Cheerio France

Mpsox said:
Did France get to the final in spite of Domenech or because of him? This is the 2nd tournament final in a row in which they failed to win a match, in 3 matches in the qualifiers against Lithuania and the Faroes, the scored 3 goals in total.

Personally, given the players they have, I'm a bit disappointed to see them gone. The whole Henry thing was just tabloid hype. If Robbie Keane had done the same, would we have offered a replay?
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I would presume that a coach has some input so yes he had a hand in them reaching the final. It's all spin, those wonderful players took it upon themselves to ignore their coach and play themselves into the final whereas now that same coach has contributed to their downfall. A lose/lose situation for Domenach
 
It was always believed that Zidane took over in 2006 and his absence since has played a key role in their demise.
 
Sunny said:
... Amazing how many people in this Country still applaud Michelle Smith because 'she was never caught'. ...
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I don't know of any. I happen to be an admirer of her achievements, which have only been damaged in retrospect by a vicious, coordinated anti-Michelle campaign, paid for by the sponsors of athletes whose post-Olympic commercial careers Michelle's victories damaged.

I have yet to hear or see anyone produce a single shred of evidence of any wrong-doing on Michelle's part in relation to her Olympic achievements. Nothoing I've ever heard, such as the above content-free post, has been more substantive than Bertie Ahearn's "smoke and daggers" nonsense.
 
mathepac said:
I don't know of any. I happen to be an admirer of her achievements, which have only been damaged in retrospect by a vicious, coordinated anti-Michelle campaign, paid for by the sponsors of athletes whose post-Olympic commercial careers Michelle's victories damaged.

I have yet to hear or see anyone produce a single shred of evidence of any wrong-doing on Michelle's part in relation to her Olympic achievements. Nothoing I've ever heard, such as the above content-free post, has been more substantive than Bertie Ahearn's "smoke and daggers" nonsense.
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Apart from the farce of the whiskey in the sample .. I have satisfied myself that there is no plausible explanation for her achievements. To do what what she did, at her stage of life & physical development is, outside of the discredited Eastern bloc athletes, without precedent.

QED, for me, her achievements are tainted and should be discounted.

From memory, Janet Evans is the one who said 'yes' when asked if other swimmers were asking questions about De Bruin's rate of improvement; she did not make any allegation. And Janet Evans' place in Olympic history, and 'post-Olympic commercial career', was secure before Atlanta.
 
TarfHead said:
Apart from the farce of the whiskey in the sample .. ...
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Ah yes the infamous "out of competition sample" taken in 1998, two years after the Olympics which resulted in a four-year ban on a "sample tampering charge". Michelle has never been banned from competition, had a positive in-competition sample, had her medals or achievements taken away, or been found guilty of taking banned or performance-enhancing substances.
TarfHead said:
.. I have satisfied myself that there is no plausible explanation for her achievements. To do what what she did, at her stage of life & physical development is, outside of the discredited Eastern bloc athletes, without precedent.

QED, for me, her achievements are tainted and should be discounted...
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Sounds like an extract from the Widgery Tribunal's report on Bloody Sunady or his dismissal of the first Birmingham Six Appeal. To paraphrase him "There is no evidence in support of the findings my political masters want me to make, so I'll just say I'm satisfied that some must exist somewhere and give them what they want."
TarfHead said:
.. From memory, Janet Evans is the one who said 'yes' when asked if other swimmers were asking questions about De Bruin's rate of improvement; she did not make any allegation. And Janet Evans' place in Olympic history, and 'post-Olympic commercial career', was secure before Atlanta.
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If you say so. That's not my recollection of events but I do recall the classic poor-loser Americans, the staged and rehearsed Americans-only "press-conferences" and the public whingeing and whining. "Boo-hoo, poor me, it's just not fair. Where're my gold medals? These are our Olympics, how dare you spoil our party."
 
mathepac said:
Sounds like an extract from the Widgery Tribunal's report on Bloody Sunady or his dismissal of the first Birmingham Six Appeal.
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Conflating Widgery with Michelle De Bruin is some stretch :rolleyes: !

