Interesting posts on the bigsoccer forum about the Altidore head butt

[thebes20]

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1396185&page=3

They start at the end of the page with a Hull supporter in misery about the likelyhood of being relegated and then they start in with Jozy. It is really a good read, but it is several pages long, and morphs into a number of issues.

The upshot after the Jozy discussions are, and they become more interesting after about page 11: 1. Is a thrown ball at a player really a red card, or does it depend on the velocity or other intangibles? 2. What might be the fallout to jozy and his immediate carreer? 3. Do American soccer posters tend to overanalyze everything? 4. Is there way too much "flopping" in soccer, how to stop it,... Americans hate it. What is the "manly" thing to do? Lots of pictures and blood to prove points.

I enjoyed the read because I have no real clue about the rule, and no one could definately say. WC will depend on how Jozy is viewed, (MHO), Americans are no different, I believe in overanalzying than any other country, and yes, I hate flopping! AND, surprise, the posts are almost all, are well thought out and intelligent, whether you agree with them or not. See below video of the event.

 

[thebes20]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog...t=ArMHvzvgP.6p_Q90_2Os__Emw7YF?urn=sow,236694 This is the one video I could find of the incident.

 

[spikeman]

Good to see you back posting here, Thebes.

 

[Rook]

I think that within 10 years the WC will be bigger than the Olympics. Many Americans like the footie now, just in small doses. Taking on the support of a club is an all year thing and even the 2 most popular sports in America, NFL and college football have by far the shortest seasons of major professional sports.

Americans will never tolerate flopping. If there is one thing about American crowds is that for the most part they are very respectable, when players go down injured on no matter what team you will rarely hear cheering or booing so they won't tolerate being hoodwinked and that's not beside the fact that its cheating. Unfortunately flopping will never leave footie because outside a rare yellow card diving is tolerated and coddled by the rules makers in the game. Eduardo who's actions had a direct effect on the game gets his ban overturned while say Arteta gets a 3 match ban for the weakest elbow ever thrown at the end of a match that was already decided. In the Everton-Fulham game the announcers were praising Dempsey for not swan diving in the box and said that unfortunately because HE DID WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO it may have cost his team a penalty. That is what represents everything that is wrong in football today because the announcers were right.

Another thing is this. In NCAA football the players are vastly inferior to the players in the NFL. The 0-16 Detroit Lions would pummel the best college team 63-7. However because the athletes in NCAA football are inferior coaches can be more imaginative and the game is arguably better and more exciting to watch than the NFL. However soccer is a sport similar to skateboarding in which the better players are much more exciting to watch because they do things with the ball that others can't. The players in the MLS is equavilent to NCAA football compared to Euro leagues. You wouldn't want to watch the 1000th best skateboarder would you (I wouldn't watch the best but its the only analogy I could think of)?

As far as American posters go while alot of American posters are knowledgeable when it comes to the USMNT about 95 percent of the smart posters become total idiots and I refuse to read anything outside this board on the USMNT. I just read something on foxsports in which the majority of the posters think Bradley is a racist because the doesn't start many Latin players. Yes the same Bob Bradley who managed Chivas USA. If you read some of these posts you'd think that Spain conspired to lose in the confererations cup so that Bradley wouldn't be fired so it would be easier to defeat the USA in the World Cup and that the reason why Adu isn't on par with Messi is because Bradley ruined him.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It was soft and neither player should have been sent off in my imo. Hutton threw the ball at his head, book him for being a silly sod and tell him to stop being daft. Likewise the other lad who barely touched Hutton. Then book Hutton again for diving like a girl a few seconds after the other lad brushed his head against his.

Fair enough if someone punches another player Big Dunc style then he probably has to go but seriously the game sure is getting soft these days. I mean sending someone off for celebrating a goal. There's no common sense any more.

 

[pfim]

The punishment had to be the same for both players, whatever that punishment was. You can't throw a ball at a player and not expect some sort of reaction, it's disrespectful.

Altidore should have walked away, however.