Maybe if American sports were contested more widely… 
Spain played the way it was to be expected, Chile was disappointing. This was one of the few times that Bielsa had instructed his team badly: their formation was too offensive, they were far too aggressive man-to-man considering the referee on the field and their high pressure made them hectic and therefore error-prone in the development of their own game. Their coach also repeated the mistake of other coaches to not get rid of a player when it became apparent that he couldn’t control himself enough to avoid a second yellow with reasonable certainty.
In the end, Chile was lucky that Switzerland failed due to stupidity and self-doubts. All their players are used to much faster gameplay and yet they adapted to Honduras slowness and didn’t do much at all for almost the entire first half. When they finally woke up, it was too late.
But since the placement of the teams is a just one, I have no reason to complain. The icing on the cake: Spain will send home the douchiest of all smirks.
Crazy stat: Portugal had the best goal differential in qualifying. And they played 2 scoreless draws.
How many Chilean players are going to have to miss the match against Brazil?
If I’m counting correctly, it’s three.
Of course, the NBA has at least as much, if not more flopping than soccer. Its a sport thing, not a country thing, I would wager.
I have had all of the above happen to me. The few times it hurt enough to writhe in agony for several minutes, I wasn’t able to simply get up afterwards and play full speed.
Argh. ESPN isn’t putting up the replay of the US-Ghana game until 2:30AM tomorrow (or, rather, Sunday). So I’m going to somehow have to avoid spoilers from the time I get to my hotel and Sunday morning, unless I can find a radio feed (and I’d rather watch it).
Are you a professional athlete?
I agree that the NBA has as much flopping and play-acting as soccer, with less actual contact.
I have sprained an ankle, broken a finger, had my face gouged at and scratched, jammed fingers, and badly sprained a knee, all playing sports. At no point did I writhe around on the grass with my face contorted in agony like that. I did see people with separated shoulders or a broken arm in that kind of pain, but seriously - if a player like Torres can’t land safely on the pitch after either a mild trip (or no trip), then maybe he should take up crocheting.
No. Of course you knew this before you asked your first set of questions. What exactly is your point? I never see this behavior in, say, American Football, where people get injured for real, and when they do they leave the game. Unlike in soccer, when you see the replay of the play that caused them to writhe around in pain it looks like something that would actually cause that to happen.
There is too much of what is euphemistically called “simulation” but getting kicked on the ankle or leg by a fully grown adult male can hurt like fuck. But it can be run off pretty quickly, in most cases.
There are certainly injuries that can incapacitate a person for a short time: turned ankles, having the wind knocked out of you (I actually suspect that’s what kept Torres down), even a direct blow to a muscle can cause a cramp that takes a minute or two to calm down.
That said, I’ll join the chorus that says that a blow to the shin (that doesn’t actually cause major harm) is not one of those injuries. I’ve had some pretty bad blows to the shin, and I’ve always been able to carry on.
That’s hard to imagine watching this. This looks like classic sniper-shot, including the fatal head-jerk:
ETA: oh, and no contact either. Utter complete divery.
At worst, he tripped over his own feet. It looks to me like Estrada bumped his right foot, which caused his feet to get tangled. It would have been an utterly moronic time to dive, as Spain had an active attack going (that resulted in a goal!) that Torres could easily have been involved in.
I’m still not convinced it was worth a card, but I really do think there was contact there.
Another view:
It’s pretty clear that he trips over his own feet. And then crumples to the ground. And then lies there until the card appears. After pretending to have been tripped by a guy who already had a booking.
Actually, that one looks even clearer to me. At :13, Estrada’s knee contacts Torres’s heel.
Maybe he played it up once he hit the ground; I don’t know. But even if Estrada had nothing to do with it, it’s not really fair to say he “dived”. Clumsiness isn’t against the rules.
I’ve watched that over and over and don’t see it. But even if he clipped his leg, there’s no reason to roll into a heap like that… Sure I can’t prove he didn’t suffer a massive internal hemorrhage, but remember, I started this saying that if he couldn’t handle a simple fall on a pitch, he should be crocheting.
At 0:13, Mr. Divey has already flung himself into the air.
Well, watching it, I agree that he probably played it up once he was on the ground. But it still looks to me like there was contact. Obviously it’s hard to tell. Probably not worth hashing it out.
The whole sequence plays out at :13. The moment I’m thinking of happens just as the clock ticks over from :12 to :13, while Torres’s left foot is firmly on the ground.
As I said, it’s probably not worth arguing about.
Probably not. We should remember to occasionally emphasize points of agreement, like our delight that Germany has advanced, and that France and Italy fell out. 