Why are soccer players so dramatic?

 

    Soccer players are notorious for theatrically somersaulting across the pitch (the soccer field) anytime the breeze blows, as if they were struck by a mac truck and need immediate hospitalization.  Then, even seconds later, they pop up like spring flowers as soon as it is convenient.  In the 2008 Women’s World Cup quarterfinals, Brazil was leading the U.S. 2-1 when the 90 minute mark came to end the game.  The match was now in “stoppage time,” the official extra minutes that the ref adds on to compensate for substitutions and injuries that stopped play while the clock continued to run.  To waste time, Brazilian player Erika lightly made contact with an American, waited for the referee to look her way and then crumpled in pain.  2 ½ minutes later, as the ref was restarting play, she jumped off the stretcher and ran back onto the field.  The U.S. ended up scoring a few minutes later and eventually won the game.

    Spectators, fans and players need to recognize that soccer is the only sport in which faking and begging can legitimately alter the game.  As despicable and ugly as this truth is, players “dive,” or fake an injury, for three reasons:  1) To get an opponent carded or sent off, giving the victim’s team more people on the field, 2) get a free kick, giving his team an advantage, and 3) to get a penalty kick (PK) giving his team an almost certain goal.  Ridiculous as seems, there actually is a purpose.  Refs cannot see most fouls that occur during a match, and if a player decides to take fouls and stay on his feet no matter how aggressive the challenge, the ref will almost never call a foul.  In soccer, the victim needs to indicate in some way that he or she was harmed, or else nothing will be called.  Unfortunately, players sometimes put to use all of the acting skills they possess to try to display fouls, both major and minor.

 

 

The Way to Play

              

               Though it seems confusing to those who have never played, soccer is a relatively simple game to understand once the rules are learned.  There are major rules set to keep players safe and minor rules to keep the game fun.  Most soccer rules are relatively simple. When the ball crosses the goal line, it’s a goal. When the ball goes outside the out-of-bounds lines, the play stops. Victims of fouls get free kicks. A few are more unique to soccer, and to understand the game, spectators need to know common rules.

                When a player fouls a player on the opposing team, the ref will stop the play by blowing his whistle and award the victim with a free kick to restart the play.  However, if it is clear the victim will benefit from allowing the play to keep going, the ref can opt not to stop play and not award any fouls. This means he has called the “advantage” and allowed the players to keep playing. 

Another regularly-occurring call is “off-sides.”  This means that a player on the attacking team has received the ball while he was behind the last defender. Any attacker who receives the ball behind the last defender on the opposing team is in the “off-sides” position.  However, if the attacker receives the ball on his side of the defenders, he would not be off-sides.  When a player receives the ball, he can always run past the defenders, he just can’t receive the ball from a teammate while he is standing behind the defenders.  This rule is in place to prevent “cherry-picking”, or in other words, waiting in front of the goal for the ball to come. There are exceptions to this rule however.  On throw-ins and kick-ins from the corner arc, attackers are allowed to be past the last defenders.