Uh, yeah. Nice try. Watch it again. Eddie simply let himself fall to the ground, well after the challenge occurred. Wynalda actually laughed out loud when they showed the replay and said it was a blatant dive.
I did, and I haven't changed my mind. How about this, I'll hold your front leg at the ankle with one leg and kick you in the back of the thigh. Stay standing if you like... When I start taking my decisions about fouls from Wynalda... i'll eat my own face. Are you sure Wynalda wasn't laughing at the challenge? It was a horrible challenge. I didn't see any Celtic players too angry about the call. I think Venegoor tried to convince the ref it was a dive, that's it. Get over yourself and Wynalda! You are just an EJ-hater... just admit it.
Whether Johnson "let himself fall" is irrelevant. The defender basically kicked him from behind, and that would disrupt his shot regardless of whether or not he kept his feet. It's a clear foul and PK.
The other CD bailed the first defender out? How could that have happened? Oh, did Eddie let the ball get way too far off his foot after supposedly turning the 1st defender around? LOL. That's what I thought. If you think Johnson has anything approaching good quickness, lateral movement and change of pace for a forward you're out of your skull. Yeah, send the endless hyperbole on Johnson down there. The guy's hype-to-skill ratio is off the charts.
Definitely agree 100%. I don't know how many times I've argued that we don't need Allen Iverson and Reggie Bush - allegedly our best athletes - playing soccer as their sport of choice for the US to take the national team to the next level. Most of what we lack is tactics, technical ability, and better understanding of the game. Don't get me wrong. To win the World Cup, I think soccer will have to be competing with the biggest US sports to attract our top athletic talent, but it's certainly not a necessity for us to become more competitive and consistent internationally. The soccer landscape is littered with seemingly marginal athletes who seem to always end up with the ball ala Carlos Alberto. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/the_bonus/07/19/cosmos/2.html
I'd call it a dive. I'd leave it up to the referee's discretion to call the PK though since he was knicked. I wouldn't fault the ref in this case for a bad call either way. If he saw the play from the ideal position he probably wouldn't have called it. Were I the referee, I wouldn't have called it, even without seeing it perfectly, because I think EJ waited too long to play the ball before being fouled; he didn't even attempt to take the shot. He should have put it away, and he should've put the penalty away as well.
Thanks. It's at the :37 mark. Hysterical. The defender makes a successful challenge - Toe pokes the ball cleanly away from Johnson. Johnson is still on *both* feet AFTER the challenge. Then he throws both arms up in the air for absolutely no reason (other than to tell every knowledgable fan on the planet "I'm taking a dive everybody") and collapses to the ground. Amazing that he has enough composure to actually turn his head and watch the ball roll off to his left as he's going down, despite "having" to flail his arms so dramatically due to that oh-so-harsh challenge. LOL. Wynalda was right about it being a blatant dive, and had good reason to laugh.
You are clearly an EJ-hater. You clearly are watching a different clip. He touches the ball away with his heel as he contacts the front of EJ's ankle. Then he comes through and hits EJ in the hamstring, just above the leg. You must be a defender, because only a defender could even attempt to argue that wasn't a foul. He didn't hit him particularly hard, but the way he hit his legs from both sides is well more than enough for a PK. That doesn't mean EJ didn't embellish, he did, on that you are correct. If that's what you mean by dive then ok... but it was a foul plain and simple. Usually the word "dive" in soccer means you make something that isn't a foul look like a foul, or that you try to do so.
I wish he'd score goals for fun against Mexico, or Argentina, or the Czechs, or somebody like that. Because I can find other guys to score on Panama or T&T.
