Surprised that some people were disappointed with the Embolo yellow card (his second) that led to his disqualification vs Argentina. Diving and flopping has been a horrendous problem for as long as I can remember. To me it feels like a shred of justice was served yesterday and an egregious flop and subsequent acting job caused Embolo's team to suffer as a result of his bullshit. Play the damn game. Stay on your feet.
I was all for it. The Swiss deserved to be down to 10 men and the rule was adjudicated correctly. If only we could get more consistency in it's application throughout the tournament.
I dunno. Even as flops go, it wasn't that bad of one. You see far worse in the box when someone's trying to draw a penalty shot. It's also quite possible Embolo was anticipating an impact that never came and lost his balance in the process.
It's not the kind of thing that warrants fundamentally changing a game like it did. But, the rules are the rules and I guess once a card gets pulled, someone has to receive it?
That's what I don't like about soccer penalties in general. The punishment is so all over the map and often doesn't fit the crime. A lot of them are whatever. Drop the ball and play on. Others - in the box - basically hand one team a goal, even if the guy who got fouled was never gonna score. And others - even if it's just a second "whatever" in two games - put your whole team down a man and get a guy suspended.
It seems extreme and it's partly why there's so much flopping. You can garner a huge advantage with a foul in the right time or place. But I am not a soccer purist, just an American who likes sports.