Diving? I thought I was watching football!

Now that the World Cup's over, I've been thinking about my feelings towards the game as it is played these days. Anybody following this blog will not be surprised that my thoughts are basically negative. This World Cup has to rank as the most unsportsmanlike so far. It now seems an integral part of the game to try and con the referee into giving you a free kick, or better still, a penalty, or into showing an opponent a yellow (or better, red) card. Not that this is new - I remember writing to "The Times" during I think it was the 1990 World Cup complaining about Klinsmann performing a "triple agony roll with pike" following the slightest of touches by an opponent. The letter wasn't published, by the way. This time, Portugal have been pilloried as the major team of cheats, but I don't think they were any worse than several other teams - perhaps just not so clever at doing it. The problem is similar to that of drug taking in sport - do you do it because everybody else is doing it, and if you don't do it, you will be putting yourself at a severe disadvantage, or do you stick to your principles? For myself, I would rather have a team that loses with dignity and can hold its head high, rather than a team that wins by underhand means.