Soccer flops?

Submitted by Ziff72 on

A quick question for the Soccer elite.  What is up with the guys acting like they are paralyzed after every fall?  Is it to draw harsher penalties or is there some strategy to it?  Can a flop be called by the referee?  Is it a cultural thing and if so what countries think it is bush and which countries work it like they are D. Wade and P. Pierce.

Considering the harshness and passion of some of these poorer countries I'm a little surprised culturally they would allow that kind of behavior from their athletes.

SAvoodoo

June 12th, 2010 at 3:29 PM ^

Yes to draw penalties, no other strategy

Yes a flop can be called

IMHO it is a cultural thing but everyone country does it to some extent (my opinion, and this is a HUGE generalization, is that certain south american countries and mexico are the worst but the italians are right up there with them.  someone who watches more international soccer would know better specific countries)

some of the european teams are better about it but like i said, everyone does it to a certain extent. a lot of people accept it as part of the game, like every other sport. soccer just happens to have some teams/players that go over board and it was never really cracked down on (personal opinion is that i hate it and wished they'd call it more)

 

Huntington Wolverine

June 12th, 2010 at 7:55 PM ^

Yeah, it's a good thing we weren't excited playing Duke close the first time in 2008 or splitting the season series with Duke in 2008 in men's basketball.  We only went 1-1 against them overall.

 

/sarcasm

 

Being excited about a tie makes perfect sense when you're dealing with a pool where the top two teams advance.

baorao

June 12th, 2010 at 4:47 PM ^

its a way to get your guys a little bit of break. I know 7 miles in 90 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but its not like soccer has TV timeouts like other sports. 

regarding the countries, if you hate flopping then you're going to want to watch Germany, the US and England.

You're going to want to avoid Italy, Portugal, probably Spain and all of South America. Though Spain (this time around) and Brazil are fun to watch despite all of that.

everyone else falls somewhere in between.

generally speaking.

Michigan_Mike

June 12th, 2010 at 6:09 PM ^

Portugal and Italy are by far the worst examples of this.



Hemsky on England day looked like he got shot a couple of times, but they aren't bad for the most part. Generally Germany is the least floppy team in international football.

jsquigg

June 12th, 2010 at 7:12 PM ^

I hate all the stereotypes.  I like soccer, and I've seen flops no matter who's playing.  Hell, I saw a few in today's US/England game.  Let's not generalize with nations because I think flopping is usually attributed to certain players rather than "Italians" or "Mexicans." 

SpartanDan

June 12th, 2010 at 8:10 PM ^

Italy and Portugal are easily the two worst (in Portugal's case, it's primarily Cristiano Ronaldo, but he does enough for everyone). It does happen in every game, but it happens more with some teams than with others and some players (most of whom are concentrated on a few teams) try to sell it for a card much harder than others. In my experience, Mexico isn't any worse than most; aside from the two above no one really stands out as worse than the rest.

Are there some players on the Italian or Portuguese teams that would never stoop so low, and some on other teams that would? Certainly. But on the whole, those two teams do it more than anyone. Portugal in the '06 third-place game took dives the instant they stepped inside the box, often blowing a great chance because they would have been in perfect position to tap it home if they had kept in the play instead of trying to draw a bogus penalty. And it wasn't just Ronaldo (though he certainly set the example; at least two of them were him).

bronxblue

June 12th, 2010 at 9:15 PM ^

Unfortunately, for every one of these that makes football look wussy

You have something like this that reminds you how dangerous and rugged it can be:

MGoBender

June 13th, 2010 at 9:41 AM ^

Also, check out the length of those spikes on the red player's boot.  Getting stepped on and kicked in the ankles hurts like hell.

In HS I got kicked in the shin through the shin guard.  The guy kicked me so hard that despite the fact I has wearing a shin guard I had a huge gushing laseration on my shin and very little between bone and that guy's foot.

/cool story brah

umichjenks

June 14th, 2010 at 12:45 AM ^

I know that soccer players are experts at flopping and I love soccer so it's irritating.  

But, after watching the Lakers game I would have to say the NBA is a close second to flopping.  Ron Artest flopping after the 140 lb rondo barely pushes him, or Kobe and Pierce falling over when someone breathes on them.

Varejao probably is in the wrong sport b/c that guy is the worst flopper I've ever seen.