Everyone dives, just not equally. The Italians are the worst. It's not just that they dive though, it's what they get away with as defenders: reckless tackles, elbows flying all over the place. And then there's the whining and moaning after every foul... either they got all ball, they didn't do anything but they're very very sorry and won't do it again and in no way deserve to get carded, or they've been horribly horribly injured. In hockey terms, they've got the Canucks' attitude, the Wild's system and Detroit's success.
Everyone dives, just not equally. The Italians are the worst. It's not just that they dive though, it's what they get away with as defenders: reckless tackles, elbows flying all over the place. And then there's the whining and moaning after every foul... either they got all ball, they didn't do anything but they're very very sorry and won't do it again and in no way deserve to get carded, or they've been horribly horribly injured. In hockey terms, they've got the Canucks' attitude, the Wild's system and Detroit's success.
I'll give you most of this of being true, (although I do feel that Portugal, Spain, France, are all way worse when it comes to diving) but I take offense to Italy having the Canucks' attitude.
When comparing Italian fans to Canucks fans Italian fans are actually knowledgeable about the game, rarely do you see Italian fans doing stupid things such as hooliganism or violence. Plus Italian fans usually tend to underrate their team and are usually pessimistic about the teams chances of winning.
When it comes to the players the Italian players do not nearly have that sense of arrogance that the Canucks have. I feel that Portugal, England, and Brazil are all worse in terms of arrogance (except for this years edition of Brazil).
Italy was like that in some years to their detriment I thought. In the Baggio years especially they had the talent but were too busy flopping around and complaining.
Italian football when played properly can be quite stunning to watch with their defending and counter-attacking speed. But that is too rare cause they're busy diving and putting 10 men behind the ball.
In 2006 they actually played with some heart instead of flopping around and hey it worked, they won! We'll see how they are this year.
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Italy was like that in some years to their detriment I thought. In the Baggio years especially they had the talent but were too busy flopping around and complaining.
Italian football when played properly can be quite stunning to watch with their defending and counter-attacking speed. But that is too rare cause they're busy diving and putting 10 men behind the ball.
In 2006 they actually played with some heart instead of flopping around and hey it worked, they won! We'll see how they are this year.
They have moved away from the diving in about the last 10 years, from about Euro 2000 onwards.
I will admit that they were bad in 94 and 98, with Baggio being the center of the diving perpetrators. I am too young to know how bad they were before that.
Personally I think that the whole diving by nation thing is over played and that every nation has their notoriously bad divers. Ronaldo for Portugal, Gerrard can be bad for England at times, Ballack has been known to go down easily, Baggio was terrible with Italy etc.
They have moved away from the diving in about the last 10 years, from about Euro 2000 onwards.
Cause they learned their lesson one would think. Losing the way they did in 90, 94, 98, 2000, 2002 when they were good teams. Coach Lippi finally cut out the BS.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
I'll give you most of this of being true, (although I do feel that Portugal, Spain, France, are all way worse when it comes to diving) but I take offense to Italy having the Canucks' attitude.
When comparing Italian fans to Canucks fans Italian fans are actually knowledgeable about the game, rarely do you see Italian fans doing stupid things such as hooliganism or violence. Plus Italian fans usually tend to underrate their team and are usually pessimistic about the teams chances of winning.
When it comes to the players the Italian players do not nearly have that sense of arrogance that the Canucks have. I feel that Portugal, England, and Brazil are all worse in terms of arrogance (except for this years edition of Brazil).
Sorry, didn't mean to imply anything about the fans. As for the players it's more that Italy has Burrows' diving with Matt Cooke's recklessness that makes them Canucks-like (Matt Cooke is forever a Canuck in my heart ) than an unjustified arrogance (impossible for Italy as they have always been a good team - just one that's easy to hate). You know, the stuff I was actually talking about.
Portugal is my second most hated team - they are definitely floppy and cocky. Then probably Greece, just because they're so damn boring.
I'll will give you too that England (in Canada) is kind of like the Leafs... lots of people support them and it's annoying if you support someone else, but they're also to logical team to support for lots of people, and if you're one of those people you don't really have anything to apologize for.
If you're a neutral who likes Italy you have bad taste in play style, and if you're a neutral who likes England you're probably just picking the team that everyone else around you likes. Fortunately, I was born in London... so I'm stuck with them, whether or not they're sleeping with each other's exes.
I think lots of people in Canada just cheer for England because of the countries ties, the queen is still on Canadian money, a lot of Canadians can tie themselves back to England with having grandparents or great-grandparents etc. who emigrated here
Being born in London gave me two teams to support, England and whomever Germany is playing
I think lots of people in Canada just cheer for England because of the countries ties, the queen is still on Canadian money, a lot of Canadians can tie themselves back to England with having grandparents or great-grandparents etc. who emigrated here
Or maybe its the EPL games on every Saturday morning on some network in Canada for the better part of 20+ years.
