OT - Chelsea Soccer's Eden Hazard kicks ball boy
I know this is pretty OT, but I thought we might all enjoy a little debate about it. If you haven't seen this yet, take a watch below:
In the above video, Chelsea star Eden Hazard decides that the proper response to a kid's fumbling (gamesmanship? Does it really matter?), is to give him a swift kick in the ribs. I thought I would check in to see what you all think about this. A few points for discussion:
1 - How do european soccer fans' responses to this compare to US sports fans' responses to players on field activities? I notice a lot of commenters beneath that video are berating the boy for falling on the ball, basically defending Hazard's kick.
2 - In that vein, what was the boy doing there? Some say he was trying to kill time to hasten the end of the game, towards whatever ends. Others say Hazard pushed him over and he was just discombobulated on top of the ball after he fell.
3 - Is a red card enough for this kind of behavior? The boy was not a player in the game nor a part of either team. Whether you think the boy was simply clumsy or intentionally trying to mess with time in the game, do you think a red card handles it, or should there be something more severe?
4 - How does this differ from, say, a streaker trying to get into the game, and getting clocked by a linebacker or something? When those guys get hit, do you feel they deserve it?
January 24th, 2013 at 12:18 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:24 AM ^
Yep. Nothing malicious about the kick, and Ray Lewis is a saint. Everyone is really on point today.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:36 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 1:19 AM ^
Precisely.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:30 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:23 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:50 AM ^
That tweet went up before the game right? Kid's a prick, who I'm pretty sure faked everything. See the video I posted below.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:32 AM ^
Doesn't necessarily make it right, but c'mon now, the kid was clearly trying to stall the game, and then when he gets tapped in the side he goes all Hollywood on us as if he just got hit by a truck.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:37 AM ^
They're both idiots, and Hazard is now being investigated by the South Wales Police, but people are overboard here. The kid isn't 4 years old, and he was deliberately holding up the game.
The main reason Hazard's in the wrong, IME, is that the kid, while cheating, is presumably just carrying out orders. There should be an effective mechanism in place to punish the home team for this (with sanctions, say, up to and including a penalty kick), but you can't go around kicking cheaters just because there isn't one.
I think a short ban would be ok--it would send a message to the player--but any longer bans should come with new rules to punish home teams with ball boys pulling this crap, or it'll just get worse.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:41 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:44 AM ^
Do I feel bad for the kid? Aboslutely not. He went after a ball he shouldn't have, clearly tried to waste time, and then acted like he had been shot as he rolled around on the pitch.
That being said, Hazard still should have just let the kid be a little shit rather than trying to kick the ball out from underneath him and putting himself in this situation.
January 24th, 2013 at 12:49 AM ^
1. The ballboy is 17.
2. I'm not even sure he kicked him. Check out this video at 33 or 34 seconds:
January 24th, 2013 at 1:07 AM ^
Even the ball boys know how to overreact to some contact.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:19 AM ^
Maybe if soccer players didn't flip head over heels if they brush another player's jersey and cry like their skeleton had been ripped out, I'd be a bit more upset at the kid's theatrics. But man, that's how europeans play soccer.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:27 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 10:35 AM ^
1. Drogba is a douche.
2. This is another reason why Lionel Messi is the greatest player ever to set foot on a pitch. He fights through fouls and rarely goes down, even after truly getting hammered. If it were 90% of the guys taking the fouls he takes, they would probably insist on being carried off on a stretcher to continue the theatrics.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:19 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 1:00 AM ^
Ref would have awarded some extra time had he continued to stay on the ball. Kid isn't completely innocent, but Hazard is really a moron for doing that.
January 24th, 2013 at 6:47 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 7:37 AM ^
Eden Hazard is a tremendous little bitch, and has been for years now. He fits right in at Chelsea.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
The ball boy is 17. He knows better. He's stalling the game. I just wish he was actually kicked that hard to cause him to roll around like that.
January 24th, 2013 at 9:33 AM ^
The guy deserved it. It's bad enough watching the players on team that's up a goal stalling with the ball, but to have your grounds crew do it as well? If you want to be involved in the action, then you'd better be willing to take what's coming to you. Plus, I'm not even sure he actually kicked him. It looks like he pokes the ball free and it squirts out the other side.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
Why doesn't soccer have a time keeper or at least transmit the official's time to the scoreboard? I'm far from a soccer fan, but it seems to really detract from the excitement of a close game when you, as a spectator, have no idea how much time is left.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^
Soccer prides itself on free flowing time with no time outs. Things like injuries, fights, dishonest ball boys wasting time, need to be accounted for. The center ref is responsible for keeping track of this extra time ledger - no one else. At a higher level match, his information is communicated close to the 90 minute mark to an offical that shows the fans on a small electronic board (and announced over the PA) showing how much time is left. At many youth games or HS JV games there is no stoppage time. At the ones that do allow for stoppage time, coaches and players should always be able to get an answer from a ref as to how much stoppage time is being added on. Finally if the end of stoppage time corresponds to a goal scoring opportunity including a corner kick that is not being taken deliberately, the ref will usually let the play carry itself out.
January 24th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
I don't mind the free-flowing time, but I think officials are too stingy with the amount of stoppage time they grant. If they'd actually review and count how much time is lost in all the stoppages for fouls, the ball going out of bounds, etc., it probably adds up to something like 7-10 minutes in a typical game.
January 24th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
17 year old knows what he is doing. Frustrated player wants to get the ball back in play...No blood, play on!
But as a United fan it is nice to see Chelsea lose.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:42 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
did not use his hands to hit him, that would definetly be a red card.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:54 AM ^
a big accident. The boy when he first fell wanted to roll to his right but the Chelsea player was trying to roll him to the left niether could gain any ground. Then the player reached over to pull him to the right while the boy was now trying to roll to the left. It seemed the player finally got frustrated and did indeed kick the young man and he finally was able to roll off because no one was stopping him then.
January 24th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
January 24th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
Hazard was trying to retrieve the ball from under Charlie Morgan, the teenage son of the Swansea City director Martin Morgan, who had flopped on top of it and appeared to be wasting time after 78 minutes of the goalless draw at the Liberty Stadium.
January 24th, 2013 at 1:46 PM ^
It was a light tap to either a) knock the ball loose from the stupid kid's grasp or b) let the stupid kid know that he's doing something stupid. It's not like Hazard booted the kid, either way. As others have said, if you intentionally put yourself into the field of play, then you deserve what's coming to you.
Anyway, as a LOSC fan and a lover of Belgium, Eden Hazard gets a free pass on this. Coincidentally, Zenedine Zidane loves him.
January 24th, 2013 at 4:55 PM ^
Shouldn't have kicked at the 17 year old but it looks like he got ball.
