A good day for true football fans, and supporters of good sportsmanship

[Kaveh Ahangar]

PORTUGAL ARE OUT





Personally, I have been sickened by their disgusting dirty tactics and anti-football approach to the game. As Iranian football fans, we are all too familiar with this cancer in the modern game in the shape of teams like Bahrain and Qatar, but this WC has shown that even the supposed best teams in the world can play cheap, filthy football.

As their last 16 match with Holland proved, it wrecks the game as a spectacle and kills the enjoyment both for supporters and the neutrals. We have been on the receiving end of anti-football, diving players and we know the pain and injustice felt by this. I can only imagine how the Dutch and English fans must be feeling after losing to such a medicore team with just a couple of real star players.

Justice was done today, and despite all the frenetic and desperate diving attempts of Ronaldo, Pauleta and Co. the real football team deservingly made it to the final. Imagine if the referee had actually been fooled by one of these shameful acts and Portgual had managed to win the game by it.

FIFA must act now to eradicate this evil, this cancer that is devouring the beautiful game. In my humble opinion, there should be strict measures for diving and constantly pestering the referee to discourage others from doing this. In tonight's game, the referee tried to keep the game flowing and kept his cards in his pocket, but in doing so encouraged the Portuguese to attempt even more outrageous and audacious dives.

At least now we can look forward to seeing Zidane, Henry, Veira, Thuram, some of the greatest players of the modern game in the final....rather than a bunch of over-rated, over-paid, nancy boys whose only real talent is to dive on a grass pitch.

France 1 -0 Portugal. Justice has been done.

[TAKHTI]

Yes it was nice that Portugal went out because of the way they were playing but Iran was hardly innocent this WC either especially in the game against Portugal were they kept diving in order to get free kicks and try to score from set pieces.

[ShahHouman]

im a fan of true football and wear a joga bonito bracelet in support of beautiful play and am all for it, i like to watch football and not theater on the field, but i dunno if this was a victory for good sportsmanship, maybe it's jus me but im not 100% convinced that was a penalty, maybe it was, but i think a world class athlete such as thierry henry requires a bit more of a trip to hav gone down like that, i think he took advantage of the situation and fell a lot more than he naturally would have, he's also guilty of a dive against spain which led to a goal,so i dunno if the "good guys" won in this one, and italy is the same way w/ their numerous examples this WC, Germany as well.... i dunno if justice has been done completely, but the lesser of the 2 evils has prevailed, either way im totally against it and hope something can be done about this

[Ali Chicago]

A proposed solution

In order to eradicate or atleast discourage diving and all other illegal things that can't be tracked with refrees, I think FIFA needs to mandate the referr team to watch the game or atleast parts of the game on TV and be able to assign cards for unsportmanship or fouls even after the game.

So for example they can watch the Pauleta's dive and even after the game still give him a yellow or so kind of warning that he will accumulate.

In a way that is what they did to Frings (Germany ) after the Argentine - Germany brawl at the end of the game.
If players know that it is not just the ref at that moment only, but their action will be reviewed after the game is done by the referee team, then this diving and shirt pulling and tugging and dirty words will decrease quite a bit. Since they know they will be caught.

So, solution is to use technology to deal with this. To be honest, I think they should use technology to call offsides as well. Right now good line men try to listen for the kick on the ball while watching the defender and forward to call offside. In a neighborhood game it is ok since there aren't 20thousand rowdy fans. In a high level game the noise is so much that line man can't do that. So they need to take a look at where the player who is making the pass and the offside line at the same time which is impossible.
With computers, one can do this right away and then send a signal to the refree, so the ref can make the call.

[Darvish11]

In order to eradicate or atleast discourage diving and all other illegal things that can't be tracked with refrees, I think FIFA needs to mandate the referr team to watch the game or atleast parts of the game on TV and be able to assign cards for unsportmanship or fouls even after the game.

So for example they can watch the Pauleta's dive and even after the game still give him a yellow or so kind of warning that he will accumulate.