The real problem with Italian fans (in Italy) is the varying degrees of racist abuse hurled at players. The problem there is second only to the problems is Spain.
Portugal in that match with the Dutch made me sick. Diving like sea lions and terrible two-footed, studs-up tackles. And the Dutch played right into their hands by trying to out-sell bad challenges. One of the single worst football matches I had ever watched.
This must be considered one of the most poorly officiated games ever in the World Cup?
How many of those were legit cards?
The cards were legit. It was a dirty game and the ref just never had control of it. It started when Bouhlaroz had a high tackle on Ronaldo. It was a borderline straight red and it all went downhill from there. Both teams were embarassing. It really got dirty in the second half when the Dutch refused to play the ball back to Portugal after they kicked it out for an injured player. The common "fair play" thing to do is to give it back, they didn't and Portugal went nuts. Deco made zero attempt to play the ball on a bad tackle, and it got ridiculous from there out.
Yes, it was poorly officiated as the ref NEVER had control of the game, but you have to put the blame on both teams as well. It was truly a blemish on the game.
I got over it pretty fast as Portugal won, not gonna lie.
The argument of diving really drives me nuts. No, not because I support a team that is known for it, but because it's so damn tiresome. Yes, there is plenty of diving all over the sport. You can literally say that every nation does it. Christ, that above video from WC 2006 proves that. Some teams are worse than others no doubt and yeah, it makes the game look awful.
I have an issue with the people who think that every time a player falls on the ground they think it's a dive. It's easy to say that when you see it in super slow motion from different angles. But the truth of the matter is that soccer is the only sport where you use your feet for everything. Passing, shooting, dribbling, tackling and most importantly to this topic, for balance. It's not as easy to stay on your feet as you might think. When you are going full speed and someone knocks you on your ankle, you're gonna fall over.
The theatrics of some players do make it impossible to defend their actions, but I really don't believe diving is as much of an issue as some make it out to be. If FIFA thought it was so detrimental to the game, they would truly take a HARD stance at trying to punish the crimes.
FIFA will never do anything about it as the last 2 FIFA Presidents are akin to petty criminals. Plus they were both elected to the position through garnering support from countries where diving, cheating is endemic (plus Africa - where corruption is rife). Any sort of crackdown on this type of behavior would have resulted in them losing their respective re-election bids and would have never been taken. Act I - Self-Preservation.
Plus what I think that most people dislike is the intent of the action. Deliberately trying to get an opposing player sent of is poor sportsmanship and it is cheating. Unfortunately this is seen as a problem in many countries, but in other countries it is as essential to the conduct of the game as dribbling, passing, etc. There's the rub.
The argument of diving really drives me nuts. No, not because I support a team that is known for it, but because it's so damn tiresome. Yes, there is plenty of diving all over the sport. You can literally say that every nation does it. Christ, that above video from WC 2006 proves that. Some teams are worse than others no doubt and yeah, it makes the game look awful.
I have an issue with the people who think that every time a player falls on the ground they think it's a dive. It's easy to say that when you see it in super slow motion from different angles. But the truth of the matter is that soccer is the only sport where you use your feet for everything. Passing, shooting, dribbling, tackling and most importantly to this topic, for balance. It's not as easy to stay on your feet as you might think. When you are going full speed and someone knocks you on your ankle, you're gonna fall over.
The theatrics of some players do make it impossible to defend their actions, but I really don't believe diving is as much of an issue as some make it out to be. If FIFA thought it was so detrimental to the game, they would truly take a HARD stance at trying to punish the crimes.
I don't think the falling part irks people, it's the rolling around, clutching face (like Rivaldo), running to the ref demanding cards that upsets people.
Anyone who runs at full speed and gets clipped knows it hurts and it might take a second or two to get up. Ref will give a free kick and that should be enough but nooooo the fallen player must grab his ankle and yell and fein death.
Players trying to get players sent off is something that's crept into the game and it's a shame.
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blinder = great game, as in a player's having a blinder of a game (at least that's how it was explained to me)
Sixes and sevens, pear shaped, and shambolic - three different sayings that mean essentially the same thing: complete disarray, unorganized, overmatched (usually in reference to defense)
talisman is a good one too - Something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects. Often in soccer a player is deemed a talisman for the team.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Pele gave out his World Cup kiss of death today when he choose Spain and Brazil to be the finalists, adding that he hoped an African team made it to the finals.
After hearing what Pele said I guess that means Argentina are the new favourites.
) than an unjustified arrogance (impossible for Italy as they have always been a good team - just one that's easy to hate). You know, the stuff I was actually talking about. 
