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English media pounds Ronaldo for diving again!

December 3rd, 2006 | By: Luis | 29 Comments »

Ronaldo gets a pat on the back Cristiano Ronaldo is making headlines in England again. Unfortunately for him, it’s not quite the coverage he would like. A quick google news query turns up a mountain of articles declaring that Ronaldo is up to his cheating ways again. This time in reaction to statements made by Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate following their 2 – 1 defeat to Manchester United.

“Our goalkeeper has done everything he can to get out of the way. There was clearly no contact, I did not think so at the time and when you see the replays there is nothing there,” said Southgate.

Southgate was commenting on a questionable penalty kick awarded to Manchester United in the 19th minute. Louis Saha converted the penalty to put Man U up 1 – o against Boro. Middlesbrough later equalized in the 66th but was unable to secure the draw. Darren Fletcher headed home the 2 – 1 game winner two minutes later.

Asked to comment on the penalty award, Sir Alex Ferguson said, “I thought it was a clear penalty to be honest with you.” After seeing the replay, he added. “He is trying to evade it, isn’t he? But would he have scored? I think he would have.”

In addition to the controversial penalty kick, Ronaldo was also awarded a free kick from just outside the area on a foul that Boro fans judged to be dishonest. Ronaldo’s free kick, while dangerous, was blocked by Middlesbrough keeper Mark Schwarzer.

The post game feeding frenzy couldn’t be avoided, I guess, but I find it out of proportion to the events as they happened. The broadcast replay showed that there was no contact, but it also showed that there was no intent from Ronaldo to simulate. He simply stumbled when he tried to cut away from Schwarzer and toward the ball. Even the English commentator for Fox Soccer Channel saw it that way. Unfortunately, the referee saw it as contact and awarded the penalty. Clearly it was a bad call on his part.

On the direct kick, however, Ronaldo clearly initiated contact by trailing his legs. At the very least, Ronaldo should have been called for a foul and possession handed to Middlesbrough. A hardline referee might have even issued Ronaldo a yellow for the flop. Again, the ref got it wrong.

This match will probably fuel another round of media hazing for Ronaldo – unfairly in my opinion. Like all attacking players, he will be involved in hundreds of fouls – awarded for and against him- throughout his career. Are we to crucify him every time he wins a questionable free kick? Even if you think this sort of media grilling is worthy punishment for more blatant embellishments, why not apply the standard to all the calls that occur all year long, throughout every league? I mean even England’s wonder kid, Rooney, has his history of questionable contacts.

I can’t blame Southgate for pulling a Mourinho moment. After all, it’s much easier to jump on the “Ronaldo is a cheat” wagon then it is to explain why Middlesbrough’s defense was carved to shreds by United for all but 20 minutes of the match. Or why his team, after securing the equalizer, lacked the concentration to hold it for more then two minutes. Those are the questions I would have liked answered, but that would be boring and nothing sells copy like a juicy anti – Ronaldo rant.

Penalty Replay

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 29 comments.

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By Laurie | December 4th, 2006 at 12:32 pm

The thing about diving is, once you build yourself a reputation as a diver, you’ll never be given the benefit of a doubt again. (As a France fan, this is why the Henry dive in the Spain game at World Cup makes me so mad.) That’s the situation Christiano find himself in, and he’s got nobody to blame but himself.

And you can’t just say, well, yeah, he did dive one time in this game, but it didn’t result in a score, so that’s okay. A dive is a dive.

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 1:21 pm

Laurie – that’s true. A dive is a dive, but there are rules for dealing with simulation. The question I raise is Ronaldo being treated fairly in the English media? It seems ridiculous to persecute Ronaldo this way when other players, in all leagues, dive regularly. There are collisions and questionable fouls in almost every match. Even Rooney has his occasional spell of weak knees. If the media wants to roast someone, then they should go after the ref in this match that made two terrible calls.

There will always be incidents like this in football and not even video replay will eliminate them. There is a clear double standard here. When Rooney or Drogba are involved in calls that could be interpreted as simulation, for example, there is a slight mention in the match report and that’s that. When it’s Ronaldo, it turns into a media orgy of Ronaldo bashing.

