30 Nov 2012

Football Cheats: No 28 - Gareth Bale (Spurs vs. Liverpool - Nov 2012)

After Liverpool's 2-1 defeat at White Hart Lane, Tottenham winger Gareth Bale refuted accusations that he dived during the game, claiming that he got 'clipped a little bit' by Reds defender Daniel Agger. Despite the fact Bale received a yellow card for simulation during the game, 'Match of the Day' neglected to show the incident (!), but it's clear from the images below that Bale did dive, and deserved the yellow card.

The day after 'Match of the Day' aired, presenter Gary Lineker tweeted:

“A word on Bale’s so called dive. Mistakenly not in edit last night but on this occasion was clearly a foul and an awful decision.”

Clearly a foul? Here are two angles of the Bale dive:

BALE DIVE2 Did Gareth Bale deserve a booking for diving against Liverpool?
----
BALE DIVE Did Gareth Bale deserve a booking for diving against Liverpool?

It's possible that there was very minor contact, but not enough for Bale to throw himself to the ground like he'd just been shot in the back.

Bale did what so many other cheating players do these days: as soon as he felt the slightest contact, he chose to collapse to the ground instead of staying on his feet.

Bale's history of diving makes it easy to infer his intent here. Indeed, only a few weeks ago he displayed his penchant for cheating with this outrageous dive against Aston Villa:



Liverpool legend Steve Nicol labelled the above dive 'embarrassing', and called for the Welsh star to be suspended. He raged:

"It's pretty embarrassing. The worst thing about it for me is the minute Bale takes off, he's looking for a foul. That's the only thing in his mind. It's just an embarrassment, and he should get suspended for that".

The same applies to the Liverpool incident: Bale was looking for a foul, but thankfully, Phil Dowd wasn't having any of it.

Speaking to Reporters yesterday, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers' once again used a non-LFC diving issue to defend Luis Suarez. He said:

"I’ve not seen the headlines, but if he was Uruguayan it would be different. There is no doubt about that. Luis has taken a lot of stick and I’m sure that will continue"

Comments like this do not help anything (IMO). Suarez has taken a lot of stick BECAUSE HE IS A PROVEN DIVER! Rodgers should stop being so dishonest about it and accept the fact that Suarez has brought the reputation on himself with his incessant cheating over the last 18 months.

Bale is a diver, yes, but so is Suarez (though not recently, which is great), and Rodgers just looks like a gigantic hypocrite when he attacks other players for diving but refuses to accept Suarez does the same.

Jaimie Kanwar


46 comments:

  1. disgruntled scouser2:39 pm, November 30, 2012

    perhaps some players do not dive but move out of the way of impending contact and their momentum makes them fall and appear as if they have dived!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1) Bale was kicked on Wednesday night - anyone who doubts that just needs to watch the replay from the other side to the refs view. The yellow should be rescinded.

    2) IN every instance where I have seen Bale going down theatrically, he has been running at pace and the opposition player has made a stamping motion with his foot and then retracted it. It is not nice, and I would rather Bale didn't do it, but what are his alternatives. Risking serious injury? Jogging out of the way at the expense of losing control of the ball? Skrtel scythed him down on Wednesday night, clearly deliberately and got away with a yellow. Maybe if the refs made it clear players were not going to get away with potentially ruining his career he might be a little less theatrical.

    3) As for Suarez, he does not dive when he is running at full pace and has good reason to fear a horrific tackle, he throws himself down when standing still and feeling the slightest brush, or even the air moving from an opposition player's leg moving.

    4) Gareth Bale has never, ever stamped on the standing shin, from the front, of an opposition player. I have seen Suarez doing this on more than one occasion. In one incident, he did this and then threw himself down clutching his head, even though replays showed that no part of the player he had assaulted even went onywhere near his head. He then rolled around clutching his head, and got up rubbing his head. Perhaps Mr Rodgers would like to sit with me and go through videos of this incident (and those showing that Bale was kicked on Wednesday night, and illustrating my arguments, here).

    Come off it, Brendan, stop trying to impersonate Fergie...it is rather sad.

    IMHO, any manger who makes claims about the ref's performance, like this, should be forced to sit through slo-mo videos of the incidents, with a panel of experts, justifying their accusations, and if shown to be talking crap (like Mr Rodgers is, here), hit with a disrepute charge.

