So, we have a highly talented player renowned and handsomely rewarded for his contributions to club and country.
At a crucial stage of the World Cup in Brazil, he gets frustrated when a bunch of minnows from Mexico lead the elite masters of football from the Netherlands.
And the response from Arjen Robben, presently of Bayern Munich, soon – maybe – of Man Utd? To dive and dive again.
He tried it just inside the penalty just before the Netherlands equaliser. Didn’t work. He did it again in stoppage time. A deliberate contact – his, on the Mexican defender Rafael Márquez – when probably going nowhere, the obligatory squeal and outstretched arms as he went down.
Yellow card? There should have been at least one already (he actually admits to an earlier dive), so a second would have turned to red. Yes there was a yellow: for Márquez, the alleged fouler. I do not blame the ref, Pedro Proença; players have just become too good at it.
The penalty was dispatched as emphatically by Huntelaar as Sneijder had powered home the equaliser two minutes earlier.
I like the Netherlands, its people and – despite the thuggery of the tactics deployed in the 2010 World Cup final – its football. I loathe cheats. Is there any way we can stop Robben, great player as he is, adding to those already found a-plenty in the Premier League?
The merest of touches caused him to fling himself forward and upwards, arch his back, extend his arms in a swallow dive fashion, and grimace in mock pain. Imagine if he behaves like that in the supermarket? He must be a nightmare to go shopping with!
Absolutely with you on this one, once a man starts cheating you can never really know on marginal tackles if it is a genuine foul or the supposed victim is faking it.
Robben has admitted cheating, after the event, and should have a ban for the next three international games, which might just piss him off enough not to do it in future,because his team do seem to have a chance of getting to the final