Friday, July 2, 2010

In Defense of Cheating

Conveniently, this handball doesn't exist on FIFA.com. Ghana kicks a penalty kick for some reason, but they won't show you what it's for...
I find myself holding an odd appreciation for Luis Suarez's game-saving blatant handball at the tail end of today's Ghana-Uruguay matchup. It's a rather cold calculation, but Suarez faced two possible outcomes. He could let the ball sail past him, ensuring his side's defeat. Or he could commit an obvious foul, get ejected (and probably suspended for the remainder of the tournament), and give his team a non-zero probability of staying in the tournament. The situation isn't that much different from Hack-a-Shaq, or an NFL cornerback who commits pass interference on a long throw to stop a sure touchdown. This isn't middle school kickball; this is the freakin' World Cup. If you're not going to play to win the game under these circumstances, when will you?

6 comments:

JoelW said...

I'm confused as to why "cheating" is the word being used to describe his actions. Pass interference and hack a Shaq aren't cheating, they are fouls within the scope of the game. Cheating would have been if he had taken the handball and pretended as though he didn't. Like Henry or Maradonna or something.

Charlene said...

Eventhough the refs at the World Cup cannot properly umpire the game, if it's allowed it's not cheating.

BruceMcF said...

But Charlene, it is NOT allowed, which is why it was an automatic red card and ejection, automatic loss of the ability to play next game and possible additional game suspension.

It was, in the parlance, a "professional" (that is to say intentional) foul.

Too bad the penalty was not converted.

Neil Sinhababu said...

I guess another analogy would be to the entirely accepted practice of fouling in the last minutes of a basketball game.

yoyo said...

This is what happens when you don't want to fix the rules, just add implicit rules to try to shore up problems your bad rules caused.

BruceMcF said...

But yoyo, the problem is not really the rules, the problem is that no rules are immune to competitors determining when the penalty is worth the benefit.

The main problem in soccer is not the rules, but the inability of a single referee to avoid being the target of skilled dramatists who know where the referee is located. An assistant referee on the field with the ability to advise the primary referee and with the independent authority to hand out yellow cards for simulation would go a long way to penalizing rather than rewarding the theatrics.