Sporting memories: Facing opponents that were cheating on purpose for the first time

I was fortunate enough to have parents that really pushed me to excel at all sports. From as far back as I can remember I was being taken to practice for all sorts of sports but especially football of the soccer variety, American football, swimming and basketball. I was pretty damn good at all of these things but I ended up excelling especially at soccer. My talent for this game was so profound that the various coaches invited me to a meeting where they suggested that I stop trying to be a master of all games and instead just focus on soccer. I took this advice to heart and ended up getting a division-1 athletic scholarship because of it. I am eternally grateful for that one day as a sophomore in high school where all the coaches of the various teams had a sit-down, serious conversation with a 15 year old as if he was an adult.

Previous to getting to this point that would end up defining my life, I had played in a wide variety of leagues and in various parts of the USA because my family moved around a lot. While briefly living in Illinois in my Freshman year, I was exposed to a much greater pool of talent than I had encountered ever in my life previously. This was also the first time in my life that I had exposure to opponents who wanted to win at any cost, and it was the first time that I got introduced to the cheating aspect that is prevalent in football of the soccer variety all around the world on a professional level.

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As a youngster in the 80's and 90's in USA, I had never really been exposed to this side of the game. We didn't have internet or access to international sport broadcasts so the idea of intentional cheating and "flopping" wasn't a part of the game at all in my world up until then. For all of my youth, the idea of falling down for a free kick opportunity would have been considered exceptionally shameful and would make you a bit of a pussy. When I moved to Illinois where there was a rather large immigrant population, this unfortunate aspect of the game reared its ugly head and in a way I am kind of glad that I was exposed to it because once I got to college this was unfortunately a very large part of the game.

I'll never forget the first time that I was swerving through the defense that one day as a freshman playing in a private league and when I successfully got around the last defender for what was at that point going to almost certainly be a goal that the defender grabbed my arm as I went by and then hit himself in the face with it. He then crashed to the ground in faked agony and got the whistle from the referee. When I tried to explain to the official that he had grabbed ME and hit himself in the face with my arm, the ref was having none of it and not only did this defender get the free kick, but I got shown yellow as well.

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Something that needs to be understood about refs in USA in the 80's and 90's is that often, they really had no idea what the hell they were doing. They would at times make calls that aren't real and even use American football signage for various calls like offsides. The refs didn't even seem to understand when and how substitutions can be made or even the notion of extra time. A talented team or coach could intentionally abuse this ignorance to their advantage despite the fact that players and coaches on the opposing side would protest. One thing the refs were good at is they really enjoyed handing out yellow and red cards despite the fact that more often than not, the refs had less knowledge of the game than the kids they were in charge of officiating.

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Another instance of intentionally cheating happened to me when my team was defending on a corner kick. The person I was marking was from Mexico where the game is played very differently than in the USA (at the time) and he reached down and pretended to tie his shoe while the corner was being set up. While down near his shoe he picked up a handful of dirt and while the ball was heading towards the goal he threw the dirt in my eyes.

They didn't score the goal because the boy kicking the corner was not very good at that and overshot the mark by a lot and it didn't even end up anywhere near the guy I was marking. I complained to the ref but despite the fact that the guy I was marking still had dirt on his hand and I had dirt on my shirt and on my face, no call was made. He actually reprimanded me with a warning for complaining.

There were other instances, and this one would happen frequently, when someone would be vying for a position during a set piece and he would back into me and intentionally slap me in the crotch. For any man out there that has ever been hit in the balls you know that this is seriously debilitating. The idea wasn't just to get me off my mark but to make me retaliate and if you do that, the guy would immediately fall to the ground in agony, hoping for a free kick as well as a booking or getting sent off for me.

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This introduction to the dirty side of the game was something I was seriously pissed off about but unfortunately it is a big part of the game at higher levels. If you can convince the ref that you were struck, you will be rewarded with free kicks and get good players on the opposing team put into the book with yellow and red cards. I have been carded many times in the 15 years or so that I played the game but there have only been a handful of bookings that I actually deserved.

I was brought up in the 'rough and tumble' version of the game where even if you got kicked in the shins hard as hell with no contact made with the ball, you would carry on as if nothing happened. None of this business where you crash to the ground as if your leg was broken because the defender came 6 inches from your leg.

I hated this aspect of the game but it was a lesson that I am glad that I learned because I would encounter it a LOT once I got to playing in college. To this day I hate this aspect of the game and wish there was larger penalties for this now that VAR is being used more often in the games. Purists will complain that this will slow down the pace of the game and turn it into American-football in the 90's where instant-replay was absolutely out of control and lead to 4-hour long games. I'm not suggesting that we review everything or even most of the things but I think the 4th official or even a review board should have financial penalties or match bans for offenses that couldn't be determined by the official on the field at the time. This would make players think twice about whether or not flopping or cheating in any other way is actually going to be worth it. This change wouldn't eliminate flopping, but it certainly would reduce how often it happens.

I almost never used these tactics myself but it was several years after getting slapped in the nuts on the field that I actually used this tactic against an opponent just to test and see if it would get a rise out of him. It succeeded and the guy went after me with fists after I did it. He ended up getting sent off and had to be removed from the field by many players, the official, and even his own coach. I still feel bad about that instance to this day because that guy didn't do anything wrong, it was entirely my fault. I wish I could find that guy and apologize to him. I would never participate in these sorts of shenanigans again although I will admit that when I was playing in higher leagues you were almost forced to flop if you wanted to win.

Cheating begets more cheating and that is one of the things I really dislike about football of the soccer variety and I wish something would be done, at least at the international or professional level to put a stop to it or at least pump the brakes on it a bit. I don't see how people can celebrate an ill-gotten victory, but they do.

It's funny to me that I can remember the exact moment that I first encountered intentional cheating in the sport as if I witnessed it yesterday and therefore I consider it to be a very important incident in my sporting life. I remember very little else from not just being on the field as a freshman, but really anything else that happened at all. It's funny how the brain decides what our core memories are going to be but that one is a solid memory for me!