Thursday, July 12, 2007

Double standard

D's reaction to my mention of penalty draws (known as embellishing contact, selling a foul, or in its worst incarnation, a dive) brings me to confess something.

I think there's a real double-standard going on in the view of soccer here by many people when it comes to how the game is played.


So many fans tell me how they deplore dives, how they are horrible, how they they ruin the game, how they tear down the spirit of soccer, etc, etc. They invoke religious imagery and call down the wrath of all the soccer gods (oh great Garrincha) on those who would practice such a vile art.

I'm not even going to get into the way many of those same fans will remain mysteriously silent on a successful diver wearing their own team's colors. The worst divers are always on other squads.

My bone of contention is how many have no objection at all to cynical, professional fouls done during a match that are surreptiously out of sight of the ref. Holding a player down, kicking a player, pushing a player, any number of actions designed to gain an advantage as soon as the ref looks away, or even if the ref is looking, done in a half-hidden manner.

"Oh, that's part of the game," people say. "If the ref doesn't call it, it's fair game. Play through it."

It's cheating, same as dives are. Yet why is that form accepted and the other not?

My theory is that it's a macho thing. You're manly if you can dish out an elbow to the gut that kills a breakway and yet goes unseen by any official. You're a wimp, if, as soon as you feel that slight push in the box, you pitch forward and draw a card from the ref.

Both moves are all part of the game. In the perfect game, there wouldn't be any ref, because no one would ever foul or dive. Yet to say one is worse than the other just reveals one's own personal preference.

I'm not advocating dives. I wish they would never happen. I think the same of cynical fouls though, and note that I've never heard of an opposing player being hurt badly by a dive. Yet tackles meant to "teach lessons" have happened to hurt and injure players on numerous occasions.

3 comments:

D said...

A macho thing if you want to be unkind, I'm sure it would be defended as "heart." That being said, you're 100% correct. Professional fouls that are made (and that put people at risk for injury) are unfairly given a pass as part of the game.

I think, however, that there is some gradiation we can apply in the amount of approbation we give to the various offenses. For me, the intentional handball that scores a goal (or prevents one) is the most despicable foul, simply because it violates the most fundamental aspect of the game (Look ma no hands!).

The dive draws some criticism not so much just because of its illegality, but also its inherent dishonesty. The cheating seems magnified because it's a lie enacted on the field. The professional foul is cheating, but it's not dishonest. It's just wrong.

If I could guess, I would imagine that's why we give our attention to some things and not others. But I agree with you, as I said.

The Manly Ferry said...

Good post, AC. Tyrone Marshall's lethal tackle on Dallas' Kenny Cooper inspired a series of rambling comments by me about how I was less disturbed by the injury than the cynicism of the foul. At the same time, fouls happen and intent is an ever-tricky thing to decipher; but where it's clear, I'm very comfortable with fines, etc.

Anonymous said...

sorry AC, but i don't agree with you one bit. bottom line is this, one thing involves faking an injury and the other involves playing your game and letting the ref dictate what is fair and what isn't. that being said, i don't think the issue in question is the dive, so much as the rolling and faking of an injury that always follows.

in any sport, a smart athlete plays to the level at which a ref allows. i myself played mostly american football growing up, and i can say that on virtually every play each offensive lineman technically holds a defensive player, but the degree to which a player is held is what determines if the flag is thrown (and this is determined by the ref observing the play). that is much the same way that professional fouls should be considered. when a professional foul is too extreme, the player is carded. and the thereshold at which that is called is determined by the ref, and all one can ask is that the ref is consistent. if the case is that players are fouling when the ref can't see, that is dealt with in much the same way as a brushback pitch in baseball . . . players should be kept in line by other players (if one is dirty . . . cough, cough . . . sanchez for example)

so back on point, i don't think the problem is the dive, as a ref can distinguish what is a dive and what is not, but the annoying rolling, crying and grabbing at the legs that always follows.

maybe that is a macho perspective, but i am a man so i think that is natural. i for one can say soccer will have so much more appeal in the states once these crybabies stop acting like they are hurt when they are truly not; and the only people that can make this happen is the refs, not the players, coaches or fans.

DMH