Sick Of The Diving

Why should it stop, players keep getting rewarded, its disgraceful, but thats what the game has turned into. Next WC, bring in only EPL refs, then atleast half of the diving wont be whistled as fouls

 

I thought watching Italy diving all over the pitch was bad, but Ghana took the cake today. I think 2/3 of their team was hurt and had to be stretchered off at one point. They're going to have a hard time faking fouls against Brazil when they aren't even near the ball though..

 

I felt bad for Michael Essien when he got a yellow because it was undeserved. Then he dived and I no longer felt bad for him.

And this Ghanian guy was once telling me that players from Ghana always stay up. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah right.

But I still wish them success in the round of 16, although I don't see them winning since they are playing Brazil.

 

I said to my friend going into the 2nd half that Ghana was going to spend as much time as possible on the ground.

It has, unfortunately, become a part of the game.

 

I do hope the casual American viewer sees the diving for what it is - shameful - and find pride in their team for not resorting to it.

These guys are cheats, they'll think, we gotta run them into the ground next time!

That's one way you grow the fan base.

 

my sister was watching the game she was like those ghana players are p@uss!es he didnt even get touched this isnt an excuse for the US losing but is gonna be fun to see them try to play that of against joga bonito

 

I agree. All of the people I was watching it with, fans and non-fans alike, all agreed that even though we lost, we lost with dignity. Thats one thing that I'm most proud of being an American soccer fan. We rarely, if ever, dive. I guess having to stick up for soccer being a rough contact sport our whole lives here makes a guy never want to fall down.

 

No Joga Bonito from Ghana today.

 

Ghana took diving and rolling around on the floor to the next level. There's a difference between faking an injury on the ground and covering your face and taking your time with throw in's and corners if you're ahead.

Fifa needs to do something. Its competley out of hand

 

I was listening to the Jim Rome show today, home of anti-soccer radio. Although 99% of the time I laugh off his comments on how soccer sucks or its boring, he and his listeners did have a point today.

There are teams like Miami and Dallas with players like Duane Wade who will lead their team to a victory and get up every time they take a fall. There are grid iron tough Hockey players who take hard shots, beat the living hell out of each other, and ask for more every single time. Then there are the (American) football players who are pretty much playing injured all the time.

Soccer will continue to be an afterthought for the casual US sports fan because of all this diving, flopping, and blatant acting. It is so shameful for the sport itself (not even talking about national teams here) that diving and acting play such a huge role in the game. It goes directly against our American ideals: hard work, toughness, and strong will. It's absolutely stupid how players can go down, require fake medical attention, and burn 20 minutes off a half. Pathetic.

The USA lost, we didn't finish, we're going home. Give credit to Ghana for playing some good soccer. But I think for the casual US sports fan, this world cup has been tainted by the realization that faking stuff is a big part of the game. Compare flopping in NBA to flopping in soccer... In soccer it just weighs so much more (due to the low scoring nature of soccer).

My opinion: FIFA needs to be stirred up a little. The current format of soccer allows for TOO many ambiguities to come into play. I used to think of soccer as the purest team sport ever, but I think I have been proven wrong today.

 

Its a catch 22.

Penalize the player for "Dropping" by keeping him off the field extra time and you would be rewarding the team that fouled him for real.....don;t penalize and you get this display of constant rolling around in fake pain...

is there a solution?

How do you make Both teams want to NOT waste time on the clock? It seems that there is always one side that wants to kill time. Im not sure there is a solution. Even adding extra time doesnt seem to matter, they still keep dropping.

Today it was obvious as you never have so many guys falling down like that....but what can a ref do? He cant say the guy is faking it...

 

FIFA and the refs allow diving by giving out too many yellow cards for nonfouls. The truth is that EVERYONE dives these days. It HAS become part of the game because FIFA and the refs are worried about other nonsense instead of cleaning up the game. If you are a forward, then go down when you feel hands on you because you may just draw a yellow card in this World Cup. That is the plain truth to it all.

Diving is difficult to call when the game is going fast, but there are some obvious ones that need to be penalized. The last thing you want to do as a ref is give a card for diving only to have that player hurt.

 

I'd love to see a ref signal something like 15 minutes of stoppage time in this kind of game...

 

If FIFA were serious about stopping diving, then they should institute a rule whereby any player taken off the field for any type of injury must sit out for a full five minutes.

If it's a real injury, they would have been subbed anyway. If it's a fake injury, your team's down to 10 men for five minutes, unless you want to burn a sub.

That would cut the diving in half, at the least.

 

After the match, allow video review and have floppers receive 1-2 game match bans. That would cut down on the flopping. Make Ghana have 4-5 players out versus Brazil, that'll teach them.

 

Ok, this is the third time I've posted this today. Forgive me if some have already read it, but this is definitely the most logical place for it. My rage has subsided a bit since I first posted, but my disgust with the international game has not, and will not.


I'm a huge U.S. Fan. I went to the Czech game in Germany. I got my girlfriend so interested in the team that she went with me and agonized as much as I did today. That being said I am DONE WITH INTERNATIONAL SOCCER (at least until FIFA cleans up their act).

