So, then. If you are walloping your current biggest rivals 4-0 having battled and played them off the park, and you are a talented international footballer you are now not allowed to showcase your skills as it might be considered humiliating to the opposition?Somebody better tell Ronaldinho he can't nutmeg an opponent any more, or tell Kaka he can't leave a defender on their arse.
Honestly. Surely the whole point of competitive sport is to humiliate the opposition?
Discuss.
5 comments:
Ah, but it all comes down to the nebulous concept of "respect", doesn't it? It's okay for someone to absolutely wipe the floor with their opponent in an embarrassing defeat, but it's also possible to do that without feeling the need to mock your opponent and to take away their dignity. I think the nub of what Nani did here is that the Arsenal players felt that he was starting to mock them, and that was a line that they felt he shouldn't have crossed. I think there's a world of difference between that and throwing the odd step-over during a game and making a bit of a monkey of a full back in a one on one. When you are trouncing someone like that, doing that kind of stuff needlessly is just showboating and asking for trouble. I put it to you that the likes of Ronaldinho would be just as likely to (as big Ron would have it) do a lollipop or try to nutmeg an opponent when he's 2-0 down as he is at 2-0 up. I don't think Nani would do what he did if the scores had been reversed or if the game had been closer.
It's a different kind of humiliation, innit? Being humiliatingly beaten and having your nose rubbed in it.
ST
I can imagine being the slide tackler in that instance.
If the trickery occurs at 0-0 that's one thing, at 4-0 it takes on a disrespectful hue.
Reminds me of Glen Roeder (or Kenny Wharton) sitting on the ball (at 4-0) for Newcastle, against Luton years ago, and comments made by Mourinho about not wishing to see any game end up in a humiliating scoreline after Chelsea had beaten Macclesfield in the FA Cup (last season I think).
Smacks of stories from a few years ago about kid's football. I think it was one of the local children's leagues who told the newspapers that if the scoreline was above a certain figure, they could only publish the result, *not* the score - in case the little ones got embarrassed.
Thing is, that's what we've got today. A bunch of spoilt (overpaid, foreign) kids who can't take it when someone proves they're better than they are.
Believe me, I know all about being humiliated by better teams. I support Newcastle.
I'm away again for this week's action - not that it matters - that wooden spill WILL be mine.
Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa
Birmingham 1-1 Tottenham
Derby 1-2 Sunderland
Fulham 0-4 Man Utd
Man City 1-1 Wigan
Middlesbrough 1-0 Reading
Newcastle 1-0 Blackburn
West Ham 2-1 Chelsea
Bolton 0-2 Liverpool
Everton 2-2 Portsmouth
as for wildcards, 2-1 to the first team for each.
Unless we're doing ice-hockey this week or something.
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