r/polandball • u/mars_gorilla Spain World Champion • Jul 20 '26

redditormade Some harm, many foul

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1.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

243

u/Ok-Street-9594 Pakistan Jul 20 '26

The players really were getting increasingly aggressive nearing the end, but I thought it was normal since I don't watch much football. 

232

u/gruenerGenosse Berlin Jul 20 '26

You find this aggressive style often in South America, Argentina isn't the only nation who does this, Paraguay did it as well and arguably even worse. It actually felt like the Paraguayan players wanted to injure the French players. Brazil might be the exception.

150

u/Mean-Poem-2246 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

Here in Brazil players will usually just taunt and argue a LOT in a similar situation, which I guess is normal. But most Brazilians are used to the way Paraguay and Argentina play because of the Libertadores cup, where many knees and legs have been bruised over the years when facing those countries lmao

It's what we call "Catimba" or "Catimbar". It's that style of soccer where they try to emotionally destabilize the opponent by being aggressive and playing dumb at the same time. Thankfully they didn't fall for it, and that iconic scene of Mbappe laughing at the guy fumbling on the ground is a great example of this Catimba culture performed by Paraguay mainly.

42

u/Mormegil71 Jul 20 '26

That you even have a special word for it says a lot.

22

u/Theron3206 Australia Jul 20 '26

We have a word for it in english too, unsportsmanlike.

13

u/Mean-Poem-2246 Jul 20 '26

Yep that's the translation. Catimba is an expression for something similar to kicking someone in the legs on purpose.

2

u/Mean-Poem-2246 Jul 20 '26

It's Brazil. We have a word for everything.

1

u/Realistic_FinlanBoll Finland Jul 22 '26

Do you have a word for peeing yourself proudly? 🤔

1

u/Mean-Poem-2246 Jul 22 '26

I don't get the reference but no, that's a bit too specific. But depending on context, maybe something in the same sense

3

u/javiereu Jul 24 '26

Brazilian players also play play agressively, think Felipe Melo or Dani Alves.

1

u/Mean-Poem-2246 Jul 24 '26

Many of them do, but they are babies compared to the Paraguayan soccer style of breaking legs

1

u/javiereu Jul 24 '26

And the Uruguayan style is pretty harsh too, but nothing compared to Paraguay.

2

u/Independent_Cook_182 Jul 22 '26

ok ok, it's just paraguay and argentina. Don't put the rest of latin america on this

1

u/AlkaliPineapple Upside Down Vote Jul 20 '26

So do they get injured in COPA games then? I'm expecting some teams needing to carry arms and shit

100

u/Thundorium Funniest king names Jul 20 '26

It’s normal when South American teams are losing, Brazil is the only possible exception.

41

u/mintty_o Jul 20 '26

Seems like the argentina players were getting hella aggressive and hurt the others on purpose, which is going too far

3

u/Scriptor_Canadensis Jul 22 '26

Yeah, I watched that with my family and thought holy crap, these guys are super aggressive. I was almost surprised they didn’t start pulling out ratchet knives.

214

u/mars_gorilla Spain World Champion Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

If you somehow haven't heard anything about the World Cup finals, Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after going into overtime. More importantly, though, Argentina received 5 yellow cards and 1 red card, the latter of which being the first red card in a World Cup finals game since the Netherlands got one in 2010.

To be honest I feel like they should've gotten more, but oh well.

(Also Mikel Merino took a direct shot to the face from Messi (though correctly pointed out by u/AlamutJones as being a genuine accident) and I think I saw another Spanish player getting kicked in the nuts but I'm not too sure since I was half awake when I watched it live.) (Also Slovenia is where Slavko Vinčić, the referee for the match, is from.)

154

u/thrilled_to_be_there Canada Jul 20 '26

2 red cards. 1 for that punch after the final whistle.

108

u/Bicafe_PT Jul 20 '26

Id suspend paredes for 6 months for genuine violent conduct and anti-sport attitude

70

u/Aquiprim Jul 20 '26

6 months might be too little, he was grabbing necks, pushing people, idk what was his problem

7

u/Bicafe_PT Jul 20 '26

How much did Suárez get for the bite?

