Talking Sport: Taking one for the team is just cheating

It is hard not to get cynical when people talk about a footballer ‘taking one for the team.’

This is the explanation when a player commits a blatant foul as the opposition look like scoring. The culprit is either given a yellow card or is sent off.

Actually it’s cheating.

There were too more examples last weekend. QPR’s Gary O’Neil brought down Derby’s Johnny Russell in the Championship play-off final and was sent off.

After Rangers had snatched a last-minute winner to clinch a return to the Premier League, O’Neil was remarkably honest and admitted that he had made the split-second decision to commit the foul to deny Russell a goal-scoring chance and benefit the team.

What a lovely example for kids learning the game - If in doubt, foul.

O’Neil will probably get a three-match ban for a straight red, perhaps 10 matches would make players think twice - if they think at all.

A Sunday paper report on the European final said Atletico Madrid’s Raul Garcia hacked down a Real Madrid player when things looked threatening and inevitably was said to have taken a yellow card for the team.