I guess if one repeats poppycock often enough, one may eventually believe it. One such cliché is this: “The best athletes always want to play the best athletes.”
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Wrong! Especially in soccer.
The imbroglio surrounding the on-again, off-again suspension of USA star striker Folorin Balogun has hit the mainstream news. Several reporters assigned to the story insist that Balogun’s automatic red-card suspension (for an accidental coming together with a Bosnia & Herzegovina player in a previous match) and subsequent appeals process are concerns of the administrative weenies in suits. They maintain that the players just want to get on with it; they want to play against the best players their opponents can muster.
Wrong! Especially in Belgium soccer.
Why do you think a team sits on pins and needles while potential paths through the tournament unfold? The players want the easiest possible route to the next round — that’s why.
The players’ office staff and official football federation mouthpieces may talk a good game, but the players themselves (and coaches on the sideline) almost instinctively wave imaginary yellow cards when fouled on the pitch. Why? They want the opposing player to get two of them and be sent off, that’s why. This is so evident that FIFA has, in the past, instructed referees under their auspices to issue yellow cards to players who wave imaginary yellow cards for a foul against them.
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This isn’t earth-shattering news, but it is necessary to counter the lazy World Cup reports that uninitiated soccer fans (perhaps tuning in for the World Cup) are subjected to: The players don’t want to play the best players. The Belgium players are especially reluctant to go toe to toe with the best America has to offer.
Soccer players want to win at all costs, and they aren’t shy in attempting theatrical foul simulations (rolling around as if shot out of a cannon, etc.) in order to have opponents ejected for foul play. Just look at the Mexican players’, coaches’, and fans’ reactions when an England player was red-carded in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. They rejoiced as if they had just scored a goal.
There is some nuance to this, because soccer players generally want to play in the best leagues (in search of higher salaries and potential career-enhancing trophies, no doubt). However, when it comes to specific matches, players want to play with the best players, not against them. Not in a worldwide knockout tournament, anyway. And definitely not if your favorite breakfast is Belgian waffles.
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Image via Picryl.