Reuters Soccer Blog

from Left field:

Va-va-voom. Vintage Henry scores on Arsenal return.

The clock said 68 minutes, and no one at the Emirates Stadium in north London was looking at the action on the pitch as the fourth official held aloft his lit-up board to signal the re-introduction of Thierry Henry to English football.

Ten minutes later and he'd scored the game's eventual winner. Comebacks don't get this good this often.

14 to replace 15 shone the bright numbers before the goal, but alas Henry's former number has since been taken by young English talent Theo Walcott, who idolises the French great.

Now, for six weeks and six weeks only after which he will return to the United States with the New York Red Bulls, Henry can be seen wearing an Arsenal shirt with the number 12, the same as his France days during which he won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship.

The only numbers Arsenal fans will care about are 228, 229 and who knows, possible even into the 230s.

With a trademark movement of his right boot, Henry had added to his record Arsenal tally of 226 having watched his new teammates spurn chance after chance against Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup.

Arsenal fans out there, does this worry you? Would you like to see Arsene Wenger bring in another striker in the January transfer window given the lack of goals?

Ten things to watch for in the new MLS season

YOUNG AMERICANS MLS’s foreign imports have grabbed most of the headlines over the past few years, understandably given the name recognition of players such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, but one of the most fascinating aspects of this season will be the progress of a new generation of American players on the fringe of the national team. Sporting KC striker Teal Bunbury and New York Red Bulls forward Juan Agudelo are fancied by many as a future pairing for Bob Bradley’s team but they will need to deliver week-in-week-out in MLS. Red Bulls defender Tim Ream had an excellent first year and will likely be scouted heavily by European clubs this season. Portland Timbers attacker Darlington Nagbe was born in Liberia but is seeking naturalization and there is a lot of buzz about his potential.

DIG THE NEW BREED The Pacific North-West should provide plenty of lively derby action this year with the Seattle Sounders, the best-supported team in the league, joined by two new teams — local rivals Portland Timbers and Northern neighbours Vancouver Whitecaps. Both clubs are technically ‘expansion franchises’ but don’t confuse them with recent creations such as the Philadelphia Union and Real Salt Lake who started from scratch. Both the Timbers and the Whitecaps existed in the old NASL and continued in second tier soccer up until last season. Both have good fan-bases who expect an instant impact. Both were able to build upon their backroom and on-field staff from the second tier. In short – both are more like typical promoted teams in European leagues – they have to step up to a new level on the field and can expect some fresh impetus off the field. It should be fascinating to watch how they fare in their first season with the big boys. Who will make the bigger impact? SHINY, HAPPY PEOPLE? The Kansas City Wizards were not one of MLS’s big success stories having averaged crowds of around 10,000 for most of their existence – initially playing at the 80,000 capacity Arrowhead Stadium, home to the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and then at a cozier but not-very soccer friendly minor-league baseball park. This season all that changes. The rather silly-sounding Wizards name has been dropped in favour of Sporting Kansas City – mocked by some as being a pretentious Euro-wannabe name (Sporting Club being a historic team in Lisbon, Portugal) but surely an upgrade on the Wizards? This season the team also move into their own, shiny new, purpose built 18,500 venue – Livestrong Sporting Park. The venue isn’t quite ready so the first eight games of the season for Sporting will be on the road but it will be interesting to see if the rebrand and the new home manage to attract more fans. That certainly helped New York Red Bulls last year – when they moved into Red Bull Arena their average home gate rose from 12,229 to 18,441.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK? This is MLS’s 16th year and still New York hasn’t won a title. Not in their earlier Metrostars garb and not in the current Red Bulls set-up. But with former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry ready for his first full season and having put his fitness problems behind him, the Red Bulls should mount a serious challenge this year. 18-year-old Agudelo and Jamaican winger Dane Richards provide some exciting pace up front while Ream and Mexican Rafa Marquez, formerly of Barcelona, should be the best central defensive pairing in MLS. Some Scandinavian solidity in midfield, recruited by Swedish head coach Hans Backe, makes the Red Bulls, on paper at least, among the favourites.