    Apart from anything else, Bale WAS actually booked - even though the replays show he was kicked.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've mist the point completely. Please read carefully Brendan''s statement. In fact he says that the British media slam foreign players for diving more than British players. Which is true. Even the FA representative in FIFA mentioned only Suarez when similar diving incident poerformeds Bale on the same Saturday. Moreover, Bake is now leading in yeallow cards earned for diving and he gets almost no stick from the press.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is laughable. Pot kettle black anyone. He has gone down under minimal contact in the past but this was not one of those occasions. You're a joke club these days, it's pretty pathetic.

    ReplyDelete
  5. yellow cards dont win games, goals however do, and the fact is we scored more than you !! we win !! 3 points thankyou very much ...Bye

    ReplyDelete
  6. When will you Liverpool fans give it up. The worst diver in the league plays in red yet you constantly harp on about everyone else.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The hypocrisy in football is absolutely incredible. The same pundits that are defending Bale are the same ones that stated Torres deserved his card against Utd when clearly caught by Evans on the shin. Another example of the foreigner being the dirty little diver and the British player just protecting himself. But I suppose everyone has to agree that Torres deserved it as Fergie said so after the game and the media are not allowed to challenge anything he says, spineless muppets. Rodgers was dead right to point it out. Anybody who cannot see the double standards are just living in denial or burying their heads in the sand.

    ReplyDelete
  8. And to whom were the previous 27 cheats attributed to ? I bet you didn't name Suarez once. This is a "bad losers" article. Just admit it, Liverpool were beaten by the sublime skills of Bale, tip your hat, and move on.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The first 15 minutes, and that point blank header were class

    ReplyDelete
  10. So what? I highlight Suarez's diving the te too. Get over it already.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, you're right. I've never criticised Suarez for diving. Perish the thought.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I must be alone in remembering Rush, Aldridge, Dalglish, Fowler, Owen....all Reds Legends who fell over in a strong wind...and the defence offered every time by respective managers...'there was contact...they were avoiding a potential foul.....they were moving at speed and off-balance...etc etc'. Sound familiar? Bale can be theatrical and referees sometimes make a point at the wrong time but come the day Video evidence is submitted, 9 times out of ten Bale will be exonerated and Suarez will be serving massive bans for simulating everything from head-wounds to orgasms....!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What hypocrisy from a supporter of a club that played the Scottish thug Charlie Adam. Adam a man with no sporting bone in his body. Suppose the biased Jamie thinks that the likes of Bale should wait for the impact of such cretins, assess the damage and if their career is ended just shrug and say"wouldn't want to avoid the tackle as it would upset such experts as Jamie." Do you actually read what you post as obviously the first step of thinking is missing.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yes, you are alone because everything you've said is a blatant lie. Rush, Dalglish et al were not divers, and LFC managers of the past never made excuse for them. You just made that up.
    I challenge you to find one shred of evidence proving that Dalglish, Rush, Aldo, Fowler or Owen dived for LFC. It can be video, quotes etc. Anything.
    I await your response. If you can't find evidence, it will just confirm that you're lying.

    ReplyDelete
  15. what is the djfference between diving and someone delibratly pulling someone back both cheating [allen v swansea prime example] asked you the other day but you choose to ignore it so imo you should get of your high horse over diving

    ReplyDelete
  16. You are obviously getting us confused with Man U as that is the excuse Ferguson used everytime Ronaldo dived. Sound familiar?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think #28 should be recinded. Clearly contact was made.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't need to explain the difference; it is obvious. Also, it's a matter of priority - diving is far more damaging to the image of the game, and when dealing with cheating, the worst things should be addressed first.

    ReplyDelete
  19. well sorry but its not obvious to me there both forms of cheating [iam go to kill my wife whats the difference between shooting her and poisening her none there both murder] but allens shirt pulling antics dont make good posts were diving does

    ReplyDelete
  20. Owen dived for England, but for LFC? Show me proof.

    ReplyDelete
  21. You F@ckin D@ckhead Bale was fouled by that donkey Agger !!! Your just annoyed cos liverpool lost and were shite!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Aaah - you are pointing out that the sole goal from Liverpool came from the opposition. This shows how toothless the current Liverpool front line is. 90 minutes of huffing and puffing and it took the head of Bale for them to score. Liverpool are not to be feared at the moment. They are shadows of their former selves. And under the WHL flood lights, their shadows are shadows of their former shadows.

    ReplyDelete
  23. PERHAPS. Who/or what draws the line?

    ReplyDelete
  24. What an asinine comment! Why on earth would a player who was totally honest and against diving just chose to dive on 2 occasions while playing for the national team?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Why make comparisons with Suarez? This article is solely on an incident involving Ballocks.

    ReplyDelete
  26. reality hurts. The joke is on you. put on you glasses pal

    ReplyDelete
  27. In fact all goals were scored by totenham .

