Diving statistics?

[DDR]

I'm arguing with a biter and delusional French man that is claiming we lead the way in dives according to FIFA. Does FIFA even list stats on diving? Any truth to this, I'd like to shut this little French man up for good.

[SueB]

I'm arguing with a biter and delusional French man that is claiming we lead the way in dives according to FIFA. Does FIFA even list stats on diving? Any truth to this, I'd like to shut this little French man up for good.

FIFA doesn't keep this list. Apparently, a British firm (now THAT is surely an unbiased analysis) compiled these 'statistics' from watching the the game tapes and 'proved' that Italy had the most 'dives' through the semifinals.

Shut him up like this - "Italy is the world champion for the next four years, whether you like it or not".

[RandyNA74]

FIFA doesn't keep this list. Apparently, a British firm (now THAT is surely an unbiased analysis) compiled these 'statistics' from watching the the game tapes and 'proved' that Italy had the most 'dives' through the semifinals.

Shut him up like this - "Italy is the world champion for the next four years, whether you like it or not".
I strongly recommend following Sue's suggestion here. My girlfriend is French and it's pretty much what I do whenever she starts talking trash.

And I did see the site of the British firm (:rolleyes: ). It's not even worth commenting on further, IMHO.

[Sempre]

I certainly don't think Italy were the worst divers at the World
Cup, though of course finding statistics on this sort of thing is
difficult.

The big problem here on BS (and in Anglo culture generally) is
that all sorts of different phenomena are referred to as "diving."
This was exactly what, for me, devalued that English firm's report
on foul play at the WC.

If you look at some of the most notorious incidents at this WC,
you'll find that they are not diving at all but very different in
nature:

Henry vs. Puyol

There was contact by Puyol, i.e. a foul, and Henry went down: thus,
not a dive. However, this was simulating as Henry proceeded to
clutch his face, which hadn't been touched.

Grosso vs. Neill

Neill mistimed his tackle and landed on his backside. This in itself would
be obstruction, but as Grosso attempted to step over Neill, LN lifted his
elbow, Grosso felt the contact, and threw himself down. This is not a
dive but going down easy. There was, again, contact.

Malouda vs. Materazzi

Slight contact in the box, and, just as above, Malouda felt it and threw
himself down. Going down easy, as opposed to pure diving.

As for actual, full-blooded dives (which I think are indeed dishonorable
and bad for the game), there was Ronaldo's horrific dive vs. the Germans
in the third place game, Gyan's vs. Brazil (Juan was literally yards away
from him), and Del Piero's horrific belly flop vs. France. I recall Adriano
also got carded for one.

The key thing I want to add is that simulating often serves a defendable
cause, though not often seen as such. Pirlo, for one, simulated being
in a lot of pain after that horrible tackle by Mastroeni, though he wasn't
really injured. But it called attention to the illegality of the tackle (and it
served the purpose of defending the creative player from further abuse).

This kind of simulating was done by Messi in the Barca/ Chelsea tie and
again it served a good cause. Sometimes attacking players have to show
the refs that the defenders have stepped over the line and it's one way
to do it.

[Porteghal]

Just tell him their first goal was a dive, that right there changed the whole game

[Pabs]

No such list exists. It's just another tool for the haters to come up with anything they can.

Though FIFA does has stats for most fouls suffered, and Luca Toni was the most fouled player this WC. Life's hard being the UEFA Golden Boot winner :)

[Ivan Basso]

Even though Italy was accused of diving a lot. I think Portugal was probably the most obvious. Especially in that semi final against the French.And to a lesser extent the Quarter final against England. I remember the British Broadcaster calling them team Dive.

[dor02]

The French are a bunch of cry-babies. They accuse us of diving/acting when they have two divers/actors in Henry and Malouda.

[ctruppi]

Now that we're weeks past the final and I've had time to soak in what happened over this past WC I have come to several conclusions about diving:

1) Everyone is universally agreed that diving generally brings the game down.

2) I think that brutal, purposefully fouling defensive play is much worse for the game than diving.

3) Even if Italians or Portuguese or whoever dove every second of every game, what difference does it make that these guys dove on the actual outcome of the games? The haters and detrators act as if Italy received 3 PK's and had 5 opponents red carded every game for diving and simulation. This is just BS. Look at C Ronaldo for Portugal. He dove balatantly 10 times in the tournament. I don't remember him receiving any calls for these. So why is it a big deal? Portugal didn't make it the SF because they dove, they made it there because they played well and beat their opponents.

As for Italy, other than Grosso vs Australia (and this was not even a pure dive) Italy received no calls for this type of play. In fact you can say that the bogus Materazzi red vs Australia actually kept them in a game that Italy was building to a good and comfortable 1-0 or 2-0 win.

At the end of the day, Italy was truly robbed in 2002 vs Croatia, Mexico and S Korea. When Italians complained they were called whiners because the refs don't win and lose games, etc. Now that we win, we are called cheats byu the same folks. Let them stew. All I remember is that Canavarro is the one who lifted that trophy last month!

[Porteghal]

SHOW the FRENCH sissy boy this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JtGqNX5736w&search=France%20penalty%202006%20world%20cup%20final

^^^ Diving at its best



And now this is what we call GRASS ROLLING:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IfKvz0ITj38&search=qatar-iran

WAtch the player in the box, how he falls down when nothing has touched him even close. And this is in the dying minutes of a WC qualifier game. THis is what Iran's team goes through when they play arab teams. We'd be happy if they dive, but they GRASS ROLL for like 10 min. :mad:

[Romanista_NYC]

And now this is what we call GRASS ROLLING:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IfKvz0ITj38&search=qatar-iran

:eek: That was freaking hilarious. :D

[Pabs]

ctruppi

What happened in the Mexico game ? I know the game well but don't recall any bad calls against us. Jog my memory.

Agreed on Croatia & Korea games though.

[Massimo_Oddo]

ctruppi

What happened in the Mexico game ? I know the game well but don't recall any bad calls against us. Jog my memory.

Agreed on Croatia & Korea games though.

I think Inzaghi had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside early on, and Montella also had a questionable offside call.

[ctruppi]

I think Inzaghi had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside early on, and Montella also had a questionable offside call.


BINGO!

Plus, because of the Croatia debacle (2 legit goals not given resulting in a 2-1 loss), Trap was forced to play both Canavarro (already had a yellow) and Nesta (nursing a slight injury) because Italy HAD to win vs Mexico assuming that Craotia got any points vs Ecuador. Canavarro picks up his second yellow and Nesta's injury worsens in the Mexico game forcing Trap to start a CD pairing of Maldini and Iuliano vs S Korea in the 2nd round.