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Diving Dutchmen…

June 18th, 2006 | By: Jan | 6 Comments »

There’s been a lot of anger and frustration voiced on this blog – and the Ivory Coast one, I can tell you – about the so-called Dutch Diving… I hate that as much as anyone… The first and worst was Holzenbein in the ‘74 finals against Holland… Wim Jansen executed a perfect sliding tackle, Bernd Holzenbein (wooden leg) went for it. The Schwalbe was born. We – us Dutch I mean – say diving is typically German. We hate it. We don’t want to see our own players resorting to this type of thing… But, we have to face it… Some of our players seem to think it’s a normal part of the game. Van Bommel has a reputation, and yes, I’m afraid he did get an Elephant to receive a card. Shame on Mark. Good thing is, later in the game it happened to him!! Sweet revenge…

But, Robben has a rep too, and here I need some input, guys… I didn’t think he dived when he was challenged in the box in the first half. Really, I sat up expecting a penalty kick (i.e. 3-0, Ruud van Nistelrooy). When I saw the replay from different angles, I thought he was blocked by one of the defenders at least, and being at top speed, you only need a small push to get off balance and fall. So far so good. But I felt it was the Hollywood style fall to the ground which did it for the referee. It was excaggerated. But it wan’t a dive. At least, that’s what I think.

Your thoughts?

Tags: Arjen Robben, Mark van Bommel, Netherlands

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Comments

By goose | June 18th, 2006 at 11:24 am

@Jan, agree with you 100%, first of all the fact that theres no real word in dutch for diving in football and its called schwalbe tells you all about its origens…

true, vanBommel did a stupid thing, but hes like that in the spanish leguea too, he just had an alround crappy game…

as to Robben:
1. thought it was not realy a penalty but it sure wasnt a dive meaning he wasnt tought cause he was.. dont forget hes full speed so when you know youre gonna fall you anticipate on that.. but your right, with his reputation hes not gonno get any breaks in case of doubt, and yes, his latter part was a bit to much, falling with his arms above his head like he was shot in the back…

theres a thin line between protection yourself from bonebreacking defenders and cheating!!!

greetz

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 18th, 2006 at 11:41 am

Just got news from the old country where the NOS did an extensive analysis of the footages from diverse angles and their final conclusion was… Robben was fauled, and it was a penalty all right. But that over-acting probably caused the ref to whistle against the Man of the Match… A lesson to be learned…

Posted from Australia

By Mike | June 18th, 2006 at 2:19 pm

I think you’ve nailed it Jan. The problem is the exageration. It’s difficult for a referee to decide whether a player is fouled and then exagerated it or if the took a dive.

For me, the Argentinians and the Italians are the worst. I watched the USA ITA match yesterday and it was madness. Italians were flying everywhere. An American player was defending an Italian and put his hand on the Italians back. As soon as he felt the hand on his back he hit the ground like a ton of bricks. He then throws both arms up in the air and looks at the ref with gaping mouth and wide eyes.

I hate it so much.

Posted from Canada

By alan | June 18th, 2006 at 2:47 pm

maybe robbens reputation went before him. it look likes he plays in rollerboots sometimes for chelsea the amount of time he spends falling over. footballs supposed to be a physical game lets keep it that way.firm but fair.keep the diving in the swimming pool.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Ryan | June 18th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

The Italians are much worse!! I think that not: diving, but: acting is a part of the game. If you aren’t even touched it is inexcuseable to fall and make it seem like your hurt. On the other hand if you are hit, make it seem worse! There is nothing wrong with that! It is the Manu Ginobili complex!

Posted from United States

By mrfocus | June 20th, 2006 at 3:54 am

You have to remember though, Robben is one very quick player. He also seemed to be accelerating even more and trying to keep control of the ball. Even just someone touching you with those kind of conditions makes it quite hard to keep your balance. As soon as I say the reverse angle video, where you see Robben coming towards you, it’s quite clear that the CIV defender put his leg in front of Robben deliberatley. Also, that player wasn’t just running towards his goal, he was previously running towards Robben, adding even more force to the knock that he gave to Robben. All-in-all, I was not happy with the refs decision, even though the commentators and analasysts (one even being for the Dutch winning the cup (Craig Forrest, ex-Fulham GK) were going on about how Robben’s history didn’t help him with the ref and how the analasysts thought he really had dived.

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