Go to content Go to navigation Go to search

A Defense of Diving

27 June 2006, 23:31

Illustration by Marshall HopkinsRead my piece in Slate.

---

Comments

  1. Good try, but diving is not defensible. It will continue to turn off fans in the US and the influx of Euro and South American divers into the NBA is horrifying to many fans. The difference is that in soccer one well placed dive can lead to a penalty kick, and a lot of soccer games are 0-0. Divers are wussy scum and deserve a pink card.

    — Jeff · 27 June 2006, 17:24 · #

  2. Phenomenal piece, Austin. I grew up playing the game and shrug off the dive as “part of the game,” but have a tough time explaining it further to my wife and friends.

    I’ll definitely use this as fodder.

    — Mike · 27 June 2006, 19:24 · #

  3. The issue is subtle.

    (1) The latent level of diving in the game does effect the consequence of each individual dive. It’s a bit of an arm’s race, in which, if your opponents are diving more you must dive in order to even the playing field.

    (2) The ultimate goal should be to reduce the baseline level of fouling and of diving. That’s how you get the most exciting and attractive game.

    (3) Paradoxically: when players dive, it lowers the bar on what makes a foul, and thereby provides an incentive four defenders to foul even more brutally, because a half-foul and a full-foul draw the same punishment!

    — chris · 28 June 2006, 10:42 · #

  4. I agree w/ A. Kelley to some extent. I think the drama surrounding hard tackles and ‘simulated’ hard tackles is as much a part of the game as the ball. However, I feel like something is seriously out of hand with this World Cup- officiating, diving…- it is all together and seems worse than I can remember.
    I think FIFA should provide some kind of financial penalty and/or suspensions from matches as a dis-incentive. They should review tape, not blame the ref for missing things on the field, and take decisive action based on the flagrancy of the dive. The players should have to realize it is not only about fooloing the ref on the field. A couple of match suspensions to star players early in the tournament will help keep everybody on their feet.
    FIFA should also discourage their refs from being total idiots and sucking.

    — Enzo · 28 June 2006, 11:17 · #

  5. So the Italian diver gets a penalty kick and the Ghanian diver gets a red card?

    That is awful—it’s no wonder people complain how the “big” nations get favorable calls, whilst the “minnows” are cheated—even the press agrees with that twisted logic!

    — Derek Jones · 28 June 2006, 11:54 · #

  6. ”..Thierry Henry, arguably the world’s best players, will stay on their feet at all cost for the sake of a beautiful pass or a brilliant run at the goal.”

    LOL!! Unfortunately this surely was published before yesterdays France match. Henry’s ridiculous and shameful dive led to an inexistant foul, a yellow card, and the game clinching goal for France. As Ruud Gullit said, it proved once again that cheating can be successful. Shame on Henry, shame on the floppers.

    — Carles Puyols · 28 June 2006, 13:38 · #

  7. I found the Austin Kelley article so stunning, so opposite to how I view the matter, that the article read like a parody.

    Flopping is good?

    Can you possibly be serious?

    — Joe Baressi · 28 June 2006, 13:51 · #

  8. “After watching numerous replays, I agree that the Italian fell to the ground too easily.”...
    and therefore, no penalty should have been awarded… end of story.

    Soccer needs a) more officials on the field or b)instant replay -

    — Tom · 28 June 2006, 14:36 · #

  9. Excellent piece, although I disagree with almost all of it. Maybe one of the reasons diving is scorned is the play-acting of injury followed by the miraculous recovery moments later (yellow cards are like a cortizone shot for the fouled player). And maybe diving is scorned because it resembles figure skating more than sports, where a little contact should be expected.

    But taking the very nationalistic approach to all things soccer (doesn’t the World Cup inspire that?), I think the US team needs to bring an entirely new attitude towards fouls and diving—when a US player gets toppled by a vicious slide tackle, I want to see that player pop up and laugh, challenge the opposing team, show them cheap hits will not work or intimidate. Think about football wide receivers getting popped hard when they catch the ball across the middle, some linebacker timing the hit perfectly and laying them out. When you see the tackle live it almost hurts. And then the receiver pops right up and runs back to the huddle and you start thinking about how tough that receiver is, not how hard he was hit.

    The US team needs that kind of swagger and attitude. The rest of the world might dive in operatic fashion, hoping to sway the referee with an Olymoic gold medal performance. But the US team says, “bring it on….”

