Cristiano Ronaldo’s summer departure to Real Madrid has left a gaping hole on the Premier League Diving Team (PLDT) for which Eduardo auditioned during last night’s second leg tie at home to Celtic.
The Brazilian (yes, he plays for Croatia but he is for all intents and purposes Brazilian) was none too subtle in performing what could best be described as a “belly flop,” but he was convincing enough for the judges to award a penalty which he cooly converted as Arsenal romped to a 5-1 aggregate win.
This may not have had a huge impact on the tie, the Gunners were by far the better team, but it is a terrible blight on the game.
The A-League recently took steps to prevent such behaviour becoming only the second league in the world, ironically after the SPL to implement retrospective punishments for “simulation” not seen by the referee during games.
The English FA needs to step up and have a long hard look at this as the problem of simulation does exist in the EPL.
Andy Johnson’s name has long been associated with the issue, and there have been suggestions that Golden Balls himself is not adverse to a tumble. But the English game has long been known for its bullish, aggressive style. Diving, it seems, has only become part of the game since the large scale influx of foreigners into the EPL during the 90s.
For me, the bigger problem is the other impacts diving has on the game.
Goalkeepers have become less aggressive with the ball on the ground, unwilling to challenge players with the ball at their feet. Generally, when the ball is in the air, the Keeper needs only be brushed and he’ll receive a free kick. But on the ground they are not usually given the benefit of the doubt (Tottenham – Man Utd game last year, anyone?)
Forwards in the EPL, with the exception of Wayne Rooney, are not as well balanced as they once were, preferring instead to go to ground when on a tough angle or surrounded by defenders in the hope the referee gives them something. Which is exactly what Eduardo did against Celtic.
More importantly, referees are much more reluctant to award penalties nowadays in the fear they will make a mistake because the player is diving.
As we know, most games produce at least one penalty shout, which is usually not given, but there are games when there could be four or five awarded only a referee wouldn’t dare for fear of retribution. He’d be branded a cheat when the reality is that referees are simply more lenient inside the area than out.
Personally I’d prefer to see less leniency, resulting in more penalties in the short term. This in turn would force defenders to play the ball more.
Over time, there would be less penalties and still more goals.
Referees are already asked to interpret if a player has stopped a genuine goal chance by having to issue either a red or yellow card. Why shouldn’t this be extended to the awarding of a penalty?
jack
Guest
eduardo is croatian the same as so many australian players who were born overseas are AUSTRALIAN. you are 100% wrong with what you said about his only link to the country was playing for Dinamo Zagreb, he was only there a few years before he became a Croatian Citizen and did so solely to play for their national team, not to reside there, not to have a family there. you are wrong wrong wrong maybe knowing something would actually be better then you writing nonsense.he came to croatia when he was 15, he played for the U21 team under bilic who put him in the senior team permanently(he already made his debut before that) he is married to a croatian woman and has 2 kids.he never went there thinking to play for the national team,he worked hard,met a girl, got married and started a family.naturally he would want to play for croatia after all of this so i would say yes he is croatian so don't write nonsense next time.sorry for the rant i just hate it when people write something like that when they have no idea.
Craig
Guest
you are out of your mind luke... poor goalkeeping my arse. had boruc made contact, bought eduardo down and conceeded a legitimate penalty, it could be considered poor keeping. instead, boruc closed the angle at the near post, spread to make a bigger target for eduardo to negotiate around and made sure he made no contact to warrant a penalty. goalkeeping perfection. your allegiance to arsenal blinkers your view. poor from eduardo, poor from the ref to fall for such a blatant dive and a poor call from you to have a crack at a keeper doing the right thing in order to protect a cheat simply because he wears the shirt you support.
