The World Cup is almost over. Alas, it's the end of a month of soccer hedonism across the globe.
The tournament has been spectacular in many ways: Great goals, fantastic inventive play, and dramatic moments, including three penalty kick shootouts. There have been tremendous highs and lows, depending on your country of allegiance.
The World Cup is seen as a step up from MLS, and other leagues around the world, for sure. The one thing that I will give MLS some high marks for is this: When players in this league get tackled, don't roll around like they have been shot.
This is one of the huge annoyances about this World Cup. Every time a player gets tackled, he rolls around like he is in absolute agony. The ball is kicked out of bounds, and the medical team comes on. The player is then helped off the field, receives the cold spray (this year the ice bag has seemed to be the instantaneous cure-all of choice), and the next time the ball goes out of bounds, that player is ready to come back onto the field.
This behavior is simply awful for the game. I've heard so many comments about the diving and faking injuries that it seems to really be detracting from what are otherwise brilliant games.
MLS players generally don't participate in this, and for that, we should all be thankful. Think of how obnoxious it is to see this happen time and time again on TV. Can you imagine how awful it would be to see it live every week? Thankfully, our players just want to get on with it and play. Some may say that MLS players don't have the savvy of some of the other countries of the world. If that is the case, then I am prouder than ever to be an MLS fan. Around the world, it is becoming far too common to go down and put one's team in jeopardy by playing a man down just to take a rest, or to try to get an opponent carded.
There are a few reasons why this is so prevalent this year. One major reason is the refereeing debacle that has marred the tournament. Because referees have been so quick to give out cards, and ultimately affect the game, players feel like the stakes are a lot higher every time they fake an injury. If players feel like they can really sell a dangerous looking situation to the referees, then they will in order to see a player thrown out from the opposing team. This year, more than ever, we have seen games' outcomes affected by many of these decisions.
Another reason is an older, and quite frankly, much utilized tactic in soccer: If you are under waves and waves of pressure, then fake an injury to slow the game down and take away the momentum of the opposing team. This is usually a very common occurrence. In this tournament, however, this appears to be the last reason being used for these dramatic episodes.
The bottom line is that people are trying to get opponents thrown out, to influence the outcome of the game. I said it is because of the refereeing, but the players themselves must take the majority of the responsibility.
Perhaps with all the rule changes reportedly being instituted to protect the creative players and to promote attacking soccer, the creative, attacking players feel as if they have carte blanche to do whatever they can to gain an advantage.
I for one am not a big fan of this practice. If it is a bad tackle that genuinely appears to be painful, then that is one thing. But, what we see, certainly with the help of crystal-clear, high-definition, super slo-mo, is that players are clearly faking injuries. We can only hope that as he has left his team to play shorthanded, that they would give up a goal in that time period and have his team pay the ultimate price for his acting. Maybe then, players would reconsider what they need to call the trainer on for, as opposed to what they can shake off.
My plea: get up and play!
Robin Fraser, a five-time MLS Best XI selection and two-time MLS Defender of the Year, ended his 10-year MLS career and 16-year professional career last October, and now begins his first season with RSL as the team's color television analyst. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Fraser amassed 27 caps for the U.S. National Team and was drafted fourth overall by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the inaugural MLS draft.
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