GOLDEN YEARS The polite way to describe the L.A Galaxy would be to say they are team that draws heavily on experienced veterans. A less complimentary approach would say they are old. David Beckham is 36 in May and he’ll be the main force in midfield providing the ammunition for 35-year-old Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel. Defenders Gregg Berhalter and Frankie Hejduk are 37 and 36 year old respectively. Landon Donovan, 29, appears a mere kid in that company. Experienced (there we go again) head coach Bruce Arena is banking on all the know-how delivering a MLS Cup this year. Of course, behind the big names with most birthdays, are a bunch of younger players who will be expected to provide the hard-running and the pace. Omar Gonzalez at the back, Brazilian midfielder Juninho and Argentine Paolo Cardozo are all players to keep an eye on this year. Will the mix be right or is Arena or over-doing it with the old boys? We will find out soon enough.

COLOMBIAN CLASS Much has been made of MLS’s attempts to woo the huge Mexican soccer audience in North America though signings such as Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Rafa Marquez and the whole Chivas USA experiment. But the Spanish speaking population in the United States is a diverse one and the large Colombian communities dotted around the country have plenty of their own talent to watch this year. Creative midfielder David Ferreira of FC Dallas was the league’s MVP last year, Freddy Montero of Seattle Sounders is a joy to watch at times with his light-footed touch and sharp movement, Jamison Olave was voted 2010 Defender of the Year for his powerful contributions at centre-half for Real Salt Lake. Goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon will be 40 in June but after playing all over the world he brings some valuable experience to a Philadelphia Union team that had problems in that position last year. Less well known, but highly-rated by those who have seen him – 18 year old Fabian Castillo who has signed with FC Dallas and whose pace could cause some problems for opposition defences.

DUTCH COURAGE? Toronto FC have been one of MLS’s biggest successes off the field but an acute disappointment for their fans on it. That has to change this year, said the clubs owners, who hired Juergen Klinsmann – the former Germany manager and eternal candidate for the USA job – to headhunt them some new coaching talent. Klinsmann’s consulting resulted in the hiring of Aaron Winter as head coach, coming in from Ajax’s youth academy. If Winter is half as good at coaching as he was at bossing the midfield in his days with Ajax and Lazio, then Toronto is in for some good times. If he can bring just a flavor of the Ajax passing style to the Canadian club, then fans who lamented the over-reliance on a direct style, will be satisfied. The big question though – is there enough quality in the squad to play fluent football or even to be competitive?

Thierry Henry interview

Former Arsenal, Barcelona and France striker Thierry Henry is loving life in the United States and wants to see New York Red Bulls develop identity as an attractive passing football team but he also hankers after an eventual return to Arsenal in some role in the future.

The following is the full transcript of interview by Simon Evans with Henry after pre-season training with the Red Bulls in Fort Lauderdale this weekend. Shortly before the interview began at the team’s hotel Henry was approached by an American guest who recognised him from a documentary film about racism in sport but who then asked the Frenchman for his name.

Q: It must be quite nice to be asked for your name like that. I can’t imagine too many people wouldn’t recognise you back home.

It’s nice…I really don’t mind, I mkind of like not being recognized. The other day I had a day off and had breakfast in the hotel and went later to see a movie just like any normal person and it was just great. It’s refreshing.

Q: The was a view when you decided to leave Barcelona for the Red Bulls that you had headed to the MLS ‘retirement home’ Do you get a bit of that from people?

Whenever I go back, people kind of like, as you say, put MLS down. But you see when the European teams come in for pre-season and I know it is only pre-season but maybe back in time they would have won easily and now you look at the results, quite often the European teams lose or struggle to win. I know they are in pre-season and they aren’t going to go (full out) but it speaks volumes.

Why Henry’s move might not kickstart transfer window

Barcelona’s Thierry Henry is heading to New York Red Bulls in a widely expected move but don’t think the first big post-World Cup transfer means the window will suddenly be awash with deals.

