This weekend the A League’s battlers, Central Coast Mariners were forced to battle a little bit more because of Sydney’s slick feet. By ‘slick feet’ I mean; feet that somehow can’t retain decent contact with the ground, forcing players to fall uncontrollably to the ground, diving.
Watch Emerton’s slick feet here.
Looking around the A-League, I’m beginning to see a really interesting competition take place. In recent years supporters blind enthusiasm for the local game has had marvellous results, but something we deserve and hopefully will see soon is individual natures at each club.
OK, so you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. If you look at clubs around the world, many are known for their certain traits and dare I say beliefs. Some are good traits and others are less admirable. Barcelona are known for their total commitment to good football/ total football and their (former commitment to UNICEF and charity in general), Celtic are known for being a Roman Catholic club and Glasgow Rangers are Protestant. Individual traits can be associated with clubs in eras. Don Revie’s Leeds United were dirty and George Graham’s Arsenal were boring, boring.
When I first heard our very own Sydney FC had stated a self regulating policy against diving or simulation I was at first cynical. “Like hell, they’re going to fine a player for earning them a penalty or a very good free kick opportunity,” was my attitude. But I gave it some thought and before long it became a notion that excited me. At long last Sydney-siders would have a very good comeback to our Rugby boofhead neighbors and friends who accused football of being… Well, I won’t include those horrible jibes on a good blog site like this.
The policy was a step towards a personality at a club that largely has been faceless and typical. What a thing to take a stance on! Fans would flock to see the team who aren’t cheats.
The stage was set. And when marquee veteran and all-round good guy, Brett Emerton performed a dive, it seemed they had a chance to prove their exciting claim.
Commentators and fans prepared to raise their hands to rip their hats off in applause of Sydney’s leadership group who would hand out the fine to Emerton. Despite, practically everyone agreeing that the popular winger had gone down too easily, Sydney’s leadership group ruled he hadn’t. A shame and a real waste for Sydney FC to finally do something that set them apart from the muck. But of course they didn’t…
Promising chief executive Dirk Melton even told the Australian; “We believe Brett has done nothing wrong and it saddens me greatly that his character has been brought into question… We have looked at the footage of the incident and we believe he was clearly fouled by Adriano Pellegrino.” Whatever Dirk.
I for one can’t see any more opportunities for Sydney to develop a club personality in a very long time, especially in such laudable circumstances. Shame on you Sydney FC. Shame on you.
Chris Scarcella
Gregory Calacouris
Pat McAuley
Skye McTavish
Tori Foschini
You clearly do not know what you are talking about.
You just need to look at Emmo’s character. The man has been a saint for his clubs and country and yet there are weasels like you who want to tarnish this.
You can see in the footage that Pelligrino attack Emmo’s calf, which is a foul.
Also, I did not see one Mariner protest the free kick. So if the men who were up close to the action didn’t see foul play, why do twits like you have to attack the integrity of one of our best footballers?
Shame on you.
I suppose there’s very little point discussing or arguing with someone who calls others weasels, twits and relies on reputations and the reactions of irrelevant people as the baselines for his argument but I’ll still try.
Clearly the blog is not about Emerton’s character. I wouldn’t say he is a horrible person because he occasionally goes down too easily. That would be ridiculous. The reality is Emerton was not “attacked” by Pellegrino. He wasn’t fouled by him, nor was he fouled by anyone else. It is possible there was some slight contact between him and Pelligrino, but there was nowhere near enough to justify Emerton falling to the ground the way he did, and a full second later.
Sydney brought in their policy after Mark Bridge was sent off against Melbourne earlier this season, and I have to say that decision was closer to a red card than this was to foul. Sydney set a standard that I admired them for, but they failed to live by it. Take off your sky blue tinted glasses for a second and have a look at the footage again.
Shame on YOU, Pat, swallowing Simple Simon Hill’s skewed bilge.
Go look at the footage again, Pellegrino wasn’t the first tackler on Emmerton, (THAT was the tackle for which the free kick was given) and he definitely fouled him, Emmerton was already unbalanced when his trailing leg was clipped and he went down.
Momentum is a funny thing, but hey you just jump on that Sydney bashing bandwagon along with so many of this city’s so-called football fans.
I often wonder what it is that people want from Sydney FC, they’ve been champions twice, made the playoffs on 5 of 6 occasions, been in the ACL twice have brought in easily 4 of the 5 best marquee/guest players ever in the league, have one of the consistently best home ends in the league. What the hell else do you expect?
Far too many people demand far too much from a club in what is a 3rd tier Australian sport, comparisons with other A-League clubs invariably fail to acknowledge the faliings of those clubs. Everyone seems to forget how utterly dire MV are in their bad seasons and nobody seems to remember that the Roar were mediocre at best till last year.
Any player that consciously and intentionally throws themselves to ground like a dying swan is guilty of a dive. That is irrespective of whether there is any earlier contact. Fine if the ref blows for the earlier contact, but a dive or simulation is still a dive. As to no one protesting from the Mariners, you have to be blind to not see Pellegrino with arms wide suggesting “Who me? No way!”. Patrick Zwaanswijk can also be seen pointing the dive out to the ref. But in such a dangerous position, the Mariners first task is to organise the defence, knowing that changing the refs mind never works.
So Emerton, a player who I hugely respect (Maybe a little less now), is guilty as charged in my opinion.
As for Sydney FC, they can talk the talk about standards, but that’s as far as it goes. So much for upholding them.
Come watch the women. No diving: guaranteed.
A bold claim worth testing!