Re: Football Chat Thread - Euro 2012 edition : Tue Oct 09, 2012 2:01 pm
Roddy B wrote:
It really isn't hard to grasp. I remember when we played Birmingham a few years back, David Ngog won us a penalty by 'diving'. He was running in the box, a defender was coming across, the defender slid and clearly got in Ngog's way, Ngog got to the ball, touched it forward then 'dove' over as though there was contact. There wasn't contact, but he wasn't getting to the ball because he would have been clattered by Carsley (I think it was Carsley), if Ngog planted his foot there was a good chance Carsley's outstretched boot would have gone right through it. It looked awful on Ngog's part, he wasn't touched but acted like he did, but if he didn't avoid the contact he would have been fouled and possibly injured. The bad moment in it all was Carsley's challenge which was rightly penalised, people seem to forget that.
I wasn't actually talking about Bale's situation precisely when saying contact isn't always required, but I can see why some players go down without contact.
I wasn't actually talking about Bale's situation precisely when saying contact isn't always required, but I can see why some players go down without contact.
I don't think most people would argue with that. The goalie commits himself into possibly making a foul so that's his Russian roulette. What we appear to be talking about is when a player is fabricating something out of nothing. It's deceitful and I'm not so naive as to say that we can outlaw it because we can't. However, it does start with the players and the players will only adapt their own behaviour when they are pressured into changing. That pressure comes from other players, managers, FIFA and the fans. If teams booed their own players when they do it, I'm pretty sure it'd stop tomorrow, but they don't. So it continues. When you get players of the quality of Steven Gerrard realising it's a valid tactical choice then you know you've got a problem.