An event before the World Cup is a major reason why Henry has decided to follow David Beckham’s lead and try out MLS. David Villa’s early move to Barca from Valencia meant there was no room for Henry at the Nou Camp and after France’s flop in South Africa there were few other interested parties.

Barcelona were seen as the major drivers for this transfer window given they are also keen on Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas. However, noises coming out of North London suggest the midfielder is set to stay in the Premier League for now.

The fact Fabregas could not get a start in Spain’s victorious World Cup team might make him realise that he would not be an automatic first choice at boyhood club Barca either given international team mates Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets all play there.

Coach Pep Guardiola is staying at least another season but Barca’s money problems mean any really big buys might be out of the question and Arsenal clearly want a lot for Fabregas.

Another bit of transfer gossip affecting Barca is constant rumours linking Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a move back to Milan after one season. The only difference is that AC Milan want him rather than former club Inter.

With technology binned, maybe players should just stop cheating

Players and coaches are going to have to grin (or rather whinge) and bear it after football’s rule-makers decided that preserving the game’s essence and traditions are more important than the grievances of a few unlucky losers.

Controversies such as Geoff Hurst’s third goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final, Diego Maradona’s Hand of God goal at the 1986 World Cup and, more recently, Thierry Henry’s ball-juggling effort against Ireland, are etched into football’s history.

FIFA believes the sport would not be the same without them — hence Saturday’s decision by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), on which FIFA holds half of the eight votes, to reject the use of goal line and video technology indefinitely.

Most media, coaches and players have been in favour of at least using some form of technology to help the referees in cases where it is not clear whether the ball has crossed the line and FIFA can expect widespread criticism for the decision.

So perhaps it is worth putting their case.

Firstly, goal line technology would not have helped in the Thierry Henry incident, nor in Bayern Munich’s offside winner against Fiorentina in the Champions League last month or Porto’s highly contentious winner against Arsenal which had Arsene Wenger fuming.

Are Henry’s days at Barcelona numbered?

Thierry Henry has cut a forlorn figure sitting on the bench during Barcelona’s last three La Liga matches, raising questions over the French striker’s future in Spain.

The 32-year-old struggled in his first year at the Nou Camp but was a key figure in their treble-winning campaign last season scoring 26 goals in all competitions.

But since the infamous ‘hand-of-Henry’ goal that helped France through to the World Cup finals instead of Ireland last November, he has steadily slipped out of contention with the European champions.

Injuries have played a part, but he has only started 12 league matches and scored just twice. Henry has been eclipsed on the left-side of Barca’s attacking trident by the explosive talents of Pedro.

On Sunday, with the side heading towards their first league defeat of the campaign away to Atletico Madrid, coach Pep Guardiola once again passed over the France captain.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi and Pedro already on the pitch it was another youngster Bojan Krkic who was thrown on for the final charge rather than the experienced former Arsenal man.

Henry has one year left on his contract, and the man who pushed so hard to sign him, president Joan Laporta, steps aside for a new face to be elected at the end of this season.

UPDATE: Ireland plead for World Cup slot as the 33rd team

Sepp Blatter revealed this morning that Ireland have appealed to FIFA to be allowed to compete as a 33rd team in next year’s World Cup.

“I will bring it to the attention of the Executive Committee,” Blatter told (stunned) journos. “I cannot confirm what will happen, but I will report it.”

I cannot confirm what will happen either, but I have a pretty good idea. In any case, aren’t the referees the 33rd team? Or if not, what about our idea here at Reuters Soccer Blog to put together a squad of players whose teams failed to make it.

We’d give Shay Given and Robbie Keane places…

Here’s Mike Collett’s view having heard Blatter speak in Johannesburg:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter greeted a delegation of very disgruntled Irishmen on Friday. FA of Ireland officials went to Zurich to have a little chat about the upcoming World Cup finals they will not be taking part in.

