Comments on: Diving Files: Hatem Ben Arfa & Iker Casillas Ham It Up.

By: Fibz

Fibz — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:15:26 +0000

i dont uderstand you people…god if you think thats worse you should see the way drogba dives…but he still gets away with it..fair enough ben arfa shouldnt have rolled over but he was elbowed in the chin..and nowadays refs dont look out for skilful players so that is why these players have to be so dramatic..

By: tori

tori — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:27:21 +0000

i don’t think casillas was acting here….and in general this leads back to the discussion that the goalies are the most vulnerable people on the field. i used to play goalie myself for quite some time and when someone hit/kicked me, they rarely got punished for doing so.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:54:19 +0000

The only way to get rid of behavior like this is to allow leagues or governing bodies to assess suspensions based on video evidence. It may be opening a can of worms, but do you think Casillas would react so dramatically if he thought La Liga might suspend him for a game once they saw that the only person to touch Casillas’ face was Casillas? Players will stop doing this when they can no longer get away with it, or when it is no longer worth the price, i.e. a penalty or card to the opponents in one game isn’t worth a suspension in the next.

By: Weston

Weston — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:48:11 +0000

i dont think he was holding hid shin, but just dramatically demonstrating the fetal position. when i get hurt bad enough to curl up in a ball i dont really notice where my hands go. (not that im defending him, it look like he got shot, and he rolled around far too much for even if he did get hit.)

By: Foreverzidane

Foreverzidane — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:36:17 +0000

Ben Afra should get a fine for his disgraceful tactics.
And this is in the age, where there are 22 individual cameras following every player!
Hope he will never play for France, quite shameful.

By: Drabik

Drabik — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:57:18 +0000

Corey …. Why did Ben Arfa hold his knee?

By: nobobomo

nobobomo — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:17:44 +0000

FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

By: chris

chris — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:45:56 +0000

Corey, did you read what Casillas said? Above?

There’s really no way of misinterpreting that.

By: Shazback

Shazback — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:45:11 +0000

Shouldn’t that be the Rivaldo school of diving?

By: Corey

Corey — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:32:56 +0000

Casillas was not play acting. I watched the game live, and viewed the incident on replay and in slow motion. Yeste pushed Casillas down, but as he followed through with his push, he half slapped, half punch Casillas in the left check/eye area. Hence why Casillas was holding his face. He did not have to hold his face, but he was hit there, so its not much of a dive/play acting. But that did not get Yeste sent off, it was Yeste shoving him to the ground and then subsequently chasing after him only to be held back by Raul.

Ben Arfa also was elbowed in the throat, so while his rolling around on the ground was shameful, he didnt make up the elbow. Give him a yellow for rolling around, but the Ajax player was rightfully sent off.