This is not a novel or unusual opinion, but I’m not really enjoying this World Cup much because of the combination of bad officiating and my terminal impatience with the diving and histrionics, especially when said dives are rewarded by bad officiating. I would freely cop to this reaction being partly a result of a local ideology of masculinity, that I find it greviously unmanly to see male athletes clutching their shins like five-year olds and bawling their eyes out, especially when said athletes come miraculously back to life as soon as it is seemly to do so. It’s also a vague feeling that global athletics are somehow even more filthy in their corruption than local athletics, Barry Bonds et al notwithstanding. I can think of a lot of baseball umps I’ve thought were chumps over the years, but not many where I thought the guy might be on the take in some fashion.
However, the Brazil v. France game was the single game so far that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, even with a couple of dubious yellow cardings. It was a much more exciting game in every respect than almost any other. More of that…please.
It has nothing to do with masculinity, it’s about sportmanship. Diving and faking injuries are an example of bad sportsmanship… and I’m ashamed to be a soccer player when I see how much of it goes on at the World Cup. In my entire life, I’ve never seen a hockey player roll around on the ice and carry on the way soccer players do (and I’ve seen hockey players sustain some legitimately horrific injuries). Players who fake injuries should be beaten with blunt objects until
As for FIFA, the organization is notoriously corrupt. If you do a google search for FIFA and corruption, you’ll find plenty of details. In the World Cup, that corruption results in a compromised system of selection officials. The best officials don’t necessarily end up calling the big matches… it’s totally messed up.
Despite all this, I am enjoying the World Cup. I love soccer and this is the game being played at the highest imaginable skill level.
Oops, the first paragraph of the above comment should conclude:
“beaten with blunt objects until they experience a level of pain commensurate with the faux-anguish they displayed on the field.”
Though I had to complete my dissertation just when the mundial was in full swing there were few matches that I had missed. My favourites were French and English teams, I am just a little it upset about Zidane’s accident. Well, Materazzi proved to be a great intrigator , I hope that football will actually remain football and the victory will be won with feet, not with words.