You're trolling, and I'm not biting :p.
 
Mpsox said:
Did France get to the final in spite of Domenech or because of him? This is the 2nd tournament final in a row in which they failed to win a match, in 3 matches in the qualifiers against Lithuania and the Faroes, the scored 3 goals in total.

Personally, given the players they have, I'm a bit disappointed to see them gone. The whole Henry thing was just tabloid hype. If Robbie Keane had done the same, would we have offered a replay?
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i believe you are very unpatriotic and just bent on spoiling the fun all of us are having at the handy french expense .. .ts ts ts
 
As for Ireland not being there, we should look to Paul McShane. Every player knows not to let a ball bounce in the 'box, I dont have any issue with us not being there. We had chances & didn't take them. Enough of that.

Alas poor old Michelle Smith - on at least 3 occasions she checked out/did a runner from hotels when testers were due - the Spa Hotel in Lucan, Co Dublin was one such hotel. Matthepac, you are well wide of the mark here.

Enough of that too.
 
PyritePete said:
... on at least 3 occasions she checked out/did a runner from hotels when testers were due - the Spa Hotel in Lucan, Co Dublin was one such hotel. Matthepac, you are well wide of the mark here. ...
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More of Bertie's aul' "smoke and daggers" Any positive drug tests, consequential bans or suspensions?
 
TarfHead said:
Ireland have no-one but themselves to blame for not being in RSA and painting themselves as victims will be of no help when they start the Euro 2012 qualifiers.

And as for the FAI's cack-handed response to the play-off defeat :rolleyes: ?
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I agree. To be honest I think the France-hating over the last few weeks is embarassing. It started off as a bit of fun but now it's just ignorant.
 
VOR said:
It was always believed that Zidane took over in 2006 and his absence since has played a key role in their demise.
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And Zidanes managerial career since masterminding a place in the world cup final has seen him do what? Maybe he was just a natural leader, tactician, coach and player, the last one is the only one there is proof of.
 
DerKaiser said:
It would have been forgotten about had they not found ever more novel ways to disgrace themselves
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It has been spoken about up until and throughout the WC. It's boring and is becoming more and more embarrassing. I was upset at the time but having thought about it the team I support has benefitted from dodgy play as has every other team so let the hypocrisy stop please.
 
Just watched the evening news and it showed Thierry Henry being taken direct from the airport arrivals to meet President Sarkozy! What theatrics by the Cuban heeled dwarf. I didn't realise Carla was a football fan.... or is that footballer fan!
 
mathepac said:
More of Bertie's aul' "smoke and daggers" Any positive drug tests, consequential bans or suspensions?
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Tampering with samples is unacceptable. When you consider athletes have to give the relevant authorities their movements, months in advance it makes it easy for "unclean" athletes to do a runner from a certain location...guess the rest...a la Michelle Smith, Christine Uhurogu - the British athlete who conveniently missed 3 testing dates also. Dont forget Dopey Rio Ferdinand missed a drug test too because he was moving house or something stupid like this.

Wasn't Smith banned for 4 years for her offence ?
 
so Smiths improvement of 7 seconds in her time for her swim prior to the Olympics,which is completely unheard of in her sport, is what you would regard as clean/fine/acceptable/possible for someone who never showed this dramatic improvement before that ? How else would you explain it...hard work, effort, steroids, EPO...

I am not surprised the infamous (really ??) sample was only taken in 1998, it took the testers YEARS to track her down even after providing the authorities with her travel movements.Tests are done randomly/out of competition as well as during competition - as a result of the Ben Johnsons and others like him in the sporting world and as an athlete representing Ireland she overlooked this. There is no need to mention her husband's infamous career here at all...

The question still remains unanswered - why did she tamper with her sample ?

Doping in females is much harder to detect than in males. Fact. Which again begs the question why did she tamper with her sample - was she so bad at doping she had to tamper with her sample ?

As for janet Evans I agree with Tarfhead.

And now you know...
 
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