[Leica] Dave Eggers on soccer "diving" (Was: Italy Wins!)

[shino at panix.com (Rei Shinozuka)]

funny. i first read about 'diving' in Dave Egger's amusing observations
about soccer in the US:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329444815-103977,00.html

  diving ... is essentially a combination
  of acting, lying, begging and cheating, an unappealing mix. The
  theatricality of diving is distasteful, as is the slow-motion way the
  chicanery unfolds. First there will be some incidental contact, and
  then there will be a long moment - enough to allow you to go and wash
  the car and return - after the contact and before the diver decides to
  go down. When you've returned from washing the car and around the time
  you're making yourself a mini-bagel grilled cheese, the diver will be
  leaping forward, his mouth Munch-wide and oval, bracing himself for
  contact with the pitch. But this is just the beginning. Go and do the
  grocery shopping and perhaps open a new account at the bank, and when
  you return, our diver will still be on the ground, holding his shin,
  his head thrown back in mock-agony. It's disgusting, all of it,
  particularly because, just as all of this fakery takes a good deal of
  time and melodrama to put over, the next step is so fast that special
  cameras are needed to capture it. Once the referees have decided
  either to issue a penalty or not to our Fakey McChumpland, he will
  jump up, suddenly and spectacular uninjured - excelsior! - and will
  kick the ball over to his team-mate and move on.

-rei

On Jul05 17:47, Didier Ludwig wrote:
> I have a more visual explanation what "diving" means in football/soccer:
> http://screengang.com/deed/diving.gif
> It's become an systematic strategy for most teams, btw.
> ;-)
> Didier

-- 
Rei Shinozuka shino@panix.com
Ridgewood, New Jersey