In a way that is what they did to Frings (Germany ) after the Argentine - Germany brawl at the end of the game.
If players know that it is not just the ref at that moment only, but their action will be reviewed after the game is done by the referee team, then this diving and shirt pulling and tugging and dirty words will decrease quite a bit. Since they know they will be caught.

So, solution is to use technology to deal with this. To be honest, I think they should use technology to call offsides as well. Right now good line men try to listen for the kick on the ball while watching the defender and forward to call offside. In a neighborhood game it is ok since there aren't 20thousand rowdy fans. In a high level game the noise is so much that line man can't do that. So they need to take a look at where the player who is making the pass and the offside line at the same time which is impossible.
With computers, one can do this right away and then send a signal to the refree, so the ref can make the call.

I think for offside there should be a challenge system like there is in the NFL.

[ShahHouman]

In order to eradicate or atleast discourage diving and all other illegal things that can't be tracked with refrees, I think FIFA needs to mandate the referr team to watch the game or atleast parts of the game on TV and be able to assign cards for unsportmanship or fouls even after the game.
So for example they can watch the Pauleta's dive and even after the game still give him a yellow or so kind of warning that he will accumulate.
In a way that is what they did to Frings (Germany ) after the Argentine - Germany brawl at the end of the game.
If players know that it is not just the ref at that moment only, but their action will be reviewed after the game is done by the referee team, then this diving and shirt pulling and tugging and dirty words will decrease quite a bit. Since they know they will be caught.
So, solution is to use technology to deal with this. To be honest, I think they should use technology to call offsides as well. Right now good line men try to listen for the kick on the ball while watching the defender and forward to call offside. In a neighborhood game it is ok since there aren't 20thousand rowdy fans. In a high level game the noise is so much that line man can't do that. So they need to take a look at where the player who is making the pass and the offside line at the same time which is impossible.
With computers, one can do this right away and then send a signal to the refree, so the ref can make the call.

i was thinkin the same thing, maybe make the 5th official hav a tv screen n watch replays and report to the main official, but the game is so fast now that such a thing is not possible and we cant stop play everytime somethin's controversial, it'll disrupt the flow of the match

[zereshk-ali]

im a fan of true football and wear a joga bonito bracelet in support of beautiful play and am all for it, i like to watch football and not theater on the field, but i dunno if this was a victory for good sportsmanship, maybe it's jus me but im not 100% convinced that was a penalty, maybe it was, but i think a world class athlete such as thierry henry requires a bit more of a trip to hav gone down like that, i think he took advantage of the situation and fell a lot more than he naturally would have, he's also guilty of a dive against spain which led to a goal,so i dunno if the "good guys" won in this one, and italy is the same way w/ their numerous examples this WC, Germany as well.... i dunno if justice has been done completely, but the lesser of the 2 evils has prevailed, either way im totally against it and hope something can be done about this

well said man...there are some teams and some players who get away with the diving, or the media overlook it to a certain extent...a la Henry and France.

The British media is making a scapegoat of Portugal for beating England and over-exaggerates all of their criticisms.

I'm not saying players like Ronaldo, Figo, Deco and Pauleta don't dive...they do.

But it's just when English or French players do it for instance, people don't mention it or they don't show 100 replays of it the way they do when Portuguese players do it.

[Kaveh Ahangar]

well said man...there are some teams and some players who get away with the diving, or the media overlook it to a certain extent...a la Henry and France.
The British media is making a scapegoat of Portugal for beating England and over-exaggerates all of their criticisms.
I'm not saying players like Ronaldo, Figo, Deco and Pauleta don't dive...they do.
But it's just when English or French players do it for instance, people don't mention it or they don't show 100 replays of it the way they do when Portuguese players do it.

I think we can all agree that most teams at some point have had a player who tries to gain an unfair advantage. With regards to Henry, he is a true gentleman and a worthy ambassador for the sport. I doubt you can accuse Henry of foul play in the same way that you can point to the Portuguese squad. If you study the replay of the penalty France won, you will see that Carvalho clearly makes contact with Henry's lower shin.....with the acceleration and momentum of Henry he fell and this was in no way a dive. For a real dive, look under C.Ronaldo, he goes up for a header and then realises he can't win the ball so throws himself on the floor and then starts screaming at the referee, it is truly despicable.

