I 100% think it’s on the Europeans, same for basketball.
But I don’t think it’s because they’re softer or any of that nonsense spouted on the social media. I honestly don’t think you can be a professional athlete and be soft. I think there is an element of gamesmanship to their sporting landscape we simply don’t understand over here.
And I think I know why. I think it developed because they had to ‘sell’ the fact that they were fouled to the referee.
For instance, if there was any doubt that you’d been hit by a pitch, the whole ‘don’t rub it’ culture probably doesn’t pop up. If you needed to do some action to show the ref you’d been hit, you might react more ‘showily.’ But you don’t. It’s obvious. Same is true of a lot of sports over here, there wasn’t as much need to flop, and often, the violence was part of the point.
And in the sports where it would work, basketball being the biggest example, the reward wasn’t enough for the stain on the reputation in our landscape. It took the Europeans not caring about that part to break through it.
Would we have developed differently if we did need to draw the refs attention? I don’t know. Already you see defensive lineman - and some really tough ones like Crosby and Hutch - throwing their hands up to draw the refs attention to the fact that they’re being held. How long before they exaggerate it even further? There was a big DT who did that exact thing last year, utter basketball flop, and he got a foul because of it.
I think soccer followed that same path, and at a certain point it developed into gamesmanship. They aren’t pretending to be hurt, they’re putting on a show to get the outcome they want. And frankly, that’s where my line is. I hate the writhing around on the ground. I don’t know why it’s necessary to pretend to be hurt to get a foul, except I suppose that FIFA and other officials keep rewarding it (see our game).
The diving and feigning injury is actually not as bad this world cup because tbe refs have been told to be a little tougher. In years gome by fouls were given for slight or even no contact. Still a long way to go as it is supposed to be a contact sport. My rule of thumb is if the same contact happened in the street would you fall over and roll around on the floor for 5 minutes. If the answer is no then its not a foul.
While watching all I could think was, ‘Vozinha gets to put that one on the wall, the time he got scored on by Messi in a World Cup.’ Not a lot of athletes who would make you feel that way.
Qualified at the expense of Cameroon who are normally world cup regulars and have some fairly famous players. So probably a little underrated but they were fantastic to watch tonight. Hope they get back in 4 years
