renaissance
The 1st Round Pick
Dude...stretchers. stretchers.
And then hes back in the game five minutes later running full speed.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device
I mean, I'm not arguing that it's not ridiculous. I agreed it's an issue but I think it is overblown. Also I think it's important to discern between the two types of "dives".
The stretcher tactic is nothing more than a time-waster. Watch the US-Ghana world cup game and you will see the time-wasting start as soon as Ghana took the lead in added time. While I understand the desire to waste time, I find the tactic to go against the spirit of the game, and I would also argue that it's no different than using intentional fouls as a clock-stopping tactic in basketball. In these instances, where a player is rolling around on the ground, unable to get up on their own, the onus is on the ref to get the injured player off the field more quickly, and to then add the appropriate amount of extra time on to the end of the half.
The second type of dive is the one that tends to get more airplay in gifs and youtube reels - and those are dives looking for a call to create a set play (PK or free kick). I absolutely despise these and find them to be a complete embarrassment to the sport and an individual. The Italians are notorious for diving but the thing is, just like with time-wasting they see it as a tactic. For teams that thrive on set plays, diving is just a means to a end. Ultimately it's up to the refs and the league to 1) discern between a dive and a legit foul, and 2) retroactively punish players for diving.
Regardless, I get the hate for diving as I hate it myself. But I don't know why or at what point people started to define soccer by diving. The fact is it's one aspect of the sport. There's a lot of aspects of football that I can't stand, but those don't define the sport for me.