Has soccer always been a game of fake drama? I saw the high lights of the game a while go and was really surprised the US women had to fake the fall, scream in pain, act like there were so roughed up and then the replay would often show them barely tapped. Glad they won but gee if you are going to play a rough game quit the twisting in the air and throwing your arms and legs around like the British girl ran you over. They did not, I saw it.
Pro basketball is close second.
John
"In basketball, a flop is an intentional fall by a player after little or no physical contact by an opposing player in order to draw a personal foul call by an official against the opponent. The move is sometimes called acting, as in "acting as if he was fouled".
exactly right Carl. There was {and maybe still is} a rule about flopping or faking a call to influence a call. Believe it or not I was thinking about that rule as I watched the replays. Probably no such rule in soccer and of course it would never be called in the NBA as traveling, double dribble, palming an all the rest are never called either.
Just in...........Updated: July 7, 2019 2:06 PM ET By Kathy Ehrich Dowd and Rachel E. Greenspan
Team USA’s domination is complete.
"Four years after the U.S. women’s soccer team triumphed at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the team successfully defended its title in Sunday’s final match against the Netherlands, winning 2 to 0. The sold-out game saw 57,900 spectators in France’s Stade de Lyon."
Congrats to the U.S. Women's soccer team, the best in the world!!
4 world cups in a row....a record.
Highest scoring team in a world series, another record.
No doubt, the US team is extraordinary. Congrats to the team.
Soccer it the most important sport around the globe, outside the US. During the regular season, teams play each other within their leagues, and they all try to be the best within their league. So it is in every country. However, every 4 years, each country assembles a team of its best players and sends them to the World Cup. There, they represent their country.... they fight for the glory of their country.
It seems to me, at such an extraordinary event, as this world cup final, the team leader should have at least have respected the anthem and the flag of her country, no matter what she thinks of the President.
The world was watching.
she can what ever the hell she wants on her time. When she is representing this country she should of been required to respect the flag and this country or stay home. Same for the loser football player
McFarm. On one level, I agree. But in this country, you can't force respect of anything. I would not want to live in a country where you could.
In a perfect world, the vast majority of us would not respect her or people who agree with her. That was true a few decades ago.
sorry Tim but I always think back to Jesse Owens as an example. If any sports star has a reason to question he did but no he put our flag and our country, which were both on a world stage at the time, above his personal problems...... No body forced anybody. He and she chose to represent the US and one chose to do it with class and the other did not
That's my point. It is, and has to remain a choice.
Did anybody notice the reaction of the packed stadium when USA scored the goals? Utterly subdued. The only ones rooting for them were here in the USA.
Wow, I've been so busy trading ng, beans and corn and monitoring the markets that I completely missed that part of the story.
"Trump-hater Megan Rapinoe was front and center of course. She’s the all star who has trashed President Trump and who was criticized for taking a knee during the national anthem before matches.
It’s little wonder why much of the country dislikes how political this team has become.
Tossing the flag to the ground and trampling on it surely does not help. We see this in Iran, but from a USA team? No respect.
One member of the team, to her credit, scooped the flag off of the turf while Rapinoe and friends danced with Old Glory under foot.
What a disgrace."
I don't take my congratulations back but feel sorry for this lady and those that she has an influence on. She has an opportunity to show class, good sportsmanship and be a good role model/example for other young aspiring women athletes.
She has been given an athletic gift from God and the opportunity to use it playing for the greatest country of the world and she acts like this?
I say this as a coach of 3,500 young people playing the "sport for the brain" chess.
More important than anything else they do, is how they behave during and after the game. They treat their opponents with complete respect, then if they lose, immediately recognize them by extending their hands and congratulating them for being superior in their match, no matter how tough the defeat was.
If they win, they also sincerely tell their opponent "good game" and never gloat or rub it in. We don't have American flags but they all come wearing the unique chess shirts that only their school has and they are proud to represent their school. In some competitions, it's entirely a team/school competition, like with soccer.
I would be shocked to see and never have seen out of 3,500 kids, even one of them denigrate the school that they represent.....and without question, some of them don't really like going to school. These school aged children are more mature about it than this woman on the soccer team. This really is childish and selfish of her/them.
I am only an immigrant, but I fully understand what the flag means in the history of the US, starting with the Betsy Ross version, and later, the creation of the anthem in the aftermath of the battle at Fort Henry.
For a sports team to trample their country's flag in front of a world audience is an absolute disgrace. With this, they are not showing their dislike of Pres Trump, they are showing their hatred for their own country.
I hope they are not invited to the WH
IMHo.. since a team such as this is assembled to represent the US on the world stage, players such as Rapinoe and friends should not be allowed to be on the team. I rather see another country win, than watching this display of hatred for country. It makes me feel ashamed.
Adding one more thing.
We play chess in individual tournaments and team tournaments. In the individual tournament, they wear the unique chess shirt that identities them from whatever school they attend but they are playing for themselves and they play as an individual for an award/trophy/recognition.
Anybody, even home schooled kids, that don't have a school can play in these type of tournaments.
When we play in team tournaments, they are playing for THEIR TEAM/SCHOOL, not themselves. All the kids must come from the same school. I can't just bring all my best kids from different schools and put them on one team. They must attend the same school to be on the same team which is the one they represent.
They might play as individuals against other individuals in teams of 4 against teams of 4 from another school but they are doing it for THEIR TEAM/SCHOOL.....not for them.
Soccer is a TEAM sport and this particular competition is based on teams that were there to represent countries that they play for. Each team has players that come from only that country. It's not like major league baseball, where a team can be formed by recruiting all the best players from different countries(who, even then show allegiance to that team) In this world soccer competition, only players from the same country can be on a team.
So, by all definitions, they are playing only for that country.
With that being the case, it takes an appalling amount of gall, disrespect and hypocracy for you to denigrate the entity that you are supposedly playing for. There is no such rule that forces players to act a certain way but common decency in applying a code of ethics consistent with your presence in that competition.........playing for your country requires that you honor that country that you are playing for.