A fine example of dive-based reffing
I’m going to say up front that I’m not a soccer fan. I’m also going to say right up front that I’m not going spend the next few paragraphs ripping on the game of soccer. This outsider only has one complaint.
This was the first year that I even paid 1 minute of attention to the World Cup, caught a couple games streaming, and even saw the last half of the World Cup championship itself. For me, what made it hard to watch was the rampant diving! It seemed like half the time that any two players came within touching distance, one or both of them would end up rolling on the ground clutching a limb and and/or screaming at the ref for a call.
Sure, every sport has their diving and notorious divers, but in soccer, even soccer fans have to admit that it is out of hand. Is this something that soccer players really want to be known for? Do soccer leagues really do anything to prevent this behavior? Why is a ref less likely to call a penalty if there is no injury? As a spectator, it was hard to have a stoppage in play so often because of a player down on the ground.
I played my share of competitive team sports growing up — including soccer — and I never witnessed as much diving as I did watching two games in the World Cup. I was always taught to play tough, play through it, because teammates are counting on you.
Now as an adult I play hockey in local rec leagues and in pickup, and personally, as a player, I have never and will never dive for any reason. Ever. If I get hit, I get up (if I can) and keep on playing! At the very least I hobble over to the bench as quickly as I can to get a sub out there to play in my place. I leave it to the ref to decide whether or not there was a penalty. It’s naive I know, but isn’t this the way sports should be?
I know there are many, many more people in this world who are soccer/football fans than my fellow hockey fans, so I guess my question is, is this really “just part of the game?” It just seems ridiculous to me.
I can say that in hockey, even with protective equipment, the hits are harder, much, much, much more frequent, and the players still manage to play through it. Notice that in this video, most guys who get hit — even by the “hardest hits ever” — get right back up to play:
And by contrast, I came across this video, and while it’s not really fair, it does illustrate the issue in question pretty comically. While these are extreme examples, lesser dives happen frequently in every game. Something is wrong there.
And oh yeah, I redesigned my blog.
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It seems to be something that’s just part of the game. I was watching the highlights of the World Cup Finals, and the commentators were saying on one replay where a guy was on a breakaway fought through a trip to take a shot and missed, but if he just fell down he would have gotten a free kick! It’s as if the refs either let you play through a foul and not call it, or they will call it if you choose to fall. It’s just seems silly to give the player the choice whether or not to get a call rather than the ref being completely objective about it. So dumb.
Most of these dives would be prevented if the game allowed video replays and penalizing intentional dives. But nope, they want to keep the “purity” of the game, so instead they just get a bunch of players who exploit the system, making for a less pure game in my opinion.
Also, I heard that the guy who kicked his opponent in the chest only got a yellow card because they didn’t want to mess with the balance of the game by kicking him out instantly. What is THAT?!
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I like the music in the second video better.
All I got out of this post was that you like rap.
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I’m both a Hockey and Soccer fan and player. I agree with you that diving is totally uncool and unfair and should be punished by the ref.
It even goes so far that in soccer training camps you learn how to dive! The advantage of getting rewarded a free kick is just too tempting. And the consequences if you get caught diving are pretty small, unless you fake it in the 16m area.
I would love to see soccer “cleansed” of diving, but I don’t think video replays are the answer. What I love about soccer is that you have a lot of games where you will play for 10-20minutes without a pause, or at least only very short ones – compare that to hockey, basketball, football or almost any other american sport! I love watching soccer because of the “flow”.
The thing that has to change is the mentality of the soccer players. In hockey training you are not trained to dive. Your trained to get up and play. But changing the mentality of soccer players is going to take for ever.
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Simon – that’s some good insights on the advantages vs consequences. Something’s got to change with that.
If they teach you how to dive in soccer camps then the sport is doomed to dive for the foreseeable future.
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I agree with Tim about the diving but also with Simon about the flow of the game, and the incredible athleticism that is required to play for so long without stopping. That to me is the most impressive thing about soccer/futbol players.
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Ha! According to your comment info, Daniel, the browser sniff WordPress plugin detects Safari on iPad as “Netscape Navigator.”
…unless you truly are using Netscape Navigator…
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Alright, I never saw this until now. But I will address it as best as I can.
I love both sports, hockey and soccer. (I’ll call it soccer for the purposes of this comment only)
Personally, I hate diving, it is waaaay more prevalent in soccer than it is in hockey, but that is another story. Firstly though, a little history.
Diving in soccer used to be mainly done by players of Spanish and Italian sides back in the 70s and 80s when most teams who competed in European competition consisted of homegrown players, ie players from their own towns/systems.
What contributed to this, and has a lot to do with it is, British teams were banned from competing in European Cup competitions due to the actions of their fans (rioting and stuff, Think about the movie Green Street).
Anyway, as such, the British game evolved differently to the other nations, who continued to compete against each other, and find out new tactics etc.
The British game became kind of stagnant and became known for its brutality, both on and off the field, during this 10 or so year period. So, the top sides in the land decided to launch a new league, or rather re brand the existing league and base the style of the league on speed, skill and goals, not a bad idea at the time. After a short while. rules were relaxed on the british teams competing in the european competions, and they suddenly found themselves behind the ball so to speak in terms of skill and tactics.
So, to cure this, they bought foreign players, who brought with them diving, as a way to get ahead in the game.
Now, I’m not saying that British players were totally admonished from all diving charges ever before that, just that it increased and they saw it in a new light, I guess. Think like what Sidney Crosby does. He has all the talent, but still dives.
I for one hate diving. Probably 99% of all soccer fans do. There are still a lot of players who say that they will never dive, and most of them don’t. However, its hard to say that when your teams star striker has the ball, and gets pulled back by the last defender, and if he doesn’t go down, he won’t get a penalty. Not many fans would begrudge that type of a dive. The other teams fans would scream bloody murder though!
I think a lot of it has to do with the referees and linesmen. Soccer moves at a higher pace than you think, and i believe if they instituted some kind of instant replay, it would totally kill the game. What is needed however is probably better training for the refs, better guidelines of what to do in certain situations, and maybe a dual referee system, like what is active in hockey.
I would not like soccer to become what American Football is. Talking about what play to run for 35 seconds, followed by maybe 5-10 seconds of action. Don’t get me wrong, I love that sport too, but for different reasons.
Anyway, I’ll leave you with this video as to why soccer is called The beautiful game. Stick with this, it gets better after the first 2 mins or so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1pw6ic1PTc
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That’s some good history on the evolution of modern soccer. So it’s the Span and Italy’s fault. Does the U.S. have their own “style” of soccer compared with the rest of the world?
I was trying really hard not to rip on soccer itself, only the diving. I do like that it’s one sport that virtually the entire world plays and shares a common bond in. And no disrespect to the talented athletes either.
…unless of course, you’re a diver.
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Yes, most countries have a style that they like to play and are more comfortable playing.
Spain like to pass it about endlessly, keep the ball on the ground and work intricate patterns.
Brazil are the same, but have a more upbeat tempo, with lots of flair and skill.
Italy are known for “Slow, Slow, Quick”
England are known for pace.
Germany for doggedness, and getting the job done
The U.S. team is known for hard working, wekk drilled teams.
Northern Ireland are known for being awesome.