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Which World Cup team spent the most time rolling on the floor?

While the world awaits the start of the second phase of the World Cup, we move on to the very important question of which country spent the most time rolling on the floor in simulated agony.

We are of course referring to one of the dark art of football diving. (The other dark art, biting an opponent, only one player has mastered but then he got banned.)


Juergan Klinsman pulling the theatrics.

The clever minds at Wall Street Journal have looked at all the games played, crunched the numbers and came up with a definitive ranking of which countries spent the most number of times rolling in agony on the turf. Which off course begs the question, how do they classify "diving". 

Well:

"The criteria used here is the moment the whistle is blown (because of a potential injury) to the moment that player stands up. If the TV camera cut to a replay, the stand-up moment was estimated. If he was helped off the field, the "writhing" clock stopped when he crossed the sidelines."

So, their conclusion?

The top divers are the Samba boys.


Brazil's Fred and his now infamous dive. 

According to WSJ's numbers, the Brazilian boys have a total of 17 "injuries", with Neymar, Brazil's golden haired golden boy as the chief culprit.

He led the way with five "injuries" and with every incident, it took him no more than 15 seconds to get up on his feet again to do the Samba.

So which team was the most honest?

Take a bow Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Source: Wall Street Journal

 

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