The reason people don't show "100 replays" as you say when English or French do it, is because they are almost always an isolated incident. It may happen once or twice in a match. However, in the semi-final and the matches before this, the Portuguese took it to another level, a new extreme....and if you don't believe me go back and watch the semi-final again. We need a little diving counter in the top left of the screen to keep track of how many times Portugal indulged in a little foul play. This was the whole point of my thread, my sheer disgust at the numerous times Portugal tried to gain an unfair advantage. Like I said most teams may do this once or twice in a game, but Portugal did it through the whole match and my concern is the way it ruins the viewing experience.

[ShahHouman]

from wut i heard, i dont remember this exactly, henry got bumped on the shoulder against spain and went down grabbing his face to win a free kick which lead to a goal, i agree that henry is a great ambassador to this sport and is a very skillful player who does not need to dive and all, but do not single portugal out, germany was just as guilty against argentina, not too much vs italy and speaking of italy, hello? lol, i'll let u pick the example as there are many, hell watch the ghana match n u'll see the italian forward "fouled n injured" in the box and there's a closeup on him on the ground crying then looks up for a second to see if the ref is looking or coming then he goes back to crying! very few teams are innocent of this stuff so to call portugal out on it isnt exactly fair to them, it may be true that they do it a lot more but im jus sayin dont single them out and call it a great day for football, a great day for football for me will be when all of this acting comes to an end and players grow some ballz n play for real

[zereshk-ali]

I think we can all agree that most teams at some point have had a player who tries to gain an unfair advantage. With regards to Henry, he is a true gentleman and a worthy ambassador for the sport. I doubt you can accuse Henry of foul play in the same way that you can point to the Portuguese squad. If you study the replay of the penalty France won, you will see that Carvalho clearly makes contact with Henry's lower shin.....with the acceleration and momentum of Henry he fell and this was in no way a dive. For a real dive, look under C.Ronaldo, he goes up for a header and then realises he can't win the ball so throws himself on the floor and then starts screaming at the referee, it is truly despicable.
The reason people don't show "100 replays" as you say when English or French do it, is because they are almost always an isolated incident. It may happen once or twice in a match. However, in the semi-final and the matches before this, the Portuguese took it to another level, a new extreme....and if you don't believe me go back and watch the semi-final again. We need a little diving counter in the top left of the screen to keep track of how many times Portugal indulged in a little foul play. This was the whole point of my thread, my sheer disgust at the numerous times Portugal tried to gain an unfair advantage. Like I said most teams may do this once or twice in a game, but Portugal did it through the whole match and my concern is the way it ruins the viewing experience.

I disagree - I think Henry dived for the penalty. Yes, there was contact and I think Carvalho was trying to foul him but he did not get enough contact on him to send him to the ground...especially after Henry manages to put the foot that he made contact with on the ground and then throws his trailing leg theatrically in the air.

Also, like Human jaan says Henry's reaction to that Puyol incident was also a disgrace. Trying to get a fellow professional sent off and it did not get anything near the attention that Ronaldo did for complaining to the referee after Rooney's awful studding. That's two incidents in the space of the week which has made me lose a lot of respect for Henry.

He also quite rightly mentions Iaquinta, who I genuinely believed had broken his leg from the look of anguish on his face since his acting skills were so well honed.

Not arguing about the Portuguese, just think that other teams do it too and will get away with it and the Portuguese reputation precedes them, particularly with the bitter British media.

