For the duration of the World Cup, Slate will highlight thegreatest dives 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).
Not all dives are as obvious as Abdul KaderKeïta’s now infamous one-manshow . During Monday’s Spain- Honduras match, Emilio Izaguirre delivereda subtle performance that you might have missed if you didn’t look close enough.In the 41st minute, Spain lined up to take a corner kick. For some reason,Spanish striker David Villa decided to flick Izaguirre in the face. Wasit a foul? Maybe. But it certainly wasn’t a knockout punch. Izaguirre’sreaction reminds one of a preschooler who scrapes his knee but doesn’t cryuntil an adult comes to his aid. After getting hit, he waited a few moments,covered his eyes, staggered, and fell backward. Alas, the referee didn’t rewardIzaguirre’s theatrics.
Level of actual contact:
5
Level of simulated contact:
8
Dive duration:
about 6 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.
