The International Football Association Board has issued a new rule ahead of this month’s World Cup. Law 14, concerning penalty kicks, now reads “Feinting in the run-up to take a penalty kick to confuse opponents is permitted, however, feinting to kick the ball once the player has completed his run-up is now considered an infringement of Law 14 and an act of unsporting behaviour for which the player must be cautioned.”
But why the change? Brazil. Yep. Brazil. We take a sabbatical from Spanglish to educate you on the Portuguesespeakerers. As best we can.
A little linguistic background for the anglos. Parada is the same in Spanish and Portuguese – it means “stop.” Thus, a bus or metro stop would be a parada. Pararse is “to stop.” In Portuguese, rather than saying “illo” or “ito”, they like to add “inho” or “inha” to form the diminutive. Hence, Ronaldinho. Accordingly, paradinha means the little stop. Now onto the law.
First off, the general reaction to Law 14 is simple – what act could possibly warrant a yellow card for a penalty kick. Well, let’s take a look at one such “paradinha” taken by Ronaldo while at Corinthians.
Get over the 2 miles per hour turn and the questionable penalty. Yes, Ronaldo still has nice footwork, but is that penalty even remotely sporting? I was a bit confused – I learned that once an advancing player completely stops, his penalty is over. Thus, I assumed you could not completely stop and then kick.
Neymary did not assume that. Nope, he sent Rogerio of Sao Paolo the wrong way with the greatest of ease.
Granted, Neymar at least did not set his shooting foot down after the first dummy. Surely in the cosmic universal order of justice, that counts for something. Right? Right?
Now, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that a goalie does not bite on the first feint. Let’s assume he is a reaction goalie, like Ricardo of Portugal, and leans on his toes while waiting to pounce. Wouldn’t the paradhina be an easy save?
Also, why a yellow card punishment? Why not just simply disallow the goal and blow the whistle when they stop? It seems that would be the fairest punishment for scoring by artifice and also deter any future paradinhas.
In the alternative, maybe goalies should be allowed to run off their line the second a player stops ala the old MLS style penalty kicks. Just take a look a this Peter Vermes classic…
Do you remember from our Spanglish days that kind of goal? Cucharita, Globito, y Arco Iris are all correct answers.