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Gimli

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In this topic you can discuss the wonderful game of football.

 

Today's hot topic: Eduardo's dive

 

Seriously, it's a dive. I find it hilarious that Wenger is defending him. Is it OK for UEFA to be singling Eduardo out? No. But at the end of the day, he dived and should be punished. And so should every other diver. If you mess up, you have to be ready for the consequences.

What did surprise me is that he dived in the first place. I would expect it from anybody else, but him... having followed him from way back when he used to play in our league, he always seemed like the guy who would never do it. Oh well.

 

Upcoming: Arsenal v ManU

Should be interesting. ;)

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This depends on the coach and the team, but most soccer players are taught how to dive and are expected to do it when they get in the penalty box. Fact of life. This along with faking an injury (playacting) are the two things which I despise about this sport. These two issues should be dealt with by the referee and linesmen but they don't always catch it. If it were up to me, a player pulling either of these stunts would be immediately ejected from the game - no yellow card, no red card, if you do it, you're gone. Aw heck, this article says it better. ;)

 

- Zombie

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It's become acceptable practice everywhere at professional level. That's a bit sad. When I played at school we were taught that diving or faking injury was unsportsmanlike and generally scummy behaviour perpetrated by our traditional enemies on the continent (pretty much everyone), but now it offers such potential rewards, and fairly light punishments, that sometimes you can't afford not to do it. It's also diminished the 'contact' part of the sport.
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It's become acceptable practice everywhere at professional level. That's a bit sad. When I played at school we were taught that diving or faking injury was unsportsmanlike and generally scummy behaviour perpetrated by our traditional enemies on the continent (pretty much everyone), but now it offers such potential rewards, and fairly light punishments, that sometimes you can't afford not to do it. It's also diminished the 'contact' part of the sport.

Way back when, playacting or diving were never even mentioned by my coaches or even the players. Our teachings consisted of ball control, shooting, offensive and defensive strategies, set plays and communication. So this is a more recent occurrence, and that is the sad part. Bring back soccer to the way it was. No reason to call every little infraction - just let everyone play. ;)

 

Seems to me this behavior became more prevalent in Europe, so that may be why we never even focused on it here. :)

 

- Zombie

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I wouldn't go quite that far, but I was thinking that if the team also got punished when a player took a dive then that would help to clean things up. I mean, it's just as much the coach's fault for expecting this behavior from his players. Not sure what kind of punishment to dish out to the coach which would be meaningful, but if you would target all the players on the team by giving them a big cut in pay, that might overrule the decision of the coach/organization. Then again, maybe not. ;)

 

- Zombie

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I wouldn't use financial punishments, because the richer clubs will merely absorb them as part of their normal operating costs. Ideally it would be seen as a disciplinary issue just like red and yellow cards, resulting in progressively harsher suspensions. This is quite good as the club has to keep paying the player, but he can't play. When they have a goalscoring wonder boy on
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If it potentially carried over from season to season, that's a harsh punishment that the richer clubs can't just throw money at. Any player getting it would probably be made ineligible for awards like the Golden Boot, and would be less likely (perhaps) to get offers from sportswear companies to endorse their gear.
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Well Croatia beat Belarus yesterday... barely. It was looking OK, but there was no finish. And then near the end Corluka got a second yellow and it became a nerve wreck. Thank God Runje (goalie) saved a few sure to be goals.

We're in the second spot, but we have no place for mistakes, because Ukraine currently has the same number of points.

 

Next up: Croatia vs England, Ukraine vs Belarus

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@Zombie: It's hard to say. I'm not sure what the status of England is right now, but even last time it was pretty close, and I have a feeling it will be much harder for us now, because we're under a lot of pressure while England is already through. If I had to make a guess I'd give England a 1 or 2 goal advantage, but it could easily be more. On the other hand, we tend to play best against the hardest opponents, especially if we're the underestimated. I don't think that's going to happen here this time.

 

Honestly, all I really want is for us to pass and meet Turkey in WC somewhere. ;) Not even the match against Germany in 1996 hurt us so much (we lost 2:1 with some suspicious refereeing, as I recall), and we all know what happened to Germany in France 1998. :)

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M-m-m-monster kill. ;) Thank God Ukraine drew with Belarus. I decided to save myself from watching the last 10 minutes.

Horrible defending from Croatia, and absolutely fantastic England. Well deserved victory, we were totally outclassed.

 

In other news, Bosnia & Herzegovina drew with Turkey (1:1), and it looks like they'll take the 2nd spot in their group.

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  • 1 month later...

Nah, just laugh at the silliness that is the press. ;) The only problem I see for us is that Bilic will likely resign, if for no other reason than media pressure. We do have another capable coach, but I don't think his time has come yet. It's not that he couldn't do it, it's just that everyone considers him too inexperienced.

 

But what I find interesting is the sheer number of otherwise good teams that aren't going further. Just off the top of my head:

 

Portugal, Scotland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Turkey...

 

The funny thing is, Bosnia and Herzegovina with our old coach (the one that got us to 3rd place in France 98) is in 2nd place and it's possible they'll pass. Yet when I had said back when they fired him that we wouldn't have another coach that good in a loooooong time people laughed at me. Well the joke's on you!... Too bad nobody cares anymore. :oh:

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  • 8 months later...
Having nothing better to do yesterday, I turned the TV on and England was playing against USA so I decided to watch. Missed most of the first half time but saw the goal. I'm still not sure if that was poor handling on Green's side or just the fact it was slippery. In any case it was an OK match, but England looked kind of disappointing. Then again I haven't really paid attention to the WC since we were kicked out so I don't know what the status of England's team is (missing players etc.). On the other hand, everyone seems to underestimate USA but they have proven to be a good team. Not brilliant, but they're consistently good.
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That was pretty boring until that red card. And another goal through the goalie's arms. XD Did anyone catch that Algerian fan on top of the lights? :cool: Our commentator says that there was apparently a banner saying "Greetings from Zagreb". Thought that was pretty funny.
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