Tag Archives: diving

Articles, Soccer

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, FC Dallas 2

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If there’s one thing I hate about soccer, it’s diving. It’s rampant at pretty much all levels of the game, and the MLS is no different. Sadly, faking injury is not only a major part of the FC Dallas game plan, it seems to frickin’ work. Saturday’s referee crew bought into FC Dallas’s every whimper, whinge and writhe, handing the visitors free kicks and set pieces galore, and allowing lengthy delays in game play.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and FC Dallas defender Jair Benitez race for a ball during the first half of a 2-2 tie at BC Place on April 27, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and FC Dallas defender Jair Benitez race for a ball during the first half of a 2-2 tie at BC Place on April 27, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

Dallas players went down like red-shirted ensigns on Star Trek. They stayed down like my two-year-old daughter, bawling because they fell down went boom. Come on, you wailing tart — you’re a professional freaking athlete, in prime physical condition. Are you seriously telling me your tummy wummy hurtsy wurtsies because the bad man in the brown jersey bumped into you? Get up, you whining sack of sheisse, and play the game.

More after the break.

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Articles, Uncategorized

Shuttlecock Scandal!

Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang of China embarrassed the entire Olympic movement when they intentionally threw a match to draw a more favourable quarter final opponent. They were disqualified along with three other teams.

It’s obviously not the first time anyone has tried to lose a match for a better draw in a tournament, but these badminton players are by far the highest profile example of match fixing to be caught in the social media age.

Check out this video of the world champion Chinese women’s doubles team “competing” with a highly ranked South Korean pair at the London Olympics:

 

Both of these pairs, as well as another from South Korean and one from Indonesia, have been thrown out of the 2012 Games. And rightly so.

The countries these women represent should be ashamed, and willing to make an example of their unsportsmanlike conduct.

Sad to say, my good friend Ryan Kesler has taken more than his fair share of dives over the last couple of years. Get up, RK17, GET UP.

Now if only we could suspend or disqualify players in soccer and hockey who dive. Yes, that includes Ryan Kesler. Play the damned game, people, every shift, every point, every time. Play, and to every South American soccer player, I echo the same thing I yell at Kes when he pulls this kind of crap: “GET UP!!!”