[ShahHouman]

I disagree - I think Henry dived for the penalty. Yes, there was contact and I think Carvalho was trying to foul him but he did not get enough contact on him to send him to the ground...especially after Henry manages to put the foot that he made contact with on the ground and then throws his trailing leg theatrically in the air.
Also, like Human jaan says Henry's reaction to that Puyol incident was also a disgrace. Trying to get a fellow professional sent off and it did not get anything near the attention that Ronaldo did for complaining to the referee after Rooney's awful studding. That's two incidents in the space of the week which has made me lose a lot of respect for Henry.
He also quite rightly mentions Iaquinta, who I genuinely believed had broken his leg from the look of anguish on his face since his acting skills were so well honed.
Not arguing about the Portuguese, just think that other teams do it too and will get away with it and the Portuguese reputation precedes them, particularly with the bitter British media.

gooz lookin, and as i posted once before i will say it again, wut's the deal w/ this whole c ronaldo deal? he didnt pull out the red, the ref did, be mad at the ref not a player reacting as any other player would

[Kaveh Ahangar]

I disagree - I think Henry dived for the penalty. Yes, there was contact and I think Carvalho was trying to foul him but he did not get enough contact on him to send him to the ground...especially after Henry manages to put the foot that he made contact with on the ground and then throws his trailing leg theatrically in the air.

Yes, that is your own opinion. How much contact does a player moving at fast speed (and Henry was accelerating away from him) need to fall over? the answer is not very much, and is it very easy to be knocked off balance. The way you have described this incident is as if Henry clearly dived, which was not the case and the general concensus is that it was a penalty. Henry "throws his trailing leg theatrically"? You are starting to clutch at straws now.

Also, like Human jaan says Henry's reaction to that Puyol incident was also a disgrace. Trying to get a fellow professional sent off and it did not get anything near the attention that Ronaldo did for complaining to the referee after Rooney's awful studding. That's two incidents in the space of the week which has made me lose a lot of respect for Henry.
He also quite rightly mentions Iaquinta, who I genuinely believed had broken his leg from the look of anguish on his face since his acting skills were so well honed.

Yes, the incident in the Spain match was disappointing to see from Henry. The difference is that with Henry these incidents are very few and far between, unlike the Portuguese who may attempt to do something similar on numerous occasions in just one match.

Not arguing about the Portuguese, just think that other teams do it too and will get away with it and the Portuguese reputation precedes them, particularly with the bitter British media.

Good, then at least we agree on this. I don't deny that other teams do this to, kindly read my post number 8 again carefully. It is not just the British media who have criticised Portugal, the whole section of French and German fans in their respective matches were booing the Portuguese team, not to mention a large proportion of the European sports press.

[zereshk-ali]

Well, it's all a matter of opinion and we'll agree to disagree but I think if you watch the incident again you'll see that Henry clearly throws his trailing leg into the air well after contact was made.

[Guru]

Well, it's all a matter of opinion and we'll agree to disagree but I think if you watch the incident again you'll see that Henry clearly throws his trailing leg into the air well after contact was made.

To be a foul, there is no need for the player to fall. Any illegal contact that hinders the player's movement is a foul. The problem is that many referees don't whislte for penalty unless you fall, no matter how badly you are fouled. So, in my opinion, a player has every right to fall after an illegal contact resulting in loss of edge and momentum, even if he is able to stand on his feet, just to help the referee make the call. Here is a big difference with the dives that are "performed" without any contact, just to fool the referee.

[zereshk-ali]

To be a foul, there is no need for the player to fall. Any illegal contact that hinders the player's movement is a foul. The problem is that many referees don't whislte for penalty unless you fall, no matter how badly you are fouled. So, in my opinion, a player has every right to fall after an illegal contact resulting in loss of edge and momentum, even if he is able to stand on his feet, just to help the referee make the call. Here is a big difference with the dives that are "performed" without any contact, just to fool the referee.

You are correct in saying that there is no need for the player to fall for a challenge to be a foul - in fact any attempt by Carvalho to kick or trip Henry is deemed a foul.

I also agree with your statement that there is a big difference between a player who has received contact and have been hindered going to ground and those who have received none.

But I have to say that (and it is a matter of opinion) I disagree that Henry had lost momentum or had been hindered from the challenge. In my opinion he was nowhere near to even being knocked off balance and could have stayed on his feet and scored but instead chose to go down in a dramatic way to win the penalty and I dislike players doing that since it is still a form of gamesmanship.