OK let me explain sportsmanship to you, seeing as you obviously do not know the meaning of the word. I can give you 2 examples I remember from fairly recent memory.
Paulo DeCanio when playing for West Ham recieved the ball from the wing, and was in a goalscoring position, when he noticed that the opposing GK was flat on the ground having been injured in a goalmouth scuffle seconds before. When the pass came to DeCanio he didn't shoot at goal as everyone expected him to. Instead he picked up the ball, looked to the ref and told him that the GK needed attention.
He had an open goal IF he would have chosen to go for it but he didn't. He stopped the game for the sake of the opposing GK.
A few years ago in an FA Cup game ( I can't remember the teams involved), one team was given a goal when actually the ball went under the side netting before coming to rest in the goal mouth. The team that was awarded the goal insisted to the ref that the goal should not have stood, but the ref had already given it and couldn't change his mind.
The 2 teams had a short chat in the center circle, and the team who were now 1-0 down kicked off the game again. Suddenly all the opposing players parted like the Red Sea, and allowed the losing team to run towards the goal, where the GK made no effort to save the equaliser.
That is sportsmanship. It does happen, and it probably happens a lot more than we hear about.
For a player to be able to demonstrate sportsmanship in the heat of the game, he is required to have integrity, honesty, a sense of fair play and scruples.
Those are 4 attributes that seem to have gone missing from our game of late, and the reason that Ronaldo still popped in his goal was because he does not possess any one of those attributes, and the reason why you guys think that sportsmanship is for mugs, or in Help's words is "Childish",
is because you, like your club, do not posses any of those attributes either, at least where sport is concerned.
You believe in win at all costs,
and you really don't care how that win is accomplished. We have seen enough of United over the last few seasons to recognise
how cynical and nasty the team can be in their desperation to win.
If a team were good enough, they wouldn't need to rely so much on winning games by underhand means. They would be good enough to win without that.
Man U obviously is not that team.
AsmodaiPlay. I've always been Drogba's biggest critic when it comes to cheating, as I was with Robben and any other Chelsea player who disgraced my club by diving. It's all there in the Chelsea thread if you wanna take a look.
I have never condoned unsporting behaviour at any time or from any team, including my own. It brings disgrace to the club. End of.
The thing is this. We as fans are not responsible for what any player who plays for our club does. I always hope that they will act in a way that honours the club, and not in a way that will bring disgrace upon it. When a Chelsea player does not live up to that for whatever reason, I will not simply ignore it and support the player just because he plays for Chelsea.
I can't tell that player how to behave, that's the clubs job, but one thing is for sure, you will never hear me defend anti sporting behaviour from my team or any other team.
Integrity, Honesty, Fair play and scruples.
Even if our players do not understand the concept of that any more, we as fans should still be able to demonstrate those attributes. Thats if you had them to begin with of course.
Now I'm gonna drop this because I really don't think there are that many Man U fans in here, who are actually interested or indeed even understand WTF I am talking about.
You can have your thread back. Cheers.
