Ok, so I've been watching matches a few times a week for a month now. Football season is over, NCAA and NBA hoops totally blow goats these days. It more resembles a WWE match in the paint than the finesse game I grew up watching. I started watching hockey and soccer, but I'm finding soccer to be more interesting than I thought I'd find it.

This brings me to my question. I HATE drama queens in sports. Punters and kickers that do double back flips when someone brushes their jersey going by trying to draw a penalty pisses me off. In basketball they fall to the floor flailing their arms looking for a foul call. Soccer, however, takes this to an entirely new level and it is really the only drawback to the sport that I'm finding so far. Some times it is so bad it almost turns me off to the sport all together.

An example, I was watching match and a defender cleared the ball out of the box with an aggressive kick. He made contact about chest high and the other dude came in and looked like he was going to try a header to the net. Clearly at full speed from full zoom out he never hit him. After a delayed reaction (did I say it was obvious he never kicked the guy in the face) the dude threw himself to the ground and was flopping around and flailing like a dying fish. Play went on. The dude continued to flail while play transitioned to the other end of the field. When the camera panned back to the dude who was still rolling around on the field, you could see him stop, and peek to see if they had stopped play yet. This went on for about another 10 seconds until the guy popped straight up and ran down the field to contribute.

When they finally got around to the replay he missed the guy by like 3 feet, but from watching him you would think that he needed an ambulance. Why, in situations like this where they are CLEARLY fishing for a foul and possibly even a card, don't they card these guys for doing this crap?

I see injury faking (where there is 0 contact between players) at a minimum of twice a match. It really kills the flow of the game when they stop play for a kick to the face, ribs, etc that never happens. Knowing really nothing about the sport, is there any talk of eliminating this kind of crap or is it an accepted part of the game?

 

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Everyone bemoans it but there's not a lot you can do unless you introduce video footage.


People do get carded for diving, but only when the ref spots it and it's obvious. Usually you'll only see a card if someone dives in the penalty box.


One thing you have to remember if you watch soccer but never played it yourself is the view from above is totally different than the view from the pitch. The ref is down there with the players, not watching from 40 feet above at an ideal angle. It's extaordinarily hard to tell in a split second what's a dive and what isn't, when there may well be players blocking your line of sight, or when you may be 20 yards from the incident.

Nobody watches NFL Europe.

 

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Simulation is a card able offense. But 'flops' are part of the game, refs don't generally call them unless they are really obvious.

As far as flopping, what you are seeing is a combination of things....without knowing specifics I can't point you in one direction or the other. But generally speaking:

1) The success rate on penalty kicks in pro-leagues is insanely high (above 75%, I've heard as much as 95%). Flopping in the box to try and draw the PK is just part of the game - the reward is worth the risk as it's essentially a free goal

2) The game clock doesn't stop. Ever. The game only stops for injury. Sometimes flops are the only way to grab a minute to breathe and slow the pace of the game down. While the ref is checking on you, play stops. If it stops long enough, players can get some water, stretch, re-tie boots, etc. Again, strategic advantage (just not as big)

Also, remember that in pro soccer you only have 3 subs per game, injuries or no injuries. 90 minutes is a gd long time to run, you take breaks where you can find or force them.

3) Sometimes what's construed as a flop really isn't. They teach you at a very young age to 'go with the flow' on a tackle. If you are thrown forward by a tackle, a shove, etc., it's best to just keep moving in that direction.

If you want to get a good idea of how this can be so easily misunderstood - run as fast as you can, keeping control of a ball, and have someone take your legs out from under you...or even just shoulder you off the ball. See how well you keep your balance and how graceful you look when doing so.

Ps - Side bet - over\under on # of 'soccer sucks' posts?

 

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I see what you are saying, and I did play youth soccer from like 8 - 10 until I started Pop Warner football. The incident that I saw was so obviously blatant that the ref didn't stop play. He was fishing for whistle in the box. As I said, the dude was like 3 feet from the ball when the defender made contact. I just didn't know whether or not the ref could drop a card on someone in a situation like that. It would seem that if they could, and actually did it, that it wouldn't take long to clean up that kind of foul fishing.

 

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It's an abnormal part of the game hated by most everyone.

Part of the problem is the head ref has to see everything and can't use video playback to judge, and only has some assistance from the two linesmen (ass. refs), plus the field is really large which makes it harder still to clearly see fouls.

There is always talk about changing rules to lessen this, on the other hand it's an old sport with alot of conservative forces opposing any rule change.

It's gotten to a very frustrating level these days, can skew a game or even ruin it in some cases imo.

 

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Blatant dives in the box are typically yellow carded. Although if the ref wants play to continue they wouldn't card the player then, they'd wait for play to stop and then go back and card them. Did you watch till play stopped to see if the player was restrospectively carded?

"European Football"


There is no such.

 

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The Patriots are playing in England this year. I hate that.

 

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Also, the rolling around is not necessarily all that bad. When you get your legs taken out running at full speed it makes complete sense to go into a roll. And when someone is sliding in at you, if you try to stand firm you will end up with a broken leg as often as not. There's a reason players react the way they do and it isn't 100% faking. Some of it is just smart physics.