dasilva
Guest
Brilliant idea. Penalty only when a clear goal scoring opportunity has been denied for the attacker whether inside or outside the box. Therefore players have less incentive to dive as they will only win a penalty if they already have a clear shot on goal (then why not shoot instead of diving). Also defenders will less likely commit tactical fouls. I have always believed that diving and tactical fouls go hand in hand. You can't solve one issue without fixing the other (especially when fouls aren't given unless you actually fall down) This rule change would very much be closer to the spirit of the laws. The whole penalty inside the box does seem a bit arbitrary. I have to say that idea deserves it's own article. Hope you do write one as this rules really needs some reform. Sadly, FIFA and reform don't mix.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Justice will be served: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/champions-league/uefa-hit-eduardo-with-charge-229202
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Just last year I watched every Man Utd EPL game, all bar 2 CL games (group stage vs Aalborg) and the FA Cup run, not to mention a number of reserves matches and the pre-season tour. I would say I have seen enough of Rooney to know that he can stay on his feet. You just seemed to ignore my "depending on what mood he's in" statement.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Referees should be able to interpret a situation and decide if a goal attempt was thwarted, Eduardo didn't have a genuine goal chance, he was on the byline and there was no Arsenal player unmarked on the line waiting for a tap-in. In this case, it should have been a free kick in my opinion (and that only if Boruc tackled Eduardo while not in possesion of the ball), the rules need to change, it's silly that the 18 yard box is still the penalty area as it encourages diving, you see players drive into the box with no support and only in the hope of a penalty. A referee should be able to award a penalty when he thinks one is warranted, currently the rules do not allow this and should be changed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBrFlDpQudY As a Man Utd fan I love Solksjaer for this, in a title race, late in the game at 1-1 and Ole tracked back the length of the field, made a tackle which he knew would be a red card, didn't try and kill Rob Lee, it wasn't malicious, he was just doing the team thing. Still, while I will call it absolutely selfless and brilliant, I will openly say it should have been a penalty and probably a longer ban than 3 matches. Lee would have had a clear 1-on-1 shot with the Keeper, yes Ole was sent off but a free kick outside the box with a wall in front of you is nowhere near as easy to convert as a penalty. The referee should be able to say what is and what isn't a penalty, their job is already to intrepret the game and the rules, why not extend it to this. Only then will we rid the game of diving and will the referee actually award what he sees.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
The hand of god may be lauded in Argentina but for the rest of the world think it was cheating, I can't help but cringe when seeing it. If you know the rules then you should adhere to them and they are professional Sportsmen, they know the rules. The best example recently was the Crystal Palace - Bristol game where the 4 Defenders and Keeper knew the ball went in, you can see them all drop their heads but they don't say a word to the referee when it is disallowed. Then there is Trevor Chappell's underarm against NZ. While I think most Australian's will concur that it was a cowardly act, it was at the time, within the rules of the game and hence cannot, even though it is very unsporting, be placed into this category. Winning is important but when you blatantly and knowinly go against the rules, that's not right. There is a rule against simulation, Eduardo would know that, he literally broke the rules and said nothing, he deserves a ban and should apologise, but he won't.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
No one has earned the right to dive. Yes Taylor's tackle was ridiculous but to give Eduardo leniency now would be incorrect. Petr Cech had his skull cracked open and we don't immediately give him a free kick out of pity.
dasilva
Guest
Diving to me is an equivalent unsporting action as a defender who does a tactical foul to prevent a goal scoring opportunities THey are both cases of illegal behaviour to get their own team an advantage. However one is demonised and crucified while the other is just part of the game I remember the likes of Michael Ballack was praised for tactically fouling a south korean players in the semi-final of the world cup which prevented a clear goal scoring opportunities. He ended up getting a yellow card for his act and the coach of the team praised him on how selfless he was for stopping a goal scoring opportunities and sacrificing his place for the world cup final for the benefit of his team. Imagine if Ballack dived and won a penalty for Germany, how much praise would he get for helping his team reach the world cup final. IMO both are cheating. Both involve trying to defeat your opponents. Both tries to conned the referee (defenders impede attackers in sneaky ways to make sure the referee doesn't see the act). Diving is unsportmanship and wrong but it's just of many unsporting thing a player can do and maybe it doesn't really deserve to be singled out. The whole controversy with diving here in Australia seems more of a cultural thing rather then an objective thing. It seems we like to see a more physical game. So we tolerate the defenders doing dodgy tackles etc but scream out foul play to diving.
DiCanio
Guest
We are talking about the same Eduardo who was brutally crunched by Martin Taylor a few years ago. Who fought his way back from what many thought to be a career ending injury The kid has earned a few dives. How can you expect him to stay on his feet after something like that.
whiskeymac
Guest
with respect to diving, and any form of transgresson of the rules in a particular Sport (be it the over exuberant hitting of a horse by a jockey or >insert whatever happens in your game of choice< ), when the pressure is on to get aresult i guess it will always happen. In saying that though there is a culture difference, apparently, to all this cheating. We call it cheating and generally dont regard it in the sneaky like esteem others might. the best example is the infamous hand of god goal by diego maradonut. in the UK it was derided as out and out cheating. In argentina it was lauded as an example of larikinism. Tpo paraphrase and plagiarise someone elses work ( http://cultureofsoccer.com/2007/04/17/argentinas-obsession-with-diego-maradona/) The Argies, allegedly, even call the action"picadia criolla". In his biography of Maradona, Jimmy Burns presents an Argentine concept synonymous to picadia criolla, that of viveza. Burns writes: In Argentina the English concept of fair play is not as popularly recognized or indeed applauded as that of viveza. The word literally means liveliness, but is used to mean craftiness or trickery, and is never used in a derogatory sense not much point to all this but with respect to the notion rooney et al dont dive there is an interesting counter view on ... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/robkelly/100001400/arsenals-eduardo-should-be-punished-for-his-dive-but-the-furore-over-the-incident-is-hypocritical-and-embarrassing/ so everyone does it. we just dont like it. at least we dont like getting caught.
