Everybody's Dive!

Kalau ada pertanyaan, 'timnas sepakbola mana yang paling suka diving?', gue berani bertaruh sebagian besar penggemar bola bakal njawab 'italia'. gak gitu sulit untuk nyari alasannya, mereka pasti udah pernah nonton Italia -meski cuman sekali.

Memang sih kadang sering diving jadi sisi negatif yang nggak terpisahkan dari permainan Italia. kalau ditanya kenapa, jelas gue gak tau persis jawabannya. tetapi sebagai penggemar timnas itu sejak lama *12 tahun tepatnya* kelakuan mereka nggak terlepas dari kondisi liganya mereka.

di sana, gampang banget buat para pemain buat ngeboongin wasit. terlepas dari wasit tau mereka berakting tapi nggak mau ngasih hukuman -karena banyak kasus mereka disuap- pemain jadi terbiasa dan manja. mangkanya waktu skandal suap terkuak, itu sebetulnya jadi shock therapy yang bagus buat para pemain, klub atau para petinggi sepakbola italia yang memang harus dirombak abis-abisan.

tapi apa iya sih timnas Italia doang yang tukang diving? dari pencarian di google, gue mendapati beberapa orang di dunia ini gak sependapat.

"My favorite counterexample of a player that did just this thing all the time is Rivaldo. There was that time where he took a shot in the leg, and then after a bit of a delay, he acted as though someone had plunged steel needles into his eyes" (psmealy, sportfilter).

"... (Thierry) Henry fell to the ground clutching his face after Carlos Puyol lightly brushed his shoulder going for the ball. That free kick led to the winning goal from Les Bleus. Made me want to punch the cheating little shit in the head" (afx237vi, sportsfilter).

See... a so called best player in the world like Rivaldo dan Henry also did that! Dan yang lebih mengejutkan Presiden FIFA, otoritas sepakbola tertinggi dunia, Sepp Blatter juga pernah tuh nglakuin diving waktu masih main sepakbola. Bahkan gini katanya dalam artikel
Blatter says he used to dive when he played:

"I think that all players -- especially attacking players -- they do it because you go into the 18-yard area and then you lose the ball because somebody takes it away," said Blatter. "You are frustrated, and then in the frustration you do two things, either you try to get the ball back and then you commit a foul or you say 'but he touched me,' and then you fall down.

"I think this is a normal movement and I can understand the players acting like that. But now they are at the level of the World Cup and they are the professionals, so they should think about that, but it's in the game."

See.... then who do u call a diver??!