Capello announced today that Juve will not help stop the play when an opponent is down and it seems that he either faked the foul or is trying to kill time. It's about time somebody puts a stop to it. This most certainly won't make Juventus popular, not that we aren't already.
I wish more teams would take a stand against this.... and that if a player does get a stoppage, attention form the training staff and he is down for 2 minutes, he must make it back to the center line, and wait that same 2 (or double it to four for all I care) minutes before being waved back onto the field. How many dozens of times have we all seen player roll on the ground for three minutes, clutching an ankle not even involved in the tackle in question (of which no foul was called of course), then said player hobbles to the touchline (or GASP!! forced to be carried there) only to jog back ot the centerline and immmediately be waved back onto the pitch by the referee, while his team are in the process of giving the ball back to the opposition, who graciously kicked the ball out for him. Three minutes wasted, no time played with only 10 men. And that is just the South Amerians and Mexicans.... Good for Juventus!!!
This is a very good idea. He already has been supported by a few Serie A managers, who applaud him on his stance. Palermo & Bologna coaches are in support! Bologna coach, Carlo Mazzone has said he has been saying this behind closed doors for years and has applauded Capello on his stance. (Of course there is the case where teams play through when a player is legitimately injured, everyone think back to SERIE A game between Brescia and Udinese earlier this year. Morgan De Sanctis (Udinese GK) injured on play and lay in agony on edge of penalty box and play was alowed to continue for quite sometime, which resulted in Daniele Mannini (Brescia FW) scoring the second goal in a 2-1 win for Brescia!)
I think that's a really good suggestion and it's probably the only thing that is ever going to stop it. But that's something that will have to implemented at the top (ie FIFA). This suggestions of Capello is totally impractical and is not going to solve anything. How can you tell if a player is really injured or not? Maybe if you're right next to him you can, but if you've got the ball and you're halfway across the field and everyone's telling you to just kick the ball out but Capello is saying 'attack! attack!'...come on. And inevitably there will be a case in which a player is truly injured, Juve keeps on playing, scores a goal and Juve will be accused of showing bad sportmanship. And then other teams will do the same thing to us, we will get upset and say that they're not being sporting, they'll say our player is just faking an injury, etc etc etc.
That's a bogus generalization. Everyone does it and you know it. I guarantee you someone has done that on every pro team in the world.
Don't you have a sarcasm button on your keyboard?? I hate "smileys" but I suppose one was warranted after my Mexican and South American comment. Sorry to have got you all bent out of shape...
I think that this is a great idea. It appears that other managers had the same observations. It just took a real leader to step out front and show the rest of Serie A the path.
Fascinating. But this is of course the slipperiest of slopes. As mentioned above, it's just a matter of time (and bad luck) that a player looks for sure to be faking, play continues and we find out later he's torn a muscle on his own or something and is out for the season. How many times have seen major injuries come from nothing? I'm not a Juve supporter, but I think it's actually a somewhat brave move. Clearly, the public statement is the meat of the matter. I can't see the team actually assessing the degree of simulation on the pitch and then collectively agreeing on how fake it is. It'll be fun to see this play out.
Basically its a good plan because some players dont mind going down to fake an injury to give a little respite to their team. The bad side is when a player is really hurt. I think if he is, any team would still stop play or the Ref would have to.
In the Brescia-Udinese case, play did not continue "for some time", the not-terribly-violent-looking collision happened, the keeper stayed down, the ball came out of the box, and the guy shot. It took a few seconds. And DeSanctis wasn't hurt that much, just briefly stunned. He was able to continue in the game. It was a really unfortunate situation. The more relevant case that I remember is Middlesbrough-Lazio in the UEFA Cup. The Boro players kept playing for 10 or 15 seconds with Giannichedda down (you could almost hear them thinking "we'll show those diving Italians!"). They ended up with a really good shot by Parlour which was saved, fortunately. But Giannichedda was truly injured, had to leave the game, and was out of action for a month. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if this has any effect. It was getting ridiculous. I remember last season a play where Enrico Chiesa was running toward goal with a clear shooting opportunity and turned to kick the ball out of play in disgust because there was an opponent down in the box. Yes, he got plaudits for being a "good sport", but for a little team like Siena, every goal could mean the difference between promotion and relegation.