First, make the decision for yourself:

Now, let's see how they're handling it among headline writers across Ireland (and the UK, no friend of France). With their customary grace and subtlety, I'm sure.

Irish Times: "Handy Henry Ends Ireland Dream In Paris"

Evening Echo: "Handball Cost Us Our Dreams"

The Sun: "Le Hand Of God: Cheat Henry Does A Maradona"

Irish Independent: "We Played Like Lions, But South Africa Will Miss A Hell Of A Guest"

Daily Mail: "Hand Of God II: Thierry Henry Confesses He Cheated To Rob Irish Of World Cup Place

The Independent: "Hand Gaul! Ireland Furious As Henry Snatches Victory"

Looks like we've got a full-blown controversy on our hands. Could this be the meltdown that finally leads UEFA to consider instant replay? Who's UEFA's president again? Michel Platini? Never mind.

Previews:
Grant Wahl
LA Times

Live Blogs:
Rumors and Rants
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Streaming:
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From The Evening Times:

And transport officers armed with dip strips tested liquids carried by fans, which are often disguised in containers not normally used for alcohol. The BTP operation, involving eight police forces, led to 240 gallons of booze being seized from fans. Of this figure, 130 gallons were seized on trains and stations en route to the match.

Only 240 gallons of booze? And you call yourselves Scotsmen?

I kind of feel sorry for the Tartan Army, though: They had to watch a 0-0 match completely sober. And, as The Beautiful Game pointed out, it was a match that included this:

As a 49ers fan, I can relate.

240 Gallons Of Booze Seized From Soccer Fans [The Beautiful Game]

The 6-1 victory over Cuba not only secured passage to the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, it provided a stage for DaMarcus Beasley to exhibit his dynamic skills on the international stage again and for Landon Donovan to orchestrate the attack with blinding results.

It allowed Jose Francisco Torres, a Mexican-American midfielder who had his choice of countries to represent, to make his debut, for Potomac's Freddy Adu to contribute close to home and for Olney's Oguchi Onyewu to cap a stirring second half with a late goal.

The Americans improved to 4-0 in group play, and with two inconsequential matches remaining, Bradley can test young players and expand his player pool before the six-team final round begins in February.

Oh and of course Jozy Altidore had to get in on the action in the 87th minute.

The Cubans played a man down for much of the match after a pair of yellows in the first half hour. Worse yet, another pair of players took the opportunity to defect. Welcome to DC, my new friends. Would you happen to have any cigars for sale, perchance?

The rest of yesterday's World Cup qualifying results can be found here.

U.S., Bradley Enjoy an Easy Night

It was a nightmare start to an international career which had been a long time coming for the 30-year-old and he admitted: "I'm obviously gutted.

"I had a big chance and I should put them away so I'm disappointed. I just have to bounce back and keep positive.

"I was confident and I put my foot out and it hit the heel. I'm gutted. But it's gone now and I've just got to move on.

The next qualifying match isn't until March 28th at the Netherlands, so he might be thinking about that one for a while.

Chris Iwelumo Will Not Sleep Well Tonight [FanHouse]
Iwulemo dismay at an amazing miss [ESPN]

Weekends without league play are always a bit disappointing, but fortunately today is positively loaded with worthwhile international matches. World Cup qualifying is back in the spotlight and we're being treated to some great matches in Europe, as well as some crucial matches in Africa and the Americas alike. Today's featured matches at the pub include the European powers like Germany, Russia, Portugal, and Sweden. Additionally the United States is set to take on Cuba in primetime, so sit back and enjoy a marathon of world-class competition. Continue after the jump for a breakdown of the day's televised matches.

There really isn't anything going on until this afternoon, so please feel free to drop in as the day goes on.

Co-Matches of of the Week

Germany vs. Russia at 2:45 pm EST on GolTV
Oh hell yeah, this one should be pretty damn good. The Germans and Russians both put up excellent showings at Euro 2008, and they look to carry that over into the 2010 World Cup Finals. The two countries are the best in their particular qualifying group, so one of these will wind up in the tournament while the other will have to endure another stage.

Portugal vs. Sweden at 2:00 pm EST on Setanta Sports
Ronaldo is healthy, but his countrymen from Chelsea are a bit banged up. Deco and Carvalho are certainly out, however their club and national teammate Bosingwa is good to go. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is ready to lead the Swedes, even if they aren't quite fit in their own right. Expect goals.

Other Games of Interest

England vs. Khazakstan at 12:00 pm EST on Fox Soccer Channel
Capello's squad better come through with another decisive win. Otherwise they'll face the wrath of one pissy queen mother.

United States vs. Cuba at 7:00 EST on ESPN Classic

Sure, the US is all but assured of moving on to the next stage of qualifying. That doesn't mean that you should deprive yourself of a chance to see Jose Francisco Torres debut with the USMNT. The US should win by a couple of goals, the real question is how many Cubans will defect. Considering the game is at RFK I'm going to say zero.

Peru Uruguay vs. Argentian at 12:55 pm EST on ESPN Deportes
All this time I thought ESPN Deportes was a 20 second segment on the occasional episode of SportsCenter. Apparently it's an entire channel, who knew?!

Estonia vs. Spain at 2:30 pm EST on Fox Soccer Channel
Spain is even fun to watch when they're playing against an opponent representing a fictional nation.

