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France got off to a slow start against Senegal in its World Cup opener on Tuesday, struggling through a scoreless first half before turning on the style late in a 3-1 win.
Calling the game for Fox, U.S. men's national team legend Landon Donovan said at halftime that, in his opinion, Les Bleus were approaching the game in an “arrogant” and “casual” manner.
Luckily for viewers, Fox also had one of France's all-time greatest players in the studio for a response.
Thierry Henry clearly took exception to Donovan's comments, trying to take the high road while also making clear he was perturbed.
“Actually, I will skip that one. I just don’t get it,” Henry said. “So because you are not 1-0 up or 2-0 up or 3-0 up after 15 minutes that those words have to come out?
"But let’s concentrate on the game. We all knew what was going to happen. If people don’t know how Senegal can play or how good Senegal are, that’s on them.”
After France did eventually turn it on in the second half, led by a Kylian Mbappe brace, Alexi Lalas could not help but bring up Donovan's comments again.
"We had that nice little fun back and forth between Landon and Thierry about whether the French were arrogant in the first half," Lalas said.
"We can have that discussion but the reality is that if they are arrogant, it's because they can do things like that. The patience that they showed after a poor first half to come back and provide a masterful second half with the talent that they have, and the big stars showing up, that's pretty special."
While Henry attempted to take the high road at halftime, his studio-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic did no such thing when addressing Donovan's comments.
"It's not arrogance, it's confidence," Ibrahimovic said. "Ignorant people will say it's arrogance, intelligent people will say it's confidence."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thierry Henry slams Landon Donovan for calling France 'arrogant' at World Cup
Continue reading...
France got off to a slow start against Senegal in its World Cup opener on Tuesday, struggling through a scoreless first half before turning on the style late in a 3-1 win.
Calling the game for Fox, U.S. men's national team legend Landon Donovan said at halftime that, in his opinion, Les Bleus were approaching the game in an “arrogant” and “casual” manner.
Luckily for viewers, Fox also had one of France's all-time greatest players in the studio for a response.
Thierry Henry clearly took exception to Donovan's comments, trying to take the high road while also making clear he was perturbed.
“Actually, I will skip that one. I just don’t get it,” Henry said. “So because you are not 1-0 up or 2-0 up or 3-0 up after 15 minutes that those words have to come out?
"But let’s concentrate on the game. We all knew what was going to happen. If people don’t know how Senegal can play or how good Senegal are, that’s on them.”
After France did eventually turn it on in the second half, led by a Kylian Mbappe brace, Alexi Lalas could not help but bring up Donovan's comments again.
"We had that nice little fun back and forth between Landon and Thierry about whether the French were arrogant in the first half," Lalas said.
"We can have that discussion but the reality is that if they are arrogant, it's because they can do things like that. The patience that they showed after a poor first half to come back and provide a masterful second half with the talent that they have, and the big stars showing up, that's pretty special."
While Henry attempted to take the high road at halftime, his studio-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic did no such thing when addressing Donovan's comments.
"It's not arrogance, it's confidence," Ibrahimovic said. "Ignorant people will say it's arrogance, intelligent people will say it's confidence."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thierry Henry slams Landon Donovan for calling France 'arrogant' at World Cup
Continue reading...
