Well, I want to believe Bale, and I think it's true as far as it goes. I'm sure he and many others do go down to lessen the chance of injury if it looks like going down is safer than trying to keep on your feet. You'd have to be stupid not to. I agree that he's neither better nor worse than the run of top English players as far as diving goes. Aside from that, the game has a serious problem in allowing its stars to get kicked off the pitch. Bale may just get battered more than anyone, because teams fear his speed so much. There's a line, somewhere, between the halo effect NBA officials give to stars and the way football refs stand idly by while players the fans pay to see get their seasons and careers shortened by deliberate and premeditated fouling. I'd like to see a concerted effort to try to hit it.
As YV has described clearly, the realities of players falling to avoid injury it throws into sharp relief the difficulty a ref has in making the decision in a split second. It's all very smart to be right in hindsight with the benefit of numerous replays as TV pundits seem to exist for but it is hardly a benefit to the game.
Yeah, I don't see how refs are supposed to make the penalty calls, honestly, outside of the really blatant ones. Take Bale's versus Arsenal, for example. If he doesn't lift his leg, and the keeper (hate trying to spell his name) whacks him in the ankle, as he would have, and Bale goes ass over teakettle, no one in the world would question it's a pen. But Bale doesn't want to risk getting his season ended, so he lifts his foot and goes down. But that's what I saw. Most Arsenal fans would argue differently, and we could have a long, frame-by-frame discussion of what happened. And, that, to me, is one of the clearer of the grey areas. There are plenty where there is absolutely no way to tell for certain.
I think another way to put it is that players who do get protection from the ref, i.e. Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard or Fernando Torres, have no excuse. I prefer to use a pneumatic drill to get the the point...
Wasn't the Arsenal penalty given for the foul by the defender (Gibbs?) rather than the keeper. Had the keeper committed the foul, it was a clear red card. I don't think Bale is a diver or goes down too easily, he is a forward who has to protect himself. Last night the Stevenage player made a rash tackle, connected with Bale, it's a penalty, simple as. If you go to ground and take the player down, or even contribute to taking the player down, it's a foul.
Exactly TF, yet so many fans seem to think the keeper was the one whom the penalty was given against. Had that been the case he's have been red carded.