Romania vs. France at 4:00 pm EST on Setanta
Usually I'm hesitant to admit my fondness of the French squad because they're...well, you know...French. Now I have trouble admitting it for another reason. Yep, they certainly have sucked as of late. However, I don't see myself getting bored of Franck Ribery and Samir Nasri anytime soon.

Bulgaria vs. Italy at 5:45 pm EST on Setanata
You know what? Just watch football instead. Seriously though, fuck the Italian team in their azzurri pants.

World Cup qualifying in Europe is too easy. I know that sounds ridiculous given some of the results over the weekend—France losing to Austria, Italy needing stoppage time to nip Cyrpus, and England being rescued against Andorra (again) by five inspired minutes from Joe Cole—but in all likelihood those teams are all still going to make it to South Africa. England will probably even be there to compete.

Look at a map of Europe circa 20 years ago. I count 18 countries currently in qualifying that weren't even there when Bush XLI was telling us to read his lips. In fact in Group Six, England's group, the only other country you'd find on that map (provided it didn't specify the Soviet republics) is Andorra. And they didn't start competing in qualification until the 2002 World Cup cycle. It's like England drew the equivalent of four iterations of Kansas City Royals split-squad teams.

The fact that England will struggle isn't a reflection of any depth in Europe. It's a reflection of England sucking. This was the second (and consecutive) time they were unimpressive against Andorra. Most of Andorra's national team comes from players at Andorra FC. And while domestically based, AFC currently plays in Spain. In the third division. England should have been able to outscore Vince Young's Wonderlic against Andorra. Ergo: England is shit. Sorry, shite.

But they will probably still qualify. They'll finish behind Croatia, have a nervy home-and-home against maybe Poland or Sweden, get bailed out by a late strike from Frank Lampard, draw into a ridiculously easy WC group, detach from reality and start talking about a run to the semis, then lose in the round of 16 to Argentina. Really, it's so predictable it can turn an idiot like me into Kreskin. This is not to pick on England, they've given the world Calculus, penicillin and the Clash. Personally, my life has benefitted greatly from two of those things. That England can be so incredibly mediocre and still advance to South Africa for 2010 just proves the point about Europe.

In fact, qualifying out of CONCACAF, the U.S.'s region, might be tougher than coming out of Europe. And I'm being serious. I'm not saying we're better than England or that CONCACAF is better than UEFA. Our region is overrated and the United States is a second rate soccer nation (although what nobody ever adds is that there are about 12 rates in world soccer, so second is not that bad). More importantly, on the biggest stage, the US shits the bed almost as a rule (but take note Joe Morgan, we're super fucking consistent).

Here's why we have a tougher road than the Euro nance boys: the U.S., we will go topple another government. And I'm not even talking about the last sovereign nation we invaded apparently so our elected officials could hand out no-bid cost-plus contracts to their poker buddies. Vietnam, the Phillipenes, Iran, Chile, we'll destabilize a government and do it without much thought to the long term consequences. Within our qualifying region, we've tinkered in the national affairs of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama. We regularly force our national soccer team to go where we've disposed of legitimate leaders. It's kind of hard to play in places where they'd like to kill you for fucking up their countries.

Look at the U.S.'s two matches to this point. Game 1 degenerated into an elbowy bloodsport in Guatemala. Game 2 we traveled to a country we've methodically driven to economic ruin over five decades. Neither host thought enough of us to even bother turning on the stadium lights. Hell, we go to Mexico and our players get pelted by Ziploc bags filled with urine and feces. Name one venue where England's players are are likely to get pelted with urine bombs. One stadium besides Wembley that is.

And this is exactly what World Cup qualifying should be. Politics doesn't make strange bedfellows, it makes awesome sports. Even with the mild surprises in Europe over the weekend, the matches were all painfully boring (cue predictable jokes in 1, 2...) . And that's easy to fix: You meddle with another country, you face them in qualifying.

England should have to play Argentina until the seas rise so high that the Falklands aren't on any map that doesn't also include the Mariana's Trench. They held colonial power over Ghana and Nigeria. Excellent. Every World Cup for the foreseeable future would be free of the Three Lions.

Sure there's a shelf life here—Italy shouldn't be paying for Caesar's imperial ambitions but Belgium should still be paying for Leopold's—and some cases will require some gerrymandering—there are just not enough days in the FIFA calendar to allow Germany to face every country they've tried to invade—but who decided that geography should be the criteria by which this gets organized in the first place? Nobody smart. That's who. Align the qualifying groups by political conflict and there will never be another lifeforce-sucking scoreless draw like Saturday's Denmark v. Hungary match. And, bonus, Brazil can pretty much cut its national defense budget to zero.

US Squeak Past Cuba [Goal.com]

Well, that went about as expected, considering that Sussman is their starting goalie. Barbados lost to the U.S. 8-0 on Sunday in a World Cup qualifier, as you can see in the above video highlights, which are nearly as long as the match itself. Watch closely, because I'm pretty sure we scored two goals during the National Anthem.

Here are the unbelievable details. (Imagine the poor sap who had Barbados plus seven goals in this one). It was the worst drubbing in international competition since the Bournemouth Gynecologists beat the Watford Long John Silver Impersonators (shown below at about the 2:00 mark).

U.S. Overwhelms Barbados In Qualifying Opener [Yahoo Sports]