Remember that time your parents left you alone in the kitchen, and you took a cookie out of the jar on top of the refrigerator? And how the guilt caused indigestion and you couldn’t sleep the whole night? Well, this is professional soccer, and if a professional referee makes the wrong call, you would be an idiot not to take advantage. And get a full night’s sleep.
Thus, I don’t even give Rooney a slap on the wrist. He may be a diver, but he is this week’s holiest of divers.
I think he played for the penalty; subtle difference between playing for the foul and diving.
I don’t see a distinction or feel the need to articulate one: at the highest levels, professional referees should be able to sort through legitimate vs. bogus penalty appeals. My litmus test is: would he have scored a goal “but for” the foul? And for Rooney, I’m not sure I could say yes
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