Worse infringements happen ever time a corner kick is taken, both sides being equally culpable. There's absolutely no way you can excuse the forward for collapsing under such minimal force. According to the rules I posted above (from FIFA's website) it's very debatable whether it was a foul.

caption reads
neymar get up man, it's still in the national anthem.
judge,foul here, ow

This is why I cant get into soccer...the diving is just embarrassing.

Now, hockey players will play with broken jaws, missing teeth, broken fingers,you name it...
Diving is generally rooted out and eliminated (for the most part).

Man, the Internet is flooding with memes of that Japanese referee.

I'll just limit my self to insert this:

Terrible call, hopefully they will send that referee packing back home.

I do think that if Croatia had a stronger goalie, they might have had a shot despite the call.

The goalie had his hands on the ball during the penalty shot and should have saved it, as well as being pretty flat footed in the other two really slow shots. A better goalie might have saved one or two of those 3 goals.

Can't wait for all 3 games tomorrow already.

I no longer play competitively (not semi pro, but club) but as a defender I've been holding on to shirts for 20 years, that's not new. Its the whole threat of "I'm right here. Don't forget it." just a little tug and pull.

You didn't read the OP so I must remind you that hockey has fight relationship much like another fake sport WWF. If the two gents aren't really mad enough to fight, and its just to rile the crowd, its still a show, and still fake. Hockey fights are BS scripted idiot dances.

Thanks!

Agreed diving is embarrassing, and something that the officials are working on rooting out of soccer too, if this ref had done his job correctly then Fred would have gotten a yellow card for simulation and been tossed out of the game if he did it again in this game, or suspended if he did it again in the next game for accumulating too many yellows during the tournament, but unfortunately the ref didn't do his job and didn't take time to think about what he saw or ask the other 3 officials what they saw, he went right for the wrong penalty call, terrible ref.

BTW I don't watch hockey, but I watch and enjoy lots of other sports and there's diving or other cheating or dirty play in other sports too (basketball, football, cycling, motorsports) lots of professional athletes will try whatever they can get away with to gain a competitive edge, I'm sure you enjoy some of those sports and don't spend all your focus on the cheating, soccer is not unique in this regard.

It was the correct call.

It is not the diving but the acting after the dive that gets to me. Rolling around like being hit by a 10t truck and 10 secs later is doing a 100yd dash in 5 seconds.

Never played hockey have you Rakov.

I wasn't talking about fighting at all.
Where did I mention fighting?

I think you missed my point.

Not a soccer fan at all, but I saw quite a few CHEAP shots on both sides while I was watching.

The one to the guys throat by Brazil SHOULD have been a fight.

I play soccer in a recreational/competitive local league. Today did show some great skills on both sides, but man do they take acting to the extreme. I see this same kind of stuff going on even in the lower leagues, and sadly the rules really do reward the good actors. I think Brazil is definitely going to have to work on its defense if it is going to have any shot at winning the cup, they weren't threatened a lot, but when they were they had to resort to a lot of cheap shots to keep it close.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

My thoughts after the first match:

i) Far and away the best player on the Brazilian team was the Japanese guy in the black shirt.

ii) If this is going to be how the 2014 World Cup rolls then just give the cup to Brazil now.


On another note for the blokes watching in the UK..... anybody else think the ITV coverage was absolutely crap? Adrian Chiles is a pretty poor presenter and his final comment "A comfortable win for Brazil, and they weren't even playing at their best!" showed he probably wasn't paying too much attention to the match...

Then again given the studio was being pelted with stones from protestors outside I don't blame him

I need to remind some of you guys that this is not Basketball: physical contact in the penalty zone is legal (even in Basketball it can get very rough without a penalty being called). Football/Soccer is a contact sport.

Fact is, this kind of physical contact is absolutely normal; tugging, pushing, shoving, grabbing - as long as it is not excessive, or used to deny the other team a clear goal-scoring opportunity - is absolutely common.

There are many referees with international experience (mainly from Champions League matches) who would have given the yellow card for acting. Yesterday's referee was simply out of his league, probably nervous because it was the opening match, and in the past Croatia did have an image to play pretty rough - even though yesterday they acted very disciplined - which may have influenced him.

Brasil's wing defense was particularly fragile yesterday. This could be the team's Achilles heel, and everybody took note.

Fred dived and the entire world knows it. FIFA need to step in now and card him out of the Group? No chance.

World Cup Payola is a reality so expect more of the same before this tournament ends.

Maybe the ref was afraid to ignite some kind of Brasilian powder keg? Imagine Brasil not even making the first round; the Brasilian people are barely tolerating this event, because many hope that at least their team may win this Cup.

One positive for Brasil besides Neymar scoring was also how well Oscar played, much better than his recent tired Chelsea form at the end of the season.

Also was good to see Croatia have some good counterattacks, a good game besides the ref... can't wait for the games today.

From Twitter: “It’s a tight call for Brazil’s man of the match between Neymar and the Referee,”

Freds overreacting/overacting/exaggerating doesn't mean this wasn't a penalty. He was held inside the penalty area.

I find more controversial, for example, the decision not to send Neymar off for the elbow.

It was no penalty. Fred was not "held". Holding would have resulted in some sort of retardation of his momentum, but his whole movement remains fluid until the hits the ground. There was hardly any contact. And contact is legal, even in the penalty zone. Contact in these game situations is absolutely normal. Even holding - to a certain extent - is normal.

Fred merely slipped while trying to get to the ball, but had noticed the player touching him, and began acting the second the hit the ground. Every normal referee would have shown Fred the yellow card for "unsportsmanlike behaviour".

Not much of a controversy, either, for pretty much everyone agrees that Fred was diving:

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3841/worl...nder-ref-comes-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footbal...rn-penalty.html

http://www.cbssports.com/world-cup/eye-o...o-decisive-goal

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2014/...to-a-bad-start/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcu...d-Cup-2014.html