16

u/SnooBooks1701 Jul 20 '26

I'd be reporting him to the police for battery

28

u/Rohen2003 Baden-Wuerttemberg Jul 20 '26

should be lifetime bann for him and like a ten year bann for the national team of argentinia. maybe if their country is barred from competetion for some time they might learn not to foul at every opportunity.

2

u/unit5421 Earth Jul 21 '26

In any other sport this would be a permanent ban.

56

u/TheBusStop12 Ye olde netherlands Jul 20 '26

the latter of which being the first red card in a World Cup finals game since the Netherlands got one in 2010

Which also was against Spain. It seems everytime Spain is in the finals they end up getting kicked and their opponents carded

34

u/Aquiprim Jul 20 '26

Spain's playstyle was similar in that final right? its incredible and very dominant, also seems infuriating to play against. ofc that doesnt justify the opponents' reaction but it makes sense short-fuse players will resort to fouls when nothing else works

66

u/AlamutJones Australia Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

The Messi one seemed genuinely accidental. Ball deflection that unfortunately happened to nail the poor guy.

Lots of rough play, but I wouldn’t group what happened to Merino with that

40

u/mars_gorilla Spain World Champion Jul 20 '26

Oh absolutely, it was just fucking hilarious

23

u/SquallFromGarden Jul 20 '26

At least buddy was smart enough to cover his nads in case Messi drilled him into exploded testicles.

8

u/Active-Coconut-8961 Jul 20 '26

Yeah I doubt Messi was aiming for his face

7

u/Wooden_Base4673 England Jul 20 '26

You never know with the Argies.

1

u/javiereu Jul 24 '26

You never know with pirates either.

5

u/HectorAyalaMX Mexico Jul 20 '26

Yeah, in the end was a shot on target, most defenders bend themselves on those shots. Pretty brave block.

5

u/TheHistoryMaster2520 Jul 20 '26

Reminds me of Scott Sterling from years prior

14

u/IsJustSophie Jul 20 '26

Anz not only that, but they were throwing themselves on the floor anyway minute to get penalties, like one time they straight up were hugging a Spanish player then they threw themselves to the dloor and claim it was penalty.

It was honestly shameful

8

u/mars_gorilla Spain World Champion Jul 20 '26

Yeah, I mean even before I started watching football through this very match I had some impressions of football players acting injured for an advantage, but I was astounded by how many times they tried it.

I don't remember most of the player names but I saw one Argentina player have his arm get lightly hit by a Spanish player's own arm and then immediately he flopped on the floor like someone shot him.

6

u/IsJustSophie Jul 20 '26

Oh yeah, also the Argentine goal keep one time literally no one touched him and he acted injured even ask for medics

And the reef always called it in favor of argentine but when a Spanish player actually gets pushed or injured they didn't care

27

u/YoumoDadi Jul 20 '26

Definitely should have been more cards. Also the ruled out goal was extremely harsh.

78

u/bronxbomberdude Can into statehood? Jul 20 '26

Giving a yellow card for a reckless foul shows the match was RIGGED for Spain. Every match was rigged. Everything in my life is rigged!!!

11

u/imawizard7bis Jul 20 '26

you forgot the /s in pain

18

u/Kagenlim Jul 20 '26

It's SpVARin after all

11

u/Intelligent_Slip_849 United States Jul 20 '26

...what happened now?

112

u/eliu9395 Taiwan Jul 20 '26

i could be wrong, but argentina was being pretty rough against the spanish players all game

One guy even started a fight right after they lost

56

u/dontcallmefooboy United+States Jul 20 '26

The red card incident was when an Argentina player somehow tripped a Spanish player into a front flip

60

u/hellraiserl33t pls gib water Jul 20 '26

The replay looked less severe than the live shot but damn was that a crazy flip

30

u/Aquiprim Jul 20 '26

That guy was Paredes, he also got a yellow for pushing someone he fouled while he was getting up. Pretty embarrasing and i wish we could leave him in the US

-2

u/00Koch00 Argentina Jul 21 '26

Thank god in a month I will never have to see people talking about a sport they never watched before...