Local trio shines at showcase

BY AIDAN KELLY

Three of the area’s high school soccer players were in action at the Indiana All-District Showcase games in Indianapolis this weekend.

Seniors Jordan Adams (Floyd Central), Drew Mattingly (Christian Academy of Indiana) and Kaitlin Robinett (New Albany) had recently been chosen on the boys’ and girls’ District 5 first teams by the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association.

As a result, the trio got to play against other top players from different districts at North Central High School.

After the games, coaches selected their all-state first, second and third teams. Adams, who scored three of District 5’s seven goals over the weekend, was named as all-state honorable mention.

The boys’ team lost its first game 6-3 to Northwest Indiana (District 1). Mattingly was not between the sticks for the five first-half goals conceded, while Adams bagged District 5’s third goal.

It then beat District 3, with players from Carmel and Indianapolis, by a 2-0 score in the second game. Adams netted both, with 10 and six minutes remaining. The boys lost their final game, 3-2, to District 6, comprising players from Evansville.

Adams finished the season with 29 goals and the senior is now the Highlanders’ all-time leading scorer with 73 goals.

Mattingly, who played well at the showcase, also had an impressive season, which included eight shutouts.

It was the second time for both on the District 5 team.

Robinett, meanwhile, had a good start with a well-taken goal from about 20 yards in a 2-2 tie against District 1.

District 5 lost its two remaining games, 3-0 against District 3 and 1-0 to District 6.

Robinett, bound for Evansville, had 21 goals and six assists this season and ended with 77 career goals and 24 career assists.



HOOSIERS FACE TAR HEELS

Indiana University has earned itself a place in the final 16 of the NCAA Division I men’s soccer tournament following a 1-0 win over 12th-seed Butler in Bloomington on Sunday.

Will Bruin scored the all important goal in the 57th minute, earning the Hoosiers (12-9-1) a third-round game against No. 5 seed North Carolina (14-2-3). The game will be played at 2 p.m. this coming Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The last time the pair matched up in the NCAA tournament was in the 2001 College Cup title game, which saw the Tar Heels record a 2-0 victory.

Indiana continued its hot streak after knocking out Louisville (13-3-4) in a 2-0 win last Thursday, when senior Darren Yeagle, a Louisville native and Trinity graduate, bagged both goals against the Cards. Louisville had won the regular-season game, 4-0.



LEGACY OF HENRY’S ‘HAND OF GAUL’

The 32-team field for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was finalized last Wednesday, but not without controversy.

As you might have heard, France squeezed past the Republic of Ireland after a two-legged playoff, which went to overtime.

Having beaten the Irish 1-0 in Dublin in the first leg with a deflected Nicolas Anelka strike, qualification for next year’s tournament seemed a pretty straightforward task for Ray Domenech’s side.

However, instead of providing another limp performance in the return game in Paris, Ireland staged what is now widely considered one of the greatest and gutsiest efforts by a national team from the Emerald Isle.

With France under pressure, Robbie Keane scored in the 33rd minute and the boys in green (on that night in white) had opportunities in the second half to finish the duel off with several near misses.

The 1-0 win resulted in 30 minutes of overtime, and the game was in the first 15th minute period when William Gallas put away an assist by French captain Thierry Henry.

Most of those in America who care not for the game of soccer may still know Henry as the third guy in the original Gillette commercials alongside Tiger Woods and Roger Federer.

In the sports world, he made his name with England’s Arsenal before moving onto Barcelona, while bagging a World Cup with France. He’s an active spokesman against racism in football and would have been considered, before Wednesday, as an all-around good guy and ambassador for the game.

That reputation has been crumbling this week as replays clearly showed him handling the ball not once, but twice, leaving the Irish, myself included, seething.

Keep in mind too, before we go any further, that the Irish already felt hard done by when FIFA decided to seed the European eight-team playoffs just weeks before the draw, which many saw as a cynical attempt to get the likes of top dogs France, Portugal and Russia to the finals.

Would this influence referees when it came to decision-making? Whether it did or not, the fact was their employers had made it clear who they wanted at the tournament.

The decision by the Swedish officials — namely Martin Hansson and his assistants — dominated the global media this week, and the story is still running. The Football Association of Ireland pleaded with world governing body FIFA and France’s football body (FFF) to replay the match in an attempt to protect the integrity of the game.

On Facebook, a “Petition to have Ireland v France Replayed” page was established which now has 400,000-plus fans. The group marched on the French Embassy in Dublin on Saturday.

FIFA rejected the request on the basis of the Laws of the Game, which clearly state that the referee’s decisions in such circumstances are final.

FFF stated it understood the “disappointment and bitterness” of the Irish players and acknowledged that Henry had admitted to the handball (albeit after a decision had been made), but added it was bound by the ruling.

With the French public overwhelming in favor of a replay, and a growing feeling within its team — confident they could beat Ireland and remove the sense they had qualified unfairly for next summer’s tournament — it emerged Sunday that the decision ultimately lay with Domenech, who would not relent.

This is a man, by the way, who would have been fired had the French not made South Africa?

So will any good come of it all?

Obviously, there have been many calls this past week for video technology to be introduced, and that is something that needs to be seriously looked at, much sooner rather than later.

Those in the pro camp have cited its success in other sports, namely American football, rugby, tennis, etc. And if a game was halted after a critical moment, it need only be for 20 or 30 seconds.

Others don’t feel any authority should be taken away from officials. This is an argument I have difficulty with, as I believe it could actually help the referee before any decision is made, saving any embarrassment which may follow, not to mention the increased likelihood of the correct decision being made.

These days, in times when cheating by players is clearly on the increase (that’s another debate), the officials needs all the tools they can to help ply their trade.

What looks more realistic in the more immediate future — and at next year’s World Cup — is the placement of two addition officials behind the goal lines. The matter will be discussed at the lawmakers’ (International Football Association) board meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, next March.

Michael Platini, FIFA vice president and ironically a Frenchman, is an advocate of the idea.

Whatever happens, there is one almost certainty and another possibility. Henry, who was presented with an opportunity to produce an act of genuine sportsmanship by owning up, may now be forever remembered by many not for his various sparkling displays during a glittering career, but as a cheat.

There’s also the possibility he will be seen as the catalyst to revolutionizing the game and catapulting it into the modern ages.

Contact Aidan Kelly at aidokaydo@gmail.com.

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