    — Patrick · 28 June 2006, 15:01 · #

  10. Comical. I understand Slate wants to publish articles which intelligently question commonly held views, but this article is mediocre in attempting to fight a broad base of conventional wisdom.

    — Eric · 28 June 2006, 15:43 · #

  11. Typical Slate: contrarian headlines to draw a reader in, followed by a so-so article. The logic is weak here, and I’ve never met any true futbol fans who believe diving is ok. Lame.

    — powpow · 28 June 2006, 15:59 · #

  12. I don’t buy it. Feigning injury is unbecoming whether you’re a full-grown professional athlete or a 12-year-old girl. NBA players may flop, but you’ll never see them clutching at their ankle and crying, unless they actually break something. In football (the tough, American version) players would rather walk back to the huddle on bloody stumps than give their opponents the satisfaction of knowing they hurt them with a hard hit.

    And if I can go a little meta for a moment: articles like this are a big part of the reason Americans will never get into this sport. If we had the tough-minded English soccer press here, it may stand a chance, but as long as effete soccer poets feel the need to harp on soccer’s “creativity” and “joyful expression,” while criticizing American sports fans as thuggish Neanderthals who couldn’t possibly understand the “beautiful game,” we’ll continue to live down to your expectations and laugh when your silly little game falls behind ice dancing in television ratings. At least ice dancers can stay on their feet without whining.

    — dabysan · 28 June 2006, 16:54 · #

  13. Its not the going down when fouled that is the real problem, it is the post foul drama that is associated with it. While it would be great to allow the ref to call what he “sees,” oftentimes a good defender is quite adept at concealing a shirt grab or an acutely placed elbow to the ribs. (My favorite was to trod on other player’s toes with my studs during cold wet November matches). Therefore, just like in basketball when a power forward enhances a charge, in hockey where a center makes a meal out of a hook or in baseball when a catcher frames a close pitch, going down when fouled is part of the game and always will be.

    — EJ · 28 June 2006, 18:45 · #

  14. “American sports are loaded with comic set pieces—a hockey player tossing his gloves for a ceremonial tussle or a baseball manager kicking dirt at the umpire. Like tumbling soccer players, these performers act to provoke sympathy or indignation. The difference is in the style of emotional drama.”

    You fail to mention that these “comic set pieces” cannot decide a game. Sure, a fight or argument may pump up one of the teams, but it sure doesn’t give a hockey player a penalty shot or advance a runner in baseball. Theatrics? This is sport, not theatre. I wasn’t aware that a BA in Drama could aid a team in injustly getting a free crack at a 90% chance to advance in the biggest tournament in the world.

    — Matt · 01 July 2006, 13:18 · #

  15. Good piece – You have to eliminate the penalty kick for just one foul and come up with a system that awards pk’s for an accumulation of infractions as agreed upon by committee.

    — eric · 06 July 2006, 23:09 · #

  16. Austin doesn’t know much about football, nor logic, because by his logic the bigger stronger guys are at fault for using their mass and their strength. (Austin, sport is brutish, go watch equestrian events.) Do you know the history of football, invented by the English, the story behind it, what it builds in players? Why are defenders who use their bodies ‘clumsy oafs’? Clumsy oafs do not play World Cup Soccer, and defenders need quicker feet than strikers. Me thinks Austin is a skinny little dweeb whose experiences from football are limited to PS2 and TV.
    I’ve lived in Europe for some time now. I’ve followed the major leagues and play in a few. I’m a season ticket holder with Barça.
    Austin just wanted to be cute and clever and run a counterintuitive story that would impress the contrarian Slate editors. Not too difficult. If it’s against the grain it’s great with Slate.
    Diving is bad. Most respectable players and leagues avoid it. Italy is the worst, and Spain is a close second.
    Eto’o doesn’t dive, neither does Xavi, they are both small and skinny. Deco is a diveaholic and so is Beletti. They sometimes get cards, but are mostly ignored because they are known divers Mr. Kelley.
    Italy is a team of divers and cheats. They fake falls and embellish contact. They look for the official and then react. This is not good for the sport, it’s horrible. It angers the teams from countries where this is considered cheating. It angers fans which think players and teams that practice this defile the game. It keeps Americans from taking it seriously-it puts it on par with WWE! Go back to trying to be a writer and leave football alone.

    — Groundhog · 09 July 2006, 03:20 · #

commenting closed for this article

Pool Update - Round 1
O Fenômeno