The Best Dives of the 2006 World Cup

ah, that is why i am wondering why France claim they were better and unlucky to win the WC while versus Italy they were unable to create a goal made of free-diving. I didnt recall Italy made a clear beneficial diving in the final and yet they conquered it. Anyone saying Italy’s dive is referring to the fall of Materazzi? I think it is a great diving headbutt by Zidane.

How did they leave out the Christian Ronaldo dive where he looks at the ref while he’s falling. That was the best one of the tourny.

1. Portugal (998,753)
2. Netherland (5)
3. Italy (1.5)
4. France (1.25)

…

32. Togo

Bouga waga bouga your mom.. bougawagaga your sister… sorry i can t speak properly I m not educated…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReBHRssha30&mode=related&search=

so much for c.ronaldo’s joga bonito.such a wanker.

Biggest diving clubs of WC 2006

1. France
2. Brazil
3. Argentina
4. Portugal
5. Ghana
6. Ivory Coast
7. Sweden
8. Switerland
9. Italy
10. Germany

People say that Italians just play dirty football. On the other hand, if you go to Official Worldcup website (statistics part), if you compute it per game, Italy was 2nd with least # of yellow cards, next to Spain! And around 5th with least # fouls committed per game out of the 32 countries! I was surprised by this. They were #2 with fouls suffered per game.

Well, I guess they know they can win it without resorting to dives and fouls! France scored against Portugal and Italy with penalties!

I do think the numbers tell a lot!

France is definitely up there. I even saw an English player dive? I thought the English were innocent of this behavior. Netherlands, Germany…? What’s going on here, this video must be a fake. The french coach was even showing Henry how to dive on the sidelines??? Don’t worry, you guys can dive all you want nobody seems to notice until italy does it. but the english now know who the true divers are…Portugal, hurts don’t it.

Zidane: “mama drop me on head when baby…”

The two that least belonged in the video were Onyewu of the US taking down Pimpong of Ghana (a clear foul), and Figo getting elbowed by Boulharouz in the Portugal/Holland match.

be careful with stats especially on fouls, as a tough ref can drastically alter things. Also sides which play tough are penalised more than sides which dive/fake injuries because the former are clearer than the latter.

But I think generalising to teams is generally poor, some players essentially don’t dive, others roll around in pain at the slightest touch (Henry and Ballack are classic examples), the smartest players never dive except in the box so that they have credibility (of course they can lose a lot of that if they get caught).

but if you do like statistics, you might want to look at one attempt to measure the foul play which is usually not called by the ref:

http://www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball/wcuk.htm

official stats:
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/w/stats/index.html

“french coach was even showing Henry how to dive on the sidelines??? ”

Oh brother. Clearly you didn’t watch the France-Portugal game, did you? That clip of Domenech was during that match, when he was making the “dive” gesture just after one of the Portugese players (Ronaldo I think) made yet another dive – he was directing the gesture toward the referee, telling him he should just ignore the dive and let play go on.

I love all this hypocritical anti-France stuff from you italy fans. You’re incapable of looking at your own team objectively.

Here are some objective diving and other statistics from this non-FIFA independent business research website:
http://www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball/wcuk.htm

TOP 5 DIVING TEAMS
1. Italy: 40
2. Portugal: 30
3. Germany: 24
4. Mexico: 20
5. Holland: 19
France comes in 6th with 18.

5 TOP TEAMS COMMITTING TANTRUMS ON THE PITCH (with each other, opposing players or with referees)
1. France: 33
2. Portugal: 30
3. Germany: 20
4. Italy: 19
5. Holland: 16

France’s top spot on this makes sense since in their early games they were seen arguing with each other and with their coach constantly – and certainly zidane’s final act is the tournament’s biggest tantrum. France came into this tournament in disarray. The story of how France managed to get its act together before our eyes, put aside their egos and change their game around is one of the tournament’s most interesting and I think heroic stories. Brazil, by contrast, could not put aside their egos (not counting the younger fresher players who were not allowed any freedom) and never cohered into a team the way France did.