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 1:36 pm

A reasonable article by Alan Hansen in the telegraph:

Link

Posted from United States

By Ceasar | December 4th, 2006 at 1:50 pm

I agree with Laurie,a dive is a dive and once you gain a reputation for it, it becomes almost impossible to shake.

But, as Luis points out, Ronaldo does get an inordinate amount of abuse over any perceived wrong doing. It’s just as unfair as the the claims they are making.

On the point of diving/simulation/cheating (call it what you like), I think too many people don’t seem to be able to make the distinction between a fake and falling because your going at full speed and try to avoid a tackle.

Many times it’s impossible to move your body and not fall.

This issue is never going to go away. For the longest time the Argintinians where know to be the masters on falling in the box if you just breeathed on them.

But I guess Portugal has now inherited that mantle.

End the end though, nobody remembers how you won it, only that you did!

Posted from Canada

By dick | December 4th, 2006 at 2:02 pm

I am by no means a Rinaldo fan, portuguese or Brazilian, but I feel schwartzer made a bad decision here and put himself in the position to draw a penalty. He’s an awful keeper, what the hell was he doing anyway?!? This was a clear-cut goal and that’s why the penalty was called, dive or no dive.

Posted from Canada

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 4:39 pm

Pedro – the replay from Youtube is less conclusive then the replay from the live broadcast. In that replay, from every angle, it showed Ronaldo trying to avoid the tackle and losing his footing. Either way as dick points out above, it was clear Ronaldo was in advantage and going to score. As Alan Hansen points out, the rules don’t require contact to call a penalty. If the striker is in the area and has an obvious advantage, he has the right of way, to use a traffic metaphor. You might not agree with the refs call, but he made it anyway.

Posted from United States

By Laurie | December 4th, 2006 at 5:04 pm

Not referring specifically to this game, but I think the reason so many people have a problem with C.Ronaldo is that he combines an enormous, electrifying talent (seriously, he could make your brain short-circuit) with the immaturity of a young man who’s never had to clean his own room or take out the family garbage. Sorry, Luis, I know you like him, and I enjoy watching his skills, but in general he offends the mom in me.

I’m not sure why it’s not the same with Rooney, but it’s not. Truthfully…well… I want to BE Wayne Rooney. (Aside from that whole sleeping with Colleen McLoughlin thing.)

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 5:10 pm

Ceasar – I’m not so concerned about Portugal having a reputation. The bottom line is certain fans will always have an ax to grind with Portugal. I think a certain degree of vilification comes with success. You have to eliminate quite a few teams to win a championship and it’s easy to piss a few fans off in the meantime. The bottom line is Portugal is now a football powerhouse and like Italy, Argentina, and others before, we’ll have to deal with a few poor sports that can’t stomach another southern European team showing them up on the pitch. If England had won Euro 2004 or the World Cup do you think they would be going after Portugal and Ronaldo at every chance? I doubt it.

I find it interesting that all the belly aching about Portugal and Ronaldo comes primarily from media and fans in northern European countries. In particular those we’ve eliminated from 2 major tournaments. I also find it interesting that Portugal gets respect and support from so many fans in the rest of the world.

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 5:18 pm

Laurie – no need to apologize. Again, this is not a post to defend Ronaldo. It is a post to point out the obvious double standard. I hear you on the “offending the mom in you” comment, but lets be honest, do you think Rooney ever cleaned his own room? Or any other football superstar for that matter? I’m not a big fan of his glitzy image – I’m way too old for diamond studs and tight blue jeans – but you can’t deny his abilities and courage on the pitch.

We can’t shower them with glory, adulation, and marketing contracts and expect them not to be impacted by it. If Rooney had some fashion sense, I’m sure he would look just as dandy and spoiled. After all, don’t you have to have a pretty deep sense of self entitlement to break so many journalist’s cameras every year?

Posted from United States

By Ricardo | December 4th, 2006 at 6:22 pm

people find anything to say about someone they dont like or that beat them. I dont understand…England and Portugal are so good friends…why is it ruined of a stupid football game?

Posted from United States

By Ceasar | December 4th, 2006 at 6:33 pm

I agree with you totally Luis. Most of my Italian friends think Portugal, and Portuguese players in particular, are always underrated or at the least never given enough respect for the amount of talent they have.
So definitely it’s a sour grapes thing with the northern Europeans I think.

