....for being a cheating French b'stard the other week I felt very humbled by the latest actions of Steven "Best Midfielder in the World" Gerrard on the weekend.
Did anyone see his dive against Blackburn? I know he has form in this regard but Saturday's example was outrageous, the defender quite literally did not touch Gerrard as he won the ball (the slow-mo replay proved this) but good old Stevie G dived through the air anyway and yelled at the referee for a penalty.
They're all as bad as each other really, aren't they?
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He admitted it was never a penalty, but that he anticipated a touch and therefore 'lost his footing'.
'It was not a penalty but wasnt a dive' he said.
Mind you, I remember Herman also going down mysteriously at home to Wigan in late 2007 to win a crucial match-winning penalty as well!!!
NAILED ON FACT I'll have you know.
Ormiston you're right, all footballers are the same.
Throw-ins - Southend's left back appealed for every single one, even when he clearly knew it had come off him last.
Corners - Chelsea's corner at the weekend: Ashley Cole wasn't going to admit it was a goal kick.
Goals - Paul Scharner's goal against Spurs - controlled it with his hand then scored.
I'm not saying it's up to the players to admit every wrong doing. I do think officials behind the goal would help. It wouldn't eradicate all officiating mistakes, but even if it makes the referee get an extra couple of decisions correct in every game surely it's worth it?
A particuarly pathetic dive against the mighty Andora sticks in the mind. I also remember him slamming the ball in from a 30 yard freekick he won by diving against Villa a couple of years ago, only to talk at length a few weeks later about being cheated out of a game when an oposition player dived to win a penalty.
Wonderful player. But like all good players willing to blatently cheat to give his side an advantage.
Outrageous cheat who should be strung up; or national hero?
National hero. However, I still think measures should be taken to try and help the referees get the decisions correct.
I did!
I agree with everyone else on here that the modern player does seem to do it more than I ever remember it happening as a kid. It might be a rosy memory of course but I don't remember Killer throwing himself to the ground if someone so much as tapped his ankles. More likely he stayed on his feet and smashed it into the net and then at the first opportunity he had got in a sneaky one on the oppo who tried to bring him down.
Don't get me started on the appealing for every throw thing...
That was unbelieveable. Chelsea's last home game of the season, title winners.... a rare (at that time) Charlton-like performance, 0-0 and we may even have nicked it earlier. Then literally just before the end, Lampard going towards the box and Fortune tried to get the ball, barely any (if any) contact, and if there was, it was OUTSIDE the box!!!
(and why was Fortune not sent off if it WAS a pen?)
To make matters worse we were in a pub with quite a few Chelsea, and when Anderson saved the pen, I let out a huge roar only for them to get the rebound.
Bloody disgusting, though...
I too feel your pain in this regard - did exactly the same thing in my student union
One thing that goes on to encourage this though is the seeming refusal of referees to give a freekick unless the player actually hits the deck - there was a classic example on Saturday, Sam was being niggled away at for a good 20 seconds and tried to stay on his feet, but was going nowhere because the defender was all over him. Eventually Sam started to lose control of the ball and went down in a slight theatrical manner and lo-and-behold we immediately get the free kick. In other words there's no incentive to gamble on getting to the ball by staying on your feet, because if you do and you don't manage to get the ball you won't get a free kick because you managed to stay on your feet, even if the foul clearly impeded your ability to control the ball. Go down and get the free-kick and you're guaranteed to retain possession.
Outrageous cheat who should be strung up; or national hero?[/quote]
Outrageous cheat for my money.
[quote][cite]Posted By: MrOneLung[/cite]No one moans about Owens dive for the pen against the Argies in 2002.[/quote]
Yes, but that WAS against Argentina.
There is also a BIG difference between being clipped by a player and "accentuating" your fall and throwing yourself down when there has been NO contact.
Owen drew Ayala (?) into a challenge in 2002 and then "went down" which is a grey area, going down when nobody touches you is out of order.
BTW, I watched most of Garry Nelson's performances for CAFC and I am amazed that BW is labelling him a diver! Still, we all see these things differently.
Exiled - you have perfectly described what I call the 'foul/dive'. The player is being fouled, but the only way to get the free kick is to go down.
not an issue as he'd miss the resulting penalty!
That's right, blame the ref, rather than the players... Maybe when they start taking responsibility for their own actions they'll stop cheating.
Again, a situation that would be avoided if falling over wasn't a prerequisite of being awarded a free-kick/penalty.
What does "taking responsibility for their own actions" even mean?
They won't stop trying to cheat even if retrospective punishment is dished out - players will still dive to win penalties as any suspension is worth suffering in order to turn a draw/loss into a win/draw for your team.