The sport of Soccer, or as the rest of the world calls it, Football, is the most played and watched sport in the world. It is something that I have played my entire life, and have a lot of knowledge on. The sport of soccer is a beautiful game, but like anything, has its downsides and stereotypes. One of these stereotypes is the players flopping on the ground and crying after being lightly tapped. This is one of my biggest issues with the game, where some flops look like somebody fell on Broadway. Many professional soccer leagues exist, like the Premier League in England, La Liga in Spain, Serie A in Italy, and many more. The flopping varies from league to league. In the Premier League, or “Perm” for short, the flopping is everywhere, and it seems like every player dives at every chance for a foul. In La Liga, or the Spanish league, the flopping is at a smaller rate, and the same goes for the Serie A.
I watched a Premier League game recently between Arsenal and Manchester United, two of the top teams, and all I could focus on was how ridiculous the flopping was. Bruno Fernandes, who is one of Manchester Uniteds ’s best players, was running down the pitch with the ball, down the wing, and got tapped by a defender. Bruno then proceeded to clutch his face, fall to the ground, and roll over five or six times, until the referee came over and gave the defender a yellow card. I could not believe my eyes when I saw Bruno do this, and then complain to the referee that he got cynically fouled. Even the commentator Ian Darke made a joke of it stating “"Bruno's down again. And this … doesn't … look … good. Poor chap. Let's hope he walks again one day."
That same weekend, I decided to turn on a game in the German league, called the Bundesliga, and watch the title match between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. A situation happened in this game that was very similar to the Premier League match I previously mentioned. A player named Florian Wirtz got sent a beautiful pass through the middle by one of the midfielders and was on a breakaway. Breakaways are almost always scored, even though there was a defender on his back, but when the defender got next to him to try and take the ball away, Wirtz decided to fall to the ground and scream out at the referee. The defender did not make any contact with Wirtz, but because of the DIVE to the ground, the defender got a yellow card, and a penalty kick was awarded to Wirtz. Wirtz converted the penalty, and because of this, Bayer Leverkusen won the league title, as this was the deciding match. This changes everything from a game of skill and training, to a game of cheating and luck.
I can see why their logic in soccer is to dive for penalties, but I despise that the game is played this way and that titles can be decided by somebody falling to the ground and complaining. If this continues, the name should change to “Fallball” instead of football. Players like Bruno Fernandes and Florian Wirtz are the main reason why the sport of soccer, or football is flagged as the game that has the most flopping, and ridiculous diving. I give flopping in soccer 1 star.
Sources:
Comments