Yeah, you do that. Go watch the youtube vid and then get back to us about holding the front leg and kicking the back of the thigh (how the f did you come up with that?) Yeah, Wynalda has such a horrible reputation about not siding with Americans when it comes to fouls. (????????) Yeah. He was laughing while he said "A clear dive". You watched a different game then. There were several players right in EJ's face calling him on his bs. Sure. I'm just an "EJ-Hater". Whatever. Don't have any reason to hate the guy. Just know a dive when I see it. The tell-tale sign is always the overly-dramatic flinging of the arms into the air and head snap (lol - EJ wasn't even in motion at the time) well after the challenge. Conduct like EJ's shouldn't be rewarded. If anything he should have gotten a yellow (which is what a number of the Celtic players were asking for).
or maybe he goes over due to the defenders left leg hitting his right leg. I still think it was a good call. Actually watching it last night I thought it looked a lot more like a dive in real time then it did in the replay.
Sometimes I feel like the only EJ fan on these boards. It was nice to read a couple of posts that pointed out he isn't ALWAYS blind, lead footed and lazy. Seriously, folks love to hate on him for not having sublime soccer skills and being "lazy" - but here's a kid who by his own admission went against the grain a little to play soccer, probably had few soccer role models or a means to watch much high quality soccer on TV like most of us, and we rip him to shreds because he isn't Thierry Henry? Where's the fun in that? What's encouraging to me is that he's improved parts of his game - such as linking with other players - last night he had some nice flicks and passes that show that his awareness as a player has grown, although believe it or not he looked like he had some soccer skills when he was our best player at the U17 World Cup he played in, and when he was an important part of the U-20 team that just lost out to Argentina (no, I don't think that was a sitter! ). To me, Eddie looks like a player who still is trying to figure out what his role should be on a good team. He may never figure out how to be really effective - the way guys like McBride and Cobi grew as players over the course of their careers - but IMO it's fun rooting for him to succeed. Anyway, I need a new soap box, this one's getting a little creaky.
The replay clearly shows the follow through with the other leg to EJ's hamstrings. It's a foul...but I don't think his fall was due to the contact...he just needed to sell it. If anything, such awareness is a positive for him.
At the very least it was a clear attempted foul as the defender was swinging both legs around desperately to get contact with something. Generally Celtic and Rangers don't have to worry about penalties against them in the SPL.
LOL at Zico82, thanks I needed that. In what league in the world can a defender knee a guy in the back of his right calf and then kick him in the back of the thigh while the attacker can still play the ball? EJ could have ridden that challenge out without going down but it's a foul anywhere in the world and when fouls occur in the box children, an Angel gets his... I mean a penalty should be called.
when i initially saw the play live, i thought it was a dive by how his arms went in the air, solely... once i saw the replay, i know he embellished, but on what planet is that not a pk? i like wynalda too, but i dont know how he couldn't just say, after seeing it on replay, that it was a clear pk nice save from boruc as well, he was celtic's MoM imho, i thought he was very good
Dunno. What does that have to do with the play in question? Before anything else happens, the defender toe pokes the ball away with his right foot. A completely clean tackle. If you're so delusional/biased that you can't see that when watching the slow-mo replay, give it up. Secondly, the contact, if there was any, following the toe poke was incidental and very minor. The defender barely grazes Johnson, and Johnson, as even his most ardant apologists in here admit, "embellishes" by snapping his head back, throwing his arms in the air, and falling to the ground well after the tackle was made. That's called a "dive", folks. And it was a blatant one at that. Well, former nat team member and forward Eric Wynalda disagrees with you and so do I. But take comfort in the fact that there are plenty of homers on this board that agree with you. LOL. Some of you dopes are actually applauding EJ's "awareness" in taking the dive. Yeah, that's what we need more of in US soccer: Players with mediocre ball skills who know how to cheat. Pitiful. I hope none of you clowns coach.
I wonder and I guess there is no way to know whether the best thing for EJ is to stay where he is comfortable and continue to regain confidence and work on those areas of his game where we all know he needs to improve. Or would it be better to go abroad ASAP and have to fight for a spot in the starting line up. I lean towards staying being the better option right now but then if he makes a move in January it is that much more difficult to adapt and break into a starting 11.