For you night owls and West Coasters, here is video footage of the dive everybody's talking about. It's Arsenal striker Eduardo doing his best Greg Louganis in Arsenal's UEFA Champions League victory vs. Celtic on Wednesday:
(If this video clip is pulled, you can probably find the clip pretty easily)
Is that the worst dive you've seen in a while? Not the worst ever, but as bad as there has been in some time in a high-profile European match.
Think Eduardo should be suspended, as some Celtic players have suggested? Think Eduardo got some Martin Taylor flashbacks and just jumped out of the way to avoid danger? Did you actually think it was a PK (and if so, are you an MLS referee)?
Share your thoughts below.
DIVING = CHEATING. Diver’s have no honor.
Cough, ahem, Blanco
This happens in every major sport.
In handegg a wr jumps into the other player to get a pass interference call or acts wildly like the other player was holding him/hitting him. A defensive lineman will go crazy fall/throw their hands up to try to get a holding called.
Netball, players are always trying to draw charges or jump into players to get an and 1 called.
In boreball they act like they get hit with the ball to get a walk. They try to intimidate the umpire with angry words and threaten to “fight”. All this while they take drugs nonstop to be the best.
Diving sucks, but it is no worse than diving in soccer. Contact or not it doesnt matter…because generally if there is contact in soccer…*whispers*…it really is a foul
looks like he may get a two game ban for that dive, i don’t know how to post a link but just saw it on fox website hopefully Ives can get more info.
i believe UEFA will be using two more assistant referees behind the goals during Europa League games as a trial.
They hope that this will help in eliminating bad calls
Ha. I truly think soccer brings out the worst in people. What a dive
“Did you actually think it was a PK (and if so, are you an MLS referee)?”
ahhhaaahahhahhahahahahhahhhahah!!!!!!!!!!
I love that people are saying things like “Oh if you start suspending people for diving, you’ll have to suspend high profile players like CRonaldo and Eduardo for almost every game!”
Uh…yes please. This garbage needs to be dealt with severely. Cron, Drogba, Eduardo all these clowns need to get dealt with.
I read this on football365 and I think it’s the best idea ever to combat divers. I’ll paraphrase:
If a player goes down in the box the ref would pull him aside and ask if it was a dive. If the player says yes, goal kick and there’s no punishment. The dive is chalked up to a moment of madness and forgiven.
If the player insists that the infringement was real, a penalty is awarded, however, the player does so knowing full well that the video will be thoroughly reviewed post match.
If found guilty of diving, that player receives say, a five game suspension and fine.
I think, if anything, MLS should implement this practice.
That was a pretty good dive, I would have done the same.
Note that it was a Spanish ref. They’re terrible and this dive is terrible and it’s the worst part of the game.
If you started suspending every player for diving, Mexico would have to cancel its season.
TOTAL dive. I MIGHT buy the ‘he was trying to protect himself from another horrible injury’ argument if he didn’t throw his arms up so theatrically. He was CLEARLY trying to get something from nothing.
Should have gotten a yellow. They need to allow yellows after the fact.
That said, at the end of the day, Arsenal wiped the floor with Celtic twice and this one goal wasn’t the reason Celtic is on the outside looking in.
It doesn’t excuse it but ultimately it is what will make it a non-issue again (sadly) in a week. If this would have been the series winning goal it’d be another story.
I’m mostly sad because this kinda thing has largely evaporated since the 80’s and is the one thing that turns SOOO many people off from the game in the US. It really does hurt the game’s growth to have shameful displays like this.
BEST. DIVE. EVER!
Splash …
That was such a great dive, Cristiano Ronaldo would be so proud!!
@Nate- your sporting suggestion of eduardo rolling the ball to boruc slowly would have been very much appreciated and much more in the spirit of the game. Good call.
He needs to be suspended for two reasons:
1) he brought the game into disrepute giving further fodder to those who say soccer is full of lying divers
2) This goal effectively ended the tie (putting Arsenal up 3-0) The amount of money that effectively changed hands as a result of that one play is in the TENS OF MILLIONS!
Now Arsenal was probably going to win anyway and were the better team but if you allow someone to cheat and as a result reward them it is effectively stealing. How do you expect players, coaches and fans to respect the integrity of the game the officials and the rules if you allow this to stand?
For the good of the game THEY NEED TO STOP REWARDING THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR NOW!
This was outright cheating and if you don’t stop it now, it will continue. What if this was the second leg of a goalless tie between ManU and Real Madrid? If you don’t stop it now it is a slippery slope which unfortunately we are already on.
It’s a shameless dive, but Brazilians are good at that, and the referee should have recognized it as one.
Players and teams should be fined upon review after games for horrible dives like this.
Hahahaha.
Go you Gunners!
Oh trust me there has been worse…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W00d3yJKl4
Diving (in the penalty area or elsewhere) will NEVER be a sending off offense. It falls under unsporting behavior (yellow – caution). That’s just the way it works. It’s up to the other team to mete out justice.
Wow… wow. This is an abomination.
Anyone doesn’t think he dove must be living in a fantasy world. That said, no need to suspend him. Better to let some thug from a lower division squad snap his femur in an FA Cup match some time this fall.
