Thursday, August 27, 2009

Eduardo's 'Dive'



There is, I think, no doubt at all that Arsenal deserved to beat Celtic last night. They were the better team, but the comments over Eduardo’s dive that led to a penalty and Arsenal’s vital opening goal have been mind-boggling.

One Arsenal fan at the BBC site says, "It doesn't look like a penalty, neither does it look like a dive to me." Let’s examine this claim. There’s no contact from the Celtic keeper. Eduardo waits until exactly the right moment and then falls forward for no apparent reason. What is it if it isn’t a dive?

Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, says, “I do not go as far to say Eduardo dived. He went down, for what reason I do not know.” Well, Arsene, it could be he went down because he wanted to win a penalty and thought he could fool the referee into giving one. Unless you can think of any other reason? And again, if it isn’t a dive, what alternative word is there? Any suggestions?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

A moment in which gravity won..? It's a dive!

Anonymous said...

Possibly the only time I've ever become incensed during a TV football match. Made worse by the fact that he punched the corner-flag camera lens after scoring the penalty. And I don't even care about Celtic. What a wanker.

ABJ

Mr_England said...

Bullcr*p. Players dive all the time, but the media only make a meal out of it when its a foreigner.

And now UEFA are twisting the rules because the Scottish FA are throwing their toys out of the pram even though Celtic were well beaten 5-1 and a bunch of scottish tw*ts work in UEFA.

Just face it you scots, your league is cr*p and your top teams wouldn't even stand a chance against our Championship teams, so stop all that cr*p about joining our Premier League!

Anonymous said...

Players dive every week in all leagues around Europe. The fact that Eduardo has been picked on because it was a high profile CL match broadcast on TV is nothing short of stupidity by UEFA.

How about Babel's dive in CL against Arsenal 2 seasons back?

Rob said...

Rangers and Celtic would do OK in the English premier league. How many English premier teams lost to Arsenal last season? It's not unusual.

I know players dive all the time. I'd like to see a consistent policy in place to take action against those who do. And yes, that includes players from Scottish teams. Perhaps it would unfair to take action against Eduardo when no action has been taken against so many others, but I hope that changes in the future.

Mat Reville said...

Outrageous scenes - you can't create rules after the incident has happened. Eduardo was out of order, but this would create a dangerous precedent. For more visit http://thensaturdaycomes.wordpress.com - it includes a photoshop of Eduardo in Platoon!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8232544.stm


ABJ