Flopping, Diving, and Timewasting: The World Cup Way

blogs.chron.com ^ | July 03, 2006

[thehumanlynx]

Flopping, Diving, and Timewasting: The World Cup Way

Mis amis footballeurs: How do we stop the madness? (In my best French accent...)

In this World Cup, especially in the group phase and 2nd round, huge numbers of the fittest athletes known in team sports have apparently suffered more life-threatening injuries than in an entire season of ER. In an amazing coincidence, many of these mortal wounds occur near their opponents penalty area; the rest seem to occur to players (victims, really) on teams holding a one-goal lead. In fact, it seems every one of Italy's opponents was tought Pai Mei 's five-point palm exploding heart technique--but fortunately, FIFA's triage units, along with Italy's outstanding medical staff, have formulated just the perfect solution in their bottle of Magic Water to allow these players to continue play unaffected...

[thehumanlynx]

I am just at the end of my rope with all this crap. We talked about it in other threads, but I'd like to hear what people think.

Diving should be snuffed out, punish the fakers. A stretcher is not required because someone gets tripped up. Gradeschoolers fall all the time and pop right back up. These are grown men, getting your foot stepped on does not require the faces made during child birth. It makes me sick.

The stretchers are a joke, and the flops are disgrace. It doesnt belong in the game. It is cheating. Anyway, I look forward to hearing the comments from the soccer fans... I just feel like FIFA showed some weak policy this WC and needs to make a few changes. 5900 yellow cards, 588 reds, and 22,456 fake falls and dives, 6200 instances of men writhing in pain as if they were a little girl that just got her foot sawed off. Not to mention 200 stretchers carrying people off the field only to see the terribly injured player hop right off the stretcher and re-enter the game....

Also, The US will have a draw on their record with the WC champs..

[thehumanlynx]

pinging you to show the soccer fans to start a little talk about it

[Bikers4Bush]

Agreed, I'm tired of the theatrics. Just play the damn game like a man.

[Paladin2]

Complain to the Human Rights Commission at the UN.

[AntiGovernment]

Portugal is out. Huge improvement.

[AntiGovernment]

Complain to the Human Rights Commission at the UN.

Naaah, they're too busy investigating the damage done to Muslim sensibilities by the Danish cartoons. Much more imporant than a pesky genocide in Darfur.

[stuartcr]

In a game where you can be running for 120 min, with no timeouts, I bet they all enjoy even a few seconds of rest.

[Mr. Mojo]

The U.S. and English team members rarely flop, from what I read yesterday.

The stretchers are a joke, and the flops are disgrace.

Drama queen theatrics. .....very European.

[always vigilant]

a sissy game. don't watch a second of it.

[Red Badger]

Get rid of the "cards" and all this drama-queen behvior will go away..........

[evets]

[MPJackal]

Penalize the faker. That will help stop it. The trouble with soccer is that EVERY penalty seems to be a "Judgement call". So with crooked refs, it won't matter.

[thehumanlynx]

thats the sentiment. "sissy game". thats what the players are making it into. It isnt in reality but thats all people see.

[Pompah]

Play the game like a Man.

"Aye there's the rub."

[T. Jefferson]

The stretchers are a joke, and the flops are disgrace. It doesnt belong in the game. Not to mention 200 stretchers carrying people off the field only to see the terribly injured player hop right off the stretcher and re-enter the game....

Emmitt Smith did it his whole career, and no one seemed to notice. Everytime he was carried off we'd place bets on the number of offensive plays till he returned.

[Gator101]

This is the number one reason this sport is not popular with Americans. I also think this is the reason it's not popular with Canadians and Australians.

When your favorite sports are American Football, Hockey, and Australian Football, the unmanly theatrics of soccer are all the more laughable.

[thehumanlynx]

you do get rest if you go for 120 mins. You rest in between plays, half time, throw ins, corners, goal kicks, when the ball is on the opposite side of the field and so on. It is not necessary, plus I would contend that they actually expend more energy clenching every muscle in their frames to sell the intense "pain" they are feeling...

[river rat]

"Drama queen theatrics. .....very European."

Uh, isn't Soccer a girls game?

With all the long hair, short shorts, tears and hugging -- I thought.........

Semper Fi

[kesg]

As Don Cherry (legendary hockey analyst) would tell hockey players, "when you get injured, don't roll around on the ground like some European soccer player. Play the game the Canadian way."

[thehumanlynx]

maybe so, but its not a widespread issue in the NFL. I think Emmitt was the benefactor of an amazing O line, switch him and Barry and guess how many yards Barry would have accumulated.

