Quote:
Originally Posted by Trumbull
He didn't cover guys getting tapped in the shoulder, arms, or basically non-leg/foot areas and doing backflips/kicking their own legs out from under themselves and falling on the ground. Must not be a problem.
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I think this World Cup has been very good and has had little diving.
I'll explain how I see it and it may not be totally correct.
I make a distinction between diving and embelleshing (or what I call falling theatrically). I believe the refs do to.
I think in soccer, everything depends on what happens first. Whatever happens first negates whatever happens next.
Examples:
offsides will nullify any fouls or any goals.
outstretched arm blocking space will nullify ball to hand.
foul will negate falling theatrically.
Remember this is not like hockey where you can have a trip AND a dive. This cannot happen in soccer, whatever happens first negates everything else.
So in the case of a trip, whatever the player does afterwards, even if he cries and does 3 rolls, doesn't matter. The refs calls the foul. You may think that the player rolls around to try to get cards but at this level of reffing I rarely see yellow cards for voilent conduct, I see most yellow cards for deliberately fouling (stopping counter attacks) or persistant fouling (you'll see a ref actually count on his fingers to 4 or 5 before giving out the yellow card). For example Muller grabbing his face. Ref was going ignore that, he didn't even give a free kick. It's only when Pepe went back at him that he got a red card.
All the red cards in the tournament so far have been justified, no ref has been duped into one like faking Rivaldo in 2002.
We'll use Monday as an example. The Algerians were diving all over the field untouched and the ref ignored it. It eventually led to a Belgian counter attack and a goal. In the Brazil-Mexico game Neymar and a few others were accused of diving. But they were tripped. They were fouled first so it negates everything else. And for all the times Neymar was fouled, his theatrics just make him look stupid. It didn't cause a Mexican player to unjustly get a yellow card. In fact if you watch the 2nd half while Brazil were attacking, there were a few times Neymar could have dived, but he never felt any contact so he didn't fall. If he did, he wouldn't have got the call and maybe could have booked.
and the slow-mo replays make it worse. Nobody falls with their mouth closed.. there always has to be some sort of reaction. Yes the rolling on the ground is stupid but it's not really a big deal.. refs totally ignore that.
And one last thing, sometimes it's just easier for a player to fall when he feels contact. With the studs the players wear now, quickly trying to stop and not fall might cause injury. So just fall.
