"Soccer players would do that [play like non-weenies] if they weren't so busy feigning injuries."

Baseball and football players would feign injuries if it presented any competitive advantage. Basketball players already exaggerate contact and flop basically like soccer players.

Also, having now watched the play in question, yes, the guy didn't get up, but he was out of the play. The best thing that he could contribute was a bs foul call against Sweden, which is still no feather in his cap.

The way Greece plays is the real crime anyway. Watch the Dutch on Friday--they're damn fun.

1) King, you are absolutely right - diving in football should be and often is a cardable offense.

2) Some typing class citizen once said that a sport is only a sport if it has defense. I opine that football, aka soccer, is the epitome of this philosophy. The defense + goalie has so many advantages that only (a) amazing team cooperation or (b) amazing amazing individual effort can break through.

3) In the end good officiating, much better regulated in football than in NBA, will separate the dives from the fouls and the appropriate result is what you saw - a goal rather than a reward of thespianism.

I'm glad you're giving causal soccer fandom a try, and are also willing to write about it, not just because I love soccer, but because I find your thinking interesting and your writing entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say about one of my favorite sports.

I couldn't agree with you more about the sad disease that is the soccer dive. As to your search for commentary on the web, here's a link to what one of my favorite soccer writers, Grant Wahl of SI, had to say on the topic of diving in his Euro 2008 blog: http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/203118.

Thanks for throwing me a bone! I look forward to the next one.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1313557502161945969&q=Sweden-Greece+soccer&ei=NqZQSN30LaPk-wH65em0DA

I played soccer in my younger days...not on any great competitive level, mind you, but for many years. I should be a soccer fan, but I am a best an occasionally casual viewer. This is not the whole reason why, but it doesn't help.

J M F Q: He was most certainly not out of the play. He could have crawled/scrambled and put his body in front of that ball if his first thought was "stick with the play" and not "here I am in front of the net and this seems like a great time to fake an injury."

"Even soccer fans, even the ones who call it football..."

Excuse me, mr. Kaufmann, but it is the fans of that other game, played with padded shoulders and helmeted heads, that "call it football".

Football, fútbol, fußball, futebol, are the names of the Beautiful Game all over the world, in several languages, there's around 100 years or more. "Soccer" is a US unfortunate invention.

After all, football is and has always been played with one's feet - OK, unhelmeted head too - and a proper ball. Not that oblong, ovoid thing (no self-respecting ball can be two-pointed, a geometrical indignity).

As to players who feign injuries, it is a shame, of course. They should be given yellow and red cards more often (that's the rule).

I'm sure the bad boys in the "big four sports", as you call them, have their own ways to try to bend the rules and trick the referees, as bad boys do anywhere.

As J M F Q has pointed, feigning injury would not give them a competitive advantage. They have to resort instead to steroids or corked bats, for instance.

Do not let the divers spoil your pleasure. It´s annoying, but not that important. Enjoy the Euro 2008, particularly the Dutch and the Portuguese.

I'll admit to thinking this post is a bad idea, given that it makes broad generalizations about nations and cultures, violates every tenet of sound research I learned in grad school, and opens me up to perhaps strident criticism.

But ...

I'll argue that the frequency of diving in football games increases the further south one ventures in Europe. The Germans, Dutch, Swedes just don't seem to make taking a plunge such a part of their offensive strategy. And the Brits don't seem to much care for it either. In contrast, the Greeks, Italians, and Portuguese fall like they're running around on a hockey rink. It's one of the the things that makes watching Serie A games so frustrating.

I'm making no broader statements here about the character of a culture, willingness to test the rules, etc. It just seems like the dive is more acceptable as a tactic in some countries and leagues than others. Decide for yourself if it's true and what it means.

I think every true lover of the sport agrees with Kaufman - the behaviour of geniuses like Christiano Ronaldo is shameful.

The millions paid to the top players makes it worse - better to drop dead than make a mistake (maybe you get a free kick in the bargain).

There should be a way to punish that kind of histrionics after the game, with the help of video. Unpleasant, but easy to avoid if players try standing up.

@foot + ball

Soccer is short for Association Football, and was "invented" in England in the late 19th century, to differentiate it from the Rugby rules.

Well King, you went out on a limb ... and fell off. Sotirios Kyrgiakos is one of the scrappiest defenders in the German Bundesliga. He played for Frankfurt until this season, and he held the team's defense together, also scoring numerous goals by head shots in standard situations to help the team win. I've seen him in the stadium and on TV numerous times these past few seasons and cannot recall him ever feigning anything. Did you know that he broke his nose this season? Before his nose had healed entirely, he insisted on playing with a mask (in a game that requires repeated use of the forehead). He broke his nose a second time. We're talking complicated fracture. The guy barely has recovered from the second break and is playing for his country. Give him a break.

I saw the game you wrote about live on TV and have seen the replay numerous times. The angle from behind the goal is revealing. Here are some thoughts. First off, he got slammed to the ground pretty hard, and the other player's elbow was in his back. Maybe the wind got knocked out of him. Maybe he was afraid he was going to get kicked in the face for a third nose break and decided not to risk it. Certainly he realized that the goal went in. He wasn't feigning death, he was suffering from his team's pending defeat. He got back up and went on playing. He did not roll around and squirm in pain, real or imagined. He did not run to the ref and complain. He just got up and went on playing.

There is plenty of bad acting to go around in soccer, but I think you picked the wrong example with Kyrgiakos. He's a tough son of a bitch and he is for real. I'm sorry to see him leave Frankfurt. We'll miss him.