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"Just give them skirts fer Christ sake"

The main thing i've picked up from Euro 2004 is just how over-rated and what poor losers England are, however other than that the other thing to have got my attention is the apparent new rule of if you dare touch any part of the opponents body while making an attempt to win the ball you will be penalised for it.

Every single little nudge when players go up for the ball is punished, any time a player makes full contact with the ball with his foot while slide tackling yet catches the player as well gets punished also. Sooner or later football is going to turn into a none-contact sport. How i long for the old days where the likes of Chopper Harris could scythe someone down yet because he made contact with the ball first it was ok and play was allowed to continue. Football is meant to be a game full of passion and tough play, none of this poncy *ooooh you nasty man you gave me a push in the back so i'll react like someone has just shot me 27 times in the stomach* it's time it went back to that.

Yes you could argue football now has a far bigger financial bearing on it and their players should be protected but for god sakes these are meant to be grown men, if they can't handle a bit of rough play then they should go off and play cricket and relax in the pavillion where it's nice and safe. Back on the school playground you couldn't go a breaktime without sometime completely missing the ball and cracking your knee cap round the other side of your leg, however most people got straight back up and raced after the massive crowd chasing the ball, none of this rolling around crying until the physio came on or until the ref calls the foul, which magically heals them. (Maybe the NHS could paint white lines down the hallway, put the patient on a stretcher and then cross over the line. It seems to work wonders for the footballers who after screaming in agony for 2 minutes are suddenly fit and raring to go)

However the thing which puzzles me the most now with this new found protection of the little dears is the fact that defenders can make absolutely no attempt to play the ball and just block off the attacker while ferrying the ball over the line for a goal kick. Now surely if a midfielder gets punished for not playing the ball then why don't the defenders. If you saw Roy Keane standing 2 foot away from the ball and just basically stopping Stevie Gerrard getting the ball then surely you'd be thinking that's a foul so why not if Ashley Cole stands the same distance away blocking Gronkjaer? I've always thought you should make an attempt to play the ball at all times and there's a little rule called obstruction, why if every time there's a slight bit of contact in the rest of the park is there nothing given in this area of the field?


Tis a funny old game we enjoy, just not a very physical one anymore (depending on the area of the pitch anyway)

Yeah, last night D'Alessandro was taking incredible punishment, but instead of crying on the ground, he got up, carried on with the game and managed to get someone else sent off.

AJ, you said Italian and Spanish flailing idiots ruin the game, but what about the Portuguese and the Germans? I'd call them even worse.

South American football is better than European football.

European football is becoming overly populated by diving, acting, glove-wearing pansies from mainland Europe, and it's having an effect on the British footballers. Who'd have thought ten years ago that British players would be diving? No-one. But because of the introduction of these rejects from Spain and Italy, the game has, to an extent, been ruined. Simulation is balls, and we need to see harsher punishments to cut it out.

Also, the referees actually know what they're doing in South America. They let silly little shoves and pushes go, and it takes a lot more to convince the referee to send a player off. Diving is far less prominent as well - if a player goes down, he's been kicked or shoved hard enough to make him do so. Football, tough and the way it should be played.

Euro 2004 was crap. A mixture of rubbish refereeing decisions, simulating players and needlessly defensive teams. I'm not attempting to take anything away from Greece and what really is a fantastic win, but they were far too defensive and I'd much rather have seen a team like the Czech Republic win the tournament. Bah.

Don or†ega wrote:
> Azul wrote:
> In the
> Copa America, barges and a bit of shoving about goes relatively
> noticed,
>
> unless your uruguay!

Heh heh.

I actually meant un-noticed anyway, so my post looks stupid...

The 'Law' for this is that if you make contact with the player before you make contact with the ball you will be penalised and an indirect free kick will be awarded, this only applys when you are going to tackle somone. But referee's are told to use common sense, which i know some referee's don't have, but if a player is clipped just slightly there is no point in giving the a free kick unless it effects what they are doing.

Azul wrote:
In the
> Copa America, barges and a bit of shoving about goes relatively
> noticed,

unless your uruguay!

Oh, and yes, sehr gut.
It's a shame about the game not being very physical anymore. In the Copa America, barges and a bit of shoving about goes relatively noticed, whereas here the refs would blow up (sadly not in the sense you want them to) immediately without a thought.

Isn't that like the first time evah that a post in Sport has won GAD?
VIVE LA REVOLUTION!11111

As I said, no knives ;)

Virtuoso wrote:
> *sniffle*
>
> The damage was done long before :-/...


...when Steven Gerrard came running into your house,m brandishing a gun and demading he be given your tv?

*sniffle*

The damage was done long before :-/