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The Hand of Henry:
The biggest piece of football news in the past one week has been made my Thierry Henry's left hand. France qualified after a 2-1 aggregate victory over Ireland, but the winning goal in extra time at the Stade De France came in the most controversial manner possible. William Gallas scored through a Thierry Henry assist, but replays showed Henry to have blatantly handled the ball before finding the head of Gallas inside the box.To the dismay of the whole of Ireland and to the surprise of the football fans around the world, the goal stood!. The Irish FA wasted no time as they dispatched letters to FIFA and the Fédération Française de Football calling for the "integrity of the game" to be upheld by the staging of a replay. Not surprisingly, FIFA rejected their plea.

The whole football world from Eric Cantona to Arsene Wenger have sympathised with the Irish. Cantona commented on Henry's attempt at consoling Richard Dunne at the end of the game by saying "What shocks me the most is that this player, at the end of the game, in front of the TV cameras, went to sit down next to an Ireland player to comfort him - when he had just screwed him. If I had been an Irishman, he wouldn't have lasted three seconds."

It seemed the only person who was not in support of Ireland was one of their most loved sons, Roy Keane. His words as harsh as his tackles, Keane said "If I'd been there in the dressing room after the game, I wouldn't be talking about the handball. I'd focus on why the defenders didn't clear it. How can you let Thierry Henry get goal-side of you? If the ball goes into the six-yard box, where the hell is my goalkeeper? These are skills and lessons you learn as a schoolboy."

LA Galaxy lose MLS final:
David Beckham's LA Galaxy lost the MLS final to Real Salt Lake in a penalty shootout. After 120 minutes of football the match was deadlocked at 1-1. Mike Magee had given Galaxy the lead before Robbie Findlay equalized for Real Salt lake at the Qwest Arena in Seattle. The match went into a decisive penalty shootout and Jovan Kirovski, Landon Donovan and Eddie Bundle all missed their spot kicks, allowing Salt Lake to be victorious. But on the brighter side, David Beckham finally managed to convert a spot kick in a penalty shootout.

Horse Placenta massage to cure torn hamstrings:
Injured Premier League stars like Yossi Benayoun, Robin van Persie, Frank Lampard, Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Albert Riera, etc have all made trips to Serbia in the past week to consult a mysterious healer named Marijana Kovacevic, who treats injuries by massaging them with horse placenta fluid. It's worked wonders for the players with rehabilitation time considerably reduced. Infact Benayoun was even able to take part in Liverpool's weekend draw with Man City after having suffered torn hamstrings just 10 days back. Unfortunately, the only person who hasn't benefited has been Dr. Kovacevic herself as she had to go underground after Serbian authorities told the media that she had been practising physiotherapy without a proper licence.

All set for South Africa 2010:
The competition that began in front of 60 supporters on the Pacific island of Samoa on 25 August 2007 was wrapped up early on Thursday morning in Montevideo, when Uruguay completed the line-up of teams that will compete at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa. After a total of 2344 goals in 853 games, the final list of 32 teams travelling to South Africa next summer is now complete. Below is a continent-wise list of the good, the better and the downright lucky!

AFRICA: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South Africa
ASIA: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
EUROPE: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA: Honduras, Mexico, United States
OCEANIA: New Zealand
SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Transfer Rumours:
Sergio Aguero's move to Chelsea which looked like a done deal has been thrown into doubt after owner Roman Abramovich reportedly revealed that they won't be making any major signings in the January transfer window. Chelsea's title rivals Manchester United have also been in the news lately with Sir Alex rumoured to be interested in prizing away Everton youngster Jack Rodwell. Fergie is also reported to be monitoring Stoke centre back Ryan Shawcross as a potential replacement for Rio Ferdinand. But the biggest piece of transfer speculation came from international football where Guus Hiddink is being tipped to join the Argentine national team to work alongside Diego Maradona. Just in case this does happen, we would still want Maradona to do the press conferences. Rafa Benitez meanwhile might not see much money in the winter with Liverpool potentially not making it past the Group Stage of the Champions League, he is expected to solve the cash in hand problem by scrounging around for loan deals with former Manchester United hotshot Ruud van Nistelrooy on his radar. Wonder if that might encourage Liverpool fans to christen a song titled "We've got yours and you've got ours" to their long time rivals.

File Photograph Copyright: Ryu Voelkel