[Triggerhippie]

Too true. We also need to get the NFL cleaned up with the amateur dramatics of:

1) trying to get an interference call and flopping on the ground,

2) Finger pointing during an offsides call,

3) The 'Icky Shuffle' and other endzone prancing about,

4) Time-outs, stoppage of plays (the Aussies don't stop, nor do they wear pads!)

5) Pads. If it's a contact sport, make contact. Don't puss out behind pads.

[burzum]

If someone dives and then fakes an injury I think that the opposing team should then be allowed to give them that injury, perhaps with a little interest carried over. If someone dives (in general), then the opposing team should be able to give a 10 second beatdown. Watch the problem go away.

I think it should be a wakeup for FIFA that the final in this World Cup is the Divers vs. the French! I don't know who to root for other than perhaps both teams will somehow simultaneously be disqualified, perhaps by a meteor.

[Mr. Mojo]

You thought correctly.

[thehumanlynx]

I agree. Thats why it pisses me off. It wont grab hold in the US till they toughen the game up. Soccer is a great game, tons of strategy and is truly a team game. America will never realize this until they respect the game, and you have to respect the players first then respect for the game will follow.

Its kinda hard to respect a grown man who looks like he is passing a jagged stone through his urethra.

[thehumanlynx]

team should then be allowed to give them that injury

Great Idea! A 10 second enforcement period. Petition FIFA

[burzum]

Yeah but soccer is popular in Afghanistan when their national sport consists carrying a goat carcass across a goal while on horseback while other players try to beat the crap out of you to take it. There are no real rules except that guns and knives are frowned upon (but not whips).

Yes, the sport exists, it's called Buzkashi. If the Afghans can enjoy a sport where someone isn't killed every game, perhaps we can as well.

[muleskinner]

Which teams flop the most? I can see going down after a shot in the noggin, or a kick across the shin, but yesterday's flop-fest - esp. Portugal's Rinaldo taking a dive whenever he got inside the goal area (whatever that area is called) was too much.
And I was rooting for Portugal. I would have expected the cheese-eating surrender monkeys to whine like little girls more than the Portugeese.

OTT, I've enjoyed the semifinals.

With all the criticizing of announcer O'Brien, what's the alternative - besides the Mexican station. Is ITN on DirectTV?

[thehumanlynx]

sport consists carrying a goat carcass across a goal while on horseback while other players try to beat the crap out of you to take it.

Sounds like a sweet game. Replace the carcass with a ball and remove the horses and you have a game that I and many kids regularly played. Good Old "Smear the Queer" . . . or "tackle the guy with the ball" if you are a PC psycho.

[don'tbedenied]

Flopping is further exasperated by the almost complete lack of scoring. Key victories (or ties) have been obtained by flopping in the penalty box (US-Ghana, France-Portugal, Italy-Australia) or flopping to get a 2nd yellow or red (Portugal-Sweden, Italy-US)to obtain a man advantage.
The game of football has become a disgrace. When one of the chief tactics to score is to feign injury you know the game is in the dumper.
Because football is part of the culture and history of so many countries (and it's so cheap to form teams), it won't have any problems staying popular but it will never become very big in the US, where it isn't part of our culture and we have the bucks to buy sporting equipment.
.

[thehumanlynx]

the goal area (whatever that area is called)

18 yard box

[beeler]

Soccer's for euro-wussies. I've never seen such pathetic men in my life. I watched several games and at least one player per game was taken away on a stretcher. I can't recall the last time I saw a real football player taken off the field on a stretcher. However, there is some good competition in the World Cup.

[thehumanlynx]

I still hold onto the hope that it could catch on here... my naivete

[burzum]

The saddest thing about his World Cup final for me is that that French seamstresses had already made up the French Battle flag in case they were to face Germany:

But even France isn't going to surrender to the Divers.

[thehumanlynx]

Soccer's for euro-wussies. I've never seen such pathetic men in my life.

the way it is now is wussy, punish the fakers, make it a mans game again.

I want it to take off here b/c we have such good athletes here. I want to win a stinkin WC. We lost to Ghana for crying out loud...

[Locomotive Breath]

Soccer (football) is a sport for children and Europeans. But I repeat myself.

[thehumanlynx]

I'll agree that it is in that state here in the States. but add the rest of the world (hispanics, Africans, Asians, S. Americans...)to the Europeans.

[don'tbedenied]

I used to think it would, but this World Cup has convinced me that a no scoring, high flopping game as no big future here.
Most of these teams, including ours, only play one forward.
In the quarters, I watched Enlgand-Portugal play nil-nil after 150 minutes, then France beat Brazil 1-0. 240 minutes of the best teams in the world and one goal? And have you ever seen a worse way to settle a tie than a shoot out?

[al_c]

Emmitt Smith did it his whole career, and no one seemed to notice. Everytime he was carried off we'd place bets on the number of offensive plays till he returned.