TOP TEAMS THAT BULLIED REFEREE
1. France & Italy are tied with 7 incidents each
2. Croatia & Portugal are tied with 5 incidents
3. Paraguay

TOP 5 TEAMS THAT FAKED INJURIES
1. Italy & Paraguay are tied with 12
2. Argentina with 9
3. Germany with 8
4. Portugal with 7
5. Ecuador with 6

This page also has an interesting stat: teams whose players with the most instances of not singing their own national anthem. The top 5 teams on this list are:
1. France with a 32 index
2. Serbia&Montenegro with a 31 index
3. Korea with a 24 index (surprising, given their very passionate nationalism)
4. Ghana with an 18 index
5. Tunisia with a 16 index

TOP OFFSIDES
1. Italy with 35
2. France with 28
3. Ghana with 26
4. Argentina with 24
5. Germany with 20

TOP WRONG OFFSIDES
1. Italy & Ukraine tied with 4
2. France & Argentina tied with 3

TOP YELLOW CARDED TEAMS
1. Portugal with 20
2. France & Ghana are tied with 16
3. Several teams at #3 spot with 12 yellow cards – Argentina, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine
4. Brazil, Italy & Mexico tied with 11
5. Serbia&Montenegro with 10

TOP RED CARDED TEAMS
1. Croatia, Czech Republic, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Serbia&Montenegro & the USA all had 2 red cards

Several teams had 1 red card, too many to list here.

TOP TEAMS THAT COMMITTED FOULS
1. France & Germany are tied with 126
2. Portugal with 123
3. Ukraine with 108
4. Italy with 105
5. Argentina & Australia tied with 100

OVRERALL FOUL PLAY INDEX:
1. Paraguay tops the list with an index of 45
2. Italy with an index of 42
3. Holland, Ivory Coast & Portugal are tied with 37
4. Croatia & Mexico are tied with 34
5. Iran with 33

To my eyes, the team that looks the worst here is Portugal. Neither France nor Italy look especially angelic in equal measure.

Both Brazil and Spain won the fair play award (they were tied). Among the top teams, they were the best behaved. One of the most sportsmanlike moments of the tournament was at the end of the Brazil-France match when members of both teams embraced.

I also note that there were two teams in the tournament that had several (almost consistent) matches in which some major ugly controversey occurred and the games ended with a great deal of bitter feelings. Those two teams were Italy and Portugal. Neither team seem capable of generating a lot of goodwill.

Colman…nothing personal but the site and stats you quote are not credible.

What qualifies as bullying a referee?

I also question why you would have to go to a non Fifa Site? In your opinion is Fifa partial to a particular country?

Theres no question that stereotypes of how certain countries play were broken wide open this world cup.

Colman, I think we must not rely on stats as what it seems to be..

First, we gotta see the diving stats for the final itself, in which Malouda gives France the lead..if not, France will be well beaten and well shut off..

Also, we have to see the role of the diving to the result.. We cannot value regular diving in our own area that just results in regular free kicks as the same to diving inside the box that gives penalty..

In this term, Italy made one important diving against Aussie, while France got 2 , against Spain and Portugal. I think France take more advantages of it then..

colman, it was a joke. what’s your address i’ll send you a quarter so you can buy a sence of humour!!!!

I think italian fans understand how italy plays, we watch the games. We blame the players when they do something wrong but i think it’s more like others can’t see that other teams in the tournament were just as guilty or even worse offenders than Italy were. So if your going to be impartial than stop doing everything in your power to dig up questionable statistics to try and put italy at the top of every list. and just to respond to your comment:

“I also note that there were two teams in the tournament that had several (almost consistent) matches in which some major ugly controversey occurred and the games ended with a great deal of bitter feelings. Those two teams were Italy and Portugal. Neither team seem capable of generating a lot of goodwill.”

I believe people in general do not like it when Italy or Portugal win for whatever reason. Stop passing your own warped opinions of the two countries off as some sort of revelation. I often saw Italian players extend gestures of goodwill to their opponents but the media is more interested in catching italy is some dirty act than reporting the whole truth. I never once saw an Australian player extend his hand in friendship, they always had scowles on their faces, but i don’t hold that against them, what about the English, are they ambassadors of good will? How about Ronaldo’s attitude against France not much good will there. Colman I believe the bottom line is your just talking out of your ass. Go buy a clue.

i saw many of the portugal games. really annoying how c. ronaldo can expect a call when we was diving like a wanker every 2 minutes.

well that settles that fellow Azzuri fans out there we’re officially scum according to colman..thank you for helping us see the light oh perfect one. Italy and Portugal do not deserve to live, we should bow out of the world cup forever and let the righteous teams like Brazil, Spain and France win the cup. Let’s all bow our heads and say a silent prayer for Zidane and Les Bleus that they may shake off the memories of the loss and the hardships they have endured at the hands of those Italian tyrants. We appologise to the world at large for leaving a bitter taste in your mouth, my soul is prepared to take your much deserved abuse at will.

I found Argentina and France to be the biggest divers of this World Cup. I was also rate them 1 and 2 respectively for poor sportmanship.

I think the French coach wins for dumbest tactics a close second to Bruce Arena

It’s incredible how much whining I have heard about France loosing the final.