Posted from Canada

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 6:53 pm

Even Mourinho takes his shots at Ronaldo when it suits him. Don’t be fooled. Mourinho is a cut throat competitor, but if Ronaldo were on Chelsea, he’d go to the wall to defend him in these situations, as he does for Drogba.

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 7:00 pm

The rumored offers are starting to pop up already. Seems Inter may be willing to break the piggy bank to land Ronaldo. If the media in the Uk keep this up, I wouldn’t blame him for going somewhere where he is appreciated.

Posted from United States

By Laurie | December 4th, 2006 at 9:07 pm

“If Rooney had some fashion sense”?

Oh, Luis, don’t tell me you’re a fan of The Man Bag!?!?!

Posted from United States

By Luis | December 4th, 2006 at 9:14 pm

lol…Please, if I was Ronaldo, I would have someone on payroll to carry my man bag and look silly.

Posted from United States

By john | December 5th, 2006 at 12:31 am

The media scrutiny over CR is crazy. It seems a different standard is applied to him than other players. All this from the WC incident? Ridiculous.

His skill and pace force other players to foul him. Does he dive? Yes. Does he dive more than others (Drogba Anyone)? No.

Unfortunately now, whether it’s right or wrong, he has a reputation for being a diver. He has to make a conscious effort to change because once you get the reputation it is extremely hard to shake. Everyone please remember he is still basically a kid.

Allow me to be selfish and say I hope he gets chased out of England and right into Serie A, in particular Milan.

By Pedro P | December 5th, 2006 at 5:52 am

People call him a diver because he’s good. Plane and simple… They all dive but only some are divers…

It has to do with a lot of things… Portugal gained some sort of reputation because of 00 and 02. A bit, indeed, like the argentinians, who became the devil and the scapegoat of almost all the other teams, while all of them made their little “I’m the Virgin Mary” number…

On the other hand, I guess it’s also a sign that portuguese players are finally getting the respect they deserve… I don’t mean that getting this sh*t from the media is respect but it sure means that as a player you are important enough to be the centre of what is written, bullshit or not… In other words, it sells more to write up that C Ronaldo is diving and the evil-eye and at it again with all his evil antics, than to write about a guy nobody knows…

HE IS the news… Whether he’s carrying a purse or diving or having his house broken in, it doesn’t matter… What matters is to write about him, while he’s still hot… You never know if next year the guy is a failure…

On top of it, after the WC it was CR who carried Man Utd and not Rooney… Which surelly didn’t help the moods, on the other side of the chanell…

Fortunatelly for him, CR also does have some figure to be the teenagers idol and to make nice fotos with a purse… I’m sure Louis Vuitton has seen it…

ps – I must agree with what Ceaser wrote – almost all the italians I know (and Italy is the team against which Portugal has probably the highest defeat ratio) say the same… Italians, and not just italians…

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | December 5th, 2006 at 6:35 am

http://www.eurosport.com/football/uefa-champions-league/2006-2007/sport_sto1024832.shtml

Posted from Netherlands

By Daria | December 5th, 2006 at 11:24 am

At least Sir Alex is sticking up for him…

“The first thing that happened on Saturday was he was hacked from behind and the referee didn’t book the player. It only encourages players to keep kicking him time and time again. He’s the most fouled player in the country. All the stats are there.

“You have to ask, what is more serious? Preventing the best players to play or to go on for three days about a dive that wasn’t a dive.”

Sir Alex is insistent that the intent was there for Schwarzer to knock the Reds winger off balance.

“I’ve looked at it a million times. No way is a player going to give up an opportunity to score in an empty goal,” he said. “Why the keeper doesn’t go for it with his hands, I’ve no idea. He tried to prevent him from scoring and, for me, it was a clear penalty. He lost his balance because of that.