Wrong. Emmitt actually played hurt quite often. Case in point ... in one of the SBs against the hapless Bills, he was playing with a badly injured back which probably would've been a season-ender for most RBs.

[Gator101]

Me too. I kind of got into soccer during the '98 World Cup. But now as I have many more games under my belt the continuous flopping has really ruined it for me.

What they should do is make the penalties much less severe. In soccer a well timed flop can get you a penalty shot which is often as good as goal, which in a game where a 2-1 game is considered a high score, that's pretty much the game. Or in the case of a red card, your opponent is down a man for the rest of the game! That's crazy!

In most every other sport I can think of if a player is ejected you lose the specific player...not his position as well for the rest of the game.

Perhaps if the rewards for flopping weren't so good there would be a lot less of it. Likewise, if somebody faked it you could send out an enforcer (like in Hockey) to punish them without throwing away the game.

[thehumanlynx]

Shootouts arent too good, i agree. I like the idea of a sudden death period or two before shootouts. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, if you cant get it done in regulation.

the 4-5-1 is pretty weak and obviously defensive. I figure we should be aggressive and switch it up. Set Johnson and McBride up there and get some offense going. I think Arena made some pretty serious mistakes this tourney. I'm not too pleased with his ideas. We need to play to win. Dempsey was a bright spot though, he and a few other young guys showed promise.. (landon was not one of the ones showing promise)

[Gator101]

Shootouts arent too good, i agree. I like the idea of a sudden death period or two before shootouts. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, if you cant get it done in regulation.

They should do it like NHL playoffs. Make 'em keep playing until somebody scores. There have been hockey games that were double the length of regulation time (and more) but eventually the players were so exhausted somebody messed up and somebody else scored.

[don'tbedenied]

I like offense but I must observe that the 4-5-1 has been pretty successful over all this world cup, though very ugly to watch. I know Italy is 4-5-1 but does France use one or two strikers?

[thehumanlynx]

i believe FR starts one forward up. Not sure though..

[T. Jefferson]

Wrong. Emmitt actually played hurt quite often. Case in point ... in one of the SBs against the hapless Bills, he was playing with a badly injured back which probably would've been a season-ender for most RBs.

Every football player plays hurt. Emmitt was the master of the flop. In the 50 or so flops he did that my friends and I witnessed, his average return to the field was 3 plays into the next series of downs. He clearly fooled alot of fans, as evidenced by your comment, but the opposing teams knew when he was carried off he'd be back in a few minutes.

[Gator101]

Yeah but soccer is popular in Afghanistan

I imagine the reason for that is there is little other entertainment. Soccer is popular in the poor regions of the world because all it requires is a ball and a flat piece of ground. Heck, even as you described, once the Afghans found a more complicated sport (needing horses and dead goats) they bumped that above soccer.

[al_c]

Are you a Redskins fan or something? Emmitt was a tough player. If you want a flopper from the NFL, pick Staubach. He was the king of NFL flops.

[wolf78]

The stretchers are a joke, and the flops are disgrace. It doesnt belong in the game. It is cheating. Anyway, I look forward to hearing the comments from the soccer fans... I just feel like FIFA showed some weak policy this WC and needs to make a few changes. 5900 yellow cards, 588 reds, and 22,456 fake falls and dives, 6200 instances of men writhing in pain as if they were a little girl that just got her foot sawed off. Not to mention 200 stretchers carrying people off the field only to see the terribly injured player hop right off the stretcher and re-enter the game....

Well, there were some yellow cards for diving, and I applaud the refs who didn't let themselves get fooled.

The problem with the stretchers is a different one and probably here to stay: Liability issues and overzealous lawyers. 40 years ago, stretchers were only used in the most serious cases like broken legs etc. But today it's mandatory that a player is carried off the field on a stretcher, because if he further complicated an injury by walking off the field the lawyers of the clubs the players usually work for would sue.

... which ironically is not at all un-American.

[soccer_maniac]

Referees ahould give a yellow for every dive.

That would solve the problem.

[thehumanlynx]

I have no problem with stretchering (is that a word) if the player is actually hurt. But to not be able to walk off the field on your own strength takes a substantial injury, an injury that you know is a problem. I tore my acl all the way through and I still walked all the way from the field to my truck and drove home. Give me a break.

Interesting about the lawsuits... yet another example of lawyers ruining everything.

it still seems extreme. You are playing a game where injury is a possiblity, it is a risk inherent in the activity. The stretchers are abused to waste time or to play up the drama, not for the fans, but rather for the ref. Its sad and out of control

[thehumanlynx]

I think there is some credibility in the idea of having the "injured" player remain off field for a specific time.