The World Cup is in six days and I’m starting to get excited. Soccer will be everywhere (in the morning).

There is a downside to this and it is that the casual (American) fan will come out of hibernation to watch all of these games and share his opinions about it at length. There may not be as many American fans watching this time around given that we didn’t qualify but I still expect quite a few non-soccer fans to make their voices heard. And when they do, I’m willing to bet it will be about all of the diving, or flopping, and why can’t they control the diving and what’s with all the diving.

I’m here to tell you, if you don’t like diving, don’t watch the damn game.

Look, I’m not defending diving, nor am I defending the stretcher being brought on the field, nor am I defending players writhing on the ground covering their faces like they’ve just had acid thrown in them after were merely being touched. The fact that these practices are annoying goes without saying.

But here’s what I find really annoying. It’s not just that people complain about the diving. It’s that by complaining, they’re revealing themselves to be a person that doesn’t watch soccer very often and should, frankly, just shut up about it.

I remember the 2006 World Cup when two of my best friends, both huge sports fans, started watching soccer for the first time. Like all sports fans who are used to baseball, basketball, and football, they were intrigued by soccer and willing to get into it but not until it rectified a few things. “Okay, Penty, here’s how we fix soccer. There needs to be two refs.”

Bear in mind that they had been watching soccer for about two weeks. Also note that they thought that they had fixed a game that is watched by billions that does not need to be fixed.

The debate raged and then, after the World Cup ended, it was dropped. They went back to watching football and basketball. And that fall, I finally got cable and that’s when I started really getting into the Premier League, perfectly content with the sport as it is.

There are three main points that I’d like to make.

Soccer is not our sport

I’ve maintained this for a while (read my previous post Soccer In America if you want to hear me truly go off on this). We as Americans (yes, despite my snobbery about soccer, I am truly American and thus am including myself here) need to recognize that we are essentially guests in this sport, even when we’re watching. The way we feel about football and basketball? That’s the way the rest of the world feels about soccer. The live it and breathe it all year round. So, don’t show up once every four years and tell die hards what’s what.

It’ll make the sport better

This was my friend’s rationale for having two refs. It’s also the reason given for more rules in the game, for people who want a committee to review dives post-game and all of the other crap I’ve heard people suggest. It’s all in the name of “making the sport better.” Soccer doesn’t need to be made better and if it did, the initiative would come from people more knowledgable and involved than you are. What you really mean is, “It’ll make soccer more watchable for me.” That’s a big difference.

If you really want to debate this, let’s debate it… in September

If you really want to talk about diving and officiating and all of the things that we need to change about soccer, let’s have that discussion. But let’s have it in September. Do you know why? Because anyone who wants to talk about these things will have forgotten about soccer by then. Soccer fans will be watching the Premier League and the Bundesliga and Serie A and the dudes who were so upset about diving and flopping, will have completely forgotten about it.

And just a little epilogue…

My friends gradually started watching more and more soccer. They’ll watch a game with me every now and then and even keep up with what’s going on in the Premier League. But they no longer complain about diving or the officiating or what needs to change. There’s a couple of reason for this. First, those issues only really spike during World Cups. Second, once you start watching more and more, you’re not as thrown off by it. You see how small a part of the game it really is.

But it is part of the game. You can either stomach it or you can’t. But for God’s sake, just shut up about it.