- Jan 21, 2015
- 123
- 250
Yeah, like that dirty South American diver last night, Heraldo Maguirez
I think there could be some bleed here from separate discussions and thought it was a risk posting South American given you were trying to make a point on that. FWIW, I’m not really addressing that, and I think that the view that South American teams are far more extreme in their cheating than England and that it’s ingrained into their footballing culture, is not incompatible with the view that England fans have double standards in their judgements (which I don’t agree with, but not relevant). Otherwise you’d have to think South American teams were cleaner than England or whoever, in order to justify condemning Maguire’s dive.
Maguire’s was bad. I don’t buy into the excusal of it via his apologising straight away - he only apologised because he knew VAR would catch him otherwise. I have to say though I would have loved him to get a penalty and us to score, not because it would have been right or ok but because it would have been poetic justice given the behaviour of Colombia throughout and because I’m a vindictive bastard when it comes to cheats. And i’m Pleased our players reacted, rather than initiating that stuff, in a more streetwise fashion because I’ve grown up watching better England teams, cheated out of major competitions. It would have been absolutely dishonourable and shitty and I would hate us to do that kind of thing ever... except when it would be the thing that would most enrage and hurt a team that had behaved disgustingly and far worse throughout.
I actually think the whole thing of who is dirtier is irrelevant: it’s the cheating that needs cracking down on - who is doing it is doesn’t matter. If there are instances where South American players are judged as cheating more readily than english ones, it’s because that has been the reality in general for a long time. The only reason I mentioned it is because it’s been so embodied by Neymar, Colombia, and as much as I loved their performance the other day, Uruguay, and Suarez in particular, and as I was typing about it, they were the teams, incidents and players that came to mind as being the only thing marring this tournament.