Forthe duration of the World Cup, Slate will highlight the greatestdives by the world’s greatest players. We’ll score each dive in threecategories: level of actual contact (1 if there’s no contact at all, 10for a huge collision), level of simulated contact (1 for a stoicresponse, 10 for acting like you’ve been shot), and dive duration (thetime from first contact to when the player gets off the ground).
Noteverything in Argentina ‘s 4-1 victory over South Koreawas pretty. In 65th minute, Gabriel Heinze’s actions didn’t match the Albiceleste’s aesthetic. Fearingwhat looked like a rough attempt at a tackle by Kim Jung-Woo–a foul was ultimatelycalled–the Argentinean defender launched himself skyward like a 12-year-oldjumping off a diving board. There was a bit of contact, but Heinze’s inevitabletumble back down to earth looked more painful than the tackle. E-mailing from Holland, reader NathanTanner provided some interesting insight: “(Heinze) drew a good razzing fromthe announcer on NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster-a dive is a ‘schwalbe,’actually German for ‘swallow’ (the bird).”
Level of actual contact:
5
Level of simulated contact:
5.5
Dive duration:
About 5 seconds
If you see a particularly egregious dive in a World Cup match, pleasee-mail diveoftheday@gmail.com .Make sure to include the names of the players involved and the time of the gamewhen the dive occurred.