As the whole of the soccer world knows, Thierry Henry’s infamous handball in the build-up to France’s goal meant the French drew 1-1 with Ireland on the night and sealed a 2-1 aggregate playoff victory earlier this month. France in. Ireland out. Fair Play kicked into touch.

UPDATE: No replay hopes here … the score predictions are back

Monday morning update 2: Mike Collett claims, with some justification it must be said, to have altered his predictions on Friday afternoon. I do indeed have an email from Mike asking me to change them, so I guess we’ll have to give him credit for getting Liverpool v Man City, the double pointer, bang on at 2-2. OK, Mike … but next time, one shot please.

I also decided to give Mitch a one-point bonus for his 5-0 prediction in the Spurs game (closer than anyone else), making him one of the week’s big winners with 18 points. Martyn Herman would have got 20, including a two-point bonus for being the only person to predict an Arsenal defeat, but I docked him two for trying to sneak in a 2-2 prediction on the Anfield game … after the final whistle.

So here’s the latest table here at Reuters Soccer Blog Towers. Let us know how you are doing. Just to recap, it’s a point for the right result, or five points for the correct score. Double points on Liverpool. A two-point bonus if you got Arsenal losing. More bonus points for style if you make a convincing argument in the comments.   

Reuters Soccer Blog panel: Patrick Johnston 129, Mitch Phillips 111, Paul Radford 106,  Mike Collett 101, Simon Evans 89, Kevin Fylan 88, Mark Meadows 87, Miles Evans 86, Neil Maidment 81, Julien Pretot 74, Asia Sports Desk 68, Martyn Herman 46, Justin Palmer 38, Sonia Oxley 29

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Original post: Tired of Thierry? Had enough of Henry? Exhausted at the attempts of headline writers around the world to come up with a catchy way of describing Ireland’s unfortunate World Cup exit? (The Hand of God II, Le Hand of God, La Main de Dieu, Thierrygate … and that’s just us on Reuters Soccer Blog).

10 good reasons to love Raymond Domenech

Overseeing qualification for the World Cup via a blatant handball is unlikely to do much for the popularity of French coach Raymond Domenech, either at home or abroad (his Wikipedia page is currently saying some very nasty things about him, but it will doubtless be put back to its less offensive version soon).

The 57-year-old former defender, whose name is booed at every match, has never made any effort to make himself popular, but here are 10 reasons (or nearly 10) why football fans may want to reconsider their view:

1. He has never won anything as a coach, a characteristic shared by most soccer fans, which makes him less intimidating than, say, Giovanni Trapattoni.

2. He was a workaholic defender with limited skills in his playing days, with makes a nice change in a country full of retired magicians.

3. He is more successful as a coach than the great Michel Platini, under the guidance of whom France failed to win a single match at Euro 92.

4. He convinced Zinedine Zidane, Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele to come out of retirement and guide France all the way to the 2006 World Cup final.

5. He made Yoann Gourcuff his playmaker when others doubted he even had a place in the starting line-up.

Hand of Henry goal makes strong case for video evidence

France’s decisive goal against Ireland in their World Cup play-off will only add further weight to the case for using a video ref, or extra goal-line officials, at least in the biggest matches.

The controversial extra-time strike from William Gallas took France through to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, while leaving the Irish barely able to contain a sense of frustration and injustice.

It was goal which should not have stood, as TV pictures made plain. French captain Thierry Henry clearly handled the ball, not once, but twice before crossing for Gallas to score from close range.

Once again, fans are wondering how a mistake of such magnitude, in such a high-stakes game,  could be allowed to happen.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini both disagree with the use of video referees but their case would have been a hard one to make in front of Irish fans on Wednesday. Soccer’s top officials say a video referee will only slow down the game. True enough, but would it not be better to stop the game and get the right decision rather than continue and see a faulty decision stand?

Platini, for his part, has managed to push through the idea of an extra official behind both goals with an eye on spotting such infringements. Currently the idea is being piloted in UEFA’s second-tier Europa League, but it may now be time to take the brave decision to introduce this across the board.