    ReplyDelete
  28. In the 1st 2 clips I see Bale clearly beating Agger who then makes a very late challenge (couldn't have been any later and been in the same game!)and catches him. When moving at top speed the contact doesn't have to be big to make a player lose balance. Agger should have been booked and only because there were other defenders close by (none would have been able to catch Bale mind) would he not have got a red card. The one with Guzan Bale is again running flat out and the keeper makes as if he is going to kick him into the stand before pulling out at the last second. So in your mind Bale should wait to have his legs broken instead of taking evasive action?

    ReplyDelete
  29. We are not sore losers. We will never give up. It is the Liverpool way. Stupid question. jeez, "when will you Liverpool fans give up" u having an orga5m writing his article

    ReplyDelete
  30. What do you mean so what? Unless you get your own house in order you have no right to falsely criticise others.

    Suarez unlike Bale doesn't move at breakneck speed and get scythed down regularly. He is usually not moving very fast at all, attempts engineer contact then throws himself to the ground. When no contact can be engineered he simply dives anyway.

    There are loads of examples of this last season and this. Instead of complaining about refs not giving you anything Rodgers should tell Suarez to stop the blatant diving. He has clearly become the boy who cried wolf. And as your only real threat is the most likely recipient of fouls. Until he stops you are unlikely to get pens as refs assume he is diving.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Er...because this is a Liverpool site. Because this latest furore comes on the back of Brendan Rodgers whinging about "if Bale was Uruguyan". Because hand-in-hand with the obsession with Bale diving comes an obsession with defending everything Suarez does, or denying that he does it.
    Is that sufficient explanation?

    ReplyDelete
  32. The last sentence says it all - if you were a player of Bale's class with potentially one of the most promising careers in the modern game, would you jsut carring on when a player is feigning to dislocate your knee-cap or shatter your shin because 'sometimes they might pull back'?

    Of course you wouldn't! On the day that Bale can jog out of the way when that happens and then appeal to the ref, who will look at video evidence and confirm that Bale risked injury if he continued and this caused him to lose the ball, so he is awarding Spurs a free-kick and penalising as if the foul was made, then, on that day, I will say Bale should be booked for going over 'a little too easily' when this happens. Because, otherwise, his options are to risk a career threatening injury or to give up possession meekly at the first sign of a threat - and neither is right.

    And even this is kinda irrelevant in this instance, because Agger clearly catches him (and Skrtel should have seen red for scything him down!).

    And the real problem is that Brendan Rodgers, who I previously had a great deal of respect for, is doing his best imitation of Alex 'Beetroot Head' Ferguson - constantly whinging about the refs, even when the majority of decisions are in their favour. In this instance, Bale was caught - and was ACTUALLY booked, Skrtel should have seen red, Sterling could easily have got two or three yellows, but got none, and none of the 'penalties' actually were, and Rodgers has turned it into this terrible big referee conspiracy against Liverpool FC. Man up, you need more strikers, that's why you lost!

    ReplyDelete
  33. What a silly excuse. Bale dives, whether it's a speed or not. That's how Bale plays. If it's OK for him to dive because he's running a break neck speeds, then something is wrong. A dive is a dive, and Bale is a diver, much like Suarez.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I don't blame Bale for avoiding getting smashed by the Villa goalkeeper, that was a leg breaker if Guzan had actually gone for the ball.

    The industry around talking about football is huge, there'll always be something.

    Slowly find myself blocking all the commentary from former players out.

    All the ills in football could be resolved in a few months if FIFA actually had any motivation to improve things.

    Controversy only heightens interest in the game.

    Suggestions to improve football
    Video evidence / challenges
    Sin bins for dissent / simulation / yellow card offences
    Post match reviews, citing etc

    ReplyDelete
  35. The double standards is more than obvious. Suarez should be treated the same way as Bale. Why the FA representative in FIFA said on a Saturday when two diving incidents were performed by Suarez and Bale, respectively, that diving should be eradicated and mentions only the case of Suarez? Brendan knows the answer: because he is Urugyayan. British players do not dive, do they?
    The same double standards apply for penalties for and against LFC. If an opposition player falls down in the LFC box people are scrutizing the video from 360 degree angles and if they find a slighthest contact (i.e. Valencia at Anfiled) they shout: OH yes there was a contact and the rule says in case of contact it is a penalty! If on the other hand LFC player falls in the box of the opposition after a contact people say oh no it was not a 100% penalty.
    And if we start complaining about that it is brushed under the carpet with the ridiculous argument of siege mentality.
    There is no siege mentality, just the double standards as an obvious and undisputablke fact.

