En route to Houston today for tomorrow’s big semifinal, which for me means a stop at Buc-ee's, a place that has a curious allure considering its really just a very fancy truck stop.
Wherein I defend myself re Davies, diving and Jermaine Jones
But first, I must spend a few keyboard strokes defending my honor.
A couple of people have thrown proverbial rotten tomatoes my way for some perceived inconsistency of opinion. It’s about diving, which is quite topical these days. They have called me out for calling out Charlie Davies while not pressing charges against U.S. midfielder Jermaine Jones.
In my mind, there’s quite a bit of difference here.
For one, my bit on Davies was all about establishing a reputation as a con guy. If you read the piece in SI.com, I state very clearly that I was willing to give Davies a pass for a previous, notorious incident against Los Angeles. In Davies’ case, this looks much more like a problematic trend.
As for Jones and the tackle that put his team up a man in the Gold Cup quarterfinal win:
First, Jones doesn’t have a reputation. Not that I know of, anyway. So, again, we can afford to give the benefit of the doubt for a first offense.
Second, I’m not sure there wasn’t contact. I’ve watched it a few times and just can’t say conclusively if there was a nick. If there was, embellishment – a.k.a. “making a meal of it” – is a lesser offense in my mind. More importantly, I believe Jones was actually attempting to drive past the Jamaican defender. As in murder charges (from what I hear) “intent” is important here.
There was no contact in Davies’ case. I think the D.C. United striker pushed his ball past RSL defender Chris Wingert with one thing in mind: tossing himself on the ground and drawing the penalty kick. I mean, the guy had his hand up asking for a card before he ever hit the ground. Seriously. Watch it.
You still may disagree. That’s OK. But that’s where I stand on things.
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