After France bottled yet another World Cup match yesterday, Henry continued to hone his new and disappointing habit of making excuses after a poor match. Henry is a great player and in his prime, and truly legendary footballers perform under any conditions and especially under adversity. Every time he makes an excuse he is really just giving reasons as to why his place in history alongside the Platini’s and Zidane’s should be questioned.
This time he blamed the dry pitch for an inability to dribble the ball properly – although he didn’t mention why Zidane seemed to be fine or how the French managed to squander so many chances.
“I see they watered the pitch after the match,” said the Arsenal striker. “But no one is playing after us.”
“It has not been good for Frank Ribery and me, as we are dribblers.”
“Often the ball remained on Franck’s foot. Since the beginning of the competition, a lot of players have stood on the ball.”
“They have to water the pitches.”
Of course he is not just throwing these excuses out at anyone who will listen, the media would have been demanding a reason for a poor performance. But if he is as good as we think he is, or as HE thinks he is, surely the answer should never be anything else but personal and collective team failure.
Unless, of course, Thierry Henry can really be stopped by a dry pitch. After all, maintaining such playing conditions in England isn’t exactly easy – maybe that’s why Henry decided not to go to Barcelona?