There’s a simple solution to dives, but FIFA will never do it. Review films and suspend offender (for multiple matches if necessary). If a ref consistently is duped by dives, publicly rebuke and suspend him as well. It would greatly alleviate the problem within a year or two.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxoDXCtn0Xw
Thats egregious diving, and terrible refereeing. Eduardo’s is, sadly, common diving and bad refereeing. Doesnt make it any less excusable certainly, and I’m all in favor of penalties after the fact. I’m not sure about suspension, that seems a bit harsh, but a fine determined by the governing body of the match based on severity of the dive (i.e. the video link above would be a 10k fine, Eduardo’s a 5k fine).
While we’re at it, how about sanctions for any player who covers his face with his hands when he hasn’t even been touched on the face? Does anyone remember the incident a few years back when somebody brushed a player along the sideliens with a towel and the “victim” grabbed his face like he had been kicked in the teeth?
I have to defend him a little. Yes, it was a clear dive and that sucks.
So he goes full speed into the box and the keeper slides out at him. Eduardo touches it around him and falls down. With the slide Boruc made, it appeared that he was going to make contact. He slides incredibly close and right past him. This is a standard way to get a penalty around the world, happens all the time. I have to hope that Eduardo went down expecting contact rather than a blatant dive. Afterall, he didn’t pretend to be hurt or try to get Boruc a card.
All that being said, I would have liked to see Eduardo walk up to the ref and tell him there was no contact. That, or pass the penalty kick to Boruc. That would have been more sporting.
Eduardo’s dive is completely hilarious!
It’s such bad acting. It’s almost as if he were mocking himself diving. Seriously he can’t have thought any referee would have been convinced. I would almost give him a pass because he looked to be making a joke, and can’t have reasonably thought a FIFA referee would take it as a foul.
Eduardo is a great player, but… let’s face it, he is a bit effeminate. I think the falling was just in line with his personality. The boy’s just a little light in his cleats, wind blows on him and he might fall down, don’t blame him for being who he is. Delicate like a flower.
Not a single player in the WPS would have gone down (even if there was contact). And a player in that league like Wayne Rooney would have stayed on his feet but made sure there was contact! And maybe put the ball into the net as well
I truthfully hope something comes from this. Here is what Eduardo could have done. Jump in the air and then land on his feet. There was NO reason not to do so. Eduardo could have told the ref, “Ya know what, I jumped cause I was afraid he was going to break my leg. There was no contact, and should not be a PK.” I have been on the field and corrected refs when they have called something in my favor that should not have been. I have had teammates rebuke me for doing so, but that really won’t stop me. If players want to clean up the game (apparently they do not), it is entirely within’ their powers to do so.
Cheating has short term benefits, but long term consequences. I think it’s about time FIFA made that abundantly clear to players.
ummm, 1 word: awful dive
; )
@ Justin O
If you are going to respond to me first read what I wrote, don’t take liberties and gloss over what I wrote.
“Are you saying that people who complain about diving are hypocrites because they don’t complain about steroids in baseball? First, people have complained extensively about steroids for years. And in any case, what does one have to do with the other?”
Steroids ruined baseball’s imagine in America and hopefully around the world. People are arguing that diving is ruing soccer’s image in America. How do you not follow that argument? Are you incapable of logical reasoning or analytical thought?
“In any case, it’s especially problematic in soccer as such actions can, and sometimes do, result in the entirety of scoring in the whole match. Basketball? A minute fraction of total scoring in any game comes from your example.”
You don’t watch enough basketball. Basketball games are won and lost by the accumulation of these “minute fraction of total scoring” events that decide who wins by +1 +2 +3 and on ward. Go tell the coach of the losing team that the ref’s decision to hand out an AND 1 on Reggie Miller’s three when he kicks out his leg at the defender is a minute infraction, you’ll get your ear chewed off.
“And getting a player up in the air in basketball and letting him fall on you is also irrelevant. First, because that’s allowed in the rules. Second, because there has to be contact for there to be a foul. As such, that’s an apples and oranges comparison. Show me a basketball player go tumbling down on the court when there was no contact and you have an apples and apples comparison. There’s no hypocrisy at all.”
Justin read what I wrote. I said when the shooter jumps into the defender, can you read or do you just take what you like because it suits your argument?
“It’s one thing when the defender does obstruct the shooter, but when the shooter jumps into the defender a la Reggie Miller (countless times) it disgusts me.”
10 game suspension for egregious dives like this one
I am all for after the fact punishments on dives that draw penalties and dives that draw yellows. Hefty fines and suspensions will be the only way to rid the game of this.
Plus, any foul dive or not, that a player throws both their arms up over their head and arches their back backwards should be considered a dive and given a yellow for being a complete jackass.
Another casualty of soccer’s pathetic inability to reform its officiating.
I’m a big Arsenal fan, but this is bad stuff.
Instant replay — with a passive replay official in a skybox (just like college football) — would prevent this crap. Any PK call would get an instant review. As everyone readies for the PK, the ref could consult with the replay offical and get a quick verdict. In this case, it should take more than 30 secs. And that’s way longer than is typically wasted on the pitch as everyone throws a tantrum over the PK call, or as the ‘victim’ rolls on the ground or lies motionless to better justify the PK call.
The only reason not to be for a non-instrusive replay system is b/c your either a Luddite like Platini or Blatter, or you prefer the capriciousness and/or injustice of ref’s calls.