Never witnessed such behavior, I swear.

One statistic you guys left out is who topped the list of most complaints by coaches about referees’ decisions:

1. Domenecq
…
36. Lippi

Thank you.

Note: For the stats I mentioned above, they were calculated PER GAME. Since Italy, France, Portugal & Germany played ALL SEVEN GAMES, naturally they would have more cards, fouls etc. FIFA website DOESN’T SHOW STATS PER GAME.

If you go to the World Cup Website they have all the match reports for everygame.

Just for whoever is interested.

Italy only dived to beat Australia, truly, France was no better in the diving aspect with Henry and cheated out Spain from advancing, but for dirty shots; Italy has all these teams well beat.

It is no coincidence, that Rossi bloodied up McBride, looks like a repeat of Materrazzi doing the same in Champions League to Juan Pablo Sorin, add in Italy’s dirty verbal attacks.

This stuff should not be done to absolute strangers from other countries.

Italy’s way ahead in total unsportsmanlike conduct.

I think without question Argentina, Portugal and Brazil were the top three diving teams.

honourable mentions go to
Ghana
Ivory Coast

poor sportmanship again I think is a no brainer

Argentina….bunch of sucks after the germany game and in general

France….do I have to even explain?

Holland….long history of it but look at the portugal game.

Off topic a bit may I say that just wait until us Canadadians get into football we are going to kick some butt.

This retrospective confirms my original opinion DURING the WC:

No team, no player is above diving.

Some system CLEARLY needs to be developed to effectively deal with diving.

Video evidence exists today that will cause people to lose faith unless this plague on the game is dealt with.

(Okay, maybe that’s a little dire; but, still, something needs to be done.)

once again Azzuri we have been told. Not only are we scum we are also unsportsmanlike. Show us how to be perfect Tobie, we can learn so much from your wisdom. Let us remember McBride because if it wasn’t for that son of satan De Rossi he would have led the US to a world cup victory. De Rossi should be burned at the stake for doing that to an American. Sorry Tobie, sorry for everything, i’m at your mercy.

Wanna know my favourite part about Colan’s post? Not only is it not from a credible website and ALSO data that is open to interpretation (such as number of dives and “bullying of referees”) but even the SIMPLE date is wrong.

I’m not sure why its wrong but when I saw the offsides data something rang in my ears. I remembered Henry being offside like a bajillion times so I had to check it. Turned out I was wrong and Italy had more ofsides that France. But here’s the results Coleman posted: TOP OFFSIDES
1. Italy with 35
2. France with 28
3. Ghana with 26
4. Argentina with 24
5. Germany with 20

Tha actual results?
1. Italy with 34
2. France with 29
3. Ghana with 25
4. Argentina with 24
5. Germany with 21

Okay so the differences are small and menaingless I know that. But if a source cant even be trusted with offsides… what CAN it be trusted with?

4,
poor sportmanship again I think is a no brainer

Argentina….bunch of sucks after the germany game and in general

France….do I have to even explain?

Holland….long history of it but look at the portugal game.

You nailed it….strange that Canadians can nail how teams play.

I don’t really get the independent FIFA stats from Colman because it’s almost as if you’re not even watching THE SAME GAME FIFA’S OFFICIATING.

I feel sorry for Tobie’s statements…we all can make our own lists and handpick the ones we like/hate best but it’s really sad and a waste if that’s all what you saw how Italy played in the World Cup (plus their history of playing).

Let’s also not forget that the beauty in watching this is anyone can win it and deserve it! Stereotypes broken.

This has been quite a good discussion. I also agree with the Canadians…Hope to see you in the next WC!

4,

I’d love to see the Canadian team getting into the football world… Maybe u could bring in some of your great Ice Hockey famous sportmanship… Like those great fights for example… Lol

*pop* here are 25 Euro cents for u.

TO 4,

Good name, i just got back from buying a 24.

Anyway watch the U20 WC next year being held in Canada. We will be bringing our hockey intensity to football, so place all your Euro’s on Canada winning.

Speaking of Canada team in World Cup, a Canadian scores in US MLS All-Star vs Chelsea game in Chicago and they win it 1-0!

Ooh did someone mention poor sportsmanship? Yep that award definitely goes to Italy, Argentina and Portugal. And dont even get me started on the diving, but to be fair I’ll throw France into that category as well. I was surprised to see Germany in most of those top 5 categories, they seemed to play a *fairly* clean game to me. Oh and did anyone see Totti throw himself over Ballack in the semi final? That was classic- best dive of the tournament for me. :p

Ballacklover,

Just a few points for you because you place Italy on top of your list which is obviously sour grapes.

