During Spain’s win over Chile yesterday, we all thought Fernando Torres was auditioning for the dive team, no?– but now, the Internet has provided us with proof that he pulled the old ‘clip my own heels’ trick before hitting the deck and behaving like he’d been a victim of Charles Whitman. He then rolled around grabbing his face as the referee sent poor old Marco Estrada off.
Shame on you Nando, with all the international stars who flail and flop, you used to be a respected footballer who appeared to play fair, but you are just another diving cheat.
It’s official. Although I swear he has my name tatooed on his arm, I called that he’s been off his game so long he’s going to have to take an early retirement. Especially with Villa’s strong showing, there’s no reason for Barca to want to continue the chase to sign him (and really no reason for even LP to want to keep him). He’s lost his mojo and it doesn’t look like he’ll have it back anytime soon.
THat is shocking. Absolutely shocking.
He definitely embellished the fall, and the guy didn’t deserve the yellow here (though deserved the 2nd yellow earlier) BUT Torres definitely had his foot clipped. Completely accidental, but his back foot got clipped by the guy from Chile, and you can see it clearly from other angles.
Nonsense, Dan. Nonsense. Flat-out dive. As bad as Tiago in the Portugal match. Worse than De Rossi for Italy. As bad as it gets. Ned gets worked up about this, and I tend to defend players who embellish or over-sell the foul (it’s gamesmanship). But a flat-out dive, untouched, that results in a sending-off? That’s flat-out cheating by Liverpool’s Number Nine.
I’m with Dan. Not a fan of the Little Girl, his club or his tiki-taka country team, but I will defend him here. You can see even in the gif that Estrada comes off his own stride with his right leg due to the impact of Estrada’s right knee with Torres’ right boot.
The sequence is: (1.) Estrada R knee to (2.) Torres R boot which (3.) causes Torres to clip his own heels.
I’m generally fully in favor of LFC players embarrassing themselves and their club, but I only subtract 50 points for overselling, rather than the full 200 points that Ned docks him.
I”m with Wedel and Dan. There was contact that caused him to then clip his own leg. I’m guessing he thought it was deliberate (which I really doubt), and then went into full used-car salesman mode to oversell. Contact – yes. His own BS version of Drog’s death-rattle over nothing – yes.
So Torres kicks Estrada’s knee, then accidentally kicks his other foot out from under himself. Then he gets brought down by sniper fire. Even granting the existence of minimal contact, that’s one of the worst dives I’ve ever seen.
@LE: you’re being harsh methinks. Torres is watching the ball not looking at Estrada, not expecting contact while running – he loses his balance. Yes, bit of a snipe to the swingers type fall, but again -50, not -200.
/feeling dirty defending LFC player, must go wash again
Have to agree that it appears the Chilean clips Torres heel when running behind him. You can see the hiccup in the stride. It was certainly an embellishment afterwards though.
Really? He got his heel clipped. Embellishment happens all the time.
Your beef should be with the referee who decided this was worth a second yellow and the players who mime flashing a card. Begging the ref for a card is tacky as hell.
He got hit on the bottom of his foot while he was midstride. Nobody in the history of soccer while running off the ball gets deliberately fouled on the bottom of their foot. Yes there is no contact, but it’s incidental and not a foul. It’s a f**king dive. I’m not saying the ref isn’t also s**tty, but I will not absolve Nando.
whatever, game over! But Torres didnt have ball on his feet either so …. I dont know, I dont think that he wanted to fall , but in fact I dont care …. big WOW for nothig special
Is it a dive if the contact caused him to go to ground?
@LE: it doesn’t matter if it was deliberate or not, it is still a foul if that is what happened.
Not shocked at all, especially seeing him continue to try and sell it by laying on the pitch like he was KO’d. He knows his game is trending in the wrong way. Vaya con los tramposos, Nando.
The s**tty part is not that he fell, but the way he fell plus (as mentioned above) the way he stayed on the ground like he got stomped in the balls. Which is what he deserves for this.
_
He may not have known it was Estrada or anyone on a yellow, but he knew there was someone there and he knew where the ref would be positioned to catch any action in peripheral vision, since the ref would most likely be watching the ball. If the ref had been looking at Nando (for some reason), ol’ haircut would have gotten a yellow for a dive.
No dive here. The guys leg clips Torres back leg very subtly as it is running through knocking it into his other leg and as such sending him down. I wouldn’t call it a foul as it was an accidental collision, but certainly no dive.
@Ricky Haaaaaaaa.
He clips his own leg and dives.
Estrada’s knee hits Torres’s foot as it is as far back as possible. Completely incidental, hardly deserving of a call especially as Iniesta scored anyways.
No dive, but a c**t for (as u75 said) laying there like he’s dead, and for that s**t haircut.