While watching the World Cup games in a bar, I heard questions from people who happened to be there but weren’t necessarily fans of the Beautiful Game yet. I thought I would try to answer them on this blog for others to benefit from.
Today’s Question: Why do soccer players fall to the ground so easily?
If you watch NFL games, you’ll see players slam into each other and take pride that they can still stand after a big tackle.
In soccer, it’s more common to see someone fall to the ground, writhing in pain, and sometimes it looks like the player was hardly touched by his opponent.
What’s going on here? Are soccer players just weaker?
Yes and no.
No, because sometimes it’s a legitimate injury. Playing soccer for 90 minutes, you’re putting a lot of stress on your muscles, and if a game goes into extra time, there’s just that much more risk of damage. Hamstrings, calves, and quadriceps are all especially taxed. Many people know that running a marathon puts a lot of stress on your muscles to the point that it can be dangerous. What are players doing in soccer? Running constantly. And if running alone is dangerous, imagine what happens when there is an opposing player forcing you to change direction or even tripping you.
I pulled a hamstring playing in my first soccer game in 10 years last November. I didn’t warm up enough before the game, and mere minutes into it, I had to make a hard sprint to stop a counter-attack. Suddenly I screamed out and fell to the ground, holding the back of my right leg. I’m sure that it looked like I was faking it to people who might have been watching, especially since the nearest player was five yards away, but I was in serious pain. I was able to hobble off of the field on my own, but I was out for the rest of the game and the remainder of the season, and I was lucky that it wasn’t a complete tear.
Sometimes, the opposing player slams into you, trips you, kicks you, headbutts you, or otherwise makes contact with you, whether intentionally or otherwise. The NFL requires armor for its players. Soccer players? They get shin guards and that’s it. Ankle sprains, cuts, bruises, concussions, scratches, and any number of injuries can happen. If you’re going for a hard kick and someone’s leg gets in the way, that’s a lot of force that has to stop suddenly. It’s going to put some strain on bones and muscles, and likely for both you and your opponent.
Sometimes the injury is sharply painful but temporary. It can sometimes be infuriating to see a player fall to the ground only to get up a few moments later and able to run, but that’s the reality of pain sometimes. You don’t want to move or put pressure on muscles until you know that they’re fine.
This animated GIF made the rounds on the Internet shortly after the World Cup game.
The player in blue, Daniele De Rossi, was making a run into the box and it looked like no one touched him, yet he fell down as if he was hurt. While it is easy to laugh and make fun of moments such as this, looking closely at the actual play, the opposing player clipped his feet, something that can’t be seen in this animation. De Rossi may have been exaggerating the impact, but if you are running full speed ahead and something forces your feet to move just slightly off, it can be a good reason why your face is in the ground in the next moment. Other reports indicate it may have been a cramp that fell him, but either way, he didn’t fall on his own. The problem here is that Italy, as good as the team has been in the past, also has a reputation for diving.
All that said, diving is unfortunately very common. While FIFA authorizes the referee to give yellow cards for theatrics, it’s sometimes hard to tell if a player was legitimately tackled or not. The pace of the game demands that the official makes on-the-fly judgments, and sometimes a dive gets incorrectly called as a foul. Hindsight and slow-motion replay is 20-20, but on the field, in-the-moment calls can sometimes be wrong.
Players like Cristiano Ronaldo are sometimes heralded as the best players in the world, but unfortunately their reputation for diving ruins them. Even Lionel Messi has been seen diving occasionally, and it’s frustrating. When you’re THAT good, why not get back up and show the world that you can take a minor hit?
Since diving is so prevalent, it unfortunately gets ridiculous for many new and veteran viewers to see:
Diving is by far the most annoying thing about some soccer players. Good players will play until the whistle is blown. They can be knocked down, tripped, and slammed to the ground, but they’ll keep getting up and playing because they know that until the referee blows the whistle, the game is still in play. They’ll keep on their feet as long as they can. Bad players roll around on the ground only to get up when the ball comes back near them. They fall when the opponent even so much as looks at them. When they legitimately get hurt, it’s hard to know if they’re crying wolf or not.
If diving can earn your team a free kick or a penalty kick, why not do it more often? Since FIFA does take diving seriously, it’s much rarer these days than it used to be. Getting carded is a big risk to take for yourself and your team.
As a viewer, sometimes you have to realize that what looks like a fake injury could be very real and very serious. Whether a player is tripped or not, if he/she goes down, it can be a scary moment for the team, the coach, and the player. For some pathetic players, though, it’s theater, and that weak display belongs on stage, not on the soccer pitch.
Did this article clear things up for you? Do you feel you better understand diving as well as actual injuries? Let me know in the comments section!