1. It was a penalty on grosso so get over it…..also note they played most of the game with 1 man down and were never in danger of loosing.

2. italy continues to slap germany out of world cups….and it looks like that will never change.

3. Balack did pipes (nothing) this WC….severley (in the Beckam category) of over rated players.

Have a good day

Here we go again. I can’t believe we are still getting remarkably stupid commetns about Italy. Let’s start with Tobie Tucker and his stats of rubbish. Did you not see Camoranesi go to Trezeguet at the end of the game? Cannavaro was nothing but a gentleman. As was Pirlo. Gattuso is one of Europe’s most respected players as is Zambrotta. The only true hotheads on the Italian team were Camoranesi and Materazzi. Iaquinta was more of a yapper but eveyone else was class. Besides, Lippi was far more collected than Klinsman and Domenech who both kicked water bottles around. Domenech in particular was a tad rich with his bunny hop imitations. Malouda and Henry – SIR. That’s all I have to say. Is there a stat that actually measures kind gestures? Are you kidding me? Did you not see Buffon comfort HIS FRIEND Zidane after he was justifiably kicked out? We seem to be singling out Italy and it’s a travesty. We seem to hang on to everything Italy does but easily forget everyone else. I guess people have forgotten Brazils’ Leonardo’s vicious elbow in 1994. Or how about Schumacher’s assualt on Battiston? What of Liebric’s, another Germany, slide tackle on Hungary’s Puskas? Over 40 players played in Italy in this World Cup and many are good friends with Italian players including the French. How you concluded Italy are te bad guys is beyond me. What is it with people about the Azzurri? Yet, the table makes clear that the worse sportsman were France and Germany with the most FOULS! England, when pro rated, would have also been up there. Even then, I would not conclude anything from that. Have I made myself clear? If you want I can provide a list of soccer history’s worse tempered games and most violent acts – and SHOCK! Not all involve Italy. Tobie give me a break. It was a very selective and dare I say prejudiced comment to make in public. On to Colman. Those stats should not be taken at face value. For example, most of Italy’s’dives’ werenot dives but embellishments and most came in the game against the USA – when they initiated the aggressive play. They cry foul, excuse the pun, but they did not play soccer. They thought they were at the Boston Tea Party. I don’t mean to disrespect them – iactually like TEAM USA and was pulling for them to make 2nd – but they weren’t angels in that game either. Italy settled down after this. As for, Grosso I spoke to a couple of FIFA ref’s and they concluded that the right call was made. I myself, as a soccer historian, watched that play at least 40 times and the only thing that kept coming into my mind was why did Neil slide tackle in the box? He impeded a players progress. 99% of the time that will be called. It’s just it was at the worse time. Life sucks and you move on. Again, people should let it go because Australia had, what 50 minutes, with a man up to score and they didn’t and they weren’t going to score either. Also, I don’t know what were the parameters. What constitutes abuse of ref? It can be as innocuous as a hand gesture. Big deal. It still says nothing. The stats needed to be broken down on a per game basis to gain more insights. Just throwing stats in the hope of trying to make some countries look bad is plain selective. As for the clip, I would have liked to have seen Ondokor make the list. He pulled some classics.

stop it damned italians. Yo won it by diving and cheating. Don’t try to change that opinion. Now go on and get more matches fixed.

Let me see… Grosso…. Has he been not yet selected to your Gymnastics squad…? will do much better than he does at football.

Though his goal against Germany had more of football in it than diving.

See, i’m being impartial…!

simon says simon be quite

simon says simon read a football book.

simon says simon no more foolish posts

Good post Alex, very intelligent comments I am not a huge azzuri supporter but I enjoyed reading your post. Simon, your rebuttal is completely juvenile. You really need to educate yourself and make meaningful comments to prove your point whatever that may be. To me you are just an opinionated moron, you really need to spend a little more time addressing some of the issues in your life than wasting your time posting garbage. Do me a favour, Don’t Watch Football!!!

for all the silly post writers i’ve read so far..real football is not made of stupid hollywood mega hyper heros defeating the evil guys for Goodness to triumph and last forever ..it’s sport and the best team wins not the stars..you should accept that the best things in this tournment has come from Grosso and Zambrotta not Zizou (why condone him so soon?)or Ronaldino..i think sportmanship should also mean to accept defeat without childish complaints, shouldn’t it?

“POP” here is another 25 euro cents coin for u. I put my money on a Canadian win in 2010 ;-)

F O R Z A I T A L I A

Are they selling Mussolini pennants on ebay still?? Painting swastikas on the jewish shops in Rome? Fans making monkey chants in South Africa??

