Did Giggs “take a dive”?
As a Manchester United fan it feels sacriligeous to even think about it…
However, Manchester United fan or not, the question must still be asked:
Did Ryan Giggs (Manchester United legend and our longest-serving player - not to mention arguably the best player this season) dive against Celtic last night to win the penalty?
My first reaction is ‘hell no’. But I’m biased, so I can’t trust that. Objectively, the contact between Boruc and Giggs was minimal and while Giggs was pushed off balance, there is no way that this was a dive. From the referee’s angle he couldn’t be too sure, and referees end up making wrong decisions and this was one of them. Giggs got injured presumably when he reached out with his foot to control the ball, but the fact remained that this was not a penalty.
Boruc went for the ball, Giggs tried to control it but couldn’t, lost balance and then slid to the ground as the ball rolled out of play for a goal-kick. The ref blows the whistle for a penalty and yellow-card’s Boruc, suggesting that he thought the challenge was deliberate and that Boruc had tried to push Giggs off-balance. Saha scores and Manchester United are able to level the scores.
Here’s the video:
Boruc has accused Giggs of taking a dive and after having blasted respected footballers such as Thierry Henry in this column it is highly ironic that one of our own, and especially such a respected and long-serving player such as Ryan Giggs, is being accused of diving.
Did Giggs - Manchester United legend or not - go to the ground too easily?
The ball was out of reach, Giggs was supposed injured while reaching for the ball and was off-balance. The ref was in full view of the incident and blew his whistle almost instantly after contact. I’m 99% certain that the ref made a mistake for giving the penalty but it was a hard call not to give, and if you factor in the fact that this was Manchester United playing at home…
About Giggs, it was obvious that he would have complained about being impeded by the Celtic keeper (see the replay and Giggs’ reaction to falling down). Did he dive? I doubt it - there was contact (however minimal) and Giggs already had one leg in mid-air when Boruc went past him. Both players were at high-speed and Giggs was thrown off balance.
Penalty? No. Dive? No. Playing the foul and asking the ref for a penalty? Yes.
But then again, that last bit is football, no?
- Robin van Persie’s “dive” raises more questions
- David Beckham diving video
- Wayne Rooney - Diver?
- Arjen Robben dives for Chelsea’s cause
- Gerrard is a good diver
Discussion - 9 Responses
Add Your Comment
Comments are moderated (our comments policy).
Giggs did not dive. Reason? Simple. He did not stand up n look for a penalty.
wth was boruc doing in the first place? giggsy was obviously going nowhere and by impeding giggsy even if it was just a slight hug, he gave the ref a REASON to give that penalty. as a keeper, when you decide to go for the ball, you go for the ball or you bring him down, he was caught in no mans land. simple as that. he should be accepting the blame for the dumbass penalty instead of labelling giggsy a diver (we didnt see him fall over like the literal “flying” dutchman at arsenal in hamburg did we?)
now bring on arsenal! come on you devils!
dumb english, making a big fuss over ronaldo’s diving and now, lol, you guys realised diving is part of the sport.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you asked “did he go down too easily?”. I think you might go down too easily if in the previous stride you’d just felt your hamstring go. No dive but understandably went down at the mearest touch.
Giggs is not Drogba, Robin, Gerard or Henry (recently), he did not dive and the fact that he got a ‘torn hamstring’ is proof of that.
I didn’t think it was a foul and don’t think Giggs went down deliberately. It was the one bad decision from a referee who otherwide had an excellent game. It was a wonderful game to watch and all credit to Celtic for taking the game to United….they did themselves proud…but in the end it was a valuable win for United.
Ed, spot on. At first glance I thought Giggs had gone down easily but you can understand if he felt his hamstring go! I hope he comes back soon, he was our best player right now. I thought we were lucky to scrape through, given our first half performance. Looking for a good one Sunday
Why don’t you all redefine a dive? It’s much easier than saying “Giggsy went down too easily, but didn’t dive” you know.
Giggsy Smiggsy, he looks up at the ref after he goes down. And he’s not ‘off balance’… Hah. Far from it, he’s in complete control when he goes down. Any visible contact was on his uper torso, after which Boruc withdraws his hand, Ryan goes down with his legs trailing him, and slides as if he was tripped, and he looks back at the ref to see what he gives.
I think it was your website that said ‘Steven Gerrard is a hypocrite’.
http://soccerlens.com/diver-gerrard-is-a-hypocrite/2244513.html
So. If you maintain Giggs’ innocence, I guess you should redefine hypocrite too, lest ye be judged harshly.
I think it must’ve been the contact with his shoulder that caused his hamstring injury.
Personally, I blame the ref. He really wanted to be mugged. It was worth his while, no doubt.