Here at Brow Beat, we thought the
World Cup Dive of the Day
was a novel concept. It turns out that one Dutch soccer fan was way ahead of us. For the past year, photographer and Web designer Dick van Mersbergen has presided over the diving
Hall of Shame
. Van Mersbergen’s database is exhaustive. It includes a total of 231 dives, most of which (126 to be exact) are from 2009 and 2010. While most of the remainder also took place in the 2000s, a few go back several decades.
Dive historians should be sure to watch a few classics.
German Rudi Völler’s dive against Argentina
in the 1990 World Cup final is essential, as is Brazilian
Rivaldo’s hissy fit
after getting hit with a ball during the 2002 World Cup. According to van Mersbergen, the
flop by Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen
against Arsenal in 2009 is “arguably the worst dive ever.” The most important dive of all time? Probably
Bernd Hölzenbein’s performance
in the 1974 World Cup final between Germany and Holland. Hölzenbein’s tumble in the box drew a penalty, which allowed the Germans to tie the game at one. (The Germans eventually prevailed 2-1.)
Soon after the German took a tumble, it became known in Holland as Hölzenbein’s
schwalbe.
”
Schwalbe
is German for swallow, the small bird,” van Mersbergen explained via e-mail. Apparently,
swallows drop quickly while flying
. It’s unclear who coined the term, but
schwalbe
has definitely
caught on in Holland. A quick search of
De Telegraaf
, the country’s biggest newspaper, yielded dozens of
schwalbe
references.
If you’d like to use schwalbe yourself during the World Cup quarterfinals — Argentina-Germany, we’re guessing, will feature dives aplenty — the site Dutch Word of the Day provides a few sample uses. Try this one: Dat was echt een schwalbe! (That was really a fake dive!)