F O R Z A F A S C I S M O

Hey, if they let your cheating cyclists in, you might win the giro again

yes to all three zack.

But what does that have to do with the punk biatch zidane and his chicken shit sucker headbutt?

Hey wasnt it the american who was just pumped full of steroids?

Good post Alex!

In addition to that, regardless of what anyone says, Grosso DID NOT dive. Would you fly over an entire body in the penalty box? Look at Malouda trying to fly in the final and HE WON a PK for that crappy attempt as superman? Look at yourselves before criticizing….

People, I find, are easily influenced by misinformed media and people who know nothing about nothing and word-of-mouths. My suggestion: learn the rules (properly) and then make an EDUCATED assesment.

Adam Rupolo,

Do your stats include all the offsides that should’ve been called but didnt? Does it minus the offsides that were called and shouldnt have been?

Hmmmm?
I would question these things, wouldnt you?

” ” “Good post Alex, very intelligent comments I am not a huge azzuri supporter but I enjoyed reading your post. Simon, your rebuttal is completely juvenile. You really need to educate yourself and make meaningful comments to prove your point whatever that may be. To me you are just an opinionated moron, you really need to spend a little more time addressing some of the issues in your life than wasting your time posting garbage. Do me a favour, Don’t Watch Football!!!”"”"

Thanks.

What made yo hrt people…?

the fact that Italy fixes matches…?

The fact that Grosso dives…

i do agree he plays football at times.

Let there be a bit of give and take…!!

Me… Moron… Opinionated…?

OMG look who’s talking…!!!

Do yo a favor…?

not watch football…?

The last time i heard, it was a world game…!

one win and that so flimsy doesn’t give Italy the rights to exclsively become the gardian of football.

And,

Please be civil.

And the winner of the Best Dive of the World Cup goes to ………MALOUDA of france.

He won for technique and importance of game…the final in front of billions of people well done and congratulations.

simon, thanks for proving my point. Your rebuttal again makes no sence, it is completely incoherent and off the mark.

“one win and that so flimsy doesn’t give Italy the rights to exclsively become the gardian of football.”

where the hell did this come from??? I never said anything like this. I was speaking to you not the world at large regarding your tired comments. You really need to concentrate when you read someone’s post and respond in an intelligent way.

Canada in 2010…that would be something.

simon says simon stop rambling.

simon says simon pick one language to post with and stick to it.

I just wanted to say how disgusted I was with Argentina at the end of the game with Germany.

This isn’t the first time I have witnessed or heard of Argentina reacting poorly to loosing. Whats the problem Argentina? Learn to be better sports because I don’t see any world cups coming your way anytime soon.

Thanks ….glad I got that off my chest. Have a nice night everyone.

cirtainly fabio grosso is a disgrace no one could beat lucas neil all tournament and the only way he got beaten was wen grosso dived thats was no1 dive the second was shevchenko agaisnt tunisia when ukraine shouldnt have one and third malouda agaisnt italy but it was good for the azurri finally get back what they do best ciao adam

@Adam,

Dont let neil off the hook with that brutal challenge….i know it hurts but is was a penalty……..not even debatable.

Here you …here’s a good replay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2PgG8j0gyQ

Australia diserved to lose, they shouldn’t even have emerged from the first round. Anyway that was payback for Hiddink and his Koreans. Way to make amends FIFA, I love you.

I wouldn’t say Grosso was number 1 on that list, I would go with Malouda but Grosso single-handedly made a fool out of the socceroos that alone diserves a world cup. Good for you Grosso, stick it to em.

Catherine, just shut up please and get a life. You obviously don t know sh*t about football.
Sorry, had to be said ;-)

What are all these Canadians suddenly drowning the site, making judgements about football… You guys took some time off from Ice Hockey?? ;-)

MMMmmh… “POP” another 25 euro cents coin for you guys.

Does anyone know how much Argentina was fined for the scrum after the Germany Game.

tubs,

No Fines to Argentina yet but there are many appeals for fines and suspensions of more players. Fifa really looking to crack down on that kinda garbage especially for repeat offenders such as Argentina.

How could Fifa not give a massive fine to Argentina? Im not happy about this.

I might file my own civil suit against Argentina and anyone with Argentine blood.

Yo tubs, what happened with the Argentinian team vs Germany? It seems like you hate them?

to 4,

the argentine players were yelling obscene comments at the germans as they were about to take their penalty kicks. then after germany slapped the arrogant argies (what they have to be arrogant about is anybodies guess) out of the world cup they started a brawl at the end.

typical behaviour, must be something in the water over there.