[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.

[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..........

[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.

[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.

[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."

[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.

[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.
.

[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.

[Locomotive Breath]

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

[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.

[JRios1968]

I am just at the end of my rope with all this crap.

So am I...when will the metric football end? It's bad enough...zzzzzzzz...oh, wait, I fell asleep talking about it again.