FIsher Price
Guest
Not advocating diving but the British media reaction has been predictably over-the-top and represents a clear dose of xenophobia (remember Michael Owen was deemed to be "clever" when he won a pen against Argentina, Rooney "skilful" when he jumped over Sol Campbell's leg at Old Trafford in 2005). Eduardo, though, will now have a reputation as a cheating diver (a la Robert Pires for his well-publicised dive against Portsmouth many moons ago_ - oh, those dastardly foreigners eh? It is ridiculous that the media and FA are far more concerned by diving than the dangerous, deliberate foul play of Martin Taylor, Kevin Nolan et al. That said, I'm all for a two-match ban for Eduardo, so long as this punishment is handed out to all offenders. This would of course mean that we'd NEVER sight Steven Gerrard (does he suffer from a simulation addiction?) on a football pitch. Gerrard 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVb2gbMtN3I Gerrard 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqjx6IyWxjo
dasilva
Guest
Quite frankly I have little time for people bleating on about ancestry or ethnicity. Unless you are willing to back it up with something tangible such as actually living in that country and contributing to that country, the person doesn't have a leg to stand on by calling themselves the nationality of their parents. Viduka is Croatian, I'll grant you that and if he did decide to represent Croatia then I have no hard feelings considering he actually lives in that country and is raising a family there and hence contributing to Croatian society. Whether Eduardo lived in Croatia purely for football reasons or not. He did more for their society in the years playing for Dinamo Zagreb then the likes of Simunic done in his entire life time.
Luke W
Guest
So no one believes that Boruc invited Eduardo to dive by rushing off his line, then clumsily flinging himself to the ground when he realised he couldn't reach the ball? I admit I'm an Arsenal fan, but come on, it was more poor goalkeeping than a dive.
whiskeymac
Guest
yes the dive was a blight on the win, and the game. (still Arsenal are through egardless of the dive and have been rewarded with a great group to qualify from). Real Madrid AC Milan Barca and inter can battle it out to join us in the knock outs. Pip, cheeky. i guess you arent over Fozzie yet? i think the issue of diving and cheating/ pansy like behaviour is what a lot of neutrals and knockers of the game point too when coming up with reasons for not following the game.
Freud of Football
Roar Guru
Eduardo has no Croatian ancestry, his only link to the country was playing for Dinamo Zagreb, he was only there a few years before he became a Croatian Citizen and did so solely to play for their national team, not to reside there, not to have a family there. Simunic is Croatian, so is Viduka, but they are also Australian. In today's day and age, pigeon holing a person into a single nationality is night on impossible. They were born in Australia and hence citizens of the country but grew up with that ethnic background, in my opinion they have every right to represent either nation should they so choose. Eduardo on the other hand probably never thought much about Croatia until he went there to play football and if he genuinely thought he was world class, he would never have played for Croatia as he would have waited and played for Brazil.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
To quote Fos: "...football is and has always been engaged in an ideological war. In this conflict, every Socceroos game is a strategic strike, every A-League super goal is a tactical victory, every Beckham visit is marketing shot across the bow … every time someone watches Barcelona or Arsenal play for the first time, the beautiful game has won a new conscript. " But I guess every dive also loses a conscript.
Colin N
Guest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKF2eWBscSk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cmpozcslIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2FilSIGfCo Hmmm, an ability to stay on his feet, indeed.
dasilva
Guest
I agree with the sentiment with diving Nevertheless I just take issue with not considering Eduardo Croation As far as I can see, he is more croatian then the likes of SImunic and didulica. Having lived in that country for a longer period of time then those two. Australia has a proud history of having migrants arriving to this country and then representing our country with the likes of Milan Ivanovic and pretty much most of the 74 socceroos. We consider a lot of them proud Australian and we should give Eduardo the same benefit of the doubt.
Luke W
Guest
Diving...who should the responsibility rest with? The player, the referee, the governing body? Personally I have no problem with diving. In my opinion, 99% of the time, a dive is the result of a player taking advantage of a poorly timed challenge. You can certainly argue that for Eduardo's penalty, because contact or not, Boruc was late getting to the ball. If he times it better, Eduardo doesn't even get the chance to dive.