Wayne Rooney welcomed to the Hall of Shame

i think that was Grosso that feel against Australia, not Zaccardo

O ahahhahaha jose good one , I didn't realize I posted the ronaldo vid I thought it was the xavi dive I posted

Yeah, I know! Rewatching the first video, I have to say that not only did the guy dive, but his teammate was cheating (can't make out who), was cheating while the penalty was being taken!

I'm glad we can agree on who the cheaters are ;)

lol !
And trust me I'm not even saying it because I don't like barcelona , I just really believe that he dove

Looking at your first video :P I agree it's a dive!

Joser56 no one has convinced themselves of anything my friend i said that he dove based on what i saw here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

this is a CLEAR DIVE , the guy pulled his shirt a bit ? ok lets call it a penalty everytime someone pull someones shirt in the penalty area so we could have 27738320 penalties every game :-)
besides xavi was pulling the guys shirt too , why wasnt the foul called against xavi huh ? because the other guy didnt drop like a fly sprayed with RK Topical

and yes everybody player dives , i've said that before we Bought CR and i will say it again when CR retires or leaves us :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

MoMONEY, old pal, they've convinced themselves that Xavi dove and is a serial diver. No sense in trying to reason with them, even as a) Baena has admitted that he fouled Xavi by tugging him off balance, and b) http://www.totalbarca.com/wp-c... <-- that's what the ref saw. Then again, when you have CRon on your team, you have no choice but to start pretending like everyone else is a diver.

I only saw Xavi's once but it seemed like he just fell. He wasnt appealing for it or anything. Ref gave it for some reason and even Xavi looked surprised

sorry meant brett in previous post. Also, not sure who watched that game but you see Rooney do that(who is a tough and usually honest player) but the hit Luke Moore took. Looked like an American Football hit and he was up a minute or two later, a true trooper.

Well said ben and brent. I agree completely with what both of you said

@alessio - No, because gilardino's was 10x more blatant, it was a more high profile match, and did i mention it was more blatant. Its the one of the worst dives i ever seen. He takes like four steps than falls! And also added to the fact that if he stayed on his feet he could have scored. But i digress it obviously a whole conspiracy against italian players, italian clubs the italian league and all italians in the world by sky sports.

yep... soccer is full of stereotypes and generalizations

Xavi dives... but it won't gain as much recognition...

Then there is also this classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

To me there's a difference between taking a dive and just picking your feet up. If you're going to take the hit, it's safer (injury-wise) to get your feet off the ground. A lot of these "dives" are really players expecting to get the crap kicked out of them and trying to avoid taking it full bore. Doesn't change the fact that he went down without contact, but there IS a difference between that and the Gilardino swan dive against Celtic.

You want to complain about embarrassing crap in football, let's go on about the fake injuries to get someone sent off. Nothing's more ridiculous than someone going down as if they've been shot or flailing about like they're having a seizure.

Rooney is honest and fair player. Gerrard on the other hand...

actually rob make that two as xavi also suscribed today :-)

still hurts seeing that 'zacchardo' pen...kilnsmann's dive is awesome.

but, good or bad, dives like ronney's here, or stevie g's last week against birmingham (i think - it was very recent), or cr9's against almeria - those dives where they see the contact coming and go limp in anticipation so they can go down easier if/when the contact comes - are so prevalent you would think they being taught on the training ground.

its pretty sad, but i dont think we should be shocked by it anymore. hopefully the ref will always be wise to it.

if i can recommend a good 'pen' to take a look at Rob - check out Barca's against Espanyol - outstanding work from Xavi.

@ lupistoza

no one gives a $hit if 'soccer' is popular in the US. Its not the rest of the world thats missing out...

Doh!! must say well done to the ref in that game!! That 26 year record of not winning at Old Trafford for Villa was not helped by many a "homer" official. Is it any wonder that record stood for so long? I saw at least 6 games during that spell which were influenced in Utd's favour by shocking decisions... Not to take anything away from many sublime Utd performances too of course. No wonder Fergie was so furious at only getting 3 minutes injury time (like the rest of us get almost every week) as the last few times Villa have led going into the closing stages up there the ref has played about 6 or 7 when only 3 were due!!!& to book mr Rooney for his blatant cheating aswell i must say has restored my faith in the game a little today .... so well done Ref!!

Henry didn't lose balance - look at how angry he is at the ref after. Ridiculous.

As for Sheva - I think thats what is known as the "pires technique" of wrapping one leg round the other to make it look like an authentic trip. I mean, the guy isn't THAT clumsy.

Stevie G did the same thing last week, only he didn't get a card. Did he get his own post?

Sometimes difficult to tell if it was a dive or not. Sometimes, the players just lose some balance, like Henry and Shevchenko.

P.S. in that last video, funny how they thought Grosso was Zaccardo.

There is a difference between a ref being ridiculously stupid and a player purposely conning the ref. Falling is appealing for a penalty.

Actually I just remembered- he was even forced to come out and apologize before- remember Villareal last year? Of course not because the media swept it under the rug so fast...

Rooney has been doing this for years... Just he is English so it has been largely ignored. Hopefully they start pointing it out now

Thierry Henry lost his balance, as the announcer said. He didn't appeal for the penalty...thus not a dive.

Also get over your "Hand of Gaul" business. Ireland wouldn't have gotten there if it wasn't for this incident. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

We might have been able to pretend that was just an innocent trip-and-fall if he hadn't looked immediately to the ref.

Sigh.

This is why soccer has not become more popular in the US. We don't necessarily care if our athletes are the best people in the world, but when you fake contact and then simulate being hurt you are a pussy for life. And - for better or worse - pretty much the only thing not embraced in a US sports locker room is a pussy (read, homosexual).

Oh Wayne you have a lot to learn if you think that is a good dive. Being Ronnie's teammate I would have thought he'd be better than that but I guess not. Glad the ref called it correctly. I don't blame players for diving to be honest. I blame refs for not calling it. Players will do things that don't necessarily reflect the moral ideal we'd like to assume they should. They're human, I don't expect more than that.

I do however expect the ref to have the experience, conditioning and eyes to call foul play when it happens. Maybe I expect too much of the ref. I don't believe competitive players at the highest level of the game will police themselves. I think it is idealistic to believe so. The only thing the game needs is another official to watch video coverage of the game and quickly replay any suspected fouls that would drastically change play. I mean calls that would result in at least a yellow or an extremely advantageous position. Managers should have no ability to challenge these calls and they would still be final. We've already got 3 sets of eyes we just need a better way to see in order to make judgements.