Posted on 07/16/2014 6:15:28 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
Brazil, Neymar Are Most Commonly Seen in Anguish; Bosnia Is Most Likely to 'Grin and Bare It'
One of the most common complaints during this otherwise splendid World Cup is the amount of time players spend embellishing injuries.
All too often during matches, seemingly fit men fall to the ground in agony. They scream, wince, pound the grass with their fists and gesture to the sidelines for a stretcher. Some of them clutch a limb as if it was just freed from the jaws of a wood chipper.
But after a few moments, just as the priests arrive to administer last rites, they sit up on the gurney, shake it off, rise to their feet and run back on the field to play some more.
Fans of the world's most popular game know that this is just one of soccer's oldest and most universally despised tactics. Turning a small foul into a death performance worthy of La Scala can draw cards for opposing players, kill time from the clock or just give one's winded teammates a breather. What's interesting about the World Cup is that not all national teams are the same. Some embellish all the time, some hardly at all.
With this in mind, the Count loaded 32 World Cup matches on the DVR and set out to perform a comprehensive empirical study aimed at determining one thing: Which World Cup participant nation is the world's floppiest?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No flopping in a sport where an anal tear is a real risk!
Instant Replay for these Girlie Men
Look, I’m saying nothing in favor of flopping in this sport. But ‘instant replay’ is the gayest concept around, and it’s spreading in our sports like HIV.
But now there is a rule for ‘flopping’ or ‘diving’ as the brits call it. If the official thinks that a player has flopped he can be carded.
The numbers also imply that Latin American teams are the worst offenders, which fits the stereotype.
I wonder if Kramer's all right.
But instant replay destroys flow. Just wrecks it. The best part of any game is when a team is in a groove and just executing.
No different than US basketball players hamming it up and falling down trying to draw a penalty for the opposing team.
There are real, very painful injuries in soccer, there are 10 at this link:
http://www.tsmplug.com/news/worst-injuries-in-football/
I’m glad that the Germans (finally) pulled Kramer from the game. There was no reason he should continue. He was messed-up.
I agree. Soccer is a demanding sport, and I have to say that anyone who honestly thinks otherwise is just not appreciating the realities of the game. During the World Cup many players ran the equivalent of a 10K each game, excluding overtime. This, in a tropical climate. Yes, flopping is a problem, but there are real injuries as well, and what happened to Neymar could have easily led to permanent paralysis.
Everything has to be considered in context. Lebron James is 6'8”, and 250 pounds. He's a great player and no one in their right mind wants to get in his way when he's got momentum going to the basket. Still, he had to come out of an NBA finals game because he was dehydrated and overheated. Does that make him weak? Of course not. My point is that ‘toughness’ includes lots of different parameters, and soccer players deserve their due.
“....the gayest concept....”
.
Don’t be surprised if you get a knock on the door from the gay polizei.
When you gaze into the Götze, the Götze gazes also into you.
The sad thing is, they don’t *need* to flop, there really is a lot of contact in soccer. Not every little brush of the shoulder needs to be the equivalent of stepping on a land mine.
I mean, look at Schweinsteiger after the final. That guy looked like he’d gone five rounds in the Octagon with Anderson Silva. They beat the crap out of him.
}:-)4
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