“Ronaldo was sent off against Manchester City for intent. Steve Gerrard got a penalty for intent at the start of the season.” (Sir Alex from Man U Website)

Posted from Canada

By Pedro P | December 5th, 2006 at 11:51 am

@Ricardo:

Portugal and England are still very good friends… Don’t let this CR thing fool you… Or even the fact that any average english citizen has had, at least, one nightmare / month with Ricardo Pereira, our Goal Keeper… It’s just folclore, man… At the end of the day I’ll still go for some drinks with english or dutch… Well, maybe not dutch…

This is not ironic, I promise… While they kinda look at us as some typical and folcloric sort of undeveloped country (which is not 100% untrue, but then again, for my standards their civilization, like others, are less developed than ours, in issues that are not economical), with great food, great people, great weather, great spirit, great modesty and humbleness , who thrives on eating fish, defending England’s penalty shootouts and seafood, from all the heights of their pedestal of a nation that likes to look at itself as one who formerly ruled the world; they still absolutelly adore Port Wine, as since ever (actually, if it weren’t the english, Port Wine would probably never became what it did, as they were the market in those days), they still love the country and choose it for their holidays.

I guess they also like portuguese football players, looking at the EPL, they did love the lands between Angola and Mozambique so much, that in the 19th century they had to break the oldest european military alliance (Treaty of Windsor) with US, to get us out of there, a place where portuguese had arrived still in the 15-16th century… Not that we had done much there, though… True. But I wonder if saying “move your troops from those lands, or His Majesty’s ships will be in Lisbon” is a message of courtesy, from our oldest ally… Mind you, England and Portugal WERE the oldest european allies… Maybe they still are, who knows… It kinda reminds me the Rooney-Ronaldo issue… “Hmm, what are the portuguese doing in OUR lands…? Hmm, what is Ronaldo doing to Rooney, while he’s – poor thing – trying so desperatly to stamp on Carvalho’s balls…? Oh no, it’s the evil-eye!!!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Portuguese_Alliance

Anyway, coming back to the present and loosing the sarcasm, I’d just say that the english media is almost a singular case (of people in need of a lobotomy).

English fans are also not just hooligans and most of them are truelly fair-play type of people – for what I know.

But as we have seen, a lot of people do push it beyond the limit of what’s reasonable…

Posted from Netherlands

By Luis | December 5th, 2006 at 1:05 pm

Pedro – I totally agree. On the personal level, I can always share a laugh about this stuff with English and even Dutch friends.

It’s the English media that always sets off this firestorm. And always out of proportion to the actual events. That’s the main argument for my post. Of course, there are always the professional haters that just love to feed on the media frenzy. I’m afraid we can’t do much about those idiots.

Posted from United States

By brasileiro | December 6th, 2006 at 10:30 pm

i dont think that was a dive. ronaldo looked like he really stumbled. guess this is a case of “the boy who cried wolf”

Posted from Australia

By Carlos | December 11th, 2006 at 9:57 am

Depends what you want to see…
but it doesn’t matter anyway because one team always conforms to the ref while the other one claims that his decision is totally wrong.

Posted from Austria

By ricardo | December 20th, 2006 at 7:54 pm

i luv the way the english rant about portuguese players, its so stupid,BOYS FROM ENGLAND do you not notice you pay portuguese players crazy amounts of money to play on your club teams??? thats like saying a type of car sucks but going out and buying it…like whats with you cry baby losers?
england is such a money pit of a country, maybe just maybe you guyz should stop paying our players top dollar and find yourselfs some top dentists to work in your country cuz man you guys look like you stole your teeth from a frigin horse…COMON STOP YOUR CRYING ALREADY, U GUYZ SOB ABOUT EVRYTHING.

Posted from Canada

By Jaime | December 24th, 2006 at 10:39 am

I can’t believe this crap is still going on. And they say that the latin culturs are vendictive, the anglo culture takes it to a new extreme. England is over-hyped for every Euro and WC they been in since 66. To make it worst, the last few times they have been eliminated by a nation, that most Brits consider third world – Portugal, that is probably the source for all this bullshit coming from the British media. Its a fact that no big country likes to get beat by a smaller country, but in Englands case its been reality every time they play Portugal. Of course in order to beat over-hyped mighty England, a talented team like Portugal has to resort to cheating. What nonsense!

England wishes it had a Ronaldo on its national team.

I hope for all the BS they talk, that in Euro2008 they some how meet Portugal again. So that they can continue whinning like the little girls they are after that elimination occurs.

Posted from United States

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