It's beautiful when we see most of English fans talking about diving but when he comes to his team they have all the same excuse: "It wasn't a dive, he was just clever" or "Yeah and what? All players do that, why we can do it too?"
'nuff said
I agree that their can be sets of double standards but I cant agree that our outlook is the same.
If a players is charging in at you and their is now way he is going to get the ball knock the ball away and take it for what you can get. Unless I am mistaken this is now a fair way to win a free kick anyway, if the intent is their. That is the only situation I would say is acceptable to diving, falling,hitting the ground,whatever you want to call it.
Gilardino's is the perfect example of what we hate, having no reason to fall other than the sake of diving. His example is great due to the distance he was away when he done it. I know that is a rare situation given the distance of where any challenge could have been to the place he fell. My point is falling for no reason is wrong. Their was no intent against Gilardino on this challenge. Players going down like they are shot, attacked or stabbed are out of order IMO. This is the anti football, not the way some teams play i.e. Blackburn, Liverpool. This is not football to try and win a game using dishonest tactics. Some teams may not have pretty tactics but it is honest.
I will say this out of all honesty, when Celtic lost to Porto I had a great night knowing they were beat, what added was the way Porto conducted themselves. The time wasting by diving rolling about crowding the ref. But the only reason I enjoyed this was because this was happening to Celtic. I never agreed with it for any other reason. My honest opinion is that this was out of order for a team to act. If my biased glasses were not on and it were against Lyon or Bolton, Man City etc.. I would have been appalled.
The most annoying thing about this night was the fact that Porto didn't have to do this to help them win. They were a good enough team, they already took apart a decent Lazio side in the semi's. Though this is just the continental mentality. Even when their are great footballing sides, Roma, Milan, Benfica and even Chelsea (all are examples they are not all the worst but just to make a point) they have players that play the game a different way. It can be very frustrating to watch when you see a player fall roll over 3 times then ask for assistance. Then you see the replay and their was not even a player anywhere near him.
I don't actually know the point of this argument as it will never really change. We all have far to many inbuilt views on football that will be hard to remove from ourselves.
English/British mentality of playing football the "old" way will not change much. We like a physical game of football. We hate players rolling about its just our mentality. Not to say that everyone in Britain is like this just more than their is less. The same way that outside the UK a good part of Europe think its a great thing to con the ref. Again not everyone will feel this way but it will happen.
What gets me, I can see people responding with attacks on England, but to answer a question do you agree that its right either side? Is this the way football should be played? No doubt to win a penalty that could put your team through to the next round in said cup or league etc. would be great but to lose it would be horrible. You would sit and argue the point that you as a club and the ref as a job/role where cheated would you not??