    ReplyDelete
  36. The fact refs assume a dive where some players are concerned really shows that officiating is very biased.
    A ref is supposed to make a call on what he sees rather than what has happened before otherwise it makes people who claim the likes of Fergie seem like they are onto something.
    It takes one statement from Fergie to paint a picture about opposition players.
    HE has labeled Torres while at LFC and Suarez divers and decisions never really went their way after that but while his team has divers noone has more influence than him because of what he has achieved in the game so Nani, Rooney, Young and Valencia get away with what others get pulled for on match of the day on a regular basis.
    Then Nationality also seems to play a part so I guess KD in his wisdom may have thought an all-British Liverpool would get more decisions.
    Football should join all those conspiracy History channel documentaries..lol

    ReplyDelete
  37. The argument that Bale is pacy hence is entitled to dive is such a joke because it seems to legislate that speedy players can go ahead and dive.
    As far as I know the premier league has other pacy players or legends from the past like Henry but never was an argument put forward that they can dive because they are speedy.
    Why would Bale be an exception to the rules of the game?
    C Ronaldo was an equally speedy dribbler and was constantly going down but when he did cut this down he became the legendary player he is now even. When Ronaldo theatrically went down while in flight, it was never suggested that he did to protect himself which is why Bale defenders cannot call on previous decisions to back Bale up so they resort to creating new reasons alltogether.
    Do referees seriously consider that Walcott, Agbanlahor and Walker can dive because they are very quick and if not why is this thought acceptable for Bale by his defenders?

    ReplyDelete
  38. I agree that sometimes that may be the case, but the human body is the same as it was years ago and it wasn't a problem then. I think it is down to the protection players receive from refs just means it is easier to win a free

    ReplyDelete
  39. most people only take notice if suarez takes a tumble. bale is bit of a noncey boy, suarez is not

    ReplyDelete
  40. Er, actually if you read Rodgers comments he was not defending Suarez. He was stating the fact that If Suarez dives being a non Brit, the media circus will be all hyped with vicious headlines.

    ReplyDelete
  41. ok but he was a lfc player at the time

    ReplyDelete
  42. The double stand is that Suarez multiple times stamps on the shin of the standing leg of opposition players (and after doing so has feigned injury where replays show the part of his body he is clutching was nowhere near being touched), and Suarez throws himself down from a standing position after initiating contact. Bale exaggarates where players either make ridiculous sycthing challenges that should be punished whether contact is made or not, or when they feign to stamp on his knee or ankle and then wothdraw the foot in a deliberately intimidatary way. The two are not in the least bit comparable - but Liverpool fans, and, clearly, Brendan Rodgers, are trying to not only make them so, but to make it appear as though Bale is the far worse villain.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Er...if you read 'beneath the surface' of Rodgers's comments, it doesn't really matter where he mentions Suarez by name - it is pretty obvious that he is comparing the two.

    ReplyDelete
  44. What a silly argument. Players make tackles on Bale that if contact is make a free-kick will be awarded and probably a card, too. Yet, when it is Bale, the exaggeration si somehow more important than the ridiculous tackles he faces. Look, I have just minutes ago watched Rafael being penalised against Reading even though no contact was made, because it altered the natural trajectory of the reading player to avoid it and if he hadn't done that Rafael would have hurt him. The only difference is that the tackles against Bale are potentially far more damaging. And the issue here should be these ridiculous lunges against him, and not whether he exaggerates a bit in avoiding them!
    If you think the speed a player is running doesn't have any relevance I doubt you have ever been tackled whilst running fast.

    And the funny thing is, Mr Rodgers, Liverpool fans (and the media) are totally ignoring the fact that minutes earlier Bale was almost kicked into the stands by Skrtel who somehow escaped a red card, and Sterling could easily have been yellow carded 3 times, and recieved none. Not two mention the fact that Rodgers slated the referee for not giving two penalties that even former Liverpool players were stating categorically were not penalties - other managers get disrepute charges slapped on them for less.

    Spurs fans may be more inclined to treat your complaints seriously if Rodgers was even handed rather than employing a typical Fergie tactic of complaining about things that the referee actually got right, magnifying a few decisions he got wrong against Liverpool, and ignoring the fair few decisions that Liverpool benefitted from becuase he got them wrong against Spurs.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I can only imagine that hardly anyone who is commenting here has played the game at a higher level. Avoiding outrageous tackles is totally understandable. Refs are now swayed by the tv pundits who over analyse and often get it wrong. Spurs should be disappointed if Bale does not get these cards rescinded. The refs got it wrong.

    ReplyDelete