I know, I know, heat of the moment I'm just bitter. But really, this is a feeling that has been growing all World Cup. The Czech's dove like mad, The Italians dove like mad, and against Ghana, while I don't think they dove as much as the Italians, they had one dive that the ref bought that cost us dearly and blatant time wasting with fake injuries. It didn't matter in the Czech game, I think it did matter in the Italian game (you can argue that each of the two fouls on Pope and one on Mastroeni were maybe worthy of the cards they got, but in the Ref's head, in the context of the game, the U.S. had been fouling "so much," those results became certainties).

The reason I'm done with International soccer is because FIFA has completely turned a blind eye to the issue of diving. How easy would it be to institute even an after-the-fact review of dives and post hoc punnishments of egregious dives? Right now there is NO DISINCENTIVE FOR DIVING. How many cards have been issued in this WC for diving? How often does a ref choose to ignore a dive in the penalty area where the obvious result is either a card for diving or a pk?

So what options does the U.S. team have? Either keep getting screwed by the dives of other teams or join the rest of the world (I already see Dempsey has adopted this view). I will not support a team of sissy fakers. And right now it hurts too much to devote so much energy and passion to a sport that really is almost as much about acting as about all the wonderful things we saw exhibited by the U.S. team in the Italy game.

Please don't think I am blaming everything on the refs here. U.S. may not have beaten Ghana even if the pk wasn't called. Arena was s**** this world cup and the players didn't seem to play with enough intensity today (I think this comes from Arena as well). I'm just saying I can't continue to devote this much energy to what is essentially exactly what mouth-breathing idiot American Sports talk dudes think it is - a sport where sissy, unsportsmanlike behavior gets rewarded. I'm pretty sure FIFA won't do anything until the WC or Euro Championships are decided by an erroneous pk earned by a dive (maybe not even then).

Ok, rant over. I feel purged (somewhat).

 

I counted at least 7 potential US counters today that were stopped by a Ghanian player faking an injury. Their gameplan was clearly to exploit our good sportsmanship by making us play the ball out of bounds every time they turned it over.

I say it's time to dump the gentleman's agreement. If a player can't play, sub him out. kicking the ball out of bounds gives the actors the advantage.

 

Great idea. I keep saying the same exact thing to anyone who will listen.

The other way to take care of it is for refs to RED CARD anyone caught diving. The penalty will be severe enough that maybe players would think twice about diving.

And, how about after the game FIFA reviews all potential "serious" dives and suspends players accordingly.

It is simply ruining the game and is a disgrace. I have not an ounce of respect for Italy or Ghana at this point.

 

I would like to know if Soccer is now officially a non-contact sport.

Seriously. First the Italians. I know it is in their nature but now Ghana? Do these players go to sleep at night proud of their cheating? And the refs. What has happened to the refs? has FIFA told them to let all this diving go and to punish anything where there is a hint of contact? Or is it the refs have become corrupt too?

 

Remeber Totti's "dive" against Korea in 2002???

That WAS NOT a dive and he was sent off and the Italians lost the game. It goes both ways -- sometimes.

I would have kicked that Pimpong mf in the head for faking that injury - no way would I have played the ball out of bounds in that situation -- what a sissy -- he wasn't even touched! And he still rolled on the ground like a shot dog. And Pimpong was the diver that earned the PK. That ref totally sucked today.

 

i agree when claudio reyna hit the ground they went straight for the net, then everytime their players went down we had good chances to score but played the ball out

 

We need to clarify what diving you hate or is it all of it.
#1: Not getting touched or slightly touched (not fouled) and going down, not getting yellow and foul called I agree I hate this. But there's only one official making calls from sometimes 20-30 yards away.
#2: Getting slightly fouled and the only way to get the foul called is to go down. Fighting through tells the official you didn't get fouled then and odds are you got pushed off the ball. Not as bad as #1.
#3: Getting fouled and holding up your arm rolling around, yelling, to emphasize the voracity of the foul to induce yellow or red. Hate it!
#4: Going down and slowly getting up. Don't mind it. Not trying to induce yellow, or over emphzaizing foul but only to break rythym of game and waste alittle time. Not big deal. Just don't do it too much.
#5: Faking injury to waste time. Don't like it.
I hate to say it but all this is because 1 official has to make calls for a field 77x120 with 22 players on it. Ref angles are terrible. Can I get a 2nd official so foul viewing angles are better and distance can be reduced to 10-15 yards?

 

This whole World Cup has been marred by diving and an unimaginable amount of yellow and red cards.

 

How about we all give Essien a round of applause for that wonderful dive at the top of the box. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and immediately he hit the turf. Congratulations diver, you'll watch your team lose to Brazil from the sideline.

I love the 5 minute rule, I would limp for a minute or two in HS only so that I didn't have to step off the field. I would love to see any of those guys who got hurt have stayed hurt if they knew they had to sit out for a set amount of time. I guess this backfires if they player is hurt, but like he said before, if you're hurt then it doesn't really matter and you'll be subbed.

I love watching football, but I hate watching actors playing football.

Also, I'm not opposed to after the fact yellow or red-cards being given by say the 4th official who with the use of a review screen can watch for blatant diving. You dove 3 minutes ago, and got away with it? Not so my friend, not so.