Nuremberg, Germany – If you’ve watched the World Cup and wonder why players fall on the ground writhing in pain and screaming in agony, they have not been shot. Their skin is not being devoured by acid. They are not being attacked by killer bees.
They are following a time-honored tradition that is admired by those who do it well, scorned by those it’s done against (see U.S. players, now all in an American city near you) and allegedly legislated out by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body.
It’s called flopping, the art of trying to draw a foul. Some call it diving. FIFA, taking a more politically correct stance, calls it simulation. Others call it words that are not just politically incorrect but unfit for German subway walls.
“There are laws of the game for a reason,” said Derek Rae, a Scotsman and former BBC soccer broadcaster and now a World Cup analyst for ESPN. “There are laws that are broken, but that law is broken by cowards.”
Said Marcelo Balboa, former Colorado Rapids and U.S. World Cup veteran who worked the ESPN broadcast for the three U.S. games: “It’s become an art form throughout Europe and South America as well as the MLS. It’s part of the game.”
Tell that to the United States. African nations are learning, too. The U.S. didn’t make it out of group play with an 0-2-1 record because of a gaping scoring maw, but a classic flop job led to its early exit, too. It occurred in the 47th minute, in extra time of the first half Thursday against Ghana.
With the score 1-1, U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu and Ghana forward Razak Pimpong jostled for position under a headed ball in the U.S. penalty box. Onyewu, with his arms outstretched to avoid a foul, brushed up against Pimpong, who collapsed in the box as if hit by a Buick.
Ghana was given a penalty kick that proved decisive in a 2-1 win, and Pimpong was named best actor in a supporting role by the Shakespearean Thespians of Ghana.
“They were diving all over,” U.S. captain Claudio Reyna said. “Before the World Cup they were saying the referees were going to penalize that and they didn’t seem to. (Ghana players) killed 5-10 minutes of that second half just by diving, rolling around. We couldn’t get momentum going because every time we did someone went down on their team.”
Strategy worth risk
It can be an effective strategy and a skill as valued as curving corner kicks. There’s a fine line between foul and faking and it’s very difficult to call. In a sport in which one goal, particularly early, can change the fortunes of a game, flopping is a constant sideshow.
It’s worth the risk. According to FIFA, 30 percent of all goals are scored on set pieces: corner kicks, free kicks and penalty kicks.
Balboa, 38, played for the U.S. national team for 13 years and is an all-time MLS all-star. A gritty defender and spiritual leader of the U.S., he has seen floppers up close and personal.
“You’re always going to flop,” said Balboa, who lives in Superior. “You’re always going to try and take every advantage possible in a game. Especially around the box, you let yourself fall.”
Yes, there is an art to it. Watch the arms. They go up the minute contact is made, as if they’re jolted by electric shocks. They then go limp, letting their body fall as naturally as possible. Stuntmen fall off buildings less convincingly.
“All it takes is to catch someone off balance and it’s easy – if you know when they’re stepping and what they’re doing,” Balboa said. “It’s an art. You can throw people off balance and watch them flop.”
As a defender, there’s not a lot Balboa could do. Well, there is, but oft times Polish strikers didn’t understand what he was saying.
“Usually you use a big F-bomb and tell them to get up,” Balboa said.
There is a revenge factor. When he faces a forward known for flopping or who starts diving early, Balboa will lay into him once just to show his actions will receive more than possession of the ball.
As U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra said after the 1-1 tie with Italy in which the Italians spent much of the night diving, partly due to the Americans’ vicious tackling, “If they’re going to dive, I’m going to get my money’s worth.”
No one knows exactly when flopping started but many agree where: South America. Rae has watched soccer closely around Great Britain for three decades and now he even sees English players rolling around, seemingly searching for a lost limb.
“Twenty or 30 years ago it was something that wasn’t seen,” Rae said. “It was frowned upon. It was viewed much lower than kicking someone with a lot of force. It happened in England less than the European continent. Unfortunately, overseas players taught English players to get away with it.
“Northern Europeans find it abhorrent. My fellow broadcasters from South America say it’s part of the game. But it’s not fair play.”
However, it can sure work. In the Champions League title game between Arsenal of London and Barcelona last month, Arsenal took a 1-0 lead when Emmanuel Eboue from the Ivory Coast took a plunge and Arsenal scored on the ensuing free kick. Barcelona still won, 2-1, which shows it doesn’t always pay.
FIFA enters flop fray
FIFA has tried to crack down on diving, instructing referees to give players yellow cards for obviously faking, sort of like the Golden Raspberry Awards given to the worst of Hollywood.
It started in the 2002 World Cup. Italy lost to South Korea in the second round after star midfielder Francesco Totti fell in the penalty box in overtime. Instead of Italy being awarded a penalty kick, Totti received his second yellow card of the game and was sent off.
Playing a man down, favored Italy lost, 2-1. Italians and many international observers, including American referee Brian Hall, who worked the 2002 Cup, insist it was a legitimate foul. Today the referee, Byron Moreno of Ecuador, has a urinal named after him in Sicily.
In Mexico’s game with Portugal on Wednesday, Mexico’s Luis Perez received a second yellow card for faking.
So FIFA is trying. It is not an easy job. Hall said referees do their homework before every World Cup game. They watch videos of famous divers. They exchange information with other referees. They know going in who to watch. If a referee is running particularly close to a player, he may be on the floppers watch list.
“You put yourself into the head of athletes and think: Why is he going to the ground?” said Hall, who worked the Italy-Ecuador and England-Nigeria matches.
How hard is it to tell? It’s very difficult. Soccer has no instant replay. Referees don’t want to scoff at a foul, then see the player taken off on a stretcher.
Hall, an MLS referee for 12 years, has a couple of tricks. Viewers can even follow along.
“As a player is rolling around, the first thing he does is look up to see where the referee is,” Hall said. “Watch the replays. They look over their shoulder going, ‘Where is the ref?’
“Or a player goes down because they’ve pushed the ball too far in front of them. If the ball is going over the goal line and he knows the ball is going over, what to do? Might as well try to get some contact. As a referee, you try to look how far a ball is from a player.”
As the World Cup enters the knockout stages, intriguing questions abound. Can Brazil repeat as the heavy favorite? Is Argentina really the best team in the world right now? How far can little Ghana go?
Yet it all may turn on one simple fall, followed by a cry of despair. It may turn on the act of a coward. Then again, depending on what side you’re on, it may turn on the act of a fallen hero.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
