In Forum Focus, we put the spotlight on one of the more interesting message board discussions from across the various Premiership club forums. This time, we investigate Tottenham fan’s reaction to winning some rather dubious points.
Tottenham midfielder Didier Zokora took a blatant dive to win a penalty off former Spurs man Pedro Mendes, helping the club to a 2-1 victory. Diving from Ivorian players has grabbed a fair few headlines at Premiership clubs since the nation became en vogue in the footballing world, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba rose to Arch-Villain status last season after his openly admitted attempts to swindle referees while Arsenal’s Emmanuel Eboue’s fine leap of faith almost earned Arsene Wenger a Champions League medal.
Given that Tottenham supporters have made a living castigating Arsenal, Robert Pires in particular for obvious reasons, for such antics we thought it would be interesting to see the reaction. Martin Jol’s side had been in poor form, would they be able to maintain their values regarding simulation or would they simply brush it aside in the interest of a result. A means to an end…that end being hypocrisy.
The lads at Spurs message board GG-chat.net have been up in arms over the incident – going so far as to welcome Portsmouth’s goal as karma for their own indiscretion. The usual “its the foreigners” approach pops up as well, although that argument generally holds less weight these days.
Some key posts from the thread after the jump, the full thread is here.
[Ed: More reaction from the same lot regarding Martin Jol’s defense of Zokora.]
Yep, it’s a bit embaressing to be honest. That’s three blatant dives from Zokora now.
Someone needs to have a word.
Post by TommyWWe needed that goal. Dont care how we got it
Post by GanterThere are plenty of other players who have dived in a Spurs shirt, so there’s no need get all high and mighty about it with Zokora. All it needs is someone to point out how quickly reputations for this sort of thing build in this country. Morally, there is no difference between this and tactical fouling, and no one called Dawson a disgrace when he got sent off twice for this last season.
Post by bankruptSome places regard it as part of the game.. ever see Spanish football? They just fall down to break up the play. Just another skill to beat your opponent with.
Post by Danners9