To Dive Or Not To Dive: Rod Lands On His Fanni.

October 14th, 2009 | by: chris |

The last time we enjoyed a round of civilized European World Cup qualifiers, there was a bit of question as to the legitimacy of the ‘foul’ on Nikola Zigic which won Serbia a penalty and Hugo Lloris a red card. As though by some cosmic force (hello, Raymond) we find ourselves in the exact same position this round, sans red card, with France wearing the other boot.

In the 25th minute Rod Fanni won a penalty and it looks bad. Oh, does it look bad.

The movement in question in high def. Scope out the 3.20 mark for the ‘contact’ followed by a nap and then a triple toe loop.

(Titi slotted the peno and France won 3-1 in a meaningless game for those concerned with such things.)

There was clearly contact, but it was just as clearly well before Rod hurtled himself to the ground. And as we’ve determined time and time again: contact and dive need not be mutually exclusive.

Some surmised it was a slip, but there’s clearly no slip there. Just a complete and inexplicable loss of balance and body torque befitting a Cirque performer (one of the cheap reproductions, not Cirque du Soleil).

What say ye? Dive? Strange yet natural loss of balance? Act of God?

A dive?(polls)

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Gordon

Certainly one of the greatest ever dives.
http://france.worldcupblog.lorg laurie

I found this to be the oddest thing. As I was watching I wasn’t thinking, “Dive,” or “penalty,” I was thinking, “Why the hell did he just fall down?” It was so unrelated to anything on the pitch I didn’t even think he was trying to get a penalty, and I was shocked when one was awarded.

As a France fan, must say I was glad that this was a meaningless game and ultimately an irrelevant goal.
http://france.worldcupblog.lorg laurie

Quoting from Benjamin the France board. This makes a lot of sense to me:

I do not think that Fanni’s dive was intentional. There was absolutely no one around him, its just too ridiculous to be categorized as a dive. If i remember correctly the commentators on TF1 were saying at the beginning of the match how the pitch was very soggy…it is extremely possible that Fanni had his feet stuck in the soggy turf and was not able to pivot like he wanted to. Its happened to me before with my cleats stuck in mud, so im just saying.