Wont happen

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8
sid

November 22, 2009 at 2:26 pm

check out roy keanes comments, straight to the point , i love it

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